Step-By-Step Guide On How To Start Preparing For CAT 2026
Preparing for any entrance exam isn't a piece of cake and it may vary from person to person. Someone aspiring for a successful career in Business Management should understand how crucial CAT 2026 preparation can be in their MBA journey, involving everything from packages worth 25LPA+ to achieving personal holistic development.
Here are some generalised preparatory measures that will help you start preparing for CAT 2026 exam as best as possible!
Pre-Preparation Checks For CAT 2026 Preparation from Scratch Guide
- Familiarize yourself with CAT Building Blocks: You cannot participate in the CAT race unless you develop an understanding of the CAT Exam Pattern and CAT 2026 Syllabus. This will help you familiarise yourself with the exam, types of questions, and various sections. Clarity of the syllabus will allow you to prepare according to the most relevant subjects and topics.
- Assess your current level of knowledge: Knowing how to start preparing for CAT requires an understanding of where you stand at present. Your base preparation will help you establish whether or not you need coaching classes, which subjects you must focus on, and which topics are your strengths.
- Develop a conceptual foundation: The most fundamental requirements to score well in CAT are
speed and accuracy. Both of these cannot be attained without having a strong conceptual foundation. Hence, the
next step is to strengthen your concepts. This can be achieved by going over the theoretical understanding of
concepts and then practising as a way of reinforcement.
- Make mocks a habit: Take at least one mock per week months in advance. As you get closer to
the exam date, start taking at least 2 mocks per week. Writing mocks will help you understand the paper
pattern, benchmark your performance across test takers, familiarise you with the test-taking environment, and
prepare you for D-day.
- Solve Previous Year CAT Papers: Reviewing and solving past year papers as a final step will
reinforce all you have learned for CAT and also give you an idea of how you are likely to perform in the real
CAT exam. You will also be able to identify the commonly asked questions and topics and test your exam-taking
strategy.
How To Prepare For CAT 2026 With Online Coaching?
Preparation for CAT exam is a long-term commitment. A serious CAT aspirant must start their preparation 6-9 months in advance to have a strong hold over the basics and stay ahead to get into the league of 99+ %ilers. Those who are keen to prepare for CAT 2026 through self-study should ideally begin even earlier, preferably starting now or, at the latest, by March 2026. Those who cannot prepare on their own and want to seek help must connect with a reputed coaching institute for CAT exam preparation.
Selecting a good institute is crucial as it will determine your success or failure in the long term, so it must be chosen wisely. One of the best aspects of coaching institutes is that help from mentors and peers is readily available, allowing you to get your queries resolved instantly without much delay. They also provide the latest CAT study material and CAT mock test series, which are a must-have during CAT exam preparation, offering assistance with challenging topics and questions. However, it's not only that; if you want to get into your dream B-school, then you must be willing to dedicate 6-8 hours daily to CAT 2026 Online Classes, along with self-study. With their support and your hard work, you can definitely ace your CAT 2026 exam.
How To Prepare For CAT 2026 With Self-Study?
Picking up the option to study all by yourself for any exam can be tough; it requires a focused mindset and a customized study plan aligning with your areas of improvement. Well, this isn't something that can be done by all, but it is also not impossible. In fact, there are many candidates getting more than 95%ile while self-studying. Want to know how? All they need to do is the following:
- Get information on the CAT syllabus and CAT exam pattern to have a clear idea of what the exam is all about and what all can be asked.
- Access free CAT resources available online and take full advantage of them by utilizing them efficiently.
- Find video lectures on Career Launcher’s Youtube to brush up on your basics and enhance your knowledge of different topics.
- Get your hands on the latest best CAT books for better preparation.
For CAT aspirants who are struggling to find time to start their CAT 2026 preparation and cannot rely only on these free resources. Fear not; begin preparing from the comfort of your home, focusing on strengthening weak areas at your convenience with the expert guidance of our top CAT mentors with our CAT self-prep programme.
Section-Wise Strategies For CAT Preparation 2026
Let's start with some CAT 2026 preparation tips from our CAT experts to get the right solution to "How to Prepare for CAT".
CAT 2026 Preparation Tips For CAT VARC Section
Here are some tips regarding CAT VARC which will help you get a hold of this section:
- The Role of Reading: This might sound very boring and procrastination-worthy. But honestly, reading increases your power of visualization and impact.
- Listen to your Mentor: In case you are going for CAT online classes, make it a point to listen to all that your teachers say. This would help you cement your base and develop accuracy sooner than you expected.
- Crispen your vocabulary: You should be at least acquainted with 2500–3000 difficult words and around 500 idioms before you walk in to give your CAT exam.
- Read about Social Issues: Also, try to spend some time reading your favourite magazines or articles and excerpts from the editorial section of newspapers like Indian Express, The Tribune, The Hindu, etc.
