How to improve CAT Percentile
CAT 2018 is just 120 days away. A percentile over 95 can give aspirants some decent choices to choose from. Moving from 90 to 95 is not a daunting task. The tips discussed in this article can help aspirants to push themselves past the 95 percentile barrier in CAT 2017.
Online preparation for CAT can ease the burden on aspirants in the final leg of their journey. Solve previous year papers of CAT to see how comfortable you are with CAT level questions. Also, take free CAT mock tests to assess your progress from time to time.
How to increase from 90th percentile to 95th percentile in CAT 2018:
Let us start by analysing the scores required to reach 90th and 99th percentile in previous CATs.
IN CAT 2017, 118 marks yielded 90 percentile & 138 marks yielded 95 percentile. In CAT 2016, 104 marks yielded 90th percentile, and 123 marks yielded 95th percentile.
However, in CAT 2015, 123 marks yielded 90th percentile, and 144 marks yielded 95th percentile.
| Percentile | CAT 2017 | CAT 2016 | CAT 2015 |
| 90 percentile | 118 marks | 104 marks | 123 marks |
| 95 percentile | 138 marks | 123 marks | 144 marks |
| 99 percentile | 174 marks | 156 marks | 180 marks |
- As we can see, the difference in marks is around 20 in all the last 3 years.
- Solving just 7-8 additional questions can take aspirants easily past the 95th percentile.
- Rather than trying to improve the attempts in a single section, aspirants must try to increase their attempts by 2-3 in every section.
Start by analysing the mocks:
Question selection:
- Start by checking whether you are leaving the questions that are meant to be left.
- By merely avoiding such questions, aspirants can easily attempt 3 additional questions in each section.Therefore, make sure that you are skipping the right questions.
- The next thing to check is whether you are correctly identifying the questions that are meant to be solved.
- Due to the paucity of time, you might have overlooked some easy questions sitting at the farther end of the section. Do questions in rounds to prevent this from happening.
If attempts are low:
- Pick the easy questions in the first round. Solve them and then move on to the difficult ones. Do not attempt the questions in the order they appear. This technique is especially useful in dealing with the quants section.
- In DILR section, make sure that you are selecting the right sets to solve. Spend some time while taking the mocks to choose the question sets to attempt.
- Do not rush through the section. Also, be careful with the calculation part. Avoid redoing the set by making some calculation mistakes. Just doing one additional set can take your overall percentile from 90 to 95.
- Be selective while dealing with the VARC section. Experiment in the mock test and settle with the order you are most comfortable with.
If accuracy is low:
- Be careful while solving the questions. Just solving five wrong questions right can boost your percentile by 5 points. Therefore, be cautious while answering the questions. Avoid rushing through the calculation part.
- In VARC, think where you faltered. Check why the question setter terms something an answer that you don’t. This is the easiest section to improve your score.
- Remember, it is 10,000 ranks that are at stake. Every question can push your percentile by 1 to 2 percentile points at this stage. Therefore, try to maintain an accuracy above 90% in general.
- A score over 50% has historically placed aspirants over the 95th percentile. You just have to solve half the paper to reach the 95th percentile mark. Therefore, be calm while answering the questions.
Tweak your strategy:
Try making some changes to your strategy while taking mocks. A question here and a question there can make all the difference. Therefore, make a few adjustments in the way you approach a test in these last few days. A week before the exam, fix a strategy that you would like to follow.
Temperament:
- The frame of mind of the aspirant on the D-day exerts a significant influence on the results of this exam. Therefore, make sure that you stay positive on the D-day.
- A consistent 90+ in the mocks can easily place one above 95th percentile if one were to replicate the same performance. This is due to the fact that the population that takes the mocks consist mostly of serious aspirants.
- Hence, hold your nerves on the D-day and try to take the exam with a calm head. Avoid panicking if the paper turns out to be tough. Also, do not get overwhelmed if the paper turns out to be easy. It is not your marks but percentile that matters. Tweak your strategy according to the paper and try to deliver your best in CAT 2018.
- We hope that this article would have helped to move an inch closer to your dream percentile. Try reading our other useful blogs on how to improve mock CAT scores and how to get into IIM with poor academics.
