muca3ac30 : CURRENTLY I AM GIVING 4-5 SECTIONAL TESTS DAILY (2VARC, 2QUANT, 1 LRDI INTERMEDIATE LEVEL), AND SOLVE 1-2 SETS OF LRDI + 20-30 QUANT QUESTIONS. MY AVG MOCKS SCORE IS 45-47. WHAT MORE SHOULD I DO ?
thomas : you need to spent some time analysing the tests and working on your weak areas. that is the only way you can improve after taking tests

arpit : IN SOME MOCKS I DO WELL AND IN OTHERS VERY BAD
thomas : some fluctuations is very common. try to understand why the scores have reduced and what was that you did differently in the tests you did well

muca3ac30 : GOOD EVENING SIR, I USED TO SCORE IN 20-30 IN VARC, NOW IT HAS DROPPED TO 14-16. ANY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO DEAL WITH THIS PROBLEM ?
kapildixit : Try to identify the reason of all wrongly marked options. Do a detailed reason analysis and understand why you are going wrong? Reason analysis is the only way by which you can improve accuracy. Focus on your order of attempt in RC

muca3ac30 : I AM GEF, HOW MUCH SHOULD I SCORE IN MOCK IN AUGUST TO ENSURE 98+ PERCENTILE IN CAT ?
thomas : consistently more than 95 percentile

bhumika : HOW TO REVISE LRDI?
govindrajan : As LRDI does not have any formulae, concepts or framework, instead of thinking of revision, solve as many different types of questions as possible. We have provided you Lot 2 SMs, Self administered AIMCATs apart from online sectional tests. Solve LRDI sets from Lot 2 SMs and AIMCATs two to three times.

muca3ac30 : WHEN SHOULD I SCHEDULE MY NMAT?
kapildixit : November end or December first week is a good idea as by that time your preparation will be complete.

ankit : SHOULD I FINISH ALL FOUNDATION LEVEL SECTIONAL OR GIVEN THE TIME FOR CAT LEFT I SHOULD MOVE ON TO INTERMEDIATE LEVEL TEST NOW?
bharat : if you are comfortable with basics and fundas, move to Inter tests. Put in a great deal of practice.

advaith : HELLO SIR/MADAM, WITH 4 MONTHS TO GO, REALLY TENSED ABOUT THE EXAM. WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT WE MUST FOLLOW THESE 4 MONTHS TO GET 95+%?
kapildixit : Hope you have finished with your basics in most of the topics. Sectional Tests, SAMCATs, AIMCATs are good sources that will help you to improve tour testing base.

divyanshi_ : I HAVE COVERED MOST OF MY QUANT QUESTIONS BUT STILL NOT ABLE TO SCOREWELLIN QUANT WHAT SHOULD I DO ?
raghunathkrishnan : The only way is to analyze why you are not able to high scores . Perhaps , you can sit down with the quant faculty at your centre and have a face to face discussion. Go through your AIMCAT responses with him

hocd3a472 : SIR I HAVE STARTED REVISION QUAND CHAPTER WISE BUT IT IS TAKING A LOT OF TIME TO DO EVERY QUESTION. SHOULD I CONTINUE WITH THIS AUR PRACTICE MIX QUESTIONS FROM EACH TOPIC DAILY?
kapildixit : It is always a good idea to do all questions but in some questions where you just remember the solution also you can skip, concentrate more on doing questions from Lot-2. Even topic wise sectional tests will be more helpful.

muca3ac30 : IS IT ADVISABLE TO ATTEND CATALYSIS LECTURES?
amitpoddar : Attend anything additional provided to you by us- workshops, analysis sessions,etc.

divyanshi_ : WHAT IS THE STRATEGY FOR DILR AND VARC TO SCORE GOOD
kapildixit : VARC:- Order of attempt, Reason analysis, improving accuracy through practise. LRDI- Selection of sets, Sectional Tests, Attempting with a high accuracy.

