I wouldn’t have written this review but I saw it as a topic desired by one of the mouthshut members and I told myself let me attempt it.
Lot of career guides and literature would be available on do’s and dont’ sof CAT but I thought let me also write from my experience.
As the common wisdom goes there are no set formulae for cracking such exams. Had there been anyone could have done that but it is something different which makes CAT one of the toughest in the world what to talk about India. The acceptance ratio being somewhere around 200:1.
As CAT aspirants know CAT paper is divided into sections. So lets take it section by Section.
Quantitative Section:
This section can be easier of sections but time is the biggest folly. You can almost never attempt all the questions. Speed being the key it is best to locate questions which can be worked in the mind and don’t need scratch work. Then look at questions which are on topics closest to you. For eg. questions on speed/distance time or on geometry. Any coaching institute will tell you to mug up tables till 40 at least. They also tell you that you should work smart and not hard when it comes to quant. In other words find/learn shortcuts. But it is not always simple to have shortcuts on everyconceivable topic. Best bet however is practice. I would recommend the P-Cube model here. Practice Practice Practice will make questions seem easier.
Data Interpretation
This is again a high scoring section. And you can perhaps attempt almost all the questions. The trick here is in interpreting pie-charts, graphs, trends. Approximations is one key which comes quite handy at times. You would often come across decimals both in the numerator and the denominator. So approximations often help in quickly eliminating the choices. At times you have to make logical deductions to find seemingly missing information
Verbal
GRE aspirants typicaly find the synonyms and antonyms easy to crack. GRE work list can be a good starting point so also norman lewis to increase your vocab. For grammar you would need to get hold of good study material. Often grammar is one area of overconfidence. We typically believe grammar is easy but often make silliest mistakes there. This can be an easiest improvement area with big improvements in your overall scores. Some other types of questions like sentence sequencing , fill in the blank test your ability to apply English. Good healthy reading habits definitely help here.
Reading Comprehension
Often lapse of concentration becomes a problem. In the center tension of other students taking the exam and environmental conditions beyond your control can make you loose concentration. No of passages are often too many to be attempted in totality. It is better to focus on plain simple ( although long) passage then trying to attempt short but philosophical type passages. Some institutes would tell you techniques of skipping words in reading whole paragraphs or skimming the lines. Others would even ask you to keep underlining important facts/informational paragraph. I guess one should adapt to one’s style here rather than trying to copy a technique. However in case a paragraph is more factual or numbers based it would make sense to keep making a mental note otherwise you would need to come back