I am planning to start preparation for upcoming cat exams in December. So can anyone please give me certain tips and guidelines which I should follow before starting my preparations and also I am planning to do self-study so if anyone can help me in making a proper schedule for CAT exam(like topic wise, test series), I will be thankful for it.

Thanks for asking, i am grateful to share my views here. 1. Quantitative Aptitude:: Start with the basics Getting your concepts clear is the key for Quant. It is important for the candidates to start by learning the concepts which are used to solve questions in this section. Raghav shares, “Quant was fairly easy and was based directly on concepts. So if you had sufficiently practiced all the quant, it is a cakewalk”. When you know the basic concepts, you must practice via examples. It is important to follow the concepts learned, and practice each concept by solving simple examples first, and gradually moving towards the difficult ones. Sarthak Nayak, CAT Topper from IIT Bombay, explains, “My strategy for Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation Section was to learn concepts, understand and workout on simple examples, then attempt difficult questions. By learning concepts and understanding them through examples, it was easy to understand and attempt difficult questions. To prepare for Quant section of CAT, books are the best source to learn the concepts and enhance your knowledge on a topic. Abishake Koul, CAT 2014 Topper, prepared from books and practiced from the practice papers available in the books. He says, “The best strategy to prepare for your weaker section is to follow a book. I followed Arun Sharma for QA and also practiced from the same”. Best Books for QA Suggested by Toppers- How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Arun Sharma Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CAT Common Admission Tests For Admission into IIMs by Sarvesh K Verma Quantitative Aptitude For Competitive Examinations by Guha Abhijit The Pearson Guide to Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Nishant Sinha Plan your preparation schedule Besides learning the concepts for Quant, it is equally important that you do not leave any topic uncovered. One of the important strategies to cover each topic is to make a Day-wise preparation plan and schedule some number of days to prepare for that topic. Allot the following number of days to the below given quant topics, Number System: Five days Algebra: Eight Days Geometry: Eight Days Permutation & Combination/Probability: Five Days Miscellaneous Topics: Five Days 2. Logical Reasoning And Data Interpretation You can follow these tips- Strategy for dealing with DI while attempting CAT should be very straight as well as flexible. Do not start solving any set immediately, but read all the sets first and then make a call on which set is more structured and has lesser variables in terms of conditions that can be put in a structured table or a format easily. Make a good choice across the sections and, having decided that, give all the time to that set only. There are going to be hurdles but that does not mean you leave the set and move on to another set, as you have already taken a decision and invested a lot of precious time in that set. You should make a sensible choice in picking up the right set and doing the right thing before investing any time in a particular set or just jumping from one set to another. Moving from set to set will exhaust you and kill your time. Even if you spend eight minutes in working out the entire set and the set is very clear, you can solve it immediately. Don’t be in a hurry that every two minutes you have to mark a question.Spend time on selection of the right set. Best Books for LR and DI Suggested by Toppers- Data Interpretation for the CAT by Arun Sharma Data Interpretation for the CAT by Nishit K. Sinha How to Prepare for Logical Reasoning for the CAT by Arun Sharma Verbal Ability And Logical Reasoning For The CAT by Nishit K. Sinha Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning by R. S. Aggarwal 3. Verbal ability and Reading Comprehension: Reading everything and anything will make you clear the RC's. Just don't be biased towards sports in newspapers as I am and you will do well. Another important thing. Learn to read online. CAT is not a paper based test. Try and find blogs and articles that will test your vocab and understanding in ways unprecedented. If you're serious, people might have already suggested The Hindu and the Financial Express(or the Economic times). Well, I have the same suggestion though I never followed it. Develop a liking towards reading and it will help you in your gdpi stages. If you're not a GEM, you might get a call or two as well. Use Grammarly extension to check your grammar mistakes. This is a greate tool to improve your English. Subscribe to Testfunda's newsletter. 5 words a day from today and if my calculations are correct , you will have learnt 1500+ words by the time you appear for CAT. Sweet! Don't just glance. See Understand Remember Engulf- be SURE. You already know of word power made easy and 30 days more to power full Vocab by Norman Lewis. Its cheap and good and useful. BUY it. And then - SURE. For grammar, I will suggest apart from the normal course material, The blue book of grammar and Punctuation. Best Books for VA and RC Suggested by Toppers- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension by Arun Sharma & Upadya(New Adition) Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT by Gautam Puri Full Set of Books: Complete course Pack for CAT [Set of 12 Books] (Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, Verbal Ability) Solve Previous Year CAT questions and Mock Tests. Practice Papers::: CAT 2018-27 Topic-wise & Year-wise (Solved Papers 1990-2017 CAT 18 Mock Tests (Common Admission Test) Includes Solved Paper Best of luck. read less

