The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Some tips for students to bell the CAT

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 19, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Some tips for students to bell the CAT

Special Correspondent

The big test for admission to 50 top B-schools is on Sunday

CHENNAI: The Common Admission Test (CAT), seen as the entry ticket to some of the most prestigious management schools, including the Indian Institutes of Management, will be held countrywide on Sunday.

Over 1.6 lakh candidates have been preparing for months to take on this admission test to over 50 top B-schools in the country.

After the proverbial months of hard work during the run-up to what is seen as the toughest examination in Asia, students are still not sure how to bell this CAT?

Manish Narang, Head of academics at Career Launcher Chennai says: Be prepared for surprises. The organisers of CAT possess uncanny skills of stringing innovations in framing the paper.

Changes can fall in one pattern. Or there can be a totally new structure of questions. Or no change at all.

Getting the basics rights is the key. Don't panic by the mere change of structure of question pattern.

Consider it a challenge and think of the moments that you have wriggled out of difficult situations in the past! More importantly, spend a minute or two on the instructions.

Underline the key words such as number of questions, marks, sections, etc.

Allocate and decide the time needed for answering verbal ability, reading comprehension, data interpretation and quantitative aptitude.

Some useful tips for the 120 minutes.

Read every word in all instructions that cover a set of questions.

Read the questions carefully. Keep an eye on options. This will help in avoiding regression or re-reading the text one has already dealt with.

Preferably start with shorter questions. Not because they may be easy but it may take less time for you to decide whether it can be answered.

Avoid wild guessing. It will land you nowhere.

You may need to re-strategise during the two hours. No pre-determined approach. Adaptation is the key.

Lastly know when to leave a question. No egos in play or overconfidence.

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