In the previous two posts, we discussed the mindset and the tools that you would need for a successful retake. In this post, we will take a look at the specific things you need to do for each section and area.
VERBAL Ability — Throw your prep net as wide as possible
Of all the things that make the CAT tough, it is the nature of the VERBAL Ability section that poses the biggest challenge. At some level, the way the CAT has tested VERBAL Ability over the years seems to filter out people whose VERBAL Ability is as much a function of their general proficiency with the English language and reading per se as much as it is a function of the amount of practice they have put in.
So in effect assured success on the VERBAL Ability will be a function of your natural ability with the language and your practice equipping you with the following knowledge & skills
- an above average reading speed of 250-300 WPM
- a wide enough vocabulary of around 1500-2000 words
- ability to apply Grammar rules pertaining to written English
- logical reasoning in a verbal context
While the CAT itself might not test all the above skills — Grammar questions, for example, did not feature in the last two editions of the CAT — between the other tests, XAT, IIFT, NMAT & SNAP, all of the skills above will get tested.
So the first thing when it comes to a CAT retake is to approach the prep with an attitude towards developing all the skill sets rather than a narrow focus to somehow clear the cut-off. The latter will only make your retake a matter of chance rather than a matter of competence.
So how do you develop each of these skills?
Reading Speed & Comprehension
The first thing to grasp is that reading speed is a skill, just as driving a car is or playing a sport is; like them, it is a function of a certain natural predisposition and a lot of time spent practising.
While you can learn to drive a car in a short span of time, you will need to put in a lot of miles of driving under various conditions before you can drive at high speeds with a lot of control; the same applies to Reading Comprehension.
So there is no other way to master Reading Comprehension than by practising a lot. What do I mean by a lot of practice?
You should finish the entire RC material of at the least one of the test-prep players’ study material. Once you are through with this you should practice the RCs from the GMAT Official Guide (soft copies of which you can find online); this is just practice.
Apart from this, you need to dedicate some time every day for general reading that is geared not only towards increasing your reading speed and vocabulary but also your general knowledge required to clear the WAT-PI rounds. What qualifies as general reading and what are the kind of books you should read will be dealt with a follow-up post.
Vocabulary
The width and depth of your vocabulary can be a very good indicator of the width and depth of your knowledge. One of the strengths of good communicators is their ability to find the right words for the situation, in other words, their articulation skills.
Very often I have found that despite knowing words, students need not always know the usual context in which the words are used. Take for instance the word “mediocre”. While the dictionary meaning is average, it is usually used with a negative connotation. I have found many students using the word “mediocre” not with a negative connotation but with a neutral connotation, almost interchangeably with the word “medium”.
This more than provides an explanation as to why many students find questions around style, tone & attitude of the author tough to handle.
The only way to learn words is to read them as part of a text and understand them in context. If someone is writing an editorial about the current government and calls its performance “mediocre”, it means that he/she feels that it is below par or underwhelming. By reading the entire article you will be able to grasp this.
So what do you need to do develop a good vocabulary — read extensively and check meanings of unknown words as and when they appear. As mentioned earlier I will do a separate post on what is the requisite reading that you should be doing.
I finished two books during my CAT prep despite having a good vocabulary — Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis and All About Words by Morris Rosenbaum & Maxwell Nurnberg, the second one is at a slightly advanced level than the first. So it goes without saying that doing these books will not hurt you in the least. If you have a poor memory, just keep re-doing the books.
Grammar
Grammar questions are probably the least important in terms of weightage but knowledge of the rules of Grammar is something that will always come in handy when it comes to communication in a professional setting be it spoken or written. The only professionals from the sub-continent who can carry off poor English are cricketers from our neighbouring country :-)! Just today I came across a headline caption on the signup page of a new startup by IIM Alumni — You are just one step away from being a Expert! (the exclamation was not added by me!).
So finish the Grammar books from the Study Material you have and then practice Sentence Correction questions from the GMAT Official Guide.
