The CAT 2023 notification is out on its official website (https://iimcat.ac.in/). This year, IIM Lucknow will conduct the CAT exam, and registration begins on August 2, 2023, at 10 AM. The exam will be held on November 26, 2023, in three sessions, with each session lasting two hours.
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As there are only three months to prepare for CAT, it’s essential for candidates to get ready well. The CAT exam is open to graduates, including working professionals and final-year students. Many people take the exam, but some may find it challenging to prepare while at home without going to coaching centres. In the article, we will discuss how to prepare for CAT at home and provide a daily schedule to follow.
How To Prepare For CAT 2023 Exam At Home?
Before you begin preparing for the CAT Exam, it’s essential to understand its syllabus. The CAT Exam mainly tests your basic aptitude skills. With a structured learning strategy, you can crack the exam without too much difficulty. If you’re studying at home, make sure to have self-study materials to help you prepare for the CAT Exam.
The preparation strategy may vary from person to person. You can customize the study plan as per your comfort. Before going to see the preparation strategy, one must understand the CAT exam pattern, which is given below.
CAT 2023 Exam Pattern
| SECTION | EXPECTED DURATION | EXPECTED NUMBER OF QUESTIONS |
| Verbal Ability | 40 minutes | 24 |
| Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning | 40 minutes | 20 |
| Quantitative Ability | 40 minutes | 22 |
|
Overall |
120 minutes | 66 |
For every right answer, you’ll get 3 marks, but for each wrong answer, 1 mark will be taken away. If you leave a question blank, there’s no impact on your score. Also, you might have 40 minutes for each section, and you can’t switch between sections.
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CAT 2023 Study Plan PDF for Each Section to Prepare At Home
How To Prepare For VARC Section?
Here’s a simple tip to get better at this section: read for an hour every day. Reading will help you form opinions on different topics. Start with things you like to read, then try articles with different writing styles to become more comfortable. It’s also helpful to solve one reading passage every day when you begin preparing for the CAT exam.
Avoid using fancy methods like speed reading or skimming. Instead, focus on reading carefully to understand the main points of the paragraph. Some questions will ask you to find information from the passage, so take your time and don’t rush. When it comes to questions like rearranging paragraphs or eliminating sentences, look for connected ideas. Similarly, in the Verbal Ability section, questions like summarizing paragraphs require a good understanding of the passage. That’s why building a strong reading habit is crucial to doing well in the Verbal Ability section.
Every day, set aside an hour to learn VARC concepts. If you’re not sure about vocabulary and grammar, practice them, but don’t spend too much time on them.
Here’s a schedule for August that you can use as a starting point. Feel free to adjust it based on your daily availability and what you excel in or need to improve.
| Topic | No. of days |
| Reading Comprehension | 8 |
| Para Summary | 3-4 |
| Para Completion | 1-2 |
| Para Jumbles | 2-3 |
| Odd sentence out | 1-2 |
How To Prepare For DILR Section?
To study DI and LR effectively, split your week evenly between the two topics. Spend three days on each. This means you’ll have around 30 days in total (10 weeks * 3 days per week) for studying DI and LR. Begin by learning the basic concepts of the types of sets commonly tested in the exam over the last 3-4 years. Practice representing them logically and work with different sets. To stay fresh, solve two sets every day – one DI set and one LR set.
You can follow the August study schedule to focus on the DILR section. Also, feel free to change it according to your strengths and weaknesses.
| LR Topics | No. of days |
| Arrangements (linear, circular, etc.) | 3 |
| Puzzles (Einstein puzzles, constraint-based, etc.) | 3 |
| Networks, Games and tournaments, Scheduling, LR based on picking coins | 8-10 |
| Blood relations, family tree, Truth-liar concept | 4 |
| Cubes | 2 |
| Others (2D Space LR, etc.) | 2-3 |
|
DI Topics |
No. of days |
| Bar Graphs, Line Charts, Pie Charts, Unconventional charts (radar chart, bubble chart etc.) | 8 |
| Tables | 2-3 |
| Venn Diagrams | 4 |
| Others (DI based on growth over the years, data sufficiency, Caselets, etc.) | 4-5 |
How To Prepare For QA Section?
Start by going through the basic math concepts thoroughly. Many exam candidates overlook these basics and directly dive into problem-solving. However, sometimes they forget concepts they don’t use often. So, take at least a month (if you already know the basics) to review these concepts. Regular practice will help you enhance your skills in the Quantitative Aptitude (QA) section.
Start by mastering arithmetic and geometry concepts because they are crucial in the exam and usually carry around 60-70% of the total marks. Avoid spending too much time on one topic, as it may not be worth it.
You can use the study schedule for August to prepare for the Quant section. Feel free to adjust it based on your strengths and areas you want to improve.
| Topic | Number of days |
| Number Systems | 4-5 |
| Ratio and Proportion, Percentages, Averages, Alligation, Profit Loss and Discount, Simple Interest and Compound Interest | 10-12 |
| Time, Speed and Distance, Time & Work | 4-5 |
| Linear equations, Quadratic equations, Inequalities | 7-8 |
| Logarithms, Functions | 5 |
| Progressions and series, Surds and indices | 4 |
| Geometry & Mensuration, | 10-12 |
| Co-ordinate Geometry, Basic trigonometry | 1-2 |
| Permutation and Combinations, Probability, Set Theory | 6-7 |
| Miscellaneous | 3 |
CAT 2023 Study Plan PDF From August
To prepare well for the CAT exam, you need a daily study plan that covers all the topics within the available time. Use the CAT preparation daily schedule provided for August to cover the entire CAT syllabus. Click the link below to download the CAT preparation daily schedule PDF.
Download CAT preparation Schedule PDF
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