How to Improve Accuracy in CAT Mock Tests 2025: Proven Tips for Higher Percentile

How to Improve Accuracy in CAT Mock Tests 2025: Proven Tips for Higher Percentile

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Komal MiglaniUpdated on 01 Oct 2025, 02:56 PM IST

Accuracy is a very important parameter that decides the CAT success of a candidate. The negative marking policy of the CAT examination makes it difficult for the candidates to go for educated guesses while taking the CAT examination. Increasing the accuracy of the CAT mock test directly means increasing the CAT percentile. Accuracy is the rate at which the candidates provide the correct answers. In short, the greater the accuracy, the better the score. Accuracy, along with the speed of the candidates while answering the questions, together determine the overall CAT score of the candidates. Having a high accuracy of more than 90% is always beneficial for the candidates who are pursuing their management degrees from the best B schools of the country. In spite of this, a lot of candidates overlook accuracy and focus solely on speed, which will result in the accumulation of negative marks. To ensure CAT success, the candidate should couple speed and accuracy. In this article, we will discuss the various factors that the candidates should follow to enhance their accuracy in both mock tests as well as on the CAT exam day.

This Story also Contains

  1. Why Accuracy Matters in CAT
  2. Common Reasons for Low Accuracy in CAT Mocks
  3. Section-wise Tips to Improve Accuracy
  4. How to Train for Better Accuracy
  5. Best Books for CAT Preparation
  6. CAT Preparation Resources from Careers360
How to Improve Accuracy in CAT Mock Tests 2025: Proven Tips for Higher Percentile
How to Improve Accuracy in CAT Mock Tests 2025: Proven Tips for Higher Percentile

Why Accuracy Matters in CAT

According to the CAT exam pattern, the candidate loses one mark for the wrong responses they give. This is applicable to all the questions apart from the CAT TITA questions. Suppose a candidate attempts 40 questions out of the total 68 questions in the CAT question paper. He answered 24 questions correctly, and 16 were wrong. This means that while the candidate should have gotten 72 marks, due to the incorrect answers, he will lose 16 marks, making his final score 56. In a highly competitive exam such as CAT, where a 1 mark difference results in a dip of rank by hundreds, this is a very significant disadvantage to the candidate. In CAT terms, the accuracy is calculated by the following formula.

\[

\text{Accuracy (\%)} = \left( \frac{\text{Number of Correct Answers Given by the Candidate}}{\text{Total Number of Responses Made by the Candidate}} \right) \times 100

\]

Accuracy is important, especially for the CAT DILR questions and CAT Reading Comprehension passage, because these areas tend to have the most confusing questions and options, and the chances of the candidates making a mistake in this section are relatively higher.

Common Reasons for Low Accuracy in CAT Mocks

It is beneficial to know the common reasons why a lot of candidates score less in the CAT mock tests due to low accuracy levels. A few of the most common mistakes that the candidates make while attempting the CAT mock tests are provided below for the reference of the candidates.

Lack of Concept Clarity

A management entrance examination, such as the CAT exam, tests the conceptual clarity of the candidates the most. Memorising the concepts will not be helpful in an examination such as CAT, as there are no one-word questions. CAT tests the understanding of the candidates in a topic which is essential for scoring well in the examination. Hence, conceptual clarity plays a very important role in determining the CAT success of the candidates. Not understanding the basics of a concept can affect the candidates negatively and lead to lack of conceptual clarity, which will ultimately lead to lower scores in the CAT mock tests.

Rushing Through Questions

As discussed before, speed alone will not help the candidates to score well in the CAT examination. Accuracy is as important as speed when it comes to scoring well in the CAT exam. When a candidate rushes through a question, they tend to either miss the important information related to the topics or the key points which are crucial for scoring well in the CAT examination. Also, rushing through questions may also result in the candidates not understanding the questions, which will ultimately lead to a waste of time.

Poor Question Selection

According to the CAT toppers, selecting the correct question set while attending the CAT question paper plays a very important role in improving the CAT score of the candidate. In the CAT exam, there will be questions from various difficulty levels. Some candidates, unfortunately, choose the difficult set and try to solve it. This is particularly seen in the CAT DILR section. This poor selection of questions leads to wastage of time and low scores in both the CAT mock tests and the examination.

