With the number of days to CAT coming down to finger countable numbers the nerves must be at an all time high. Thoughts like ‘Oh my God! The last few mock cats have been horrible, I am definitely not going to be able to make it’ or ‘I have consistently been in double digit ranks, so cracking CAT is like the second most natural thing to me after breathing’ are common. Avoid either of these thoughts. To quote a film dialogue ‘What you have seen far is just the trailer, the actual movie is yet to release’. Just understand that what has happened so far may be an indication of where you are headed but not a defining set of events. Ranks in the mock examinations are not exactly a reflection of where you are headed in the actual CAT. Here are a few pointers which may have been mentioned in the past but are worth repeating with CAT around the corner.

Forget about cut-offs: Those are magical numbers which are created from out of nowhere. You have no control over those. The only thing which you have under control is your own performance. When you sit down to give CAT, do not look at a section and form a possible cut off number and start attempting to reach that illusory number. What you are trying to do is judge the performance of 2.5 lakh students. It doesn’t make sense, does it?

Practice tests: Take a test a day if you can. It will help you to gain tremendous speed. But when you are taking tests at home take into account the following things. Get a room to yourself. Make sure you let people know you are taking mock CATs. Most importantly do NOT use mobile phones for timers. The last thing you want is for calls to come in when you are giving your mock CATs. Put away your phones for the two and a half hours. And do not start the mock CATs in a manner that your normal dinner time falls right in the middle of the exam. You wouldn’t want grumbling stomachs to be your distraction.

Spend a considerable amount of time in front of computers: This is to ensure that you don’t get tired out easily when you are taking the final CAT. It becomes rather stressful for your eyes when you spend long hours staring at the computer screen. So don’t practice this too close to your examination date. Try this for maybe one more week. Stop it with about 4-5 days left for CAT. And by spending time in front of computers, we do not mean watching movies. Do a lot of reading from online newspaper sites and other general reading which will also help you when you appear for interviews and group discussions.

Write an article or two: Take up a topic random or otherwise and start writing on it. This is perhaps one of the most neglected aspects in terms of preparation. While aspirants spend a lot of time practicing sentence completion, paragraph completion and arranging sentences in the correct order, nothing gives you a better grip on these aspects than writing your own little pieces. The point is to understand how the article’s author’s mind works. While practicing sentence juggles are good from a reader’s point , it is easier to understand the way it works if you sit down and write things yourself. A newspaper report type of article and an article on a random topic would be an ideal combination.