CAT Preparation

Some basic pointers:
SNAP stands for Symbiosis National Aptitude Test. It provides admission to the 15 Symbiosis Institutes. Some of the premier colleges which one can apply for through SNAP include SCMHRD and SIBM. So how does SNAP fare in comparison to CAT. To start with, SNAP is considered to be relatively easier than CAT. The type of questions asked is also not wildly different preparation for CAT. Creates 80% of the groundwork needed for SNAP while CAT has MCQs and subjective questions, SNAP only has MCQs. So if the worst comes to worse, you still have a 1/4 chance to get marks in SNAP versus the subjective questions in CAT. This matters, since one question could be the difference between you and your dream college.
To conclude, SNAP and CAT are gateways to top colleges in the country while CAT fives entry into 150+ institutes, SNAP is for the 15 Symbiosis colleges in India which provide with an MBA degree. You need to research to figure which course suits you best. Some courses, such as the MBA in infrastructure management or business analytics are niche courses which have a lot of scope but are not talked about that much. Always apply for all the exams, you never know what might work for you. From an exam point of view, in case you are a candidate who feels that cutoffs will be a constraint in your admissions process and are able to manage time well, SNAP is your type of exam.

Dear Shivam,
Greetings. For CAT there are few measures that you can take in order to perform well in the exam. The measures include, a thorough understanding of the pattern, type of questions asked and syllabus along with continuous practice (manually and through mock tests). Further, there are few tutorials available at YouTube and for preparation of verbal and non-verbal reasoning, you can rely on RS Aggarwal. For the details regarding pattern, syllabus, question papers, etc. Please refer to https://www.shiksha.com/mba/exams/cat/syllabus
Don't stress out and carry a positive approach and mindset for better results. I hope you find this information useful. All the best for your future endeavours.

For converting any of the top 10 colleges, the safest percentile is 99+. You may convert it at less, but the safest is 99+. Now coming to my experience, I started preparing for CAT in 3rd year of my engineering, but I was never serious so I ended up missing a lot of classes and was very irregular. Ended up scoring less. Decided to give CAT another attempt and this time promised myself to be serious about it. After my engineering, I didn't take up a corporate job (had an offer). Instead I started working with my father in our family business and was preparing for CAT alongside. I will share my daily routine with you:
I used to go to work at 10am and return by 5pm or 6pm. After that from around 7 or 8, I used to start studying till 1 or 2 am. I used to give one section test of RC consisting of 3 RC passages daily. This was mainly because I was the weakest in VA-RC. I used to analyses the RCs and then start with QA and DI/LR on alternate days. I am a moody person so used to study chapters based on my mood. On days when I was too tired, I used to solve easy chapters. For vocabulary, in the initial first month, I started doing 1 or 2 sessions of word power made easy by Norman Lewis and completed it. I used to give mocks mainly on weekends. Most of my weekends were spent mainly on giving a mock followed by analyzing a mock. Lastly, I would say consistency is a must.
This all worked for me. Hope you benefit from some of it too.

I joined TIME-Pune for CAT preparation at the end of July 2016. I joined classes, because that helps one make a proper structure for the vast syllabus of CAT. I attended every single class. Additionally, it helped me form an excellent study group, studying became easier with friends. In August, I started solving all questions of the chapters from the TIME books and handouts as soon as they were covered in class. Then after 2 weeks or so All India Mock CAT. Or AIMCATs started, now I was in dilemma whether to give the first mock or not, because how am I supposed to sit for full syllabus test (aren't we all used to syllabus first, then exams? When not even half of the syllabus is covered, but when I consulted a faculty, he asked me to give the mock, because syllabus of CAT is nothing but all the basics which you have learnt till 10th standard. I gave my first mock, and I scored somewhere around 78 percentile. I remember that I scored moderately in DI and LR and Quants, and very low in Verbal Ability. After giving that first mock I realized, where I actually stand, and how much more effort I need to put into actually bell the CAT. It was not just about realization, I also understood which section needs what kind of efforts. I analyzed the first mock thoroughly. I made a note of all the chapters I need to work on. I noted my strengths and weaknesses. I did this for all the subsequent mocks that I gave. I think after my first mock I kind of started a reverse engineering process, give a mock, analyze it and work on my weaknesses. (It is imperative to give mock but analyzing the mock is even more important. Read my article here: https://bschooldiaries.quora.com/My-CAT-Preparation-strategy.

