How to prepare for CAT in 3 months or less and get 99+ percentile

On no account, CAT is a pipe dream! The very first thing you need to get out of your mind is that CAT is only toppers or engineers. The funda behind cracking CAT and getting 99+ percent is as easy as ABC. We have prepared a step-by-step guide for you to prepare for the CAT in 3 months or less.

CAT is a demanding exam and all it needs is practice. The only thing that makes it a tough nut to crack is the large gap between the number of aspirants applying every year and the number of top institutions. Besides this, the pattern and concept behind CAT questions are application and aptitude-based. You must be a graduate or about to graduate, right? Keeping this in mind, you must have at least once in your academic journey gone through the basics of Mathematics and English, isn’t it? Then what’s the need to be worried? 

We have more than 80 days in hand and 1920+ hours to prepare for CAT. All we need is a full-proof and smart strategy to crack the exam successfully and receive calls from the top institutes. 

A step-by-step guide to prepare for CAT in 30 days or less

A single strategy cannot yield the same results for every CAT aspirant. A lot depends on your past preparations, your familiarity with the basics, and your strengths and weaknesses. So, let’s try and make this guide as precise as possible. 

There can be broadly 3 categories of students who want to prepare for CAT in 30 days or less:

• The aspirants who have been preparing for CAT seriously and now wants to introspect their strategy to know what they should do in the last 90 days
• The ones who wake up to CAT only after the notification comes out and gets serious from then on
• And the last category is of those brave students who start preparing for CAT in these 3 months

Whichever category you belong to, it is possible to crack CAT. Let’s say you devote around 4 hours daily for 80-88 days. (You are more than welcome to increase your study hours, though) This means you have a minimum of 320-352 hours in hand to prepare for CAT in 3 months or less. Now, let’s hop into devise a strategy.

Step 1: Break-down the preparation strategy for each section

For the VARC and LRDI section, all you need is practice. But for QA, you need to work on the fundamentals of all the 25 odd chapters, as well as, invest hours in practice.

Here is a sample of time management for CAT 2020 and its preparation strategy.

Step 2: Test and analyze your learnings

After spending 155-205 hours from a total of 320-352 hours, you should take MOCKS and ANALYSE them thoroughly in the remaining time (approximately 150-160 hours).

So, whether you have just started to prepare for CAT 2020 or you are looking forward to make the last 3 months to CAT super-productive, take a mock or attempt any previous year’s question paper just like you are giving the final CAT exam. Reason?

This will tell you how to mould your preparation strategy, what are your strengths and weaknesses, which type of questions takes you more time to solve, what are the fears you faced, and a lot more. It is these small things that can help you sail past the journey of getting 99+ percentile in CAT.

Here is the trick: Once you take mock and get the scores, retake the exam without looking at the solution. See which all questions were correct, correct but a fluke, attempted but wrong, and the ones you did not attempt at all. This is your real knowledge. Note down the scores, and try to fill this gap to make 99+ percentile.

Step 3: Be strategic and tweak your plan accordingly

To fill the gap between your actual score and the scores you need to get 99 percentile in CAT, you need to fine-tune your strategy as per your progress. Start by taking one mock a week, for a month, and gradually increase it to 2 mocks a week. What is more important is how you ANALYSE your mocks later. The knowledge learnt during its analysis cannot be gained from tutorials, coaching classes, or peers.

Here is how you can build an analysis chart for every mock. All you have to do is, tweak your strategy to fill the GAP in each section.

*This is based on the number of questions from the previous year, as the revised number of questions in CAT 2020 is yet to be confirmed. 

Overall, it may be said...

Once you have spent hours learning the fundamentals of every section, taking and analyzing mocks are more than enough to prepare for CAT in 3 months or less. Think this way, if you take even 20 mocks, you will practice 160 sets of LRDI (8 set in each mock) and 100 RCs (5 RC in each mock). But do NOT compare the numbers with your peers. It should be your knowledge, your preparation, and your strengths that should drive your strategy for the D-Day.

Now over to you! Last but not least, here are some FAQs, in case you missed any updates about CAT 2020.

Answering CAT 2020 FAQs

Q. When is CAT 2020? 

A. CAT 2020 will be conducted on November 29, 2020, Sunday.

Q. Which IIM is conducting CAT 2020?

A. IIM Indore is conducting CAT 2020.

Q. What is the eligibility criteria for CAT 2020?

A. Any graduate with a minimum of 50% aggregate (45% for SC/ST/PwD candidates) or a final year graduation student can apply for CAT 2020.

Q. What is the fee structure for CAT 2020?

A. CAT exam fee for the general category is INR 2,000 and for the reserved category, it is INR 1,000.

Q. When should I fill the CAT 2020 registration form?

A. You can fill the CAT registration form from 5 August - 16 September 2020 till 5 PM IST.

Q. How do I apply for CAT 2020? 

A. For registering in CAT 2020 visit iimcat.ac.in, click on New Candidate Registration and start filling the details as per the instructions.

Q. Can I fill the CAT application form offline?

A. No, CAT application form can ONLY be filled online on its official website iimcat.ac.in.

Q. When should I start preparing for CAT 2020?

A. There is no such predefined universal timetable or duration for CAT preparation. Some aspirants might take 2 months whereas others may take 12 months to complete the syllabus.

Q. Can I prepare for CAT in 3 months or less?

A. Yes, you can prepare for CAT in 3 months with the right strategy, consistency, and persistence. 

Q. Is the CAT exam difficult?

A. No, the CAT exam is not difficult. CAT is an aptitude exam and not knowledge-based. The questions are usually based on concepts that you have learned in English and Maths till class 10th.

Q. Is a crash course or coaching necessary for CAT preparation?

A. No, coaching is not mandatory to crack CAT and get into premier B-Schools. There are plenty of success stories, who scored 99+ without any coaching.

For more content on CAT preparation, you can listen to our podcast and read the success stories of students on our blog:

• Episode 14: Why I could ace XAT 2020 but not CAT 2019 - Aiswarya on landing an admission at XLRI with 96.98 percentile
• Episode 9: How Vibhu Sehgal scored 99.87 percentile in CAT and gained admission at IIM Ahmedabad
• How to prepare for CAT in one month or less? -By Praneeth Allada, 99.78 percentile, IIM Calcutta
• How 2-3 hours of CAT preparation on weekdays helped me land IIM Lucknow -By Nishi Agrawal, 99.62 percentile
• Do not commit this mistake while preparing for CAT -By Rituraj from XLRI Jamshedpur
• This is how a non-engineer scored 97+ percentile in Quant without any coaching -By Ria Chaudhary from GIM Goa
• Scoring a 99.8 percentile while struggling with placements, college exams and CAT preparation –By Roshan Kumar
• 4th times the charm: My journey to MDI Gurgaon -By Rohit Singh, 99.56 percentile CAT 2019 - Part I