Published : Lavleen Kaur Kapoor | July 08, 2015 | 05:22 PM IST
How to ace CAT? This is a million dollar question and puzzle for all those who are aspiring to take CAT 2015 hence it was essential to know from those who cracked CAT last year so that we can dig into the real waters.
Team MBA Rendezvous met few CAT selected candidates who got selected in IIM and few of them were selected in top B school. After informal chat, we started our questions to get insight of their strategy as how they were successful to crack CAT last year.
Our questions remained focused with a view to get near to the reality so to help you to ace CAT 2015. We were amused to know that most of students who cracked CAT last year took MAT September also to test waters and to understand where they remained with a clarity on thoughts to improve with zero tolerance on accuracy.
Besides speed , time management and accuracy which is also common in most of the exams like MAT also but the glaring difference with CAT is sounded that CAT becomes highly competitive with sheer numbers of aspirants compete with each other. Last year approx. 1.95 L took exam and similar numbers are expected for CAT 2015 also with an increase of 10%
A small comparison of MAT and CAT on exam trend will also tell you truthful story:
MAT entrance exam covers five sections in all. Scores of first four sections compose the final scores. However, institutions might choose to consider the score of the General Awareness section.
| Section No. | Section | No. of Questions | Time Suggested(Minutes) |
| 1. | Language Comprehension | 40 | 30 |
| 2. | Mathematical Skills | 40 | 40 |
| 3. | Data Analysis and Sufficiency | 40 | 35 |
| 4. | Intelligence and Critical Reasoning | 40 | 30 |
| 5. | Indian and Global Environment | 40 | 15 |
| Total | 200 | 150 |
CAT
The duration of Examination is likely to be 170 minutes.As per the past trends, the test includes two sections
- Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation (DI)
- Verbal Ability (VA) and Logical Reasoning (LR)
When observed closely, it is evident that if one goes by the strategy of your seniors to take coming September MAT , chances are high that you will get ample opportunity to do your SWOT in much more meaningful way.
Incidentally MAT score is accepted in more than 400 plus MBA institutes in India except top 20 that too for their flagship programmes otherwise they too accept MAT score for their sectoral programmes. Whereas IIMs accept only CAT score and top 100 institutes also accept only CAT score.
CAT 2015 is approaching and likely to be conducted in coming October 2015 albeit notification will be out on 26th July 8, 2015. Focused aspirants like you are preparing for exam. But you need to maintain enthusiasm to achieve mission CAT.
Stay informed, Stay ahead and stay inspired with MBA Rendezvous