For those of you who are reasonably good with the basic Grammar rules but want to avoid inadvertent errors and improve your written English, Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss will prove to be a humorously useful resource as will The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.& E.B.White
Verbal Reasoning
A lot of your ability on Verbal Reasoning will depend on how much you move from choosing options based on gut-feel to rejecting options based on logic.
The best resources will again be the entire material offered as part of the classroom program of established players. In addition, Critical Reasoning questions from the GMAT OG will be a good supplement in terms of quantum of practice.
For those with good VERBAL Ability there is just one suggestion — start reading at a slightly faster speed than you do currently do even if it is uncomfortable, it will soon become your normal speed (not very different from working out).
DI & LR — Practice, Practice & more qualitative practice!
Like RC, DI-LR, which along with RC constituted more than half the paper in CAT 2017, is a section/area that tests a skill rather than knowledge and hence demands a lot of practice.
What is important though is that you not only solve enough sets but also evaluate the way you solved to weed out
- unnecessary calculations
- double solving and
- false starts
One of the ways of improving your ability on DI-LR is to solve good quality sets from
- previous years’ Papers
- books such as CAT 500 and
- puzzles from [www.cat100percentile.com]
The thing with DI-LR is that all of us will be reasonably good at solving the standard question-types. The problem arises when the level is amped up a bit like it was on CAT 2017. What you need to do is to ensure that you genuinely understand the kind of logic that is tested on tougher sets.
All IMS classroom students will do well just to solve all LR sets from all the class sheets and workshops to get a good idea of the width of DI-LR tested. I am sure that there will be quite a few sets that you would not have been able to crack in class and will find difficult to crack even now (despite having listened to the explanation).
The reason for this is that such sets require you to go beyond your default LR settings and you have not yet grasped the difference between such sets and the regular LR sets.
Thumb rule for DI-LR practice at least one set each per day apart from solving a Sudoku puzzle a day.
If you really want to build your ability from scratch then the best sets for practice will be from the Analytical Section of the ETS GRE Big Book Full Edition, it is an old collection of 27 Tests with each test also having two sections of Analytical Reasoning (the book is no longer even available for sale, you can only download it from the internet, download the version which is around 1000 pages).
QUANTITATIVE Ability — What you dislike weakens you
As I discussed in the first post, what stands between your current QA percentile and a great QA percentile are the areas you do not like and hence have not solved too many questions from.
For those whose QA is weak, start from the area you hate the most, use proper study material that lists out concepts in detail(not just formulas) and solve enough practice questions to be able to solve questions fast.
For those whose QA is above average, there is no better resource than http://www.cat100percentile.com. Again, start from your weakest area and go through all the posts starting from the first one.
One of the things to keep in mind while learning from the cat100percentile site is that many a times you will think you have understood a concept, especially ones which are really new to you, but if you try to recollect it the next day you might draw a blank, this is most true in the case of slightly advanced concepts such as partitioning.
So always make it a point to revise what you have learnt the previous session. The idea is to ensure that you have genuinely understood whatever is posted.
Follow up your learning of the concepts from cat100percentile with practice from either the IMS Study Material and online practice drills in case you have not finished them or from any other material from an established source.
Creating an effective practice schedule
Your practice schedule should be aimed at developing competency across all areas and clearing the cut-offs for all three sections.
You should divide your whole prep into two phases:
- March – June: Focus on learning and competence building
- July – November: Focus on speed and test-taking skills
The table below provides an indicative way to schedule your daily practice sessions until June.
Depending upon the time you have you can solve 1-set each of DI-LR-RC or 2-sets each or 3-sets each.
Setting the right goals for a retake
What you want to do on a retake is to take your percentile to the next level. For this, your ability needs to go to the next level. This means that you cannot afford to keep your learning needs very narrow.
For example, if a team really wants to move up the cricket rankings in ODIs or T20Is then it should look at all aspects of its game, right down to how good they are in the field. One of the reasons SA make it to the finals most tournaments is because they have always been an exceptional fielding unit.