- Get a Grammar Manual: This is the most efficient way of improving your grammar. A high-quality grammar manual can help you improve your grammar skills by offering various exercises and practice questions.
- Practice Critical Reasoning: The basic components of critical reasoning questions are fact, inference, assumption, and conclusion. You should understand and answer the questions with respect to the relevant factual information present in the question. You often need to identify unstated assumptions and inferences from the questions and evaluate the present arguments.
- Practice the elimination technique for RC passages: While solving an RC passage, try to make use of the “elimination strategy” i.e. eliminating answer options that are not relevant to the passage.
Get a detailed understanding of the VARC section: How to prepare for CAT VARC Section
CAT 2026 Preparation Tips For CAT DILR Section
DILR proves to be the trickiest question of CAT owing to the unpredictability of the questions and the lack of a syllabus. The section requires practice and familiarisation with puzzles, graphs, and data-based questions.
Here are some effective steps to kickstart your DILR preparation:
- Identify the Level of Difficulty: The candidate must identify the easiest set of questions
and the hardest in the first few minutes. Sparing these few minutes will allow the candidate to attempt easier
questions first, saving time and improving the accuracy of the attempts.
- Understand the Question: Identify the most appropriate way to present the information given
to answer the question. Candidates should not assume any information which is not present in the data set.
- Focus on the Syllabus: Most of the logical reasoning questions would be on the arrangement
topics, so candidates should prepare the topic well. Another aspect is practicing caselets, bar graphs,
different types of charts (line, pie, radar), and table-based data interpretation sets.
- Solve Previous Papers: Preparing with the help of the previous year's papers will allow
candidates to grasp various types of questions and garner an understanding of the expectations this section
has from candidates.
- Work on Speed and Accuracy: When preparing the candidate must focus on steadily improving
their speed and accuracy. You can achieve this by setting timers for practice sets and slowly decreasing the
time.
To get tips for CAT DILR: Read how to prepare for CAT DILR Section 2026
CAT 2026 Preparation Tips For CAT QA Section
The Quantitative Ability section is the "make or break section" of the CAT examination. Most of the CAT QA
questions are application-oriented and evaluate your hold on concepts of algebra, arithmetic, geometry and
sometimes a combination of topics.
- Memorise the Formulae: Revise the basic concepts and memorize all the essential equations
of topics such as geometry, menstruation, and profit & loss. It will reduce time and improve speed when
attempting questions.
- Understand the Types of Questions: Many a time, a question can involve two or more concepts
and appears to be technical or difficult. You must be quickly able to identify these topics and correlations
to attempt the question. This will be achieved after memorizing and understanding the basic concepts.
- Practice Questions: Pick up books that cover the syllabus of school mathematics and begin
practicing the questions. This will allow you to strengthen your understanding of various concepts and
formulae. It will also help you build on speed and accuracy.
- Mock Tests: CAT mock tests must be practiced for each section, they help build a better understanding of the level of the QA section and your preparation. When you start preparing for CAT 2026, it will also help you identify the level you are at present and where you need to reach.
To get tips for CAT QA by GP Sir, read how to prepare QA section for CAT 2026
CAT Preparation 2026: Solving Sample Papers and CAT Mock Tests
Mock simulations can be your holy grail when it comes to practicing for the competitive entrance. It will help you manage your time and develop a test-taking strategy. They will not only help you keep your preparation in check but also will help you efficiently manage your time and increase your self-motivation. You must solve CAT previous year question papers at least past 10 years and take Free CAT mock test that will help you evaluate your preparation level for CAT 2026, section-wise and as a whole, free of cost.
How To Start Preparing For CAT: Utilize Free Resources For CAT 2026 Preparation
Every year, we hear from many students who have successfully gained admission to top B-schools using our Free
CAT Resources, which brings us immense joy. This has motivated us to introduce the latest creation from Career
Launcher, Open CAT, a FREE CAT resource portal for students interested in
taking the CAT exam but prefer to prepare at their own pace and from the comfort of their homes. This platform
is the perfect stop for you.
- Video lectures curated exclusively by our top CAT mentors
- Finest study material & formula booklets
- Full-length mocks and previous year papers
- Basic and advanced level tests for each topic covering all three sections
- Knowledge and mentorship sessions by experts
If you want to prepare for the CAT exam without spending any money, you're in the right place! Open CAT offers all the necessary study materials for CAT 2026 that you'll need, all conveniently available in one place. We hope you utilize them and find them extremely helpful in your CAT 2026 preparation journey, helping you ace your exam. Get benefits from our Free CAT resources and give your CAT preparation 2026 a kickstart.
Conclusion
By focusing on the key points mentioned in this article, you will be able to keep your CAT preparation 2026 going in the right direction. You must keep in mind that acing the CAT exam requires you to utilise the time available competently, make full use of the resources available to you, and keep yourself motivated throughout the journey. Are you ready to take the first step in your journey to your dream B-School?