Nationwide aptitude exams like CAT require students to strategise, prioritise, and perform under pressure as the timer ticks away. IIM Bangalore student Ayush Pradhan found a way to beat the clock and secured 99.96% in CAT 2021.
Disclosing his best tips for CAT 2022 aspirants, the PGP student says:
Count your minutes
Though you are given 40 minutes to solve a single section, aim to finish all the presented problems within 25-30 minutes. Try to go through as many questions as possible and only answer those that you are sure of. Even if you attempt 13 questions from each section very accurately, you are bound to score at least 117 marks, assuming you have not been marked negatively for any answers. Going sequentially does not always work well for exams like CAT.
VARC
The best way to pace through VARC accurately is to eliminate the wrong answers. Figuring out why a given option is not the right answer will ensure accuracy while saving you time. Many students believe that VARC is the easy section and they should never skip answers in it. This mindset isn’t always helpful as it cuts into your exam time while increasing your chances of being marked negatively.
DILR
Aim to attempt at least three sets in the DILR section in your 40 minutes. The key here is to move from question to question and not entirely from set to set. It is possible that the first few questions from a particular set are easy and the last one is a trap to take up your time. Keep in mind that your aim for this exam is to maximise your marks throughout a section and not just a set.
Quantitative Analysis
Once the quantitative analysis section appears before you, the best thing to do is to skim through the entire section once. The paper will have at least 10 questions that can be solved within 30 seconds, try to answer these types of questions within 8 minutes. Solving them accurately and bagging your marks as fast as you can is key.
Look at your options
Aside from the question itself, reviewing all your options will help you solve the problem faster. Examining your CAT options gives you insight into how a problem is being formulated. Once you have understood what kind of options they have given, it becomes very easy to look through trick questions.
Ayush Pradhan
This article is a part of CAT 2022 Tips brought to you specially by The Free Press Journal to help B-school aspirants crack the exam.