All the books and all the methods outlined above are not new. Those who execute it will see a quantum jump in their competence across areas those who do not will end up leaving things to fate to throw them a paper conducive to their strengths.
You need to peak at the right time
This is something that is very often talked about in sport — peaking at the right time.
Those who watch sport regularly know that no individual or team performance is at the same level all the time. Within a tournament, we see that a team can start slowly but then manages to hit the peak form at the right time — Australia in the 2000 World Cup. Within a season, as is the case with leagues across sports, teams peak at different times — with Arsenal always peaking at the wrong time! Even across a career, a sportsman will have a purple patch where he/she can put no foot wrong — Djokovic in 2015 years or Virat last year.
What you need to do ensure is that you peak at the right time for CAT — September.
What usually happens on a retake is
- you start off full-steam in the March-July period and somehow lose energy or burnout as you get closer to the test
- you decide to go underground till June-July and then straightaway try to go into an intense prep mode
Both are deeply flawed methods. While your practice should start from March and go all the way through to January for XAT, the intensity and focus should vary across the months.
Till June: Be in LEARNING mode
From the March-June period, you need to only be in the learning mode. You do not need to be pumped up and thinking things like this time I’ll won’t just crack the test but smash it to smithereens! You just need to ensure you are being regular in your prep and enjoy the learning process. This should be a happy phase with very little anxiety. Think about this phase as net practice — one is working on learning to get better.
My friend once saw Virat practice in the nets in Australia — 30 mins of just playing bouncers!
July-November: Be in TESTING mode
Right from the first test onwards you need to be in game mode. This means that you need to be kicking yourself over silly mistakes, working to cut down on the wrong choice of questions and focussing on improving test performance. This will only be possible if you have already covered the learning needs before July. You can’t be learning basics and maximising test performance at the same time!
One size might not fit all
The prep schedule outlined above need not suit all aspirants since each one of you will have a different daily schedule depending on your work or your college load. So you would have to tailor or modify the plan to suit your needs. But what is most important that you make a plan and stick to it.
What matters more than frequency is regularity. No matter how hectic your day what is the barest minimum that you can eke out — can you ensure that you at least read the newspaper before turning in to bed on a really crazy work day?
If your weekdays are variable but your weekends are predictable then can you ensure that you make a weekend plan and stick to it?
Most often we have a clear long-term plan, in this case cracking the CAT come November, but whenever something else comes up in the shorter-term — a weekend with a friend visiting from out of town, a new movie or a new TV series that is supposed to insanely good — we end up accepting it. So in effect, short-term decisions end up jeopardising long-term goals! So you have to say no to a few things, give up a few things (besides deciding to grow a beard till the test).
Whatever you plan you draw up, stick to it. Do not be like the guy who draws up a will but refuses to die!
Feel free to post any queries or help you might need in coming up with a prep plan.
The CAT Writer 
Hello Sir,
I am reading newspaper since 1 month and also solving the RCs 2-4 daily (6 days a week). But Sir I didn’t find any improvement till yet as my accuracy is still low, though reading skill has improved a liitle but not as per expectation. Is I am lagging somewhere or I should use some techniques to make it efficient.
Please tell me Sir.
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Hi Praveen,
The reading of the newspaper is to improving your processing power of text, solving of questions is to give you actual test practce, the accuracy, however, will not happen if you just do these two things!
That is a function of your technique of solving questions, if you play more matches or play 3 innings every day will you score better or does your getting out depend on your technique, it is obviously the latter.
So watch the feedback of SimCAT 1 and look at the process through which the question is being solved. Are you pausing after reading the question, to frame a shadow answer and only then are you proceeding to the options and then are you proceeding by elimination than by selection?
So, evaluate and work on your technique.
All the best!
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These pieces are a fun read and brings joy to me when I read these while on a break from mind boggling LRDI solving.
