BENGALURU: The Common Admission Test, 2016 - gateway to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other sought after B-schools in the country will be conducted on Sunday. Already this year’s exams has seen the highest number of registrations in recent years at 2.32 lakh. City Express spoke to toppers from previous exams and an expert in order to uncover the secret that goes into maximizing a candidate’s chances to crack the exam.
Take Many Mock Tests
Jasdeep Garg, secured a 100 percentile score in CAT 2015 and is presently at IIM, Calcutta. While he believes that there is no one particular way to crack the exam as everyone might have their “own plan” he said that his success was mostly due to hard work. “I never missed my coaching lessons and gave as many as 20 to 25 odd mock tests. I realised that it was not easy to sit through a three-hour exam. Mock tests build up your confidence and stamina.” When Jasdeep gave his test last year he noticed that a number of people left the last portion of the test, not because they did not know the answer but because they got “fed up”.
One should also not take too much of tension as it only adds to the already tense atmosphere and may lead to mistakes, he says. “When sitting in the exam it is necessary to plan the test well. The fact that the exam has time restrictions on each section is good as it forces one to finish that section,” Jasdeep adds
Concentrate on Strengths and Improve Weaknesses
When he first appeared for the test in 2013, Neelesh Agarwal got a score of 96 percentile. In 2014, when he appeared again he improved his score considerably to 99.85 percentile. Neelesh got admissions to the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) in New Delhi and is presently working in private bank. “My quantitative ability was stronger than verbal ability. So I decided to focus more on the latter. In the end I got a score of 97.
Previous score in that subject was 93. In quantitative analysis I got a score of 99.9 from the earlier 96. I recognized my weaknesses and worked on my strengths.” Although the exam pattern this year varies a great deal from that of 2013 and 2014, Neelesh says there is a need for a strategy. “Finish all the easier and doable questions and come back for the easier ones later. Take calculative risks,” he says.
Expert Speak
Srinivas Belvi, course director of CAT at TIME, a coaching institute advised students to revise in the last few days rather than than learning something new. “Revision builds confidence. If learning new portions does not work out it shatters confidence,” he says. “Take a few mock tests without taking the test scores seriously,” he adds.
Although the test is more or less the same in the pattern and questions as last year, some surprises are expected says Belvi. “The pattern is the same but the packaging might be different. Take a little time to strategise and spend around 2 to 5 minutes to plan how to tackle questions,” he says.