Inadequate Mock Analysis’

When it comes to the analysis of the CAT mock tests, it is essential for the candidates to analyse their results and understand the areas where they made mistakes. But the major issue seen today is that a lot of candidates do not perform the mock test analysis, and due to this, there is very little learning from mistakes in previous mocks, which reduces the scores of the candidates.

Section-wise Tips to Improve Accuracy

Accuracy is not just limited to a single section of the CAT examination. It plays an important role in shaping the CAT score of the candidates, which is an accumulation of marks gained from all the CAT sections. A few of the best CAT strategies that the candidates can follow to improve their performance are discussed in this section for the reference of the candidates.

How to Improve Accuracy in CAT VARC Section

  • While attempting the CAT VARC questions and in particular the questions, it is important to avoid assumptions. This is a common mistake made by candidates. If not explicitly mentioned, assuming a context is wrong and should be avoided.

  • An effective CAT reading comprehension strategy is to read the questions carefully first before moving to the passage. This will easily help the candidates to spot the sections of the CAT passage where the information might lie.

  • While the elimination method is very useful when attempting the CAT questions, this must be done by using logic only, not on instinct.

  • The candidates are also advised to read a lot of materials to ensure that they have inculcated the reading habits which is necessary for performing well in the CAT RC section. This will help the candidates to enhance their vocabulary and ensure a better CAT score.

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How to Improve Accuracy in the CAT DILR Section

  • The candidates should first go through the CAT DILR questions and find out which is doable for them. This is critical because choosing the right and easy sets will help the candidates to save time and use it effectively for the other sections. Instead of choosing lengthy and confusing CAT DILR sets, the candidates must go for the easy and doable sets first. Always remember that accuracy outweighs the number of confused attempts.

  • Assumptions can also be a negative factor under the CAT DILR section because this may invite unwanted negative marks. The candidates must use logic to solve the CAT DILR questions instead of simply using guesswork.

  • Candidates are also advised to use tables and visual aids to avoid calculation errors.

CAT 2025: VARC, DILR, and Quant MCQs & Weightages
Comprehensive CAT prep guide with focused practice on Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Aptitude.
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How to Improve Accuracy in the CAT QA Section

  • The CAT quantitative aptitude section is one of the sections in which the candidates face the most issues when it comes to accuracy. The best strategy to enhance the accuracy in the mock test is by avoiding silly mistakes. This includes missing a value, using a different value for computing, misreading the questions, etc. The candidates should be very careful when it comes to reading the questions and ensure that their calculations are correct.

  • Candidates are also encouraged to study techniques such as mental maths and quick answering techniques, such as Vedic maths, to improve the speed of answering. Also, they can use approximation techniques to improve the speed of calculation.

  • If a candidate is not getting the right answer despite the number of attempts, it is better to leave them without making any guesses, as wrong answers might invite negative marking.

  • The candidates are strongly advised to regularly revise the CAT formulas throughout their CAT 2025 preparation and k so that they do not forget them when required.

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How to Train for Better Accuracy

Now, let us discuss a few general CAT preparation tips that will help candidates to enhance their CAT preparation by improving their overall accuracy.

Use Options Intelligently

The option elimination method is one of the best strategies to prepare for the CAT examination. This helps the candidates in solving the questions quickly. The candidates should always check if there is a provision for them to remove any wrong options before solving a question. But this should be based on logic and not on instincts.

Attempt in Rounds

Another effective strategy that the candidates can follow is to answer the questions in rounds. This will help the candidates save time while taking the CAT exam. An example of answering the questions in a format is provided below for the reference of the candidates.

Round

Type of Questions

Round 1

Easy and Familiar Questions

Round 2

Medium and Manageable (Time-Taking)

Round 3

Tricky, Doubtful, or Leftover Ones

Avoid Random Guessing

Random guessing is one of the biggest mistakes made by candidates. This is primarily because of the idea that they may get some questions right. But the accuracy of the candidates reduces significantly due to this and eventually reduces the chances of the candidates to secure a good CAT score. The candidates should always keep in mind that strategic skipping helps improve the net score. There should not be any blind guessing in hopes of getting a few answers right.