Just the right bit of advice, anecdotes with a little humour sprinkled on top.
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Hi Akhil,
Glad to know that the posts offer the right mix.
CLR James (historian, politician, cricket-writer) once said, what do they know of cricket who only cricket know, I’d like to paraphrase that to what do they know of CAT, who only CAT know 🙂
Keep prepping!
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
I am following somewhat similar strategy for preparation. I am done with QA basics and solved first level of questions from each topic. Still most of the times I have to take hint for solving the question and then I am able to solve it. So please suggest how to go about it.
Regards,
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Hi Sir,
Could you please suggest? \
Regards,
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Hi Sakshi,
The reason this happens is that once the first-level questions, where all you have to do is plug a number into a formula, you have to actually solve every problem and we are not used to actively thinking our way through from problem to solution and active thinking is something that has to be cultivated.
Let us do a small exercise.
Read the question below and reply with the steps to be done to solve — do not solve at all, do not calculate the answer — just tell me the steps to be done — first determine the distance, then use that to determine the distance left etc.
If the factors of the number 5280 are arranged in descending order then what is the 43rd factor?
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
As per my understanding, we can calculate all the factors using long division method and after calculating the number of factors can be written as follows: 2^5 * 5^1 * 3^1 * 11^1 = 48 factors.
Therefore, 48th – 43rd = 5th factor….. ans to this is 2 ?
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Hi Sakshi,
You did every right but messed up exactly at the point where the question requires you to think actively and not execute predefined steps.
The answer is not two since the question is asking you for the 5 highest factor.
The highest factor is 2^5 * 5^1 * 3^1 * 11^1
The next highest factor will be when I remove one 2 — 2^4 * 5^1 * 3^1 * 11^1
The next highest factor will be when I remove one 3 — 2^5 * 5^1* 11^1
The next highest factor will be when I remove 4, two 2s — 2^3 * 5^1 * 3^1 * 11^1
The fifth factor the factor we need is when we remove the next highest number, 5 — 2^5* 3^1 * 11^1
So the reason you need a hint is that you are not really understanding what is given and what needs to be done and that is where you need to slow down and think actively.
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
While trying to solve a LR set that is already presented with data in the tables,I find it difficult to not copy that data on sheet on paper and then do further processing but it does take up some time.So,is it advisable to not do it,if not then how to proceed further?
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Hi,
There is no way you can copy data, if you are doing that then there is no way you are going to clear the cut-offs.
It is after a point a matter of moving from what is comfortable to what is painful and then slowly the painful will cease being so.
So stop transferring data right now!
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Hope you are doing well and safe. I have been following strategy from your blogs (Thanks for writing them) and doing well. Having covered most of the syllabus, I am planning to give tests. I checked previous IMS mocks and those were excellent. Hence this year I want to excel my preparation with those. But the only issue with me is the cost, as I am not that financially able and unemployed due to lockdown. I had given scholarship test but that payoff was not enough ( but it was kind ). I am eligible for scholarship but still considering other costs to appear for all the exams the amount is unbearable for me. I request you that if you can do anything for me, it will be a lot helpful. Giving IMS mocks is the thing I cannot afford to lose as it will shape my entire preparation into result. I hope you consider my situation. I will send you a follow-up mail for authenticity of my details. Please let me know if anything is possible. Thank you Sir.
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Hi Tejas,
Glad you find the blog useful. Please drop a mail to mail at tony@imsindia.com with your contact details and more or less the text of this message.
Someone from my team with get in touch and see what can be done.
All the best!
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I have sent an email for the same today. Please check it out. Thank you.
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Hello Sir,
CAT 2020 will be my 2nd attempt but I am still very much lagging in the VA-RC section. I have finished the IMS practice module and my accuracy is only 50%. I am solving 3-4 RC every day and also I am reading one article in a day. In spite of doing all this, I am not able to improve my VA-RC section. Last year I got only 61% in the VA-RC section. Please suggest me how do I improve further. I am totally confused. Please help me out, Sir.
