CAT Exam Preparation 2023: Long-Weekend Guide To Scale Up Your Prep Level By 2x!

6 mins read

Guess what? We see a long weekend coming! What are your plans? For students and working professionals, long weekends come as breathers from daily hectic schedules. Many may spend the days catching up on their sleep or running a few errands. But with CAT around the corner, MBA aspirants can use this time to pace up their exam preparation.

So, are you ready for a sprint that scales up your CAT exam preparation? This article will focus on ways you can utilize your extended off days with 100% efficiency. Here we go!

CAT Exam Preparation Long Weekend Schedule

CAT 2023 is scheduled to be held on 26th November 2023. With less than two months in hand, a long weekend seems like a godsent present for MBA aspirants, especially those who are students and full-time working professionals. However, using your weekend productively requires proper planning. To help you form your strategy, let's give you an overview of a foolproof approach. 

Also Read: CAT Study Plan For Working Professionals By Modit Singla, 99.25 Percentile, IIM Lucknow

3-Pronged Approach

While making your study plan, approach the situation in three steps: 

1. Prepare
2. Review
3. Practice

The above steps help you break down your tasks into simpler workable portions and improve your preparation levels. These steps are explained below.  

Prepare

We all know how hectic weekdays are. At the end of the day, you hardly have time or energy left to do anything that needs sorting and consolidation. If you want to study after your office or college hours, you need a resource that spoon-feeds all the information into your head!

Hence, a holiday is a good time when you can identify, organize, and consolidate your study material for the days to come. Use this time to:

1. Make flashcards
2. Make your own written notes
3. Gather all scattered information into one folder
4. Bookmark important topics in books
5. Line-up tests that are to be solved in the coming days. This way, you waste no time thinking about which test to take on a particular weekday. Here is an example of how you can do it. 

Review

Browse through all the CAT study material you have organized to assess your preparation level. Mark the difficulty level of each topic. This will help you prioritize the topics that you find harder than others or the ones that remain to be done.

Apart from prioritizing the topics, quickly glance through the topics you have covered or are confident about. Flip through the chapters and try to recollect everything you know, for example, formulae, grammar rules, methods followed to solve the typical questions, etc. Take some quizzes, if required, to see how well you know these topics. 

Lastly, do some predictive analysis with a free mind. Based on the trend of the CAT previous years' question papers and expert opinions, list down the topics that you feel will most probably be asked in the exam. You may not find time for this during your busy schedule. However, this will provide a good direction to your preparation strategy. 

Practice by taking a mock test

The extended weekend offers sufficient time to take a full-length CAT mock test. So once you are done with the above two steps, whatever is your preparation level, don't avoid giving a mock test under simulated conditions.

A quick Google search, and you will find many online mock tests available for free. Also, try to take the test in the CAT exam time slot allotted to you, as this will help you understand how well your brain works during that particular duration.

Mock tests are absolutely essential for exams like CAT that require accuracy and speed. Hence, during your CAT exam preparation, your target should be to solve at least 2-3 full-length mock tests every month without fail. 

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How to make flashcards for new words? 

Flashcards are excellent tools to remember new words. So, how to make your own flashcards? Here is how you should proceed:

• Write down the correct spelling of the new word.
• Add its origin and pronunciation. You may also add a picture that makes you remember the meaning of the word. 
• Don't forget to add the usage of the word! It makes you remember the meaning of the word even better 

Note: Although there are digital or ready-made flashcards available, we highly suggest that you make your own physical flashcards in your own handwriting. This certainly works better for your memory.   

Here is an example: 

Master Error Spotting For VARC Section

An important section of the VARC section in CAT is error-spotting. Error spotting demands a good command of English grammar. In these types of questions, errors in the sentences need to be spotted or corrected. For this, you must be thorough with the grammar rules. 

Below are some examples of error-spotting questions for CAT exam preparation:

Sentence: Despite of all his efforts, he couldn't solve the complex problem.

Error: The error is in the use of 'despite of.' It should be 'despite' or 'in spite of.' It is never 'despite of.'

Sentence: Each of the employees in the department are required to attend the training session.

Error: The error is in subject-verb agreement. 'Each' is singular, so it should be 'is' instead of 'are.'

Sentence: My friend, along with his sisters, are planning to visit the art museum.

Error: The error is in subject-verb agreement. 'My friend' is the subject, so it should be 'is' instead of 'are.'

Sentence: The book that I borrowed from the library is laying on the table.

Error: The error is in verb tense. 'is laying' should be replaced with 'is lying.'

Do it yourself!

From A to Z, find the meanings of these uncommon words:

1. Arachnophobia
2. Bagarre
3. Cauldron
4. Desultory
5. Efface
6. Finagle
7. Gesticulate
8. Hirsute
9. Inveigh
10. Juxtapose
11. Kenophobia
12. Limpid
13. Masquerade
14. Naissance
15. Opsimath
16. Prodigious
17. Quandary
18. Repudiate
19. Sojourn
20. Termagant
21. Unguent
22. Vexatious
23. Wayfarer
24. Xenophobia
25. Yonderly
26. Zeitgeist

Remember, exam preparation is a marathon. However, 3-day or 5-day prep sprints can help you assess yourself, amp up your confidence level, and streamline the entire preparation process. All the best!

Suggested Reads:

1. How To Prepare For CAT Exam 2023? CAT Preparation Timetable, Guidance, Tips, And More!
2. How To Prepare For CAT 2023 At Home Without Coaching
3. CAT Syllabus 2023 & CAT Exam Pattern- Key Points
4. Here Is How To Prepare For CAT 2023 In 4 Months!