hocc3s286 : HELLO, WHILE FILLING THE CAT FORM, MY WORK EX IS COMING 11 MONTHS AND 28 DAYS, WILL THIS BE CONSIDERED AS 11 MONTH, 11.9MONTH OR 1 YEAR DURING THE CALCULATION OF THE COMPOSITE SCORE?
thomas : you can write one year as it is just two days short. it will be considered as one year for calculation

muca3ac30 : I AM GEF, HOW MUCH SHOULD I SCORE IN MOCK IN AUGUST TO ENSURE 98+ PERCENTILE IN CAT ?
thomas : already answered

hocd3a472 : SIR SOMETIME I TAKE TO MUCH TIME IN SOLVING 1 LR OR 1 DI QUESTION THAT MY DI AND LR SECTION ARE NOT ATTEMPTED FULLY IN TESTS, HOW TO INCREASE MY SPEED
govindrajan : The best way to ensure that you solve DILR sets is to spend sufficient time in understanding the given information. Initial 3 to 4 minutes, keep your cool and focus on proper interpretation of given data. Once you read the initial few lines of a puzzle/DI set, you will get to know what kind of puzzle/DI set we are going to solve. This does not take more than 30 to 40 seconds. Give a quick read to the given data spending about a minute time. Do not try to analyse the information at this stage. Spend a couple of minutes to read the questions and the type of answer choices. In case the questions have "If" conditions, it indicates that we get more than one possible solution. The questions let us know how to use the given information. All these should happen in about 3 minutes. Then start going through the information carefully. While doing this decide which statement to be picked up first and the order in which the other pieces of information are to be used. This way we can have a smooth flow of thought process and take less time to solve. This approach may appear to be slow but actually it helps in saving time.

bhca3a039 : GOOD EVENING SIR, AS I AM A NON ENGINEER, IAM FINDING QUANTS VERY DIIFICULT. SO, CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME SUGGESTIONS TO TACKLE QUANTS.
thomas : cover the fundamentals from the basic SM and the class 9 and 10 CBSE maths book. Then do the intermediate online tests

anshu : HOW TO EXCEL IN RC....??? HOW MANY RC'S I SHOULD SOLVE DAILY???
amitpoddar : Keep reading stuff you do not like much to develop a comfort level and together with that do 2-3 passages daily from the sectionals and the booklets

divyanshi_ : SIR DO I STILL HAVE TIME IF I START FROM NOW ?
amitpoddar : Yeah, there is enough time still. Start devoting 6-7 hrs daily on the three areas and take regular tests to identify your weak areas.

hocc3s286 : FOLLOW UP TO THE WORK EX QUESTION, IN THE FORM IT IS ASKED TO PUT IN THE JOINING DATE AND THERE IS AUTOMATIC CALCULATION OF NUMBER OF DAYS BASED ON THIS, SO SHOULD I PUT MY JOINING DATE 2-3DAYS PRIOR TO THE ACTUAL DATE, WON'T THIS CAUSE ANY ISSUES IN THE FUTURE?
raghunathkrishnan : Why do you want to do this ? This question already answered by Thomas Sir

divyanshi_ : SIR WHAT IS THE MAIN TOPICS FOR DILR AND VARC TO SCORE 95
thomas : there is nothing like main topics in these sections. Have a look at the previous year cat papers to understand the type of qns that appear in the exam

bhcn3q500 : WHAT SHOULD BE MY ATTEMPT STRATEGY IN QA SECTION? SOMETIMES I AM NOT ABLE TO SOLVE THE QUESTIONS FROM THE TOPICS I HAVE ALREADY COVERED AND REVISED.
kapildixit : There are two ways either scan entire section or make groups of 7-8 questions in each group. Start attempting groupwise by allotting time in that proportion. Try to do more questions from such weak areas.

