Its not bad to score good in sim cats neither its that bad to score bad in sim cats. They are just feedbacks which point out to you areas of improvement rather than answering the million dollar question “what should i have done to crack CAT ? “.

Let me tell you real story. There were two friends ( I am one of the characters and the other being my childhood friend) . Both were neck to neck in their preparations for CAT. By an large their score used to be really close and it was a even game over a span of such simulated exams. Sometimes he used to score over me , sometimes I used to score over him. On real difficult ones without any loose sections, we used to score exactly the same. So, according the sim cat trends the destinity for both of us should have been the same. ? But it didnt happen that way. I went to IIM Cal, he went to XIMB for his MBA.

Where lies the mystery ? ok ! i will answer that. My friend was really strong in DI where I was good . He was good in quants, where i was really strong. We both were ok in English. Our CAT paper was skewed in term of DI was really difficult and Quants was really a cakewalk. Since DI was extremely difficult, my friend being really strong in it could obviously perform better than me , but his leverage was limited to 2 marks which infact leveraged him a lot in terms of percentile ( dont remember but say by 5 percentile ) . I scored 11 , he scored some 13 or 14. Now, since quants was realy simple and i was really strong it at it, I performed better than him again by 5 percetiles but since it was simple i scored 15 marks in excess of him for the same 5 percentile gain in that section. So both of ur 99 odd percentiles in one section but he got a benefit of 2 marks which did little to boost his final score. But my 15 marks leverage boosted my total score into the 99+ percentile zone.

Of all the people who clear cat only 15~ 20 % of the lot are such who would clear it given no matter what is asked and no matter how the paper is skewed. Rest is a mix of nerves, strategy and mix of luck ( in terms of paper matching your strength ) . I have seen so many regular 99+ percentilers in really reputed SIM CATs breaking down just before the exam. The expectations

are just too heavy for them to carry, the anxiety growing on to them every passing minute. They loose it right their . There have been ” bindaas” people who have nothing to loose, who just walked in without preperation and cracked it because of application of a “free” “intelligent” ( but not GOD ! Trust me ) mindunder zero stress.

So what do i do about SIM CATs? First, I you are not scoring well in SIM Cats, it doenst stay “you are ruled out of CAT” . Take it as a feedback on to how you performed in each section - your score, your attempts, your accuracy, your choice of questions. Try to access for yourself your concentration curve - when it peaks and when you start feeling restless. try to put weakest sections at concetration peaks and strongest sections in the restless zone. How comfortable you were during the entire experience? do what every it taked to make your self comfortable. The sections where you score bad - access was it a real tought section with no loose questions , or you didnot scan the entire paper to pick out the easier ones, you were not thorough with some concepts, you made real silly mistakes and got them wrong?

 Give each Sim cat a good hour of analysis. Think hard behind that 2 hr effort. Just dont wait for the scores to come and get busy either in boasting the score or sulking about it. None will help

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Though I opted to join a CAT coaching centre due to family pressure, I have always believed CAT does not differentiate between those who have been trained for it and those who haven’t. On the contrary, CAT aims at identifying those who can appear for the exam on any given day and still come out with flying colours. 

The day before: November 20, 2004

decided to unwind and get rid of all the anxieties and expectations I carried with myself as I prepared for CAT. No more SimCats, no course materials to be seen, no formulas to be revised. On second thoughts, I had never learnt a formula; I knew most of the formulas and, in the past months, all I had done was learn their applications. So I didn’t think that any more revision was required. I went for a movie with my friends, relaxed, watched television and ensured I slept well for eight hours so that I was fresh for the exam next day .

30 minutes to go :November 21, 2004

I woke up early, feeling fresh. My centre was some 40 minutes from my home. I wanted to reach my centre half an hour before the exam, though most arrive about an hour early. It not a good idea to reach so early,because it is physically draining to stand for so long

as well as mentally taxing to see so many worried and sullen faces around you. Many aspirants at the centre will say negative things, like how they had no hope of clearing CAT. Ignore them. You may even come across people who were the all-India number one in some MOCK CATs. If someone comes up to you and tells you he used to score in the seventies in the Mock CATs, you can always say you got 75.

I was not nervous to start with but, as the moment to give the exam drew nearer, some restlessness crept in. The half an hour wait outside seemed too long. I tried hard to keep a clear head and to keep cool. 

 The grand finale: CAT 2004

The paper looked intimidating. It was poly-wrapped with a whole page of instructions. Seemed like a Data Interpretation in itself. You get 10 minutes to read the instructions. I read the instructions at least three times and formed a plan of action. I was still not rigid about my strategy, but I did know where to begin and, if all went well, how to proceed. If you feel things are not moving smoothly, don’t lose heart. CAT does not go perfectly for anybody. During my exam, I wasted 15 minutes in DI without attempting a single question. In the next 20 minutes, I managed about 18. DI isn’t based on mere calculations. If this was the case, one could have solved it with speed and accuracy through training and effort. DI is based on logic, which is the true test.

Quant was simple and required a simple application of formulas and common sense. I knew I had to make up for the time I had lost in DI in Quant, so I started aggressively with all the two-mark questions and ended up attempting 35 marks in 30 minutes. English Usage has always stuck to the standards a B-School expects from any management student. You don’t need to have impeccable English. If you are good at conversational English and have moderately good reading habits, it should be pretty comfortable.

My strategy: Smart study

My pursuit for CAT 2004 began when I joined Erudite, a training centre in Kolkata. From day one, I was clear I was only aiming at the IIMs and IIFT as I was inclined towards foreign trade. Still, my strategy was different from most of the other aspirants. Where everybody was busy solving course materials from each and every coaching institute they could lay their hands on, I stuck to the basics. I spent my time analysing the SIM CATs, putting right the things that went wrong for me. For example, if I messed up DI, I would figure out where I went wrong and brush up on that. I prepared for Quant by going through the formulas and familiarising myself with forgotten topics. Reading Comprehensions were a nightmare as I wasn’t much of a reader and my concentration level suffered. So I worked on it by practising back-to-back RC sections for about two weeks before CAT and it also fell in place. On the whole, instead of slogging day in and day out, I chose the route of ’smart study’ (which I always promote). I believed in myself and believed that CAT is more about attitude and application rather than slogging. I told myself: CAT will take notice of me; after all. it is their job to dig out the talented lot.

Do you need formal coaching?

I don’t say there is no need for hard work or training for CAT. One stands an equal chance even if he or she hasn’t enrolled at a coaching institute. What coaching institutes do is to help you organise your preparation in a structured format, which is something that can be managed by anyone. To do well in CAT, you require an approach that is both structured and personalised. Identify the ways in which you can help yourself the most. Don’t do things just because everybody else is doing it. Do what suits you best so that, on the day of the exam, you have no regrets about what you have missed studying and no worries about whether you can make it or not. This will help you believe you have done your part, now it is time for CAT to play its part. In short, get the basics right. Once you have mastered the basics, you can make it not only to IIMs but also to many other destinations you look forward to in life.

Siddharth Goyal is a first year student at IIM-Calcutta. He scored a percentile of 99.50 in CAT 2004.