"www.spanedea.com/cat" - " Blog.Spanedea.com" Tips on how to prepare for CAT Exam for working professions. Know how to manage your studies along with your job. Prepare and Score high with the best Online CAT Coaching provider, Spanedea. Live Online 1to1 classes by IIM Alumni.

1. Live One-to-One Online CAT Classes by IIM Alumni
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2. Working Professional – CAT Prep
People who are currently in jobs need to be very serious about
preparations
Time available to them might be very less compared to other
student aspirants
CAT and other similar exams like XAT,FMS etc are known for
changing patterns and differing levels of difficulty every year.
Two Sins while CAT Preparation
A lot of people jump straight into problem solving and finding shortcuts to
do “commonly occurring” problems.
Jump into exercise based preparation without getting the fundamentals right
Whether you are starting preparations for the first time or are
writing CAT for the nth time; make sure that you get your
fundamentals right.

3. MAD over CAT
 The CAT is a tough test. The CAT will humble you and bring you down to
your knees.
 With enough practice and the right guidance, you can beat it!
 The key to success is training your mind to think differently and act differently
Get acquainted with both the content and the length of the test.
CAT is not rocket science, it just requires a lot of discipline…
 There are no shortcuts—
Identify your weaknesses and then reviewing materials/doing practice
problems to fill those gaps
Focus on the problem types you're having issues with
 TRUST YOURSELF. You are smarter than you think.
 All of the knowledge is inside of you. You just need to discover how to pull it
out and apply it on test day!
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4. 7 Point Strategy
 Mental Ability – Improve mental ability, improve mental responses,
practice mental exercises and calculations daily.
 Clear Basic fundamentals – Through understanding of principles through
different books
 Time Management – Solving Practice problems with timer, not more than 3
min for any question regardless of difficulty level ( 4 questions – 12 min)
 SWOT Analysis – Know different types of questions in & do a SWOT on
those types. More practice on weak areas.
 Error Log - Error log will help you to know weak areas. Strategy to solve
each type of question within 3 min
 Process of Elimination – Understand & Practice Process of Elimination on
different question types
 Practice – No alternative to practice. It is very important to practice higher
difficulty level questions for time management; try to solve every question
within 3 min www.spanedea.com

5. Analyze, Understand & Plan the
preparation
 Preparing for the exam
 3 levels of preparation required to crack the CAT.
 Knowledge
 Exam Strategy
 Confidence and Performance under pressure
 3 Steps to ACE CAT
 Step-1 Learn all about CAT
 Step-2 Do Self Analysis for CAT
 Step-3 Execution: Mastering your strengths and improving on your Weaknesses
 Study Plan
 Never Prioritize topics – study all
 What is prepared & what needs to be learned
 Time Management
 Set accomplishable goals
 Stick to your plan

6. Identify where you stand
Where to start?
The ideal way to start preparing for any exam is by taking a
diagnostic test
Diagnostic tests should ideally be of similar type as the
previous CAT exam.
You may take the test online/offline.
Detailed analysis of the results
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7. Build the Foundation - Revise
the fundamentals
Understand and Develop basic concepts tested in the CAT
Understand different types of questions asked in each section
Gauge your understanding by solving questions for each Concept
Attempt extra practice problems on each concept to go to Pro
Level.
Finally, move on to actual past CAT questions – to develop the
CAT mindset
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8. Get your fundamentals right
Focus on basic concepts and fundamentals
Understand the formulas/concepts
Shortcuts must come from a deeper understanding of the
fundamentals rather than from some black box formula like
approach
Take as much time as required to get it done
Don’t jump into exercise based preparation without getting
the fundamentals right

9. Study Plan and Time
Management
Time is precious, while everyone has the same amount of
time, only those who manage it well crack the CAT.
Budget your time – Create a study plan to manage the time
effectively and efficiently.
Give plenty of time for each task and concept
Use a calendar to set specific deadlines.
Don’t get nervous over deadlines; stay calm and keep on
track.
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10. Practice - Test, Test and More
Test!!
Starts taking timed tests as early in the prep cycle as possible
Start taking sectional tests and time based exercises.
At least 2-3 concept or sectional tests a week
See where you stand and how much improvement you need.
Analyze the tests in detail to check:
A) Where have you gone wrong?
B) Why have you gone wrong?
C) Solutions to questions that you did not attempt to identify
the ones that you could have attempted.
Analyze your performance after every test that you take.

11. SWOT Analysis - Don’t forget it
 Give mock tests to understand one’s strengths and weakness
 Important to use, develop strength or compensate for Weakness
 Ideally for a 2 hour test, one should spend at least 2-3 hours analyzing things like
 a. What went wrong?
 b. What went right?
 c. Where am I consistently strong
 d. Where am I consistently weak?
 e. Did I attempt questions that where time sinks? Why?
 f. Did I skip or not attempt simple questions? Why?
 Track your performance section wise and concept wise
 Analysis : attempted, non-attempted questions, Silly mistakes and guess work attempts
 Know strengths and weaknesses, concentrate on areas where you need to improve
 Understand strength/weakness thoroughly and ensure that you play to your strengths in
the exam

