The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Just 24 hours left for CAT

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Saturday, Nov 18, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Just 24 hours left for CAT

City Bureau

Expert gives tips on how to handle the exam

CHENNAI : More than 7,000 students will be taking the Common Admissions Test (CAT) on Sunday morning in Chennai, with the dream of getting into the top B-schools in the country including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).

With only 24 hours left, candidates should be prepared for surprises, says Manish Narang, Head of Academics, at a training institute, Career Launcher.

"CAT organisers possess uncanny skills of stringing innovations. The paper can have a change in question patterns, or without much change. It is test of how strong your basics are," he says, adding that students should not panic because of mere change of structure or pattern. "Allocate and decide the percentage of time to be allotted to the four essential areas Verbal Ability, Reading Comprehension, Data interpretation and Quantitative aptitude," he notes.

His tips:

Read every word of the instructions, don't omit anything; Always have an eye on the options to avoid re-reading of text already dealt with; Start with shorter questions not because they are easy but they take less time for you to decide whether they can be answered; Avoid wild guesses. Do not have a pre-determined approach. Adaptation is the key. Know when to leave out a question.

Some candidates said they were quite relaxed.

Raghavan Sarathy, of SSN Engineering College, says the CAT exams are just a part of the journey to getting an MBA. "I don't isolate myself when I am studying unless I am doing one of the mock tests. I started preparing last July. Tomorrow I will be revising till noon. I plan to watch a new Tamil film in the afternoon."

Aarthi Viswanathan of Crescent Engineering has a notebook with all the formulae written down which she would brush up without getting stressed out.

"This year we don't know what the paper pattern will be and this worries me a little. But I will do my best. I will revise till the last minute because it is what stays fresh in mind,'' she said.

Another candidate who works full time in an I.T major says work has been hectic last month including the morning coaching classes.

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