It is no surprise that the CAT 2021 Exam is around the corner, and the MBA aspirants have received their CAT 2021 Admit Cards for 28th November 2021. With less than 15 days for the exam, this is time to put on the revising hats, start working on your strengths and be careful about your weaknesses. And the best way to analyse your strength and weakness is by taking up CAT mock tests and practising as many papers as you can!
Specifications of the exam
Before jumping into the importance and method of taking the mock tests, let us discuss the nitty-gritty of CAT. CAT or Common Aptitude Test is a competitive examination conducted for admission in the premier colleges of Management of India. CAT is one of the most widely accepted examinations, which all IIM institutes primarily take. The exam is a computer-based online exam that is conducted all over the country at around 159 locations. The exam is divided into three sections- Quantitative Aptitude with twenty-six questions, Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension with twenty-six questions and Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning with twenty-four questions. The syllabus of each section is available online, and with fewer days left for the exam, the candidates should focus on the revision part rather than learning new topics. For this reason, we have listed the methodology and sources for the CAT Mock Tests.
Find your strategy
Just like we discussed above, the practice tests or CAT previous year paper will help you find your strategy for the D-day. It will help you answer questions such as which parts of the syllabus you are more potent in, which questions take up the most time, and how many questions you can solve within a given period. Thus, solving CAT mock test papers will help you find a unique strategy and curate a plan for the examination day through consistent practice. But the only way to find this strategy is by starting to give the tests regularly without any further ado
Understand the paper
To get the best result on the day of the CAT examination, it is essential that you can understand the paper from before. When you give the mock tests, you need to focus on the number of questions in each section and how many questions you can solve from each part. Make notes, and write down how many questions you are finding difficult. When you start having a clear notion of what kind of a paper CAT will be, you will find yourself more confident of solving the paper. This will also enable you to identify the more straightforward questions at first sight and solve them without wasting any time.
Distribute Time
Talking about not wasting any time during the paper, we need to remember that just like any other competitive exam, CAT is a time-bound test. As a result, the candidates might experience a lot of pressure to manage their time effectively. But there is an easy way of overcoming this ‘time’ challenge, and that is by carefully solving the CAT Mock Test papers. To get better marks, it is vital to understand the importance of speed in the quant section, the necessity of just attempting the LRDI questions without spending too much time reading them, and finally giving a little more time in the English comprehension section avoid rereading the paragraphs.
Which Mock Tests to take
Now, one question that candidates ask often is which Mock Test to take while preparing for CAT. Even though there is no specific correct answer to the question, a few well-known and valuable Mock test series are available on the net. The first papers that the candidates should solve are the previous year CAT papers. As these are the papers given to students, solving them within time will provide you with an understanding of your speed and the type of questions that CAT gives. After solving the previous year’s test papers, you can try the test series from IMS, TIME and Career Launcher, all of which have high reviews from students.
Where to find CAT mock tests
You can easily find CAT mock tests online through different websites of coaching centres. On the coaching website, centres can find both previous year CAT question papers and coaching-based mock test series. The last year’s papers might be provided free of cost, but the coaching institute specific papers will be paid. Other than the online mock test, you can also access the test papers offline in any nearby academic bookstore.
How to analyse Mock test
The most important part of taking the mock test is to analyse the paper after the test. This can be done by taking both sectional and complete mock tests. After each test, you should look at the solution set only after finishing the entire paper. Once you look at the answer set, it is essential to analyse which section needed more time and which questions were attempted wrong. This exercise of finding out the mistakes in the mock test to not repeat them leads to the path of improvement.
Conclusion
Try to keep up your pace and solve papers to get better at the test. Believe it or not, solving the papers have a significant impact on the test result. But the most crucial part of giving the test is still about analysing the paper and finding out your mistakes so that you can be sure that you will not repeat the same mistakes on the day of CAT!
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