As the last month before the CAT 2021 Exam looms, the question on the minds of most aspirants is, ‘How to prepare for CAT 2021 in 1 month?’ This is a rather difficult question to answer as it varies from person to person. And yet, there are some basic things that every aspirant should follow in order to maximize the time that they have before the CAT 2021 Exam.
With just over a month to go in CAT 2021, it is important to be extremely clear about how to prepare for CAT 2021 in this 1 month. Keeping this in mind, we are going to talk about a few things that you need to pursue over the course of your CAT Preparation.
Read more :How to improve VARC for CAT?
Read more: Why are CAT mocks important?
While following these things alone will not be sufficient to crack CAT 2021, they give a decent foundation on how to do CAT 2021 preparation. Let us also look at some of practices and mindsets that can deter the candidate from effectively pursuing the practice of on how to do CAT 2021 preparation.
There are some pre-preparatory checks that a student has to conduct before delving into one month of rigorous CAT preparation. Here is a list of all the must-haves to frame a fool-proof CAT 2021 1-month preparation strategy:
Here is how you can furbish your CAT VARC strategy in 1 month:
First Phase (Day 1 to Day 7) | Second Phase (Day 7 to Day 14) | Third Phase (Day 14 to Day 21) | Fourth Phase (Day 21 to Day 28) |
Practice different types of RC passages. | Learn the tone of the passage I.e whether it is subjective or objective. Read between the lines to identify the tone of a passage
| Shift your attention to Persuasive, scientific and critical RCs. Focus on solving Paraphrasing questions at this stage of preparation. Take one CAT sectional mock every day for proper practice. Solve another 25-30 RCs in this week and analyze the solutions. | Keep on practising the RCs. Complete your goal of 100 RCs before CAT. Make sure to attempt VA questions for at least 2 hours a day. Revise all the techniques you have learnt so far and give a full-length mock to scale your VARC preparation. Replace reading by reading. Read novels, newspapers and journals to strengthen your vocabulary and learn new idioms and phrases. |
Here is how you can furbish your CAT DILR strategy in 1 month:
First Phase (Day 1 to Day 7) |
Second Phase (Day 7 to Day 14) |
Third Phase (Day 14 to Day 21) |
Fourth Phase (Day 21 to Day 28) |
Make a list of all the DILR topics and segregate them into three categories I.e., most important sets, tough sets and most selective sets. Focus on the most important topics first. These topics will constitute of sequence and series, matrix arrangements (linear and circular) Get started with the basics first. Flex your problem-solving psyche. After you have covered the important basics, start answering review questions, first priority is to be given to easy and solvable sets. |
Solve a sectional LRDI mock to find out your areas of incompetence. Keep on practising as many LR sets as you can, not worrying about the time limit initially. Refrain yourself from peeping into the solution key. If you have studied properly, you will solve the question. Explore different LR topics such as coding-decoding, blood relations, directions, syllogisms etc. Make sure you learn the basics first. If you feel you are unable to solve a particular problem even after learning the concept, visit the concept again. There would be some loophole you are missing out on. |
In this phase. Take a sectional mock every week to dig out your weaknesses and work on them. Practice as many as 20 LR questions in 1 day. Mark the questions you are not able to solve and do not let that come in the way of your practice. Solve various puzzle questions. Conventional LR questions are usually ambiguous to solve and only concept-dependent. Solve past year CAT papers and analyze your performance. Shift your focus to the DI questions. Solve at least 5 DI sets in one day. Time yourself while solving each set. |
Learn about speed-enhancing tricks and jot down all the important approaches and formulas in your notebook. By now, you should know that 1/9 = 0.11 and other fractions. The same goes for percentages, cubes, squares and square roots. Take a sectional mock every day and analyze your performance. Take a full CAT to mock some days before the last day to gauge your DILR performance. If, during the mocks, you feel you are not able to understand a particular question, DO NOT ATTEMPT IT. Some questions can be classified as tricky or uncertain. |
Here is how you can furbish your CAT QA strategy in 1 month:
First Phase (Day 1 to Day 7) |
Second Phase (Day 7 to Day 14) |
Third Phase (Day 14 to Day 21) |
Fourth Phase (Day 21 to Day 28) |
Focus on major topics first, starting with the Number systems, modern mathematics and Geometry. Learn the concepts and solve questions related to these dominating and broad topics. Take a sectional mock to figure out which concepts are currently out of your knowledge Enlist those topics and take them down one by one. Remember having a “wide-to-narrow" approach in quant. As the syllabus is intensive, it would require quite an effort from your end to cover the topics. |
For each day of the week, continue taking sectional mocks. Focus primarily on questions related to Algebra. Lean towards learning concepts of linear equation, quadratic equation, special equations and surds and indices. Practice as many as 50 quant questions per day. If you feel stuck at any point, do not refer to the solution immediately. Seek advice from your mentors to solve a question you do not understand. Read the question properly. Many a time, Answer lies deep within the question. |
For this phase, focus on commercial mathematic topics I.e allegation and mixtures, ratio and proportions, investment and partnerships, income and expenditure, profit and loss, percentages, averages, simple and compound interest etc. Practice at least 20 questions from all the topics and take a topic mock at the end of every commercial math topic. Prepare a cheat sheet of all the formulas you have learnt so far. Make it a thumb rule to time yourself every time you solve a question. |
Bend towards the easier topics at this point I.e Geometry, Trigonometry, Probability, Permutations and combinations. Take a full-length CAT to mock for all the days of the week to observe how far you have come in your QA preparation. Analyze the solution of each mock and enlist questions you left unattended. Team up with your fellow CAT colleagues and other friends to share your doubts with them and validate your preparation strategy. Revise all the learnt concepts at least 2 times to make sure you have a strong grip over them. |
During the last and counting days of the CAT exam, it is important for you to reaffirm your strengths and have a calm mindset for the examination. You did the best you could do, there is nothing more you could have done. The rigorous preparation has not only prepared you for CAT but for a plethora of other competitive examinations in just 1 month! Here are some last day checks for your CAT 2021 1-month preparation plan:
Put all your handwork together and let loose the inspiration. You have drilled yourself so far, now is the time to quietly soak in the exam day thrill and assure yourself that you are not walking in that examination hall with little knowledge and a shaky mind. Ensure you have all your documents, admit card and some stationery in form of a pen or pencil with you and most importantly, self-motivation. A three-hour arduous examination, and the flushing happiness on your face when the trial ends, can make up for all that you have sacrificed so far for your CAT preparation.
There are some things that one needs to guard against during their CAT 2021Preparation in the last month. Some of the major deterrents are:
There can be other pitfalls that one might face during their journey towards the CAT 2021 Exam but these must, in particular, be avoided so that the CAT 2021 Preparation over the last month goes smoothly.
Preparing for CAT is a tough task at the best of times simply due to the level of competition that one needs to contend with. The additional challenge of a short time frame of 1 month makes it even more difficult for the candidate. The pointers mentioned in this article can make it slightly easier for the candidate to prepare in the last month.