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Hi Susmita,
Since you have done enough practice, the problem must lie with your technique or lack of it while solving a question.
Please go through the video solution of SimCAT 1 and see if you follow the 5-pauses technique for RC to the tee and the techniques for each of VA q-types as well.
It is not practice but perfect practice that makes perfect.
All the best!
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Thank you so much, Sir. I will definitely follow your suggestion.
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Hello sir . I scored 92.35 in CAT 19 my sectional percentiles were – VARC-80.96 LRDI-96.76 QA-90.35
I read for almost 2.5 hours a day from different sources such as NY Times , Medium , Guardian , Aeon and try to finish a novel every week . I also attempt a sectional once in every 4 days . What else would you suggest for improvement in VARC .
I am quite confident in arithmetic , number system and geometry as i learned all the concepts and practiced in the past two months . But algebra was on the week side last year too, how should i get started with algebra and get more confident in it . Would you recommend solving NCERT questions ? Thank you.
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Hi Abhishek,
Since you have done enough practice, any improvement will come from fine-tuning with your technique or deploying one while solving a question.
Please go through the video solution of SimCAT 1 and see if you follow the 5-pauses technique for RC to the tee and the techniques for each of VA q-types as well. It is not practice but perfect practice that makes perfect.
Well, if you are good at the other three areas then, the Algebra might be case of you not really fancying it. What comes first, your weakness or your natural dislike for it, not dislike maybe but you would rather leave it!
So I do no think it is about a book but about you approaching it like a new math game with some new rules, rules different from the other games. Once you turn that switch on, I think it can become easy. Maybe this can be a good source to learn —https://cat100percentile.com/tag/algebra/
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
Hope you are doing good.
I have been following your blogs and have started preparing for CAT, 20.
Though, i am in dilemma of joining this year or continue my preperation for CAT, 20.
I scored 95.02 percentile in CAT, 19 (VA-92, LR-97, QA-86). I have converted IIM Raipur, IIM Kashipur, XIMB and waitlisted in SCMHRD (BA).
Negative side which is compelling me to join this year and choose among these colleges is my profile. I will be having 36 months work experience in Feb, 21. Acads are 76, 77 and 71. Being GEM with poor acads, I feel it would be quite difficult to convert any better college next year too.
Only positive side due to which I wanna prepare again, is I do not wish to pursue MBA from any average college. If there is any way possible to achieve it, I wanna give it a chance.
Please suggest what should I do? Should I go with pragmatic option or the emotional one?
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Hi,
It was only a matter of time I guess before I saw a comment with Tyler Durden as the user name 🙂
Well, if you are looking solely at the old IIMs then it will be a tough ask even on a second attempt.
But if you are looking at say MDI or SPJIMR as options and they are definitely better than the baby IIMs then maybe it is worth a shot.
The biggest catch is that you already have 36 months of work-ex, so maybe in that sense, this is the best time to join rather than be an outlier in a batch with 4 years of work-ex. I think if you join a baby IIM and do well within the batch you will lay the base for a good career.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
Thanks a lot.
I guess, we all are trying to become our own version of tyler durden 🙂.
Actually, I have approximately 28 months of experience. To be precise 28 months would be completed on 17th June, 2020. I would be having 36 months of experience next year, in February, 2021.
Does that make any difference sir? Or still I should go ahead with IIM Raipur or Kashipur?
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Good Afternoon Sir,i have been preparing for CAT since March but the preparation went downhill recently and it’s been really difficult since. i am doing all the three sections daily but as the day passes i lose intrest since i have been locked in the house for three months. Now the time is close and have a few important parts to cover. What steps should i take to ensure that i finish off the syllabus on time and be able to take a lot of SIMCATS. People have been telling me its too late now.
It will be great if you can help me out here .
Thanks,
Ankit Singh Rajput
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Hi Ankit,
There is enough and more time to prepare for CAT 2020 even if the exam is scheduled for November-end as usual.