hocd3a472 : SIR I HAVE ATTEMPTED 4-5 AIMCATS BUT MY SCORE IS VERY POOR IN QUAND SECTION AS MY REVISION MOST OF THE CHAPTERS ARE NOT COMPLETED, THIS CONCERNS ME .
thomas : do not worry. you still have enough time to improve significantly, if you really work hard

em : AS PER MY MOCKS ANALYSIS, I AM ATTEMPTING ALL EASY QUESTIONS IN QUANT AND ACCURACY IS 100%, BUT CAN'T BRING MY ATTEMPT RATE ABOVE 25%. I HAVE ALREADY FINISHED QUANT SYLLABUS WITH BASICS ONCE AND NOW JUST PRACTICING QUES.
philipthomas : Do sectionals starting with basics and gradually increasing difficulty levels

dlca2am65 : HULLO SIR, I AM A REPEATER AND MY AVERAGE DI SCORE IN A MOCK IS 12-15 PER MOCK. HOW DO I IMPROVE IT?
thomas : in the first 5 minutes, scan all the four sets and select just 2 sets. now try to do these sets slowly and accurately. Note that even 7 or 8 qns correct can get you close to 98 percentile in most tests

advaith : AS SOMEONE WHO HASN'T YET COMPLETED HIS BASICS YET AND WORKING DAILY AND ATTENDED TIME CLASSES IN THE MORNING. WHAT SCHEDULE MUST BE FOLLOWED TO GET A PERCENTILE ABOVE 95?
kapildixit : 1. Basics inplace. 2. Lot-1 of study material. 3. Lot-2 of questions for additional practise. 4. Sectional Tests once all handouts topicwise completed. 5. SAMCATs in a scheduled manner 6. AIMCATs with detailed analysis

sr : HI SIR/MADAM, I AM HAVING 10 CGPA IN 10TH CBSE AND 95.4 IN 12 TH CBSE AND I AM A GRADUATE FROM NIT CALICUT BUT CGPA IS A BIT LOW AROUND 6.86 AND HAVE 2+ YEARS WORK EXPERIENCE AS A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER IN A STARTUP SO WHAT WILL BE MY PROFILE SCORE AND WILL I HAVE A CHANCE TO GET INTO A GOOD B SCHOOLS.
raghunathkrishnan : There is nothing you can do now to change your past . So stop worrying about your past and put all your focus on doing well in CAT and excelling in the subsequent stages of the selection process

sam : HOW MANY MOCKS SHOULD I GIVE WEEKLY
thomas : give 2-3 mocks per week. make sure that you analyse each mock after writing. That is how you improve, by understanding your mistakes and not repeating them

bhavya : I AM HAVING PROBLEM WITH MY QUANTS, ANY TIPS FOR IMPROVEMENT
raghunathkrishnan : Pl. sit down with quant faculty at your centre. Have you done that

sr : MY PROFILE SCORE IS 9/9/6 A GRADUATE FROM NIT CALICUT AND SCHOOLING IN CBSE, WITH 2 YEAR WORK EXPERIENCE IN IT IN STARTUP HOW MUCH PERCENTILE SHOULD I NEED TO GET TO GET INTO BLACKI ? ALAO IAM GEM.
amitpoddar : you need anything close to 97-99+. Try to give your best and score as much as you can. That is what is in your hands now.

bhcn3q500 : SIR THE "INTERMEDIATE" LEVEL SECTIONAL TESTS FOR QA SECTION IS NOT TOPIC WISE, RATHER IT HAS ALL AREAS IN EACH TEST. SINCE CLASSES OF ALL TOPICS ARE NOT DONE YET, SHOULD I STILL START TAKING THESE TESTS?
kapildixit : Have you completed Basic level sectional tests? If yes , you can start with Intermediate also as by now you would have covered most of the topics, if no use Basic first go to Lot-1/ 2 exercise booklets.

dlca2am65 : HULLO SIR, I AM A REPEATER AND MY AVERAGE DI SCORE IN A MOCK IS 12-15 PER MOCK. HOW DO I IMPROVE IT?
thomas : already answered

vishal : HOW TO PRACTICE MORE LR QUESTION BECAUSE IN MY BATCH I HAVE ONLY 2 TO 3 CLASS OF LR. THEY ARE NOT TALKING LR SERIOUSLY.
thomas : do not wait for the topic to be covered in class. do them yourself and qns you have a doubt, you can take it to class and clear it when that topic is being covered or in the doubt sessions

sr : HI, HOW TO COMPLETE THE SYLLABUS AND DO MOCK SIDE BY SIDE, CAN YOU GIVE AN IDEAL PLAN
amitpoddar : Try to have a weekly plan of some chapters to be covered in all the three areas. Additionally, take 5-10 sectionals , one SAMCAT and one AIMCAT every week. This should work for the next 2 months, And then change the plan a bit based on the course completion.

