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Road to CAT 2009: Step-by-step guide by CAT Toppers (Part 1)
The road to a good MBA schools is through entrance tests like CAT, XAT, MAT, FMS, IIFT, SNAP and JMET. Of these, CAT is the hardest nut to crack. SiliconIndia.com spoke to CAT 2008 toppers on ‘How to crack the CAT entrance exam’.
In this series of an interviews by Abhra Yash of SiliconIndia.com, CAT toppers share their success mantras with SiliconIndia.com members.
For most aspirants, the first step is to join a MBA Coaching Institute. With the sections like Quant, Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability, most of the MBA aspirants feel that guidance from a management test prep institute is the first step towards belling the CAT.
How do these MBA coaching institutes help?
Aspirants generally join a test prep institute for the following reasons:
Complete preparation: The test prep institutes give the students the entire preparation module. They train the students on the different sections, provide them with mock tests and if they make it till there, they prepare the students for the GDPI rounds also. 96.91 percentile scorer Nikhil Kakkar, who enrolled into IMS Learning’s complete CAT preparation module, says “I had attended the IMS’s complete CAT preparation module”.
Coaching for a particular section: It is not always necessary to take the entire module in a test prep institute. If you are confident about some sections and not one, you can join a test prep institute to brush up your knowledge of that particular section only. As did Rajesh G (95.56) percentile for the Quantitative section. He chose Career Launcher just to work on Quant section. “I was quite comfortable with the other two sections, so did not undergo any preparation training for the same”, said Rajesh.
Test series: Quality of Test series, or the ‘mock tests’ offered by the test prep institutes, is an important criteria for choosing an institute. They give the students a feel of the actual test as the pattern and marking system remains the same. For most of the CAT toppers, taking regular test series is the most important part of the preparation. Most of them also owe their success to the test series.
For Sushil Kansal (94.91 percentile), “Test series are able to simulate the CAT entrance exam as well as give a very realistic feel of the competition.” He suggested the MBA aspirants to take a couple of test series and concentrate on doing well in them. Sushil took the test series of both T.I.M.E. Rajneesh Goyal (94.87 percentile) also chose the T.I.M.E test series. “In such entrance exams where percentile scores and not percentage scores matter, it is always beneficial to compare yourself to the maximum number of people”, he justified and suggested the same for the aspirants.
GD PI preparation: Not everyone took the entire CAT preparation module. Some of the toppers were confident enough to write the CAT entrance exam without the help of test prep institutes. They only took guidance for the GDPI preparations. Namit Rawal (99.14 percentile) joined Career Launcher for GDPI coaching. “Both offer coaching for GD/PI at reasonable prices and it is good to join both for diverse insights”, he said.
How to choose the ‘right’ one?
Faculty: Faculty is the most important criteria according to some toppers. They are the ones to teach and help the students through their problems. So you must enquire about the faculty before enrolling yourself to the institute. According to Shushil Kansal, “Faculty must be the deciding criterion and not the preparation material, which can be had from anywhere.” He owed his entire success to the faculty of T.I.M.E., the test prep institute he joined. “The faculty was always ready to help out with any doubts we had and were always there for extra sessions. I am thankful to all the teachers over there”, he said.
SiliconIndia will continue to publish series of interviews to help MBA aspirants get inside tips from those who have already belled the CAT. You can also prepare by taking as many free CAT Test with our CAT Online Test Series @ https://www.siliconindia.com/education/cat_test/index.php
In this series of an interviews by Abhra Yash of SiliconIndia.com, CAT toppers share their success mantras with SiliconIndia.com members.
For most aspirants, the first step is to join a MBA Coaching Institute. With the sections like Quant, Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability, most of the MBA aspirants feel that guidance from a management test prep institute is the first step towards belling the CAT.
How do these MBA coaching institutes help?
Aspirants generally join a test prep institute for the following reasons:
Complete preparation: The test prep institutes give the students the entire preparation module. They train the students on the different sections, provide them with mock tests and if they make it till there, they prepare the students for the GDPI rounds also. 96.91 percentile scorer Nikhil Kakkar, who enrolled into IMS Learning’s complete CAT preparation module, says “I had attended the IMS’s complete CAT preparation module”.
Coaching for a particular section: It is not always necessary to take the entire module in a test prep institute. If you are confident about some sections and not one, you can join a test prep institute to brush up your knowledge of that particular section only. As did Rajesh G (95.56) percentile for the Quantitative section. He chose Career Launcher just to work on Quant section. “I was quite comfortable with the other two sections, so did not undergo any preparation training for the same”, said Rajesh.
Test series: Quality of Test series, or the ‘mock tests’ offered by the test prep institutes, is an important criteria for choosing an institute. They give the students a feel of the actual test as the pattern and marking system remains the same. For most of the CAT toppers, taking regular test series is the most important part of the preparation. Most of them also owe their success to the test series.
For Sushil Kansal (94.91 percentile), “Test series are able to simulate the CAT entrance exam as well as give a very realistic feel of the competition.” He suggested the MBA aspirants to take a couple of test series and concentrate on doing well in them. Sushil took the test series of both T.I.M.E. Rajneesh Goyal (94.87 percentile) also chose the T.I.M.E test series. “In such entrance exams where percentile scores and not percentage scores matter, it is always beneficial to compare yourself to the maximum number of people”, he justified and suggested the same for the aspirants.
GD PI preparation: Not everyone took the entire CAT preparation module. Some of the toppers were confident enough to write the CAT entrance exam without the help of test prep institutes. They only took guidance for the GDPI preparations. Namit Rawal (99.14 percentile) joined Career Launcher for GDPI coaching. “Both offer coaching for GD/PI at reasonable prices and it is good to join both for diverse insights”, he said.
How to choose the ‘right’ one?
Faculty: Faculty is the most important criteria according to some toppers. They are the ones to teach and help the students through their problems. So you must enquire about the faculty before enrolling yourself to the institute. According to Shushil Kansal, “Faculty must be the deciding criterion and not the preparation material, which can be had from anywhere.” He owed his entire success to the faculty of T.I.M.E., the test prep institute he joined. “The faculty was always ready to help out with any doubts we had and were always there for extra sessions. I am thankful to all the teachers over there”, he said.
SiliconIndia will continue to publish series of interviews to help MBA aspirants get inside tips from those who have already belled the CAT. You can also prepare by taking as many free CAT Test with our CAT Online Test Series @ https://www.siliconindia.com/education/cat_test/index.php
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