I am sharing someone else experience. I am quoting him. I graduated now from IIM B. I prepared for CAT while I was working. I used to leave from home by 9.30 - 10 times in morning and be back in home by 9 - 10 after dinner from work. Some days, I had to stay in office late. My work comes under the category of hectic ( mentally, not physically ). This is what I did for the written CAT exam. Spend one hour every day in the morning, going through the chapters (Apti, DI, LR). I had materials, and I went chapter by chapter some day and random questions some day. Ensured I solved 20 problems in the beginning and as I progressed the speed increased tremendously. In office, open a browser tab and go to Arts & Letters Daily. Ensured I read three articles each day before I leave office. I'm generally curious, so I would read some random things without any background. Helped a lot in RC. The Hindu, Business standard in browser tab in office. Read in between meetings, when I was distracted etc. But, utilize time in office. Along with wordweb. Everyday, walk for 20 minutes or so in the night leisurely and recite to myself
all multiplication tables ( 1 to 20 )
Squares of numbers, cubes of numbers
Calculate % components for 1/2, 1/3. 1/15
Take 5 random numbers and compute their squares and cubes ( short cut ways )
I know the set of people who are preparing for CAT we especially had a guy who is very motivated and he would provide us the problems that are challenging & we would spend time discussing quickly. Mostly casual chat types. In our office, it was appreciated to prepare for exams and hence this was easy. Weekends, I gave one mock test, either from home or test center. I would try to solve the problem after the exams ( the ones I was not able to find quick solutions for ) & see if there are options. This would be complete in the weekend itself. Overall, CAT is about being in touch with the basics. You can solve the paper if you are given twice the time. It is all about speed and accuracy. These will not come unless you are in regular touch. Allot small amounts of time every day and you will surely crack it. All the best for your CAT.

I would suggest ALCHEMIST, because, here; they AIMAT personal attention and talent development, by helping you introspect rather than giving you tailor made answers that's what exactly is aptitude training all about. Catering to the needs of every student as everybody has got his/her own unique problems, they can be big or small for others; so, that way student finds it easier to acclimatise in such a terrific competitive atmosphere. The Alchemist collegeworks like a study forum where the students themselves shatter the doubts of their fellow friends in their area of expertise and wherever the need be they involve the faculty members of their respective fields. Best CAT Results in luxmi Nagar | Alchemist.

The following article describes the way I prepared for CAT (2016). This strategy worked for me and hopefully it works for all you guys as well. WARNING! This is a pretty lengthy but descriptive article so those who don't have the time, maybe you can come read this later!
I started preparing seriously from the month of March. So here it goes:
March May: PRACTISE, PRACTISE!
I dedicated this period to work on the Funds and getting conceptual clarity on various topics. This is by far the best place to get all your basics right.
Coming back to the main content, my advice to those of you who are just starting your prep will be: focus on practicing as many questions as you can. This is not the time to take full length MOCK CAT. Quant: I had bought TIME material, so I just stuck onto those. Those books are very good and give enough practice for any serious aspirant. The TIME material consists of 3 types of exercises: Conceptual Review, Exercise- (a), and Exercise- (b). So, I solved each and every problem from the TIME books and I feel this is very important because this is when one becomes familiar with all the different types of Quant problems that are likely to come in the actual CAT. DI/LR: Again, to prepare for this section, it takes a lot of practice. So just practice all the problems that are there in the TIME material. When I started solving DI/LR problems, I somehow found that I was able to solve LR problems easier than DI. But the truth is, I feel DI problems are easier to score as once you figure out how to get the answer (which will take less time than in LR), you will invariably get it. Also, the main thing in DI is understanding the given data as quickly as possible and figuring out a way to get a solution with the given data. A similar thing holds good for LR problems as well.