Question 1

What is CAT?

Accepted Answer

CAT is an entrance exam for admission to IIMs and other top MBA colleges in India. This is conducted, usually, in the last week of November, every year. This is an aptitude test specially designed for business studies. There are three sections with separate time limits, namely-

1) VARC- It is an English language proficiency Test (26 questions, 40 minutes)

2) DILR- It contains data sets from the business perspective and is highly analytical (22 questions, 40 minutes)

3) QA- It checks basic mathematical skills needed for business. (22 questions, 40 minutes)

Through this exam, all 21 IIMs give admission to approximately 5500 students each year apart from other reputed Business schools within the country.

Question 2

Who should prepare for CAT?

Accepted Answer

For Whom?: Anybody who aspires to become a business leader or manager, IIMs provide the perfect launchpad for a fast-paced career in business, consulting, and related fields.

Ideally, students who have an interest in business and management can look for studies in IIMs. IIMs give huge exposure to students not only in terms of academics but also in their selection of diver group of students in each batch, and the students exchange program makes it super advanced in terms of providing exposure specially for students who are from the middle and lower middle class. IIMs have the best program for overall development.

Sadly, in reality, the majority of students go to IIMs to get good placement packages! The USP of IIMs has become a placement college who provide 100% placement with a decent starting salary.

Eligibility: Graduated or students in the final year of graduation with at least 50% marks are eligible for this exam.

For admission, IIMs look for multiple aspects apart from the CAT score. Score is the basic eligibility for a candidate to take admission. They look for past academic performances (Highschool, Intermediate and graduation) Work experience, academic diversity, and gender diversity. All IIMs have their own admission policy.

High weightage to past academic performance: Usually, a decent weightage is given to academics by most of the IIMs; hence, past academic performance plays a major role. Students who have 9/9/9 have a better change to get the admission, provided they clear the cutoff in CAT.

In some IIMs, some students might be out of the process even before the CAT: Hence Students are advised to analyze their profile based on the admission policy and criteria before starting to prepare for the entrance exam.

Admission Process: After CAT, an interview and a written ability/Group discussion are conducted based on performance on CAT and profile score. The final admission is offered based on performance in CAT, Interview, written ability test/Group discussion, and profile score [Check your profile score here].

So, if you have an interest in business or want to get high paying job, you can look for an MBA from IIMs, provided your academics are not bad.

Question 3

How to prepare for CAT?

Accepted Answer

CAT is an aptitude test, Aptitude=General ability to do things. Meaning, it does not require any subject expertise; it's more about reasoning and a common-sense test, which requires practice.

In CAT, almost all questions can be solved if given sufficient time.

At first aspirant needs to take a test to understand where he/she stands. Based on that, preparation can start.

In general, a student who has been an average reader of English books can perform better in this section, a logical ability to put random information in a pattern and connect the dots is enough to score well in DILR for QA a basic business math is sufficient.

Practice is key for the exam, as competition is higher in all exams in India, hence decent practice makes your performance better.

First, you need to take a test, then quickly go through basic and get yourself familiarized with the standard types of questions asked.

VARC: Read and write

DILR: Get familiarized with the kind of question, then practice: Try to put data/information into a structured formate

QA: Go through basics and practice questions- All questions are doable- Speed matters here

Pick a topic and work on it for at least a week to master and develop your own method of dealing with problems.

It takes 3 months to go through all these things for an average person. In the last month read articles daily and take at least 20 mock tests to get the best result.

SarthiQ

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