CAT 2008: Create a 'draft' strategy

With a little over two months to go for CAT 2008, the pressure on B-school aspirants is mounting. Strategising, mock CATs, time management -- each have their own importance and value when it comes to making your CAT attempt meaningful.

To help test-takers, we asked students who have taken the CAT to share their tips and tricks. Here, Sidharth Balakrishna, an MBA from IIM Calcutta and currently working at a global consulting firm in New Delhi, shares how he went about his CAT prep.

Before you begin
Have an overall "draft strategy" in mind. Based on all the practice and mock exams you might have taken, you should have an overall "draft strategy" in place.

More CAT advice and prep tips

You should have arrived at this "draft strategy" through a careful analysis of your performance in practice tests. This will let you know things like:

~ In which section you normally score well.

~ What kinds of questions are you normally able to solve.

~ The areas where you are weak or strong.

This will also cover the following aspects:

Which section -- English, Quantitative Ability or Data Interpretation & Analytical Ability -- you should attempt at first.
Within sections, which sub-sections you should tackle first. For example, within English, you might choose to do Reading Comprehension either in the beginning or at the end.
How much time you will spend on each of the sections: do you devote equal time to each or slightly more time to the section that you are most comfortable with?
How you will prioritise the order of attempts: will you do the two-mark questions first as they can be more rewarding (but be careful: they can also be more risky as they carry a higher amount of negative marks!) or solve questions randomly, irrespective of the marks associated with each question.
The minimum number of questions you will attempt in the various sections. This would mean that from past years' examination papers, you should have an idea of what the approximate cut-offs have been.
Will you spend some time at the end cross-checking or verifying some of the answers you are not really sure of/ have tried to guess the answer to?

Remember, this must remain only a "draft strategy" as no one can predict the actual CAT paper and the CAT exam has a reputation of throwing up surprises. Instead of the expected three sections, the candidate may find himself faced with just two or even four sections. The actual strategy can only be worked out on seeing the paper on the examination day as described below.

Remember that there is no one strategy for CAT: what has worked for someone in the past may not work for you.
Also have a fallback plan. What will you do if the unexpected happens? Are you ready for it?
Anything can happen: the section where you hoped to do well may be extremely tough that year or two sections may be merged into one or one section expanded into two. You must be ready for anything!

Your "draft strategy" must have been derived from your performance during your practice or mock CAT exams -- what succeeds best for you as an individual? Thus the "draft strategy" must have been 'customised' for you given your unique preferences, strengths and weaknesses etc.

Have you aced the CAT? Do you have tips that could help students improve their scores or stress-busting strategies to beat pre-CAT nerves? Send in your advice to getahead@rediff.co.in and we'll publish your strategies right here on rediff.com.

ALSO READ

Recommended by Rediff.com