Nitin M Pai, CAT Topper, IIM A

After getting a good percentile in CAT, the IIMs where you have applied looks at your profile, and they judge you on the basis of your class 10th, class 12th, undergraduate, CGPA marks. Weightage given to CAT is around 30-50%. Based on an overall score and CAT score, you may be called for a personal Interview, after which the deciding factor in selection will be mostly the interview performance. Also, you will start getting calls from different MBA colleges for their interview process. You have to shortlist the colleges accordingly, and then appear for the GDPI session for the college. If you pass the GDPI selection process, you are through to the college.

The CAT exam comprises of 3 sections and you are given strictly 1 hour for each section. Therefore there is no question of dividing time across sections. However, if you are enquiring about dividing time within each section, then I would suggest that it is important to divide equal time to all parts of the section and not miss out on say the last few questions of the paper because you took more time initially. If you do not get an answer or approach to a problem within a minute, its better to move on. Now coming to the scoring section part. Yes in absolute terms, there is disparity in terms of scores across sections. People who are strong at quant generally score very high in the section and those with good familiarity with English do well in the RC section. However, the LRDI section has been tough and low scoring over the past few years. Therefore, it is often this section that separates the well prepared and smart candidates from the rest of the pool. Therefore, I suggest that one gives a lot of time to getting better in this section.

You can follow these books for your CAT preparation!
Quantitative Aptitude
How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Arun Sharma
Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT by Sarvesh K Verma
Quantitative Aptitude by R. S. Aggarwal
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT by Arun Sharma & Meenakshi Upadhyay
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT by Nishit K Sinha
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension by Ajay Singh
Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis
Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation
How to Prepare for Logical Reasoning for CAT by Arun Sharma
How to prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT by Arun Sharma
Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT by Nishit K. Sinha
Good Luck!