CAT 2009: THE FOCUSED PREPARATION STRATEGY

By TCYonline.com

CAT 2009 is Computer Based!

CAT is the most uncertain Test on earth!!
Verbal Section is becoming test-maker’s favorite!!!

Almost everyone agrees with the 3-CAT Facts that we just mentioned. These,
together with the fact that CAT has been designed as a test of elimination NOT
selection, are the reasons why the CAT 2009 aspirants are confused and nervous at
this moment. Moreover, most of the test aspirants have completed 60 – 70% of the
topics in our classroom preparation and it is just a month or two before the national
Online MOCKs – a distant dream for many as the traditional CAT preparation
organizations struggle to arrange online versions of their tests – begin.

So what should one do at this crucial juncture?

Expert from www.TCYonline.com suggest that it is the time to – Plan, strategize

and get ready for a perfect execution. A General’s strategic approach is what the
need of the hour is rather than a Soldier’s aggressive approach. Here are the few
important areas that we need to work on in order to stay focused at the new Tech-
CAT Avatar:

Know the Challenges and Myths surrounding Online CAT 09

The first step in any winning strategy is to know your enemy inside-out. You must
visualize the challenges that CAT 09 is expected to offer. Moreover, you would see
that many ancient-facts regarding CAT have now become Myths because of it going
online this year. It is an imperative that you cannot afford to ignore. Experts from
TCYonline have already exposed these challenges and myths earlier on Rediff.com.
You can access the same at - http://getahead.rediff.com/report/2009/apr/29/cat-
online-challenges-myths.htm.

MACRO & MICRO aspects of PREPARATION Strategy

A factual, exhaustive & balanced study plan must have both MACRO as well as
MICRO facets to it. MICRO plan is your day to day planning and its subsequent
execution. It is vital for keeping the preparation tempo up and pacing. Points to
remember while constructing a MICRO plan are:

 First and foremost, keep 1-hour daily for reading online versions of the
news papers. There is no logic in reading paper-based news if ultimately you
need to master the art of speed-reading on computer. After all, CAT 09 is
online, so should be your preparation.

 It should be prepared and executed on daily basis. An example can be – 2

hours on Number Theory, 1 hour on Reading comprehension and 1 hour on
logical reasoning questions. The simpler the description of daily tasks the
easier would be to follow it.

 CAT is a test of logic. Hence, you are required to develop a logical approach to
crack CAT. A qualitative approach must be preferred over a quantitative one.
That’s why it is important to analyze your testing patterns daily (as is possible
in the FREE Online CAT course with TCYonline.com). Remember, one who does
500 questions 10 times can do better in CAT than the one who does 5000
questions only once.

 All the three sections (Quant, DI & Verbal) MUST be touched on the same
day. This will help you exercise discipline and will ensure equality in time to
be devoted on each of them. Moreover, such a study plan gives a sense of
completeness to your preparation on daily basis and keeps your confidence
and achievement level always up.

 Every set of sectional preparation MUST be followed by an online assessment

of the same. So always keep one series of tests for the evaluation of your
MICRO preparation. On TCYonline you can also enjoy the freedom to generate
a test (www.Tcyonline.com/CreaTest) on the minutest of the topics.

 The test should be taken and analyzed next day and NOT towards the end of
the day. Remember – CAT will not happen in the evening but in the next
morning – prepare yourself mentally to retain the information for future. This
will also help you exercise control over your anxiety.

But sticking to such a regularly updating plan may cause your overall preparation /
revision to go slower. This may subsequently result in missing certain topics all
together. Hence, a MICRO plan MUST stick to an overall MACRO plan to ensure its
timely execution. The characteristics of a MACRO plan are:
  It MUST be a consolidated plan for a week or a fortnight. An example can be
– To complete Number Theory, Algebra & Geometry from Quant; to Practice at
least 35 to 40 RCs, 200 gap fills & 200 EU exercises from Verbal and to
practice approx 400 DI questions in one fort night. Here, weekends can be
used to maneuver the pace of your MICRO preparation to match the MACRO
milestones.

 MACRO planning MUST be done by working backwards from November 09

thereby keeping the last 2 days for working on your anxiety and self control.

 The milestones in the MACRO plan must be planned on the lines of online
MOCK CATs conducted by the training institute. It is a good idea to appear in
at least (if not all – because of time constraint) 2 MOCK CATs conducted by
institutes other than your institute. This helps a test taker in developing a
more objective understanding of his performance vis-à-vis others.

WHICH TOPICS TO BE SURELY COVERED?

