The Common Admission Test for admission to the IIMs is just six months away; it will be held on November 19, 2006.
 
If you are giving CAT this year, it's possible your studies have been derailed due to various controversies and ongoing debates -- reservations at the IIMs, introduction of CAT prelims and 50 percent minimum requirement at the graduation level to qualify for CAT. 

Well, it's high time you got back to your books. Follow our six-month strategy to help you plan and prepare better for this all-important exam.

This article will be followed by subsequent articles that focus on each individual area and detail their preparation strategy.

• Top strategies for CAT

May 19 -- July 19

Objective: Familiarise yourself with all CAT sub-sections as well as the variety of questions that feature in each of them.

This is probably the most crucial period. These two months have to be utilised so as to get a launch pad for the next four months of preparation.

In Date Interpretation, you should be thorough with every type of representation. There are about six to seven types of DI sets possible. Also, there are standard questions like percentage increase, percentage share, counting, etc, as well as questions that are specific to data representation.

In Quantitative Ability, you should go through the 15-20 chapters that are important for the CAT exam, giving special importance to Numbers, Number Theory and Geometry and Mensuration. At the end of these two months, you should know every formula, the concepts in each chapter of quant as well as the steps involved in solving these questions.

At the end of the first two months, you should have solved each type of question at least two to three times. It is not important as yet to solve the problem quickly. The focus is entirely on getting to know the variety of questions and developing the ability to solve them.

In an area like Reading Comprehension, you should have read at least about 100 articles (a minimum of two a day) in as many spheres as possible. In CAT, the passages maybe selected from Psychology, Philosophy, Medicine, Economics, Sociology, Art, Culture and Religion, Literature, Politics and other general topics. As we can see, there are about 10 subjects from which RC passages can be given. Hence, in the next two months, you should read at least 10 articles from each of these subjects/ areas.

Likewise, the other areas in CAT -- ie Data Sufficiency, Reasoning and Verbal Ability -- have to be taken up. At the end of two months, you must thoroughly know the types of questions that come in CAT as well as the methods to solve them.

July 20 -- September 19

Objective: Learn various methods to solve each type of question in the shortest possible time.

If the first two months go successfully, it will give you something very important -- the confidence that there are questions in CAT you can solve. Now, this confidence should be elevated a step higher so that you can aim for the IIMs. 

By now, let's say you have gained the ability to solve all types of questions. You are also in a position to identify every question and know the possible ways to solve the same. Yet, you could be taking a lot of time to do so, making it impossible for you to see all questions given in the CAT paper in the given time. Hence, you have every chance of missing out on easy questions.

You have to, therefore, spend time analysing the exercises you have already solved and redo them. But, this time, you should look at shortcuts as well as intuitive methods of solving questions. The methods could have been taught in a coaching class too, but you will start understanding and appreciating them only when you know the traditional method of solving them.

Solve a number of exercises. Also take individual area tests to test your ability to grasp the fundamentals. Analyse every test paper you take thoroughly. You will start seeing that there are always better and easier ways of solving a question than the method you followed thus far.

Do a complete revision of all the areas while taking an All India MOCK CAT (AIMCAT) every Sunday. This will ensure you keep improving in each area. You can also check your progress through the results of your AIMCATs.

September 20 -- November 18

Objective: Get the best results from your preparation

This is the last leg of your preparation. Now, you must concentrate on maximising your scores. You will have to take two full CAT level tests every week, one on Sunday and one on a Wednesday/ Thursday.

The focus in the initial month should be on experimentation. You should adopt various strategies in each of the AIMCATs that you write and check which strategy is giving you the best results. It is possible that, despite a wrong strategy, you may have got good marks or, despite a correct strategy, you may have got fewer marks. To ensure you don't fall pray to such mistakes, check each strategy for at least two papers. If one strategy seems to be working, use the same for two more papers so that you are in a position to finalise the strategy you are going to use on the final day of CAT. Flexibility has to be kept to account for changes in the pattern of the exam.

This way, the last two months would be primarily used to give you the maximum returns on your preparation.

Gear up for the battle ahead!
 
In the coming weeks, we will detail strategies that can be followed in the CAT exam.

AKRS Srinivas is an alumnus of IIM-Calcutta. He has an engineering degree in electronics and communication from Osmania University. He worked with Maruti Udyog [Get Quote] Limited in Gurgoan, Delhi and Kolkata before joining T.I.M.E. , Hyderabad, as director of the CAT course. He has been training students for CAT for the last 8 years. You could send e-mails to arkss@time4education.com

• CAT 2006: Get that edge