5 Months to CAT 2024: How to start preparing for the CAT Exam starting July 2024?

CAT entrance exam details

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is scheduled to be held on November 24. The exam will be conducted by IIM Calcutta. The official CAT 2024 notification is expected to come by the end of July.

The registration process will begin in the first week of August through the official IIMCAT website.

Candidates must complete their registration by September 21 (tentatively) so that they reserve a slot for the exam. It is a computer-based test that takes place every year for admission to 21 IIMs, IITs, and over 1,000 business schools across India.

Also, do you know by doing just 8 questions in VARC, 6-7 in LRDI and 7 in Quants correctly, you can cross 90%ile easily thereby fulfilling the basic sectional eligibility criteria of all the IIMs as well. Thus, by solving almost 1/3rd of the CAT exam with 100% accuracy, you can achieve 90%ile with ease.

CAT syllabus and exam pattern

Verbal ability and reading comprehension (VARC) Total 24 questions- parajumbles, parasummary, para competition (8 question) and reading comprehension (16 questions)
Data Interpretation and logical reasoning- (DILR) - (20 questions)- Data tables, bar graphs, pie charts, logical reasoning puzzles. This includes four sets, five questions each.
Quantitative ability (QA) (22 questions) - Algebra, Arithmetic, Geometry, Modern Maths

Starting Checklist

Buy Arun Sharma books dedicated to each section

VARC - Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension for CAT
DI - Data Interpretation for CAT
LR - Logical Reasoning for CAT
QA - Quantitative Aptitude for CAT

Buy a Test Series Subscription (Either of the one)

SimCAT
AIMCAT by TIME
Career Launcher
Collegedunia (Free)

Subscribe to Newsletter and Magazines

Aeon (Top Newsletter)
Frontline (Magazine)
Editorials
Marketing Brew

Most Important: Make a timetable! Whether you’re fully dedicated to the preparation, a working professional, or a student, you need a set timetable.

Figure out how many hours you can dedicate just for CAT
Bifurcate the time to dedicate for each section
Stick to your schedule, 5 months is a tight timeline

Formula Booklet: Yes! Maintain a formula booklet where you note down each and every formula you come across in your Quants, record each and every idea, technique, or strategy you used for a DI or LR set, and also write down important and tough questions along with their solutions from both LRDI and Quants, whether from mocks or regular books. Revise this entire formula booklet every day, first thing in the morning. Apart from these, for higher calculation speeds, prepare a separate formula booklet containing important numbers like tables till 30. Squares and cubes of important numbers, like numbers up to 30 and 100 to 112. Include conversion factors as well, like km to m or hectares to acres to meters, etc. Include basic Vedic math concepts as well. These two formula booklets will definitely help you on D-day.

Below are the strategies of how you can prepare for each section of the CAT in the next five months!

Tips to prepare for VARC

Read as much as you can. This is because the actual CAT exam requires you to read at least six passages from both the RC and DILR sections. Mind you that these passages are nowhere close to small, and the biggest difficulties each student faces are his reading speeds and the high volume of reading required.
Go through the editorial section of newspapers such as The Hindu, The Indian Express, etc. The editorials come with a certain topic that is related to the ongoing current scenario. The editorial section is written by a particular author, which reveals the thought process of the writer. It will give you a better understanding of what an author thinks about that topic and his or her ideas and suggestions. These articles will polish your vocabulary.
Use sites such as Aeon.com, where you can find a lot of reading material.
Refer to the book Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis for your vocabulary.
As far as verbal ability is concerned, repeat and attempt the same set of questions from Arun Sharma at least four times in cycles. You’ll understand the meaning of cycles in the next section.

Tips to study for DILR

For DILR, refer to Arun Sharma's books and videos. It will give you a better understanding of how to solve DILR step-by-step. Below are some of the major points he has explained in his video.

DILR is divided into two parts: traditional DI and logical DI.