If one looks at and analyses the actual CATs of the last 5 years, a factual and
accurate list of topics to be covered can be prepared. Our analysis of CAT 2004,
2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 can be summarized as follows:

CAT - Quant
(Comparative analysis of last 4 CATs)
100%

90% Mensuration

80% Ratio & Proportion; Percentages &

Profit Loss
70% Time; Distance & Speed

60% Higher Math & Log

50% Logic, Sets & Functions

40% Algeb ra & Inequilities

30% Numb er Theory

20% Geometry

10%

0%

CAT 2008 CAT 2007 CAT 2006 CAT 2005 CAT 2004

It can be inferred from the trend that the cut-off for one IIM call every year requires
25 to 30% correct questions. It means those with reasonable accuracy in ‘Number
Theory’ (never less than 15%); ‘Logic, Sets & Functions’ (never less than 8%) and
Higher Math (never less than 10%) can be assured of clearing Quant cut-off in a
given year.

CAT - Verbal
(Comparative Analysis of ast 5 CATs)

100%

90%

80%

70%
Para - Jumb les
60%
Grammar & English Usage
50% Factual, Inference, Jugmental & Main Idea
40% Gap Fills, Sentence Completion
Reading Comprehension
30%

20%

10%

0%
CAT 2008 CAT 2007 CAT 2006 CAT 2005 CAT 2004

It can be inferred from the trend that the cut-off for one IIM call every year requires
28 to 32% correct Verbal questions. It means those who have done thorough
practice on Reading Comprehension and sentence completion (and gap-fills) question
types, which together make up min 60% of the CAT every year, would be assured of
clearing Verbal cut-off in a given year.

CAT - Data Analysis

(Comparative analysis of last 4 CATs)

100%
90%
80% Data Sufficiency
70% Networks
60% Caselets
Graphs (Bar, Line, Pie Etc.)
50%
Analytical Reasoning Based
40% Tab les
30%
20%
10%
0%
CAT 2008 CAT 2007 CAT 2006 CAT 2005
It can be inferred from the trend that the cut-off for one IIM call every year requires
30 to 35% correct DI questions. It means those with mastery over ‘Analytical
Reasoning based questions’ (never less than 32%); can be assured of clearing DI
cut-off in a given year.

Another informative piece of data prepared by www.TCYonline.com is given below,

wherein the experts have summarized the contribution of the various sub-sections of
Quant and Verbal sections in the total CAT (with reference to CAT 2008):

CAT 2008 Quant - Topic wise share

Ratio & Proportion;

Mensuration
Percentages &
Profit Loss Geometry
Time; Distance &
Speed
Number Theory

Higher Math & Log

Algebra &
Logic, Sets & Inequilities
Functions
 CAT 2008 Verbal - Topic wise share

Theme Based (Para

Grammar & English Para - Jumbles Completion)
Usage
Reading
Comprehension
Factual, Inference,
Jugmental & Main
Idea

Word Usage

Gap Fills, Sentence

Completion

CAT 2008 Data Analysis - Topic wise breakup

Caselets
Networks

Data Sufficiency Tables

Graphs (Bar, Line,

Pie Etc.)

Analytical
Reasoning Based

Hence it is quite obvious from the above two pie charts that Reading comprehension
in Verbal and Geometry & Arithmetic & Algebra in Quant and reasoning based
questions in DI have clean sweep over the other sub-sections in a CAT. On the other
hand Para-Jumbles in Verbal and Ratio & Proportion; Profit-Loss sections had
negligible contribution to your CAT score. You must plan in order to cover and
exercise these topics thoroughly in order to score high in the CAT 2009.

SPEED & ACCURACY

Here everyone needs to keep the thumb rule in mind that CAT is not about solving
90 questions in 120 minutes. It is about solving 60 to 65 questions with 85 to
90 percent accuracy. Hence, to be able to attempt all the questions is not the mark
of your achievement in CAT.

Speed and accuracy are the distinguishing factors among the test takers. Following
are the ways one can work in these few weeks to achieve the optimum combination
of both before November 2009:

 Strictly follow a preparation schedule in order to eliminate the possibility of

stress and pressure near November 10 and 15 that otherwise arises because
of pending testing or revision. For instance, the FREE online course at
TCYonline.com (http://www.tcyonline.com/cat2009/cat_tcy.html) comes with
a pre-planned 16 week preparation schedule.

 Keep a track record of your performance in terms of your total attempt

together with percentage accuracy. Online tools like TCY Analytics
(http://www.tcyonline.com/cat2009/tcy_graphs.html) not only help in
keeping record of your performance but also halp you visualize your
performance trends and comparisons on three important parameters –
Percentage correct, time per question and accuracy.

 Rank yourself on the above two parameters among your classmates. This
clarity of goal will help you focus on the right aspect of your preparation. Here
also, offerings like FREE online CAT course by TCYonline rank you on each test
(not just MOCKs) that you take.

And never forget,

CAT 09 is online, so should your preparation!!

TCY (www.TCYonline.com) features the most advanced and user-friendly online

testing engine with a host of FREE services like FREE online CAT course, Test
Generator, TCY Analytics and Audio-Visual Lectures for CAT 09 preparation.