All of us are more or less in the same boat as far as the lockdown goes and some of us are more privileged than the migrant labourers and the marginalised — we are in our homes, have food, clothing shelter, and hope for the future.
No one can motivate another person over longer stretches of time to achieve his or her goals, the effect of every book or video, eventually wears off. So you need to find a way to start preparing again as you did earlier. Whatever prep plans I have put up are available on the CAT Strat portion of the blog.
All the best!
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Hello Sir, hope you’re doing well.
First thing first, Thank you very much for writing this article, and for previous two as well on the same topic. It has been very helpful in terms of understanding the course of direction of the preparation. 🙂
Secondly, Sir, in one of the above comments you mentioned about not transferring the data from screen to paper in DILR section. But, Sir, with so many conditions and information given how are you supposed to go ahead with the set of not jot down the data.
This is my second attempt, and I’m afraid this one area can pull me down again. I look forward to your advise, Sir.
Best regards
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Hi Shraddha,
Glad you found the post useful.
Please go through all the posts under the category DI-LR Strat that will make clear what I meant by not transferring.
One has to read the whole set and figure the best way to represent the data, instead of transferring data as we read it, especially not the conditions. I have taken recent CAT sets and done the same using videos in those posts, they will help you get what needs to be done.
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Thank you so much for all your posts. It has been very helpful.
I recently read on of your posts in which you talked about maximizing scores. And I found it very very helpful but I am not able to find that post again. I have been stuck at 140-155 scores for a very long time now and have not been able to improve. All the concepts are clear. For the last few weeks I have been giving quant sectionals without touching the pen and it has helped me with my speed. Low number of attempts has been my problem. I have not been able to attempt more than 75 in any of the mocks. How should I go about my preparation?
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Hi Pranjal,
I think you have diagnosed the problem incorrectly (partly). Assuming your average score is 150, you are getting this score out of a potential 225 (your attempts).
This means that you are functioning at an average of 67% return or accuracy.
If you increase your attempts by 20% to 90 while maintaining the same accuracy, you will score 180.
If you increase your accuracy to 80% while maintaining the same attempts, you will score exactly 180.
What do you think is easier?
1. Driving 20% faster while falling the same number of times.
2. Driving at the same speed while falling fewer number of times.
You have to choose option 2 since it is more realistic and also makes your performance more reliable. It can happen that you increase the speed and you see a higher score on a slightly easier test and the moment the level jumps you will find that score drops and nothing is worse going close to the test than inconsistent scores.
So you have to focus on how you are solving questions and why these errors are happening and that has nothing to do with concepts but everything to do with the technique of solving.
Do you always use the 5 pauses method to solve RC passages?
Do you use labelling to solve incorrect sentence in the paragraph?
Do you select the right DI sets?
Do you waste a lot of time transferring DI information on to paper?
Once you reach 80% accuracy and are scoring consistently in the 175 range you can then think about increasing your speed since 80% accuracy is very good and increasing it beyond that might again become tough.
All the posts will be there in the CAT Strat, VA-RC Strat and the DI-LR Start pages.
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Thank you so much for all your posts. It has been very helpful.
I recently read on of your posts in which you talked about maximizing scores. And I found it very very helpful but I am not able to find that post again. I have been stuck at 140-155 scores for a very long time now and have not been able to improve. All the concepts are clear. For the last few weeks I have been giving quant sectionals without touching the pen and it has helped me with my speed. Low number of attempts has been my problem. I have not been able to attempt more than 75 in any of the mocks. How should I go about my preparation?
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Hello Sir!
In this article, you mentioned that what qualifies as a general reading for GK will be dealt with in a follow-up post. Can you let me know in which article it is mentioned? I am sorry I have not been able to catch up all the articles lately.
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Hi Preet,
General reading is just reading one newspaper, one Indian magazine (Scroll or Caravan), and one international newspaper (NYTimes).
All the best!
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