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With less than a month for the CAT exam to go, the pressure is mounting and its time to work smart. Keep aside the thick books, focus on giving more mocks and revise concepts rather than learning new concepts.

Since CAT and other MBA entrance exams are a ticket into premiere B-schools of the country, it is important that at this time, aspirants strategize their preparation in a way that allows them to focus on their strengths and not on their weaknesses. A few points that should be kept in mind are listed below:

1.) Give mocks:

Mock tests are a good way to see where you stand as compared to other aspirants giving these competative exams from the country. They help analyse your strengths and list down your weaknesses. However, just giving mocks is not sufficient. It is important to analyse the performance and understand the mistakes in order to improve on them. After the analysis it is also important to see the solutions of the problems that went wrong with or could not attempt. Sometimes the solutions also seem to be difficult. These solutions leave you with ‘Why didn’t I think of that’ expression. Therefore Mocks are a key to gauging the kind of questions that could appear on the D Day.

2.) Solve previous years’ papers:

Solving previous year’s papers of the entrance exams give a brief idea about the level of difficulty and the kind of questions asked. They set the right pace and familiarise you with the paper patterns helping you strategize your preparation.

3.) Keep the tricks and formulae handy:

With less than a month to prepare, learning new concepts and memorising new tricks won’t set the ball rolling. It is important to go through all the important formulae on a regular basis. Therefore having them at one place for last minute revision is important.

4.) Read editorials:

Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning sections can be practised and worked on with tricks and formulae, we tend to ignore the verbal ability section which is important too. The best way to master VA is to read. Reading editorials not only strengthens our vocabulary and improves the reading time but it also keeps us updated with topics that might pop up in the GD-PI rounds.

5.) Have a clear exam strategy:

Know what you know and what you don’t. As per the mock analysis and preparation so far, know what questions to attempt in the set and decided the time. Give equal importance to every section as a lot of institutes have sectional cut-offs as their first parameter in their selection criteria; don’t undermine the importance of any.

Having said that, be calm and patient because no amount of worrying will help you score better. A right input of practise with a cool head on the exam day will definitely help you ace it.

All the best!