Anisha has done MBA in Marketing from NMIMS And Executive Management(PMNO) from Harvard Business School. She has been instrumental in growing CATKing Digital with her experience with Marico and Henkel in the past.
Aspirants have exactly 90 days before they sit for the CAT exam. One could only imagine the pressure and stress the candidates are going through! In this turmoil, one should gear up and channelize all the energy towards preparing for CAT with a concrete strategy.
The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a national-level entrance exam for admission to the best B-schools of India such as the IIMs. And cracking CAT takes a lot of determination and hard work. We at CATKing, have paved an easy way for our students with our experts curating an easy study plan for the next 90 days, for the CAT 2020 exam.
CAT Pattern (For the year 2021)
The pattern of the exam in 2021 is likely to repeat in the year 2022. Here's what the pattern might look: 3 sections and a total of 66 questions in 2 hours.
| Section | Number of Questions | Sectional Time limit |
| Verbal Ability | 24 | 40 minutes |
| Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation | 10+10 | 40 minutes |
| Quantitative Aptitude | 22 | 40 minutes |
CAT 2022 Pattern Prediction.
Our experts in CATKing have intensely studied the pattern of the exam in the past years, and according to this evaluation, they have been able to understand and predict the pattern of CAT 2022. Here’s what we can expect from CAT 2022 pattern:
- The paper pattern of CAT 2022 will not be very different from that of CAT 2021.
- There will be around 76-66 questions this year in the question paper.
- Topics that’ll have more weightage:
You can also solve the past year CAT question papers
| Section | Topic |
| Data Interpretation | Games and Tournaments |
| Logical Reasoning | Arrangements, Caselets |
| Quantitative Aptitude | Arithmetic: Times and distance, Time and work, mixtures and allegations |
Some constants in the CAT exams since 2005:
- The question numbers and timers are always set up in a way that’ll provide the candidate 2 minutes to attempt each question, i.e.e 2 minutes per question.
- One-third of the questions are very easy. Just by attempting all these easy questions from the section can fetch you 90%ile.
- The next one-third of the paper is moderate, and determines 95%ile in the exam.
- And the last on-third is the set of difficult questions. Now, remember these questions should not be touched unless you are confident with the procedure and of obtaining an answer. So it’s advised better not to attempt than to give a wrong answer and lose your marks
Magic Method: Questions that need to be attempted first in the paper
Some of the question types have been repeated quite often in CAT, these questions from the questions should be attempted which’ll guarantee your overall good percentile.
- For the Verbal Ability section, Para Jumble, Para Summary and Out of context, these questions have no negative marking. So out of 8 questions from these categories, at least 6-7 should be attempted correctly.
- From Quantitative Aptitude, more than 50 percent questions are from Arithmetic, the most common topics are Vedic math, percentage, average and ratio.
- For Data Interpretation and Logical reasoning, divide them into two sections and solve them one by one.
How much do I need to score to get the desired percentage?
While the top-notch IIMs consider 95%ile and above, most of the good b-schools give out the PI calls at 90%ile and above. Percentile can vary according to the candidates’ educational background, work experience and sometimes depends on most scored sections and in case of reservation. But, there is a generalized breakdown of Scores Vs Percentile:
| Number of Candidates in the same percentile (Rank) | Percentile | No. of questions to be solved (correctly) from each section (at least) |
| 40k | 80%ile | 6,6,6 (6 questions from each section) |
| 20k | 90%ile | 8,8,8, (8 questions from each section) |
| 10k | 95% | 11,11,11 (11 questions from each section) |
| 2k | 99%ile | 13,13,13 (13 questions from each section) |
Tip: For the candidates aiming for 99%ile and above should make sure that they solve 13 questions correctly from any two sections and take the other one to the moon.
So, your chances of getting a higher percentile becomes more clear. It could be either Verbal Ability, Logical Reasoning or Quantitative Aptitude. In that one section, the candidate should try to answer 17-19 questions correctly.
Preparation Plan for the next 90 days:
- Test takers must divide their studying schedule in 40+30+20 days.
- The first 40 days is to cover up the entire syllabus and simultaneously give sectional and mock tests.
- The next 30 days is to particularly focus on the important topics and again give sectional tests and mock tests.
- And the last 20 days are solely for the mock tests and previous year question papers.
- Devote at least 2 hours a day for CAT preparation. And your practice schedule should be- 2questions from Logical Reasoning, 2 from Reading Comprehension, 2 from Data Interpretation and 20 quants problems.
- Give as many mock tests as possible. Try out CATKing Mock Test Series For CAT.
- Finally, prepare with your best shot with the help of CATKing Bible LOD1 and CATKing Bible LOD2
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