Traditional DI: In this, the main skills required are language reading, such as the language of the questions in the set. The second skill is data reading, in which you will analyze the charts, variables, etc. The third skill is data extraction, and the fourth skill required is calculation.
You can split your preparation of DILR into two parts. The first part is when you are trying to master the traditional DI. The cycle of mastering traditional DI is shorter than the cycle of mastering logical DI.
Logical DI is built on data analysis, in which three to four things are very common. The first is missing data, the second is multiple possible situations, and the third is cross-referencing of data.
In Sharma’s book, the topics and questions are divided based on levels such as level 1, level 2, etc.
We recommend that you go through both levels three times. This means that you solve each and every question a minimum of three times in three cycles. Cycle means that you first do level 1 of each chapter, then attempt level 2 from each chapter. After doing this one cycle, You complete this cycle at least two more times with the same questions.
Yes! Doing the same questions a minimum of three times is extremely helpful, as it subconsciously induces the logical thinking required to solve the DILR questions in the CAT exam.

Please don’t lose hope. There are high chances that only after the 2nd cycle, you’ll start seeing improvements in your solving capabilities.

Tips to study for Quants:

Below are some of the tips he has given in his video to prepare for quant

Do not rely too much on quantitative theory. Give 20% time to theory and 80% to solving problems.
There are 4 sections in Quants: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and Modern Math.
Arithmetic holds the highest weight in the CAT exam.
Start with arithmetic first, then touch on algebra, followed by geometry and modern math.
Geometry questions are usually the easiest, but students are easily scared of these questions. Modern math is comparatively tough, and we do not recommend you try to gain mastery in modern math in these 5 months.
The idea is to solve in the above-mentioned order by doing Level 1 questions from Arun Sharma from each chapter. Do not forget to maintain a formula booklet. Also, complete the in-chapter examples.
After you have completed Level 1, move to Level 2 and repeat the cycle.
DO NOT TOUCH LEVEL 3. The reason being that Level 3 questions are rarely seen in the CAT exam, and if any, students may encounter only 1 or at best 2 questions.
We also recommend that you not solve each and every problem, for example, in level 1, where there may be 130 questions. After a certain point, the questions start feeling repetitive. The general thumb rule is that if you are able to solve a question just by looking at it, you are done. There you go. You may stop it there and move on to the next chapter.
Mocks are your best friends. Do not miss sectional mocks, especially for the Quants section.

(Refer to youtube videos of Ananta Chhajer, an alumni of IIM Ahmedabad (2021))

Practice mock tests as much as you can

The only way you can prepare yourself for CAT is by giving mock tests, as it will help you understand your weaknesses and strengths. There has been a significant correlation where students completing 30 mock tests usually score better.
Hence, target 30 mocks by November 24th. You can start with 1 mock every week in July and August, 2 every week in September, 3 every week in October, and in November, attempt a mock every day. Thus, with this strategy, you’ll be able to do more than 50 mocks before CAT.
We recommend that once you receive notification of the slot offered to you on D-day, you should start taking the mock exam in the same slot every day. This will give you a rhythm and habit that you will need dearly in the CAT exam.
In the month of November, since you must have already completed at least 30 mocks, invest your first two weeks entirely in attempting the previous year's mocks. Solve all the available previous-year mock exams after the year 2017. For ease of reference, you can check out the 2iim website for solutions to these mock exams.

Most Important Tip! Do Not Miss It!!!!

With that being said, we don’t recommend you to create a daily strict timetable. Follow a weekly schedule.
Target to complete the first and the basic cycle of questions by 1st August by completing each of the 4 Quants section every week. Align your LRDI and VARC goals along with your weekly Quants target.
After that, the Level 2 cycle must be completed by 1st September.
After the 1st cycle is finally finished. Then just two months away, you will have to pace up and actually start pushing yourself one last time and complete the next two cycles in the next two months. This is because once you have completed 3 cycles, you will actually start realizing the weaker parts of your preparation.
And thus in the month of November, keep a tight deadline. Tell yourself that say before 10th November, you will improve in these weak areas. The everyday Mock hustle will let you know whether you are actually improving or not.
And finally, if on 10th of November, you realize that some sections are still not improving, then the best strategy to do in the last two weeks is to drop these weak areas and start giving your 100% in the stronger areas.