The difference between those who crack the CAT exam and those who don’t

Praqtise — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 13:02:54 +0000

Sanoj and Pranav are very good friends who are in the last year of their engineering. Both are planning and discussing what to do after graduating. Pranav suggests that they should take the MBA entrance exam and try to get into a good college. Sanoj says that he has heard that the CAT exam is very difficult and that not many can crack it to get into a good college. Pranav, however, convinces Sanoj that studying MBA will open many new opportunities in life and Sanoj agrees, though reluctantly. Both start preparing for the entrance exam for MBA.

Sanoj and Pranav prepare together for the exam, but Sanoj is skeptical that scoring good marks in CAT exam is not an easy task. Both study very hard for the examination, Pranav, with a positive attitude, and Sanoj, with a skeptical attitude. When the results come out, Pranav scores higher than Sanoj and get into a very good college, whereas, Sanoj barely gets into a decent college even after so much hard work. What could have been the reason?

Praqtice Fact File: MBA entrance examinations are designed to challenge the smartest of individuals and to create such a level of pressure that would reveal their weaknesses.

Mindset makes a lot of difference when preparing for the CAT exam

The pressure created by MBA entrance examinations like CAT may demotivate a lot of people, but cracking the CAT is all about taking it up as a challenge. When you are preparing for MBA entrance exams, your mindset certainly makes a lot of difference. You may think all that is required to crack the CAT is to thoroughly prepare the CAT syllabus. However, your mindset plays an important role in helping you crack the CAT successfully. A positive mindset which accepts it as a challenge goes a long way in helping you get into one of the top MBA colleges in India. If you prepare with a negative attitude then it affects not only your preparation for the entrance examinations, but also your performance in the entrance examinations.

Lack of confidence can have a negative effect on not just your performance in the examinations, but also the group discussions and personal interviews that follow.

How does mindset make a difference?

If you think that the CAT toppers are only successfully because of their high IQ, think again. If you think that only students who devote 18-hours a day to prepare for CAT exam, can ace the examination, think again. It is not just IQ or Hard work that makes all the difference in how you score in MBA entrance examinations. MBA entrance exams force you to delve into areas that you might not enjoy. For example, some people may not enjoy reading long passages or solving questions with a lot of mental calculation involved. However, if you develop a mindset that allows you to accept these areas as a challenge, then you can easily crack the CAT.

How to create a positive mindset when preparing for CAT exam?

A lot of students often wonder how to prepare for CAT. Every student, at one point, has wondered what he is doing differently from those students who ace the entrance examinations.

Here are a few insights that can help you change your approach to CAT preparation

Aim for small improvements

Improvement will be incremental and will require time and dedication. Setting small targets and achieving them will help in developing a sense of accomplishment. It will give you the courage to take up tougher aspects of the exam without feeling overwhelmed.

Do not underestimate the effort

Sometimes, despite ongoing efforts and continuous practice, the students might not get the expected results. This will surely to deter their will to continue. However, it takes more effort, perseverance, and a positive attitude to see positive results. It might simply be the case that you were less prepared than you thought. Treat it as an opportunity to learn rather than feeling intimidated by the effort needed.

See how far you’ve come, not just how far you’ve to go

It is necessary to overlook the results and focus on the efforts to build a positive attitude. MBA entrance exams force many individuals to move beyond their comfort zone. Aspirants have to read novels or perform arithmetic calculation mentally, things they would possibly never have done otherwise. You can appreciate the changes that the process of preparing for the MBA entrance examinations has brought into your lives.

Conclusion: A Praqtical Look

CAT exam is supposed to be one of the toughest competitive exams out there. There are those who start preparing in advance, yet appear for the exam with very little confidence. Then there are those who just walk into the CAT exam confidently, despite not preparing for it, and still ace it.

While one may not consider such instances to be meaningful examples, we can definitely see how a different mindset leads to a great difference in results.

How important do you consider mindset to be for performance? Please tell us in the comments.

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