CAT 2021: When and how to start preparation?

CAT 2021: When and how to start preparation? - Devising a proper strategy to crack CAT 2021 is of utmost importance. Hence to crack 2021, one must know when and how to start prepration. India’s top management institutes IIMs collectively conduct CAT entrance exam every year to provide admission in MBA courses. The conducting IIM will hold CAT 2021 tentatively on November 28 in 3 slots. Candidates who are aiming for the top B-Schools for the academic year 2021 should get on their toes and start preparing for CAT 2021 India’s top management exam. Every candidate who will appear for CAT 2021 wants to score high and get a place in IIMs hence they should get a better understanding of when and how to start preparation for CAT 2021. The question is when and how to start preparing for CAT 2021? The answer is NOW. Common Admission Test (CAT) being a national level management exam marks participating of more than 2 lacs candidates every year. To know about the preparation plan and timing, best books of CAT 2021 and strategy to devise a study plan for CAT, candidates must go through this complete article on CAT 2021 when and how to start preparation by Careers360.
Latest CAT Updates - Know all about CAT 2021

CAT 2021 Exam Pattern

Scoring good percentile will require extensive preparation of CAT 2021. For the academic year 2022-2024 admissions, the exam pattern of CAT 2021 will be prescribed by the conducting IIM. Indore. Candidates willing who will fill the CAT 2021 application form must check the exam pattern beforehand in order to prepare well. Exam pattern of CAT 2021 is likely to be on similar lines as was in 2020. Given below is an exam pattern of CAT 2021.

CAT Exam Pattern 2021

Syllabus of CAT 2021

Along with the exam pattern, candidates must also have a know-how of the CAT 2021 syllabus to prepare in advance. According to some management experts, six months of committed preparation will push you forward towards your goal of being a CAT topper. Lakshya Kumar who cracked CAT 2019 with 99.99 percentile says “I started preparing for CAT in June, like five to six months before the exam."

Based on past year CAT 2021 syllabus is likely to be same with not many changes. The overall question paper will be divided into three sections of Verbal ability and reading comprehension, Quantitative ability and Data interpretation & logical reasoning. Candidates will be required to solve 100 questions in total.

CAT 2021: When and How to Start Preparation?

Once aware of the syllabus, candidates must divide their preparation to answer the question of when to start preparing for CAT 2021? It is quite common for candidates to get confused even after knowing the exam pattern and syllabus and ending up wasting a lot of CAT 2021 precious time. Better scores than others will open your gateway to top B-Schools of Candidates can break their preparation into 3 stages as mentioned below-

Quick Links
How to prepare for CAT 2021

Strategy Planning of When and How to Start CAT 2021 Preparation

CAT 2021 in 6 Months? Yes, Possible!

Most of the CAT 2020 toppers admitted that their major portion of preparation started when CAT was 6 months away. Below mentioned points can be referred by candidates if they are planning to start their CAT 2021 Preparation within 6 months of duration -

Time Management

With regard to the question CAT 2021:when and how to start prepration, Lakshya Kumar CAT 2019 topper said, “Time management should be considered as the fourth section of the CAT examination. It is not just preparing Verbal Ability, Reasoning, and Quantitative Ability but preparing all these 3 and attempting them within the stipulated time”. Attempting questions with a time allotment of 40 minutes to each section itself makes CAT 2021 exams more difficult. To achieve fruitful results, candidates must try to divide their study time table such that within 24 hours, they practice each section daily.
Quick Link
How to do Time Management for CAT?

Join Coaching/FB groups

If some candidates feel that they will be unable to study and prepare for CAT 2021 on a self basis, then it is advisable to such candidates that they join some coaching institutes. Another answer to the question CAT 2021: when and how to start preparation is nowadays popular social media groups are in trend and help candidates to crack CAT and other management exams. Topper of CAT 2019, Ronit Banerjea told us that he joined the coaching institute and began preparing from their study material in order to learn new and efficient approaches to solving the questions.

Concept clarity with shortcuts

In the initial 6 months to CAT 2021 preparation, candidates should only focus on clearing their concepts. One of the assets of CAT toppers is clarity of fundamental concepts. Most of the toppers believe that it is easy to guess what type of questions will form part of Data interpretation & logical reasoning and Quantitative ability section. But to even guess what will come in VARC i.e Verbal ability and reading comprehension is very challenging. In order to clear concepts, candidates must be aware of the exam pattern and syllabus of CAT 2021.
Quick Link-
CAT 2021: Important topics for preparation

CAT 2021 in 3 Months? Yes, Possible!

Once done with the basic knowledge on CAT exam 2021, candidates will be nearer to the exam day. Agitation and stress are the most common. Do not panic and follow the below-mentioned points for CAT 2021-

Break preparation into sections

Keeping track of the past papers, mainly there are three sections in CAT. Candidates are advised to draw an efficient section-wise strategy when CAT 2021 is almost near.

• How to prepare for CAT VARC (Verbal and Reading Comprehension): Candidates should start reading newspapers, journals, blogs, articles, etc to enhance skills. They should try to solve comprehension, inferences, Fill in the blanks with right vocabulary choice, and read passages. Try adding a new word each day to your vocabulary
• How to Prepare for CAT Quantitative Ability: Focus on building up mathematics basics. Candidates should focus on topics like profit and loss, number system, geometry as they might form key questions in the question paper of CAT 2021
• How to prepare for CAT DI & LR: Try to study basic topics like seating arrangements, blood relations, syllogisms, etc to grip hands on this section. It is advisable for candidates to not use a calculator while solving questions from this section

Work on areas of improvements

As for CAT 2021, about 90 days will be left, candidates can focus and try improving their areas in which they feel are not as strong as compared to some others. Instead of being melancholy about what all new can be learned, candidates should take initiative to focus and enhance their preparation for weaker areas.

Practice sample paper/past years questions

Candidates are advised to check previous year question papers of CAT. After finishing the syllabus, candidates should try to revise at least 2-3 sample papers on a daily basis. It will help in improving speed as well as let candidates know about how accurate they are. While solving the questions papers or sample papers of CAT rigorously there will be a time when candidates will not find any question of a new type.

Quick Link-
CAT Sample Paper 2021

CAT 2021 in 1 Month? Yes, Possible!

With almost a month left until CAT 2021, candidates will be required to keep calm and emphasize only on what is majorly required. Below mentioned points will help candidates in scoring great and most likely a call from any of the IIMs.

Mock tests

IIM will release the official CAT mock Test 2021 for giving candidates a gist of the actual exam simulated environment. Solving the mock tests helps candidates to understand and access the difficulty level of CAT 2021. Lakshya the topper of CAT 2019 said that “he was regular at testing myself via mock tests (once a week) from April. Post any mock he gave some time to analyze the test and figuring out what went wrong and then focused on that”. The most effective method of evaluating current preparation level is the mock test.

Quick Link-
Why, When and How to take CAT Mock Test

Focus on Strong Topics

Starting any new topic will lead to confusion. So it is advisable to candidates to focus and improve their strong areas. Do not waste your time figuring out the new topics or trying to learn new concepts.

Quick Link-
How to prepare for CAT 2021 in 1 month?

Know The Toppers of CAT Exam

CAT Result was declared by IIM on January 2, 2021, in online mode. Around 1.90 lakh candidates appeared for the exam out of which many made their names to the CAT toppers 2020 list. To Know and read success stories of the toppers, when and how they started their CAT preparation as well as their message for future candidates, go through the complete article of CAT 2020 toppers.