ankit : PUNE UNIVERSITY HAS CHANGED THE NOMENCLATURE OF BCA TO BBA(CA) I.E. BACHELOR'S OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION( COMPUTER APPLICATIONS) SO IN CAT FORM SHOULD I SELECT MY UNDERGRAD COURSE AS BBA OR BCA?
philipthomas : You should go along with whatever is mentioned in your marksheet.

sam : THE RESULT AND ANALYSIS OF AIMCAT COMES AFTER 2-3 DAYS HOW CAN WE ANALYSE MOCKS AFTER THAT MUCH GAP
philipthomas : You should not analyse after each AIMCAT, do the analysis after 3 AIMCATs ,this will enable you to spot trends and work out correctives

em : SIR/MAM, MY PROFILE IS AS FOLLOWS - 10TH - 10 CGPA, 12TH - 83% (PCM), BA ECON (HONS.) - 73.4%, MBA - 7.43 GPA, WORK EX- 1.5 + YRS , BANKING. WHAT SHOULD BE BY TARGET PERCENTILE FOR FPM IN TOP IIMS?
thomas : you can expect calls with a score above 85 percentile

vardhan : HELLO SIR
thomas : hello. Please post your question

vardhan : I AM RIGHT NOW IN MY 4 TH SEMESTER OF 3 YEARS DEGREE BUT BY THE TIME I APPEAR FOR CAT I WILL BE IN MY FINAL YEAR AND I SELECTED 4TH SEMESTER IN MY MY APPLICATION WILL MY APPLICATION GET REJECTED
kapildixit : if you are writing CAT in November, you are ideally in 5th sem of a three year degree course. So you will be selecting 5th sem only.

em : DOING SELF-PREP FOR CAT 23 FOR FPM. THERE ISN'T ENOUGH INFO AVAILABLE FOR FPM LIKE CUTOFF FOR TOP COLLEGES, INTERVIEW PROCESSES, SELECTION CRITERIA ETC AS THERE IS FOR MBA. HOW TO PREP FOR THE ADMISSION PROCESS & SUCH? ALSO PLS LET ME KNOW OF INFO SOURCES, IF ANY.
thomas : right now concentrate on the test and make sure you score well above the minimum required(85). we will help you with the interview , after the exam is over.

akshat : I AM GEM I AM CURRENTLY GETTING 90 PERCENTILE HOW MUCH SHOULD I IMPROVE IN THIS MONTH?
amitpoddar : It is more about about selecting more doable questions in the AIMCATs apart from improving on your knowledge base.A good mix of strategy and your knowledge. So, cover more chapters and try to cross 95%ile in some mocks at least.

bhumika : IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO REVISIT THE SETS WE HAVE GONE THROUGH BUT COULD NOT ANSWER THEM IN FIRST GO OR WE SHOULD KEEP SOLVING COMPLETELY NEW SETS IN DILR?
thomas : it is always advisable to try the sets which you could not do in the test, after the test is over. refer to the solutions after you have tried them and see whether you missed any better method of solving them

sam : I AM GENERAL MALE WITH 94.8/90.67/90+ - 10/12/UG - BBA (3 YEARS) HOW MUCH SHOULD I TARGET FOR BLACKI, MDI, FMS, AND PLEASE TELL IF I AM ELIGIBLE FOR IITS
amitpoddar : Try to score as much as you can. Anything beyond 95%ile could help you reach your Dream college. you are eligible for some IITs like IIT D, Madras,etc.

ankit : WILL IIFT ACCEPT CAT THIS YEAR?
thomas : looks like. we will let you know when an official announcement is made.

