All the Management aspirants are already aware of the syllabus and subjects of CAT. But to crack the exam, strategic planning is very important. This covers what is the ideal way to score in the CAT Exam. Everyone will study and sources from which they will be studying will also be the same but how top scorers get high marks? What is their way of preparations? How do they score? How is the CAT Exam Scored? These are some questions which might pop-up in so many minds. So, we will help you to find the answer to these questions through the means of this blog.
Let’s talk about the no. of questions and scoring pattern of CAT:
- Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) Section – 34 questions, out of which 24 are MCQs and 10 are Non-MCQs.
- Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) section – 32 questions, out of which 24 are MCQs and 8 are Non-MCQs.
- Quantitative Aptitude section – 34 questions, out of which 27 are MCQs and 7 are Non-MCQs.
Marking scheme is the same for all questions i.e. +3 for the correct answer and -1 for an incorrect answer. Thus, always attempt MCQs first and then attempt only those Non-MCQs in which you are confident.
In the year 2017, 20 candidates scored an overall 100 percentile. Result statistics of previous years says that more than 2 lakhs candidates registered whereas more than 30,000 applicants skipped the test. There may be different reasons for the individuals not taking the test such as lack of preparation or not being enough confident. A student should be well prepared so that they won’t have to bear the loss of a year and they will be score higher marks in order to make it to top management schools.
Numerous top IIM institutes like IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, etc. have already released there cut-offs for the year 2018. In a generalized manner as per the cut-offs released by various top IIMs overall percentile for general category is 90 percentile, and for SC/ST, OBC it is 60-75. Though the cut-offs vary from one IIM to another.
If you are not able to get admission in a top management school, don’t be disappointed. Retaking CAT is also an option.
The only thing in retaking CAT is that they should be confident with their decision and take care of the following points:
- Before starting preparations of CAT for the second time, they should analyze properly and list out the things which went wrong in their previous attempt.
- Taking up various test series and mock tests, as experts say that mock test makes you aware of the real-time situations and thus they play a great role in scoring higher marks.
- Choosing the sources of study material is all that matters while retaking CAT exam and it is seen many times that students start solving hard questions as compared to their previous study but this might create problems for them. Instead of this, they should have a tight hold on the basics. And also they should only rely on reliable sources and study materials for their CAT exam.
- Last but not the least point to be kept in mind is that they should have a good sleep before the exam day of the second attempt so that they will not be nervous and stay confident.
