CAT also referred to as Common Admission Test is the examination for candidates that want to be a part of the elite IIMs. A common and long standing myth about CAT is that it is suitable only for students studying commerce. Even though the number of CAT candidates is high among commerce students, many test takers belong to other fields too.
What is the eligibility for CAT?
CAT requires you to hold a bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 50% or any equivalent GPA. Hence your academic background does not matter provided you have attained the minimum eligibility criteria.
When and how to start preparing?
A lot of students or people may tell you that you can start preparing for CAT two or three months before the main examination. However, it is important for you to start your exam preparation well in advance. The amount of practice and the books or study material picked by you will make a huge difference. Picking the right coaching or study material ultimately paves your way to succeeding the immense competition of CAT. You can pick Arun Sharma’s books or study material for all subjects provided you are comfortable with his method of notes and practice questions. Also try practicing questions which are at least two levels higher than your level. This will be very beneficial as you would be prepared for the examination extremely thoroughly.
Picking the correct study material or coaching for any subject is very crucial. There are a number of books available in the market. A thorough research and review especially public review thus becomes very essential whilst picking the right study material for CAT.
Time Management:
This is often the most neglected and underrated of the methods of preparation. You need to remember one thing that if you lack time management skills, you will end up with a very low percentile. Students need to manage college schedules and their prep in such a way that you are able to give at least 2 to 3 hours to CAT. You will have to give time to your engineering studies, too. So effective time management plays a key role here.
Can Engineers give CAT?
The answer is most definitely a ‘Yes’. An engineering student can crack CAT provided they put in the required effort. This completely depends upon you as to what you are planning to get into as a profession. Sometimes when you take up engineering you may either incline to a stream of engineering which may require you to specialize in business. In such cases you can choose MBA over MS. However studying for engineering and planning to give CAT are different ball games. It is difficult and yet, not impossible. In the previous years that a huge number of engineering students score results and get into IIMs. The previous years’ trends have shown that a huge number of toppers ever in the CAT Examination are engineers. This comes as a shock to a large number of people however this is true.
The syllabus requires a good knowledge and understanding of core subjects like English, Mathematics, Logical Reasoning and so on. Engineering students have a good grasp on most of these subjects and thus CAT becomes relatively easier for them. However, English is one subject that one can not really be sure of since not all engineers may have a good grasp on the concepts of English. Hence VARC is one subject which needs to be taken care of.
In 2015 according to research and statistics, there were about 17 toppers each of who scored a 100 percentile, who were all engineers. Since engineers have a better knowledge of math and reasoning and they are accustomed to working hard on academics, these results are no surprise.
In conclusion, YES, ENGINEERS CAN CRACK CAT!
