Most of the aspirants preparing for the CAT 2023 have attempted the CAT exam before, whose nothing but the CAT repeaters. They must need a unique preparation strategy to ace the exam. The study plan for the CAT repeaters is different from the first-timers. As they have already learned the basics, it will be advantageous for them to allot more time to revise and practise. In this article, we will discuss how to prepare for the CAT exam for repeaters with an excellent CAT repeater section-wise strategy/study plan.
Mistakes to avoid by CAT repeaters (During preparation)
- Neglecting the mistakes that happened in the last year: Candidates must pick out the mistakes that happened last during the CAT exam preparation. It is essential to sort out the mistakes that give you more confidence to retake the exam.
- Avoiding weak areas: Most of the students neglect the topics that they find hard to prepare for. It is a most common mistake that is to be rectified, especially by repeaters. Try to change your weaknesses into strengths.
- Sectional imbalance:Â This is a very common mistake made by the students while preparing. Every section in the syllabus is to be balanced and also made stronger in their weak sections.
- Using the wrong material for preparation: If you are a repeater, make sure that you are using the best sources for study or not. Wrong materials can miss lead you and reduce the chance of getting the desired score in the exam.
- Starting the mocks late during your preparation. Many aspirants make the terrible mistake of waiting for the syllabus to be complete to take the mocks. But, remember that CAT Syllabus never gets complete, and hence you should start taking mocks early during your prep phase.
- Also, some aspirants take more mocks but don’t analyse them thoroughly. Remember that taking mocks just for the sake of it is not enough. Analysing them properly is more important – this will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, and to form a proper exam strategy.
CAT 2023 Preparation Strategy for Repeaters
The first step is to understand why you couldn’t get the desired score in the exam on your previous attempt. Assess yourself, and the common reasons behind the failure in making high scores in the CAT exam are lack of conceptual understanding, lack of proper strategy, lack of speed and accuracy while solving the questions, and mainly preparing for the exam without a study plan or a preparation strategy.
Have a look at the paper you attempted the last year and identify the mistakes that you have made. Find out the topics you left at the time of preparation, identity the weak areas and make a study accordingly. Work on the topics you left or the weak areas in the previous exam. If you do not change the way you prepared earlier, you will not see a major improvement in your scores.
Develop a Study plan: Have a detailed study plan in place, and give more time to improving your weak areas. You can have a look at our CAT 2023 online program if you are looking for structured preparation with a detailed study plan.
Section-wise Preparation Strategy & Study plan:
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)
The plan for this section is to allocate at least 1 hour every day to read what you like, and at least 30 mins reading diverse articles which would make you more comfortable in this section. Here in this section, the students must need to spend as much time practising. Try to take one RC every day. This process should be continued till the day of the exam. Here are some of the tips to prepare for the VARC section of CAT.
- Read regularly: Reading regularly can improve your comprehension skills and vocabulary. Read newspapers, magazines, and novels to improve your reading skills.
- Solve previous years’ papers: Solve previous years’ papers and mock tests to get a better understanding of the exam pattern and the types of questions asked.
- Improve your vocabulary: Improve your vocabulary by learning new words regularly. Use flashcards and apps to help you memorize new words.
- Practice speed reading: Practice speed reading to improve your reading speed and comprehension skills.
- Identify the main idea: Identify the main idea of the passage to help you answer the questions more efficiently.
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)
Make sure to clear all the basics in this section. Once it is done, practice the DILR sets from previous CAT papers, mock tests, and sectional tests. The trick here is identifying the right approach to solve the set, and representing the data correctly. Understand the given problem and try to identify the simple way of solving the problem and improve your time managing skill, as this section consumes more time on solving compared to the other section.
Also, it is recommended to solve puzzles like Sudoku and Kakuros on a regular basis to improve one’s logical thinking abilities (as CAT has moved more towards logically based sets rather than calculation-intensive puzzles/sets). Here are some of the tips to prepare for the DILR section of CAT.
- Identify your weak areas: Analyze your previous attempts and identify the areas where you struggled the most. Focus on those topics while preparing for the DILR section.
- Solve puzzles: Puzzles are a significant part of the DILR section. Solve puzzles regularly to improve your analytical skills.
- Practice regularly: Practice regularly to improve your speed and accuracy in solving DILR problems.
- Solve previous years’ papers: Solve previous years’ papers and mock tests to get a better understanding of the exam pattern and the types of questions asked.
- Improve your calculation speed: Improving your calculation speed can save you time and help you solve problems more efficiently.
Quantitative Aptitude (QA)
We advise the students to go through with the quant basics. It is a very crucial part of the CAT preparation whether you are a repeater or a first-timer. Do not make hurry your work while preparing the basics. Rather, it should be to understand the approach used to solve the problem. In this section, candidates usually focus only on the topics they like and ignore the topics they dislike. One should not ignore any topic for choice. It is advisable to learn the basics, at least, of every topic, so that you don’t miss out on the easy questions from a particular topic.
So, go through concepts again and practice more questions. Once that is done, focus on taking the sectional tests and mock tests. Also, spend 10-15 minutes doing Speed calculations every day (like simple additions/subtractions, multiplications, conversion of percentages to fractions and vice versa, etc.). Here are some of the tips to prepare for the Quant section of CAT.
- Identify your weak areas: Analyze your previous attempts and identify the areas where you struggled the most. Focus on those topics while preparing for the QA section.
- Practice regularly: Practice regularly to improve your calculation speed and accuracy. Solve as many questions as possible and try to complete them within the given time limit.
- Solve previous years’ papers: Solve previous years’ papers and mock tests to get a better understanding of the exam pattern and the types of questions asked.
- Focus on geometry: Geometry is a critical topic in the QA section. Practice regularly to improve your accuracy in solving geometry problems.
- Learn shortcuts: Learning shortcuts and tricks can save you time and help you solve problems more efficiently.
Additional points to remember for candidates repeating the CAT:
Previous papers/Mock tests – It is imperative that you start taking mocks early. You would have already understood that mocks matter a lot. Mock tests help you to identify and analyse your weaknesses and see exactly where you stand. Try to take 1-2 mocks a month in the beginning and then gradually increase it to 1-2 mocks per week. Use the previous paper that you attempted and try to solve along with other remaining previous papers, which helps you to avoid making the mistakes again.
Having a peer group: It’s important to have a good peer group during your preparation, especially for repeaters. It keeps you motivated, and it will also be helpful in discussing various concepts, test-taking strategies, etc. Other than this, you can join our Telegram group, where you can post and discuss your queries.
Staying motivated during your preparation– You need to stay motivated enough to stick to your plan. Put in the required time for the preparation, and one should not get distracted after a few days/weeks. Especially when the mock scores are low, it’s important not to get disheartened. Focus on practising more and improving your weak areas.
Utilize the weekends-Â If you are a working professional, try to utilize your weekend for preparation if there is not enough time on weekdays.
Candidates are advised to check out the CAT 2023 Syllabus PDF to learn more details about the CAT 2023 syllabus with CAT previous papers slot analysis.
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