“Ever tried, ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better”. This cliched yet inspiring quote by Samuel Beckket is something which feels at home to all of us, at some point in our lives. The lore which tells us to never let go of our goals, at the face of some of the worst adversities is the core idea behind the anecdote I’m about to tell.
I never intended to write such a post, but here I am writing one, on multiple requests by people, mainly from the CAT Preparation discord server(which played a key role in my journey up until here). I will try and talk about my own path, my learnings from the past failed attempts and how the most important ingredient to crack CAT is not which amongst XYZ institute is better or which mocks will help you, but rather your own mental fortitude. The same mental fortitude which will help carry you towards the end of this long marathon, all whilst feeling it was a 100m sprint all along.
I’d like to establish an iota of credibility so that my words carry some weight in the minds of the readers.
CAT 2020 : Overall : 98.37 ( VARC: 95.12/LRDI: 99.69/QA: 91.23)
CAT 2021 : Overall : 99.88 ( VARC: 98.46/LRDI: 99.94/QA: 99.11)
Throughout this post I will try and touch upon the strategies one can apply, the kind of habits you may need to develop and of course, what kind of resources and study material would be best suited for your preparation. Most of these would be according to my own personal experiences so may not exactly fit for every person out there, but the crux of the ideology should be helpful regardless.
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC):
The bane for engineers and the boon for non engineers, this is a section which in theory is the easiest to prepare( you just have to read, duh!), but in reality is the section which makes or breaks your entire paper. For one, it is the first section you have to face while writing the paper and a bad performance can seriously hamper the upcoming sections(even though it shouldn’t, but more on that later). I have always been a staunch believer that you do not need any coaching hand or even more, any particular study material to prepare for VARC. At the end of the day, this section is about reading a text piece and understanding what the author is trying to say. You absolutely cannot cheat your way through this section, and more importantly get lucky at any point.
So what do you need to do to sail through this section? The answer is very cliched and simple as stated at the end of this text- READ. Read, read and read even more. Read books, newspapers, comics, magazines or anything else you’re comfortable with. The essence of preparing for this section is that you need to get comfortable with words and try and formulate your thought process on what has been written. You should be able to read a piece and answer the core idea behind it with your eyes closed, if asked.
If you’re an avid reader, I assume you’re already comfortable with passages and other related things, but if not, try to build a habit. If you’re an absolute beginner, start by reading for 5–10 minutes a day. Read the headlines and a small story of any news which catches your eye. Then increase that to reading opinion pieces, editorials and then eventually passages from varied fields, this will help build your reading stamina which is crucial. My main resources for such passages were- Aeon, Smithsonian Magazine, Guardian etc. Your preparation for VARC should revolve around reading from similar sources and then building a mindset of how to solve the questions.
This brings me to the next part- What exactly is the mindset needed to ace this section?. The one thing which worked really well for me( I owe this to a fellow PG user) is imagining yourself as the author of any text you read. Sounds weird, but it’s crazy how well it works out. Whenever I attempted a passage, I used to think I have written it, which eventually makes me question as to why I have written some of the points I did. This not only helps to build a sort of reader’s conscience, but also helps answering a question regarding inferences and conclusion since you feel in charge of the text you’re reading( Because hey you’re the author right?). This small tweak, coupled with eliminating options, helped me get a respectable score in what I considered to be my achilles heel. But yes, this is not a one day thing where you wake up and boom everything works out. You need to start by building a reading habit, summarizing passages, opening your mind to various different texts. As long as you are consistent with all of the above things, I can guarantee that you will sail through this section, and not just that, it will instill in you a life changing skill which will stay on with you forever.
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR):
DILR, my long lost love. You are either very very good at this section, or absolutely brick it, there is no in between. This is the only section in the paper, well at least according to me, where you’re actually stimulated mentally. Nothing excited me more than taking up a DILR set and trying to take up the challenge of solving it as quickly as possible, even when you haven’t moved a hair after an hour or so. The most crucial aspect of acing this section, and in general messing up the section as well is EGO.
Your ego will carry you over the line with this section or weigh you down tremendously. Why is that? According to my own experiences, when you come across a set and are in the middle of solving it, there is a point where you notice the timer ticking, but you also feel that you are close to solving the set and eventually gaining those 12 marks for the 4 questions. But the timer is ticking. This is where your ego decides whether you are to let go of that question or continue battering it. Easier said than done of course. Scoring high in DILR is as simple as deciding what sets you attempt, and as difficult as letting go of the questions you feel are doable.
During my preparation days, I had times when I scored a single digit score in this section, and times when I scored 5/6 sets correct. The only constant was what kind of ego/mindset was on play on the particular day. There is no one way of going about this section, everyone has their own comfort way. My strategy, which helped me score 99.94 this year and 99.67 last year in this section was consistent:
: Starting 2–3 mins, scan through the entire paper and mark down sets according to what they are( arrangement, cubes, spider chart DI, bar chart etc)
: Attempt the set you’re most comfortable with, I always started with logic based sets. If you are not able to solve much of it in 4–5 minutes, leave it. Yes its difficult but the paper is about scoring marks and there are other sets to worry about.
