Why your CAT preparation plans are failing ?

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    It's June already and with 6 months left for the D-day, if you are still struggling to finalize your preparation strategy or to enjoy your preparation hours, it is high time to sort out the gaps. In this note, I will try to share some of my thoughts in this regard. This won't be about How to prepare for CAT in 6 months, but mostly about why you didn't prepare for CAT till now. (As usual, ignore the grammar mistakes :) )

    Don't get addicted to planning, you already know what needs to be done

    There is a lot of demand for CAT preparation strategies that our prep forums are flooded with them, guiding and misguiding aspirants (some with very useful tips and many of them with just toppers boasting). Many CAT aspirants use these articles to reassure themselves to continue their evil plan to loiter time like - I agree I did nothing useful till now but look at this IIM A guy. He cracked CAT in just 3 months.. means I can also do it in 3 months. Wrong! The person who wrote the article will have a completely different set of strengths and weakness compared to yours. Sooner or later, you will find other articles which says CAT syllabus can be done in 2 months, 50 days, 1 month, 1 week and finally from someone who cracked it without any preparation at all. Most of you, who are preparing for CAT, already knows what needs to be done to crack the exam and trust me when I say, that's all it needs. There is no magic tricks here. Finish your theory, Solve good number of questions and take the mocks. Done!

    Build a purpose (No, not the philosophical one)

    Most of the CAT aspirants are not motivated enough to enjoy their preparation. They still can't convince their heart and brain to read a newspaper editorial everyday or to attend the awesome sessions happening in various forums. They get exhausted/bored soon and the main culprit is usually not the lack of a plan but the lack of a purpose. Why you need to read editorials, why you need to solve those intimidating quant problems or why you need to spend your time solving lengthy DILR sets ? I will try to explain this with another question!

    Why you want to spend 2 precious years and 2 million INR into an MBA program ?

    You might say - for a higher pay, to extent your academic pursuit, to earn some social currency, to enter a challenging work environment or to enjoy a high profile lifestyle (you know all those suits, foreign travels, star hotel stays... which makes your FB profile looks like a Karan Johar Movie ;) ). All are good reasons. But have you ever thought what's happening inside a B school that makes its students worth of all this good stuffs ? Again, there is no magic here. I started my career a decade back and I had the good fortunate to work closely with people who were graduated from top business schools. All these folks were so wonderful that it was a treat watching them work. In my observation, the common trait of these people were their ability to handle pressure and to get things done. They go through various hurdles every single day and somehow they managed to build an attitude like "Hey look, another challenge! Let's get this done!". What is the role of a B-School in this ? Did they transformed them ? I feel No. They didn't transformed them, but the grilling MBA program polished the skills they already had. The Life inside a B-School is tough and many a times, even getting a decent sleep itself becomes a challenge. Once you managed the hell, fire walk becomes a cake walk, right ?


    A B-school do not CREATE this attitude, they polish it through their rigorous curriculum. You have to create this attitude yourself. Whatever challenges you face in your preparation, which stops you from doing what is necessary to crack CAT, is your opportunity to prove that you deserve to be in a good Business School.. To prove that you are a person who is worth that fat pay check.. that you are a person who can handle challenging business roles and can get things done.. If you are not building this kind of attitude and just keep dreaming about that sweet pay-check and Euro trip, it is not going to workout. So If a question is posing an evil smile, just say, "I don't know how to solve you yet, But I will learn it and then I will solve you!"

    Check out our collection of 10,000+ quant questions and 150+ concept notes - Mission IIMpossible 2019 - (Quant)

    All the best folks!

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