12. Time Management during exam
 Practice the element of “TIME” in problem solving
 Most problems in management institute exams do not require knowledge of
rocket science.
 These exams are about
Skill and knowledge
Ability to manage time in the most efficient manner.
How to solve problems in minimum time
 Focus on 2 more questions and get proficient in them -:
a) How much time will it take me to solve this problem?
b) Compared to the problems that I have seen what level of difficulty do I
think this problem lies in?
 Important for candidate to decide
Which questions to attempt and which questions to leave
In which order - which might very well end up being the most important
thing esp. in exams where time is the crunch.
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13. Plan your answering strategy
These are few points you must plan out before taking the CAT-:
What is your time allocation strategy?
How much time do you plan to spend on each of the sections?
In particular, do you plan to devote equal time to each section or
slightly more time to the section that you are the strongest at?
How will you respond to a different marking scheme if that is
specified? For example, if there are 2 marks and 1mark questions, do
you plan to attempt the 2 mark questions first?
Do you plan to spend some time at the completion of the exam,
cross-checking or verifying some of the answers, especially of those
questions that you are not really sure of and have just estimated or
guessed the answer?
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14. Find your strategy - Experiment:
Till you have found a rhythm/strategy keep changing
things
The target number of questions you want to attempt,
The time you spend on each section etc.
This kind of experimentation will prepare you for any
surprise that you may find on D-Day
Perfect the optimum CAT-solving strategy
Strikes the right balance between speed and accuracy,
Ensure that you clear all cut-offs and as well as get 99+
percentile
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15. Attention : Interviews and GD/WAT
 Start preparing for the interviews and GD’s from beginning
 Candidate needs to show that he/she has a well rounded personality in
complete admission process
 Start orienting on this aspect six months before even applying to the b-schools.
 Know and Understand different question asked in interviews
 Pick up a hobby,
Project something to be your hobby in an interview,
Good understanding of history, personal association, ground details, rules,
current news items related to it and finally your views on its future etc.
 For GD/WAT preparation,
Keep updated on General Knowledge/ General Affairs
Get a taste of the real thing
Preparing in groups of friends for GD/Essays is a good idea
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16. Current Affairs – General Knowledge
Interview/GD/WAT Essays requires that you be aware
of your surrounding and current affairs.
Read at least one good newspaper daily and a weekly
magazine on current affairs (and 1 business magazine
preferably) regularly.
Most publications from same media houses would be a
bit biased in some respect
A variety of views from different media houses would
strengthen your knowledge of the subject and help you
especially in GD/WAT Essay
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17. Train Your brain
 Entire CAT evaluation (including GD/WAT/PI) is designed for people who
can work for longer periods of time without breaks
 Train your brain for working effectively and efficiently for longer periods of
time
 Build Mental stamina
Mental fatigue is real and it tends to snowball
At the end of an exam, mental fatigue will cause him/her to think more
slowly, it will force you to re-read or re-calculate,
Spending longer on each question will only serve to fatigue you even more.
 Mental stamina is required to perform efficiently and to get a good score
 If you need to warm-up for an hour before beginning to be able to concentrate
and study productively, now is the time to break that habit.
 You need to be able to start concentrating almost immediately, and need to do
the same thing for more than 140 minutes.
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18. Work life balance
Keep yourselves distressed
Balance your work/study with preparation.
Be genuine to yourself and spend time every day regularly in
a systematic manner
Take it slow and do not garble all the information.
Work your way through different types of problems and
keep track of your performance in every possible area
It’s about ‘You’ and you know better about yourself; devise a
strategy that works for you
Keep fine tuning the strategy, until you get better results
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19. Final Words
CAT is a tough exam and you need to train your brain for it.
The key to success is training your mind to think differently.
Get acquainted with both the content and the length of the test.
CAT is not rocket science; it just requires a lot of discipline.
CAT is a very logical exam and if you are good with logic, you
should be able to do reasonably well.
The challenge is not to master all concepts, or to do all problems
rightly; the challenge is to maximize the score
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; all you have to do is follow
a plan which the high CAT scorers use and customize it to suit
your needs.
NGUFO = (Never Give Up - Fight On)
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20. About SPANEDEA
“Every learner is unique, and so is every learning situation!”
SPANEDEA is an interactive learning platform through live
video and audio and a virtual blackboard
Founded in 2011 by IIM Bangalore 1998 batch alumni –
Sanjay Bhadra, Nitin Bansal and Rajat Sharma
Based in Mumbai, India
Get more information at: http://www.spanedea.com/CAT
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21. Why Learn Online
 Customized learning from the convenience of their
location.
 Sessions/course customized to particular students need
 Convenience - Convenient timing
Comfort - At the comfort of your place, Spend less time on
traveling and more time to learn
 Teacher’s personalized teaching -1on1 live teaching
through internet,
 Modular course content – eBooks, interactive and
customized content/ courses
 Quality – best quality teachers
 Availability – qualified teacher available all the time
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22. Benefits to students
 Choice – chose teachers, select courses,
 Precision – exactly what is required, instead of needless
'full'
 Personalization – my weaknesses at my pace, customize
your own course
 Doubt clearing – interactive discussion required for doubt
clearing
 The tutor provides comfort – provides the invaluable
hand-holding
 Sufficient practice – pre and post session quizzes, full
exam
 More focus on concepts – concept building
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23. www.spanedea.com
For more information on CAT - http://www.spanedea.com/CAT
Openedex India Pvt. Ltd., 703, C-Wing, Mangalya, Andheri (E), Mumbai-400059, India
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