CAT Study Plan 2018 – Time Table & Preparation Schedule for CAT Exam 2018

CAT is the most sought-after MBA (management) entrance exam in India. With just 5 months to go for CAT 2018 (CAT Exam is on 25th November), this is the ripe time to set the wheel in motion. Before setting out, it is imperative to plan for the journey ahead. In this blog, let us see about the CAT study plan that one must adopt and the crucial elements that the study plan must take care of.

CAT online preparation can help aspirants to master the concepts in a short period. Taking free online mock cats will help aspirants to reflect on their preparation level. Also, going through previous year papers of CAT and CAT 2017 question papers can help aspirants get some idea about the exam.

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How to draft a CAT study plan?

The CAT study plan that an aspirant adopts must suit him. It is important for the plan to be bespoke as the strengths and weaknesses of aspirants vary greatly. Aspirants must try to score well in their strong suit to improve their overall scores. At the same time, aspirants must at least try to keep their head above water in the areas they are weak at. Most of the top management institutes place great emphasis on sectional cut offs and hence, an unbalanced score can weigh down one’s chances.

The CAT 2018 study plan must ensure that the aspirant attains a certain level of mastery in all three sections. Aspirants must try to score at least above 95 percentile in each of the sections to be on the safer side.
Therefore, aspirants must develop their own study plans taking their strengths and weaknesses into account.

CAT Preparation Daily schedule 2018:

In general, CAT aspirants must dedicate at least an hour and a half each day in the initial months. As we move closer to CAT, aspirants must try to dedicate close to 3 hours a day for CAT preparation. Also, aspirants must ensure that they dedicate time for all the sections during the preparation. More often than not, aspirants end up devoting a disproportionate amount of time to the quants section mostly at the cost of LRDI section. In the past few years, LRDI has been the game changer and hence, aspirants must ensure fair allocation of time to all the sections.

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RC questions depend a lot on the ability of the aspirant to comprehend the information given. Therefore, aspirants must develop a reading habit. Also, it is essential for aspirants to get a flavour of all genres so that they do not remain utterly averse to certain types of passages.

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CAT 2018 Preparation Timeline:

We can classify the preparation phase broadly into 3 Time periods.

1. From May to July
2. From July to September
3. October and November

Strengthening the basics:

Aspirants must spend the period from May to July entirely on strengthening the basics of each topic. Aspirants must avoid rushing through the topics during this phase. Enough time must be allocated to each topic so that the concepts get ingrained in mind. Also, aspirants must avoid straining themselves too much during this period. By the end of July, aspirants must be thorough with all the basic concepts of most of the major topics.

Building speed:

Aspirants must spend the period from July to September entirely on building speed. The CAT study plan during this period must take the time factor into account. Doing a lot of questions will help aspirants to retain the concepts in memory. This phase is very important since the ability of the aspirant to think on his feet is crucial in CAT. Solving numerous problems will help aspirants to acquaint themselves with various types of problems that appear in the exam. Also, this practice will help aspirants to sail through the template questions. Doing just the template questions right in the CAT exam will easily propel aspirants past the 90 percentile mark.

Taking CAT mocks:

Ideally, aspirants should start taking mocks from May. Aspirants must try to take a mock a weak during this period and slowly increase the frequency. In the final months, aspirants must take 3-4 mocks every week. Taking mock tests will help aspirants to perfect the art of test taking.

Selecting the right questions is an important skill to be developed. The phases prior to this one were more concerned about developing speed and building the basics. CAT Mocks will help to get the maximum out of the preparation that an aspirant has done so far. Also, it is important to analyze the mocks after taking them. This will help aspirants to know where they have gone wrong.

Mocks also help aspirants to develop a strategy. Having a tried and tested CAT exam strategy on the D-day is essential. Aspirants must deploy various strategies during mocks and pick the one that suits them the most for the D-day. Also, aspirants must be open to tweaking their strategy depending on the level of the paper.

Aspirants must allocate enough time to prepare all the 3 sections during all the phases of preparation. Also, aspirants must try to exploit their strengths. Cracking a section completely propels aspirants past the crowd and hence, aspirants must try to do the same. Also, aspirants must try to score a decent percentile in their weak sections to clear the sectional cut offs.

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We hope that this article would have given you some idea about how to draft a CAT study plan to ace the exam. For more useful articles, try reading how to get into IIMs with poor academics