: Always have your safety sets. Sets you will solve/feel like you can solve very quickly towards the end( even if it is just a couple of questions). For me it was usually the DI sets. Another thing is that you dont have to solve all 4–6 questions of a set, there are times when a particular question will be extremely tough so it is okay to leave it. Go for the sitters in some other set, there’s always 1–2. And always attempt the TITAs
: Never assume anything. This is one mistake a lot of people make. You see a big set with a lot of data and text and just assume its long and leave it. Never do that, most of the times the sets might feel daunting, but the questions are fairly straightforward. Always keep an open mind.
I believe going ahead with keeping the above things in mind should really help your preparation in this section. With regards to the material etc, I personally solved the 200 set playlist from Anastasis Shankar youtube channel and previous year mocks. The more sets you solve, the more comfortable you will get with this section since after a point you will start realizing the pattern of solving a particular set. A daily target of 4 sets( 2 LR and 2 DI) in limited time frame should be a good start and staying on course with it will be extremely helpful in the longer run. Just remember, you don’t have to solve questions, you have to solve sets. Marks are spread across the paper, it is up to you on how you decide to net them in.
Quantitative Ability (QA):
Finally, the most discussed section of the CAT, especially on prep groups, possibly given the amount of theory that it has. This section feels like an advantage to engineers but trust me it isn’t.
There is a common misconception that candidates with a certain pedigree are naturally good at QA while others aren’t. This is true, but not completely — even if it were, it shouldn’t affect the way you prepare for it.
In many ways, preparing for Math in CAT is like preparing for the same at school — namely, you practice quite a few questions until you get comfortable with it.
Beyond that, it’s not about solving the question the right way, but the fastest way. Nobody cares about your method of arriving to an answer. There are questions which can and need to be solved without picking up your pen and they should be done the exact same way.
Here is an example from CAT 2017
: If a, b, c are three positive integers such that a and b are in the ratio 3 : 4 while b and c are in the ratio 2 : 1, then which one of the following is a possible value of (a + b + c)?
Now when you see this question, the way you approach this tells a lot about your practice and comfort level with regards to this section. Someone who is relatively weak in this section will probably take time in writing down the data as ratios and then coming to a solution. On the other hand if you’re quick you will see the ratios in your head, its nothing but 3:4:2 and their addition should be a multiple of 9, and there is only one option which is a multiple of 9 and hence the correct answer. What’s key to understand here is that you probably save 20–25 seconds easily, and these seconds combined with other similar questions can lead you to save around 5–6 minutes in the actual paper. which is a huge deal considering that the paper is just 40 minutes long and 5–6 minutes is a swing of at least 2 questions. This does not mean that you should always approach a question this way. The point here is that this level of comfort comes with practice and solving as many questions as you can. You reach a state where you can gauge the level of question in your head and make a quick decision as to when you have to solve a question the traditional way and when to use options to arrive at the answer quicker.
So how do you reach this state? Practice, practice, practice. QA is the most exhaustive section, resources wise. You can find questions on every forum you are on. Just make it a habit to solve a question when you see one( of course this is assuming you are versed with that particular topic and eventually the syllabus). Solve a question the traditional way and then try to solve it in a smarter, time saving way. Help people around you when they’re stuck on some concept. This really helped me in my preparation, when people used to ask doubts from me I used it to brush up my own concepts. Resources that I otherwise used were Past mocks, Past CAT papers, the QA playlists of YouTube channels such as those of Elites Grid, Anastasis Shankar. For theory I had used Taskhzilla video lectures to cover all the concepts beforehand. The ability to solve efficiently, not the knowledge of theory, is what makes one soar high.
So keep it simple, try to cover the syllabus then move onto problem solving. Attempting the QA section in a mock is a little different and I will try to cover that in a separate post. Try to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, but never leave a complete chapter, unless it is beyond doable according to you.
To summarize, I would just like to say that there is still a lot of time for CAT 2022. Don’t let your past performances measure your current worth. Even if you start consistently from today onwards, you can easily end up getting a 99.5+. Just stay on course and don’t make the mistake of making CAT your everything. Do not over study, 3–4 hours of studying is more than enough. CAT is not the end of the world, its just a paper. It does not and wont decide your worth. Think of it that way and I guarantee you great results. And please, do take care of your physical and more importantly your mental health. The preparation tends to take a toll on you if you let it, so always keep in mind that it is just another exam. A strong mental equates a strong performance. Wish you all good luck, see you on the other side of this rat race. Stay hydrated and happy preparation!