bhumika : IDEALLY HOW MANY QUESTIONS OF QUANTS FROM A PARTICULAR TOPIC SHOULD BE SOLVED TO HAVE A GOOD HOLD ON IT?
kapildixit : Practice makes a man perfect. More and more practice will only improve you, no such concrete answer in terms of number of questions.

vardhan : SO THAT MEANS MY APPLICATION WILL BE REJECTED??
amitpoddar : Answered

sam : I AM NOT ABLE TO SOLVE ANY SET IN DILR WHAT SHOULD I DO?
govindrajan : Once you read the initial few lines of a puzzle/DI set, you will get to know what kind of puzzle/DI set we are going to solve. This does not take more than 30 to 40 seconds. Give a quick read to the given data spending about a minute time. Do not try to analyse the information at this stage. Spend a couple of minutes to read the questions and the type of answer choices. In case the questions have "If" conditions, it indicates that we get more than one possible solution. The questions let us know how to use the given information. All these should happen in about 3 minutes. Then start going through the information carefully. While doing this decide which statement to be picked up first and the order in which the other pieces of information are to be used. This way we can have a smooth flow of thought process and take less time to solve.

soni : I AM CURRENTLY DOING GRADUATE APPRENTICESHIP TRAINEE IN ONE OF THE REPUTED COMPANY WHICH IS OF THE 1 YEAR TERM BUT TO PREPARE FOR CAT I AM THINKING OF LEAVING THE COMPANY WILL THIS 7 MONTHS COUNT AS WORK EXP FOR APPLYING FOR CAT
philipthomas : Apprenticeship is not considered as work experience.

sam : WHICH TOPICS SHOULD I TARGET FOR GETTING 20+ MARKS IN QUANTS
kapildixit : Algebra, Arithmetic and Geometry will give you sufficient questions but selective study of topics is not advisable. Leave only those 1/2 topics in which you are too weak.

bhartic : HOW TO PREPARE FOR NMAT ALONGSIDE CAT
amitpoddar : Begin with doing some NMAT mocks and then identify some chapters which you have not touched yet and start solving those. For English, do a bit of Vocab , grammar and CR.

akshat : SIR HOW DO I IMPROVE IN DILR SECTION
govindrajan : Solve all the questions from self administered AIMCATs, AIMCATs and lot to study material two to three times. While practicing focus on the approaches taken but not on how much time you are taking to solve a set. Even if it takes little longer time, as you practice you will be able to solve in lesser time. Exposing yourself to different types of DILR sets is the way out.

shivansh : HELLO SIR,I HAVE 8 HONS PAPER AND 7 SUBSIDIARY PAPERS (ALL OF 100 MARKS) LISTED IN MY GRADUATION (B.COM HONS FROM PATLIPUTRA UNIVERSITY,BIHAR) MARK SHEET. USUALLY, WE CONSIDER ONLY HONS MARKS WHILE FILLING OTHER FORMS. DO WE HAVE TO CONSIDER ALL THE MARKS (HONS+SUBSIDIARY) IN THE ACADEMIC SECTION OF THE CAT FORM OR JUST ONLY HONS NUMBERS?
philipthomas : All marks entered in your mark list

soni : ANY INFORMATION REGARDING CAT EXAM TIMINGS ?
kapildixit : There are usually three slots in a day- Morning: 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM Afternoon: 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM Evening: 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM

sam : WHEN WILL OMETS MOCKS APPEAR ON MY DASHBOARD
amitpoddar : By month end, most likely.

sarbjeet : WHAT IS THE CRITERIA FOR EWS CATEGORY?
amitpoddar : Candidate's annual family income must be less than Rs. 8 lakhs per annum. Their family must not own more than 5 acres of agriculture land.