Focused Practice on Weak Areas

The candidates should focus on practising the weak areas after analysing their CAT mock test performance. This will help the candidates to improve their weak areas with dedicated practice and eventually master those sections which once affected them. It is also important that the candidates prioritise the most important CAT topics to help them improve their performance by going through the CAT previous year question papers.

Best Books for CAT Preparation

To enhance the accuracy of answering the questions in the CAT 2025 examination, the candidates must practice a variety of questions. From a lot of selected CAT books, they will be able to receive immense CAT practice through a large number of questions. The candidates must go through these books to improve their CAT performance and enhance their CAT preparation. A list of the best CAT books available for the candidates is provided in the table below.

CAT Section

Book Name

Author Name

Quantitative Aptitude

Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations

R.S. Aggarwal

Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT

Sarvesh Verma

NCERT Mathematics Books (Class 9–10)

NCERT

How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT

Arun Sharma

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning

How to Prepare for Data Interpretation for CAT

Arun Sharma

Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT

Nishit K. Sinha

A Modern Approach to Logical Reasoning

R.S. Aggarwal

Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency

Ananta Ashisha

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT

Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay

Word Power Made Easy

Norman Lewis

PSC for VA for CAT

Nishit Sinha

High School English Grammar & Composition

Wren & Martin

CAT Preparation Resources from Careers360

Careers360 has designed a set of resources which are extremely helpful for guiding the candidate’s CAT performance. This includes ebooks, CAT sample papers and other CAT resources, which are written by experts of Careers360. The candidates can access the materials using the links provided in the table below.

eBook Title

Download Links

3000+ Most Important Words - Vocabulary Builder

Download Here

500+ Most Important Idioms and Phrases

Download Here

300+ Most Important Phrasal Verbs

Download Here

Permutation & Combination - Video Lectures and Practice Questions

Download Here

Mastering DILR Questions with Expert Solutions

Download Here

CAT 2025 Exam's High Scoring Chapters and Topics

Download Now

Mastering CAT Exam: VARC, DILR, and Quant MCQs & Weightages

Download Now

CAT 2025 Mastery: Chapter-wise MCQs for Success for VARC, DILR, Quant

Download Now

CAT 2025 Quantitative Aptitude Questions with Answers

Download Now

CAT DILR Questions with Solution, Download LRDI Questions for CAT

Download Now

CAT 2025 Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) Study Material

Download Now

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How do I boost accuracy in the CAT Quantitative Aptitude (QA) section?
A:

Accuracy in QA improves by carefully reading questions, avoiding silly calculation mistakes, and regularly revising important formulas. Techniques such as mental math and approximations also aid in increasing accuracy.

Q: Why is accuracy crucial in the CAT exam?
A:

Accuracy significantly impacts your CAT percentile due to negative marking. Each wrong answer reduces your overall score, lowering your rank by hundreds, especially in competitive sections like DILR and VARC.

Q: What are the common reasons for low accuracy in CAT mock tests?
A:

Low accuracy often arises from unclear concepts, rushing through questions, selecting difficult question sets, and inadequate mock test analysis. Improving in these areas greatly enhances test performance.

Q: How can I improve my accuracy in the CAT VARC section?
A:

To improve accuracy in VARC, read questions first before passages, avoid assumptions, and practice logical elimination of incorrect answers. Building a consistent reading habit also enhances comprehension skills.

Q: What strategies help in the CAT DILR section?
A:

Choose manageable question sets to avoid confusion, use logical reasoning rather than guesswork, and rely on visual aids like tables. Prioritising accuracy over the number of attempts reduces negative marks.

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You can consider private dental colleges, state quota seats in other states, or reattempt NEET next year to improve your chances.

Hello dear candidate,

YES, with NEET score 344in the ST category you have high chances of getting admission in a BDS College in J&K through JKBOPEE counselling.

check the seat availability and next participate in JKBOPEE Counselling with all the necessary documents.

Thank you.


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