Single Day two session CAT 2015; change your preparation alignment

Preparation for a single day two session Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 proposed to be conducted in the month of October 2015 may have to be differently aligned as against what the CAT aspirants have been doing in the past 6 years.

Prof S K Agarwal Verbal Ability expert and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation shares insight on how to align the preparation for single day two session CAT 2015 to ace the exam. In his view the single day two session CAT 2015 is not going to leave much room to wait and watch for the forthcoming sessions, a facility that was available when CAT used to be conducted in 40+ sessions and the candidates could choose one of the preferred dates of examination as per their convenience to know the trend of current CAT exam and then appear in the test after putting in few more days of preparation.

The first session of CAT 2015 is proposed to begin at 9.30 AM and the second session at 3 PM. Candidates will be required to report at the CAT 2015 Test Venue 2 hours prior to beginning of the exam. Hence any possibility to buy more time at the eleventh hour has no scope.

Not the topics only; get used to steady reading
CAT 2015 aspirants who are preparing hard to appear in the exam know well what topics they have to cover going by the past CAT trend. The SWOT analysis that you are doing will sure yield the desired result. But what about your frenzy to go fast instead of steady reading. Sometimes when you read you skip minor errors in the question that you were supposed to pick out; leave something on calculation; jumps a line in the RC passage and then haphazardly search for the answer which you are not able to link.

The first lesson to learn to give boost to your preparation is to understand well the material you are reading and how to read to get best out of it. During next 100 days of preparation for CAT 2015 make sure that whatever topic you are preparing, you are making it final and will simply revisit it to revise. Take plenty of questions in different ways on the same and analyse whether you skip the direction to attempt the question or some content which may trouble you later. If it is there, ensure that you are able to give up the practice of this sort.

Know the structure well
CAT 2015 could be on the lines of CAT 2014 or may even bring surprises again. Still the number of questions may not be less than 100 although some time deviation might be there. It is also not necessary that whatever question topics did not appear in CAT 2014 may not appear again. Going by the trend, you may never know this fact till you actually take the test. There is, therefore no point to leave any room for guesses. If you did not have questions on Vocabulary, do not jump to the conclusion that you would not have the same again. Something could be substituted with some new or old types in new format and something may be deleted this year.

Get over your weaknesses now
Only 3 months to CAT 2015 are left now and the peculiar thing about CAT this year is that it will be summed up in a single day. If you do not work upon to overcome your weakness now, the time may not come again in 2015. You not only have to overcome your weakness but also have to further strengthen your strong areas. A combination of two will take you on winning side of single day two session CAT 2015.

Preparing Simple topics may boost your score
Based on his personal experience and preparation strategy CAT 2014 topper with 99.93 percentile Kartik studying at IIM Ahmedabad has emphasized and asked the CAT 2015 aspirants to be ready for surprises. The suggestion is not to skip studying simple concepts and focus on improving your reading habits as these will be helpful in the RCs and later also during your MBA. Try to balance your sectional scores. Focus more on your weaker sections/topics during the first half of your CAT preparation. During the second-half, try to refine your strong subjects/topics.

Prepare to sit for long hours
The focus on preparation has to be redrafted and re-chalked out in view of the single day two session CAT 2015. Candidates preparing for CAT 2015 know well that practicing and attempting 100 difficult sort of questions on Quant, DI, VA and LR in a single sitting is not an easy task. In fact despite knowing well the answers to many questions, test takers during the course of attempting so many questions get tired and their capacity to solve the questions goes on depleting. It is therefore of utmost importance that you begin studying for long hours and practice your sitting for the exam.

Decide to Bell the CAT 2015
If you have decided that you want to get into your dream IIM in 2016, you have to cross the hurdle of CAT 2015 with high sectional as well as overall percentile which is a mandatory requirement to get shortlisted by the IIMs. There is now no need to go back and therefore have strong belief in yourself. Only this can keep you motivated and inspired to win the race.

CAT 2015 may prove to be more aspirant friendly than earlier CAT exams as CAT 2015 test taker is free from scheduling the test date and session selecting the most convenient test date. Since there would be only 2 test sessions on the testing day, no speculation has to be made. In all probability the CAT 2015 would be held on weekend.

The long nightmares when to schedule the test and get the best and convenient date as per the suitability during the 15 or 20 days testing window are over. Aspirants will get the information about their test site and session from the CAT 2015 exam centre after the last date of registration. Candidates now have to focus on preparation more while scheduling of test will be taken care of by the testing agency TCS.