CAT exam doesn’t have easy questions. Should I even practise them?
Natasha and Pratik were two students from Kolkata, preparing for their CAT exam. They were both engineering students. Pratik used CAT preparation books, and Natasha had got herself enrolled into online CAT coaching classes. They had practised a fair amount of Maths during their engineering and so didn’t find the preparation to be tough.
The strategy that Natasha and Pratik applied to crack CAT preparation was different. Pratik always thought that CAT was a tough exam and to prepare, one had to start by practising tough questions. He thought that if one knew how to answer tough questions, solving easier questions wouldn’t be difficult. Natasha, on the contrary, believed that to gain clarity about a topic, it was necessary to address easy questions first.
Whose strategy is more practical? Should you solve only tough questions or should you also answer easy questions to get your fundamentals right? Let’s find out.
TRENDS…
Before we start discussing which strategy is the better one, let’s look at the trends in the type of questions asked in the CAT question papers.
| Year of Examination | Easy | Moderate | Difficult |
| CAT 2004 | 23% | 39% | 38% |
| CAT 2005 | 23% | 23% | 53% |
| CAT 2006 | 23% | 44% | 33% |
| CAT 2007 | 21% | 56% | 23% |
| CAT 2008 | 28% | 40% | 32% |
CAT became computerised 2009 onwards, wherein the difficulty level varied with each slot and hence we have not discussed papers since then.
Why is this data helpful for us?
The trends mentioned in the above table clearly show that the percentage of easy questions has remained almost the same over the years. The paper setters play around with the number of moderate and challenging questions.
This data can help us form a strategy for the CAT exam.
What’s the strategy of solving a CAT exam to maximise the CAT score?
The CAT exam pattern is all about refining yourself in every section and having the fortitude to adapt to the exam.
The best methodology to follow is to solve the easy ones on the first go. Address the questions which according to you takes around a minute or so while skipping the other questions. Do remember to mark the questions for review later. Questions set for reviewing should include those which one is confident of cracking but would demand more time to solve. This way, the paper will get divided into three types of questions which are EASY, MODERATE and DIFFICULT. Another benefit of this strategy is that you would have gone through all the questions at least once.
The EASY & MEDIUM would roughly constitute around 25 questions which can be solved with 90% accuracy if you manage time properly.
CAT is an exam which not only tests your intelligence but also your decision-making power. It makes you focus on not only the type of questions you want to attempt but also on the ones that you should not. CAT is not just about choosing which questions to solve, it is also about choosing which questions to leave out.
How does practising easy questions benefit us?
The major advantage of practising easy questions is that it helps in building a strong foundation for the topic. If the foundation of a subject is strong, any type of question can be tackled with ease. It will eventually help a person score well in exams.
As discussed above, around 20 to 25 percent of questions in CAT are of easy to moderate level. A student feels confident once they solve a chunk of the examination paper. It helps reduce anxiety while giving the exam.
Also, some MBA entrance exams like CMAT and SNAP have questions that are fairly easy and do not take long to solve. Practising short and easy questions is thus beneficial for exams which test one’s speed.
How to prepare for CAT?
If your aim is to do very well in CAT, you need to start studying in advance. Also, you need to form and follow a strategy to be able to achieve your objective.
So, how should you go about preparing for CAT?
These are a few pointers that might help you in shaping your preparation for CAT exam.
- Spend 1 hour on reading every day. It can either be novels, newspapers, editorials, news, magazines, etc. Reading not only increases your vocabulary but also expands your knowledge.
- QA is a critical part, and one needs to reach a standard level of expertise for clearing cut-offs. Practice QA for an hour or two every day and start from topics like average, percentage, time and speed, etc. Slowly progress to more complex topics like numbers, set theory, permutation and combination. While practising QA, your focus should be on being able to solve questions faster, and trying to reach the same answer using 2-3 different approaches.
- Spare an hour or so on topics like Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation.
- Devote around an hour for the preparation of verbal.
- Dedicate around half an hour to memorise multiplication facts, conversion of percentage to numbers and vice versa and formulas.
What according to you is the best way to crack CAT and score well in the exam? If you have strategies of your own which have worked for you, or for anyone else, then let us know in the comments section below. Spread your ideas and help the community.
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[1]: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2016/01/15/financial-goals-when-the-going-gets-tough/