manu : I HAVE DONE MY GRADUATION IN BA WITH ENGLISH AND HISTORY LAST YEAR, THIS YEAR IS MY FIRST ATTEMPT FOR CAT,I HAVE NO WORK EX,WHAT SHOULD I DO TO MAKE MY CV LOOK BETTER LIKE ANY COURSES OR SOMETHING?
raghunathkrishnan : Yes, you can do some on line courses. You can join some NGO like MAD

rahul : OBC MALE ENGINEER WITH 74/65/8.6 WORK EX 12+ MONTHS CAT PERCENTILE FOR BLACKI? IS IT POSSIBLE FOR MY PROFILE?
philipthomas : It is possible with your profile provided you get a 95+ percentile.

sam : HOW MUCH RAW SCORE SHOULD I TARGET FOR 98+ %TILE SECTION WISE AND OVERALL
shashidar : VARC around 35, DILR around 22, Quants around 25

sarbjeet : IN CASE I WANT TO ENROLL FOR ANOTHER MOCK TEST SERIES, WHICH INSTITUTE IS RECOMMENDED FOR THIS?
kapildixit : T.I.M.E SAMCATs, AIMCATs are more than sufficient along with sectional tests.

sriharsha : I GAVE CAT 22 AND SCORED A PERCENTILE OF 87.5 WITH SECTION-WISE PERCENTILES OF VARC-33 DILR-98 QUANT-85 I DECIDED TO RE-ATTEMPT THE CAT AND STARTED PREPARING AGAIN BUT MY SCORES IN VARC ARE NOT IMPROVING AT ALL, EVEN IN AIMCATS I AM NOT ABLE TO CLEAR THE CUT-OFF IN THE VARC SECTION AT LEAST ONCE.
raghunathkrishnan : Pl go through your AIMCAT analysis on your home page. Sit down with your VARC faculty at your centre and understand the root cause of the problem-- Wrong question selection , Too many minus marks etc etc.

rahul : IS LEAVING NUMBER SYSTEM ADVISABLE AS I AM NOT COMFORTABLE IN SOLVING THEM
kapildixit : Not advisable as it is the basis for many quant concepts.

manu : DO I NEED TO DO SPECIFIC ONLINE COURSES ON FINANCE OR ANY OTHER IF I WISH TO PURSUE FINANCE?
kapildixit : Not essentially but it gives a boost to your understanding of finance and helps you in convincing in the interview room that Why Finance? if you do not have a background.

sam : DO YOU PROVIDE GDPI PREP ALSO
raghunathkrishnan : Yes. This will be done by the individual centres generally after CAT exam

shivansh : SIR, I AM EWS MALE NON-ENGINEER WITH 82/67/69.4 IN 10TH 12TH AND GRADUATION. I AM CURRENTLY GETTING AROUND 40–50 MARKS IN AIMCAT'S. HOW MUCH PERCENTILE FOR ME IS REQUIRED TO GET ANY IIM'S ?
philipthomas : You will require a 95+ percentile.

sam : CAN WE HAVE A MATRIX SUGGESTING %TILE FOR SCORES
kapildixit : 99%ile- @83+ 95%ile- @60+ 90%ile- @48+ 85%ile- @41+ these are tentative based on CAT 22 data

soni : SIR, I AM MALE ENGINEER WITH 82/91/8.8 IN 10TH 12TH AND GRADUATION. I AM CURRENTLY GETTING AROUND 45 MARKS IN AIMCAT'S. HOW MUCH PERCENTILE IS REQUIRED FOR ME TO GET ANY IIM'S
amitpoddar : You need to try to cross that 95%ile point and then move beyond that. Maximise the score in your strongest area.

sriharsha : DO GAPS NEGATIVELY AFFECT OUR OVERALL SCORE?
raghunathkrishnan : Do not brood about the past. Concentrate on getting a good score in CAT/XAT

sourya : HOW MUCH MARKS I SHOULD GET IN AIMCAT FOR APPROX 99+ PERCENTILE
amitpoddar : It will vary as per the difficulty level of the paper. Anything close to 85-90 should be good enough.

sourya : DOES GEM CANDIDATE HAVE ANY CHANCE IN IIM ABC
amitpoddar : Off Course. Just try to maximise your scores by enhancing your knowledge and getting to the strategy. Practise as much as you can and keeping taking regular tests to identify your weak areas.