Dear Gaurav, I would suggest, first take a sample mock exam from any well know website like TestFunda.Com or other websites ( specifically for CAT) and understand your weak area and strong area. Based on that, we can make a plan. After taking MOCK exam, you contact me. I will provide my analysis also and based on our analysis, we can design a plan for your study. Thanks Himanshu read less

yes, CAT is an exam that checks your conceptual knowledge and your ability of handling the pressure situation, that is why it serves you unexpected things on the D day. So , the preparation must be according to the nature of exam. The exam comprises of 3 different sections, ie. VERBAL ABILITY AND READING COMPREHENSION , DATA INTERPRETATION AND LOGICAL REASONING ,and QUANTITATIVE ABILITY, of 60 mins durations each, with number of questions as 34, 32, 34 respectively. Now, you have nearly 6 months for the examination. so I'm preparing a timeline for your prep. I am dividing stuff into 3 different categories : 1) daily target 2) monthly target 3) mocks but before I land up to the practice schedule, let me specify some study resources for prep. 1.Buy any coaching material ( pref .TIME or CL ) . 2. quant : quantum cat by sarvesh 3. dilr : basic material : solve daily sudoku's and buy "the great book of puzzles and teasers by george j. summers " advanced material : coaching material along with previous year CAT actual papers till 2008 are sufficient. 4. verbal ability and reading comprehension : read as much you can. and try to read from diverse topics. along with that practice from your coaching material and for rc's practice from http://www.rcprep.com/ . PREP PLAN : 1. DAILY: A) 3 SETS OF RC B) 2-2 SETS OF DI AND LR C) ATLEAST 50 QUESTIONS FROM QUANT. MONTHLY : JUNE AND JULY : Complete your coaching material till the end of july, and as soon as you realize that 40-50 percent of your course is covered then start giving mock tests and take atleat 2-3 mocks i this duration. AUGUST - OCT : "MOCK TESTS " -- start giving 2 mocks every week in august and till oct give atleast 30 mocks and the most important part of giving mocks is the learning part which comes after giving a mock, ie . analysis. give twice as time for analysis of mock (6hrs) and solve each and every question of the mocks again. along with mocks, this is the time when you can build up speed in mathematics and there comes that book, quantum cat by sarvesh. solve it within this period. NOVEMBER - give mocks , make short notes on learnings, more and more focus on previous year cat papers. TEST SERIES : I will recommend you to join atleast two test series for variety. TIME + IMS or TIME + CL . choice is yours! at last , all i can say is that cat is an exam of uncertainties, so it is always wise to take other MBA exams such as NMAT, SNAP , MICA, XAT , IIFT along with CAT. hope it helps..all the best for your cat journey. (y) read less

Hi Gaurav, to prepare for CAT'17, you must first analyze your strengths and weaknesses through the three sections tested in CAT ie. QA, LRDI, VA. SO take a free mock first from some resources. Also one strategy can not work for all as a universal one. SO to before giving you any target on number of questions each day from various sections and a time table, would like to know from you more. Also I have seen in my 13 years of mentorship, 90% students do not have a command over the most basic concepts and if that is one case with you, no time and quantity will help you. rather building fundamental blocks on learning will do the needful. I hope you understand my point. You can join my group on Facebook CAT/GMAT preparation-Dhirati education for free to boost your preparation and get any guidance in future you need regarding preparation. read less

CAT is an unpredictable exam with surprising structure. Therefore it is the most important to start working of basics of all sections i.e. quant, resoning, data analysis, language command. start with reading one or two regular magazines and solving both soled and unsolved. for time table kindly inform your daily schedule. read less