Two Months to CAT 2024: Attempting These Many Mock Tests will Optimise Your Score

Now that only two months are left for CAT exam 2024, here's what you need to do. Get expert tips and suggestion in solving CAT mock tests and analysis for the 60 days. Keep practicing the CAT mock tests from September to November 2024.

CAT2024 exam is only two months away. From now on, each day and each hour that you spend in preparation will be crucial. For the most of you, this is the make or break time. In these two months you will not only have to capitalise the knowledge you acquired during CAT 2024 preparation but also learn its application. As you enter in the second phase of CAT 2024 preparation, you should be done with conceptual clarity in all three subjects - Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning and Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension. 

Since there is no change in the CAT exam pattern this year, your mock test practice strategy should not change either. The CAT exam will be of 120 minutes and for each section there will be a sectional time-limit of 40 minutes. By now, most of you would have completed the CAT syllabus and be ready to move to practising CAT mock tests. In the CAT 2024 exam, candidates will have to solve 66 questions. So, to be able to utilise every minute of those two hours, practice the time-bound online mock tests prepared as per the pattern of CAT 2024 exam.

CAT Mock Tests and CAT Preparation in 60 Days

CAT preparation in the last 60 days should be based on level of conceptual clarity of all the topics and the percentage of CAT 2024 syllabus covered. When we say what you should do in the last 2 months before CAT, we go with the following assumptions:

1. You have already finished the basic materials required in all four areas of aptitude
2. You have enrolled for a CAT Mock Test Series
3. You have the knowledge of format of CAT 2024 including, number of sections, number of questions asked in history, time duration, colleges accepting their scores

How to use a CAT Mock Test Series?

You are advised to write approximately 20 mock CAT papers in next two months. Good percentiles are the outcome of aptitude skills and testing skills. 20 Mock CAT papers will help you optimize your score with the knowledge you have acquired. Spend one hour in analysis/introspection of learning from the test.

Every CAT mock test will help you understand your weak areas of aptitude and possible improvement in testing skills. Moreover, 20 should be a sufficient number of CAT mocks to develop appropriate stamina required to make best use of last two sections of the paper, as well.

Check out these link for CAT mock tests carefully created by Shiksha to prepare well for the exam

Also Read:

• CAT Preparation 2024: Tips from Toppers
• How many questions to attempt in CAT 2024 to score 99+ percentile
• Important CAT Quantitative Aptitude formulae for scoring 99+ percentile

CAT Preparation 2024: How to Manage Time?

If you are a working professional, you need to plan your days, leaves and breaks in advance. It’s advisable to finish a CAT mock test before you leave for office. You can analyse it after coming back or on the next morning. Waking up early would get you some extra hours in your day.

Plan your leaves wisely. Plan your holidays of Dussehra and Diwali. Plan your weekends. Plan your office leaves available. Clubbing them with any other holiday will give you a good number of consecutive days which should be helpful to finish a sizable work load.

CAT Preparation 2024: How to improve Accuracy?

• Accuracy in Reading Comprehension will improve with practice
• Accuracy in LRDI will improve with practice
• Accuracy in Quant will improve with practice

Sincerely finishing all questions of all CAT mock tests would help. Also plan to revise areas which need attention. If you follow the 20-mocks plan, 40 out of 60 days you will not have CAT mock tests to practice. These days can be used for working on weak areas.

Also Read:

• Verbal Ability (VA) solved questions
• Data Interpretation (DI) solved questions
• Data Interpretation (DI) solved questions - Part 2
• Logical Reasoning (LR) solved questions
• Quantitative Aptitude (QA) solved questions

CAT Preparation 2024: How to improve Speed?

If accuracy is always the first target to be achieved while preparing for the MBA entrance exams, speed is the second. The continuous trade off between the two is experienced by all the aspirants. Practice of standard variety of questions enables you to solve many of them with minimum rough work. This certainly adds to speed in long run. Moreover, a good number of questions in Quantitative Aptitude are of standard set of varieties. More practice of such varieties increases the number of questions which look familiar while solving a test paper.  

Regular practice helps you to develop more comfort with the topics and keep the stamina perfect even towards the end of the test. This ultimately gets you enough fuel to get more attempts and score in the last section. 

Also Read: How to approach CAT questions? Tips from toppers

CAT Preparation 2024: How to Make Reading Comprehension Stronger?

There is no alternative to Reading in CAT 2024 preparation. 24 per cent of the CAT question paper is made up of Reading Comprehension (RC) questions. It’s highly recommended that you solve RCs for at least an hour on the days you are not practicing mock tests. Find the areas of reading you are uncomfortable with. Read RCs related to such topics to increase comfort with them. Read on a variety of topics regularly. A 100-hour reading till CAT should take care of speed and accuracy in RCs in the actual test paper. Check out RC passages of last 10 years' CAT question papers. Practice those and similar passages. 

How to Manage Form Filling of Various MBA Exams and Colleges?

That’s exactly your job in these two months before CAT 2024.

• Keep analyzing your ongoing performance of Mock CATs. Envision where you can reach in two months.
• Do basic research of colleges available through various MBA entrance exams and their cut offs
• Depending on your probable range of percentiles, your interest of specialization and the cut offs of the colleges, prepare a list of MBA colleges and exams you should apply for
• Manage a diary or an excel sheet of application deadlines of all these MBA colleges and entrance exams
• Fill application forms of those MBA entrance exams before the deadline

How to Manage Other MBA Exams?

CAT kickstarts the MBA exam season. It is followed by SNAP, NMAT, IBSAT, MAT, XAT and CMAT. All of these exams are speed tests but have slightly different marking scheme and questions from CAT. It’s advisable that your planning includes writing at least three to four mock tests of each of these exams before taking them.

Overall, these two months would be the game changer. If you started late, going aggressive is the only option now. If you are on track, ensure that you don’t lose momentum for a single week.

All the Best..!!

About the Author

Parasharan Chari is an alumnus of SP Jain and is currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at a popular MBA coaching institute

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