CAT 2012: What are the eligibility criteria?

The eligibility criteria for appearing in CAT 2012 are as follows:

Minimum Eligibility:

Bachelor’s Degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA [45% in case of the candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Differently Abled (DA) (It may also referred to as Persons with Disability (PWD) category)], awarded by any of the Universities incorporated by an act of the central or state legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India.

Special Eligibility:

As per the Government of India requirements, 15% of the seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and 7½% for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates.  27% of seats are reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates belonging to the “non-creamy” layer.

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Author: MBARENDEZVOUS.COM

CAT 2012: Preparation pattern

The next few months are very crucial time for those who are appearing for CAT 2012. Most of you would have spent the last few months ensuring that you are well-prepared for what is rightfully considered as one of the toughest and most competitive entrance exams in India. However, there are also many needless apprehensions that students sometimes fall victim to, like what if this year, the format changes and create confusion for many of us.

However, IIMs have always made sure to announce any type of change in the exam pattern well in advance to avoid havoc and confusion. Also, a careful study of the examination reveals that students have no real reason to worry. If you’ve prepared well, you really shouldn’t have any trouble coping with the any sort of pattern change.

The latest drastic change in the CAT pattern occurred in the year 2011 when the question paper came divided in two sections instead of 3.

CAT 2011 was separated into two different sections:

Section I – Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation.

Section II – Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning.

Out of the total examination time of 140 minutes, examinees were given 70 minutes to solve 30 questions within each section. Once the 70 minutes were over, test-takers were not able to go back and attempt the questions that they were not able to complete in the given time.

Get prepared an achieve mission CAT 2012.

Author: MBARENDEZVOUS.COM

CAT 2012 Preparation countdown

The countdown of CAT 2012 has already started for those candidates who have made CAT their ultimate destination. Although the registrations for CAT 2012 is yet to start but candidates have already started giving mock tests to get an idea of their level of preparation.

With few months left for CAT2012, it is high time to start taking your preparation to the next level. By now you must have completed at least the basic preparation. Now, the next step is to check your areas of concern and to identify your strength to chalk out a plan accordingly for the D-Day. The best technique to do so is obviously by taking mock tests. 

Many out there believe that mocks tests are mimic of the actual test as they are similar in the pattern and presentation but to be very true, the mock tests never mimic the actual test; rather they try to mimic its unpredictability more closely and that makes you confident enough of facing anything and everything on the D-Day. 

Go for mock tests and achieve mission CAT 2012.

Author: MBARENDEZVOUS.COM

CAT 2012: Tips and Tricks - Verbal Ability

The new computer-based testing format of CAT has created quite a vacuum for strategies to tackle the verbal section, especially in handling the often boring and jargon-rich reading comprehension (RC) passages. Even strong performers are bound to find it hard to strategies time management on RC-based questions. 

An RC passage on the computer poses some real challenges. Some of them are:

• There's no way to underline the keywords in the questions as well as in the passage.
• One has to scroll down the passage using a 'scroller' as the complete passage is not visible at a time.
• You can read only one question (and NOT all the questions in one go as is possible with the paper-based CAT) at a time.
• It is expected that a lot of time will be wasted when a student has to re-read the passage every time a new question appears.
• Moreover, it is easier to spot the right place to get an answer to a particular question on paper rather than on a computer screen.
• Result: Time taken per question is bound to rise and the accuracy is adversely affected if the test is attempted in rush.

Hence, the way to attempt an RC-based question on the computer screen should be tweaked in order to minimize possible wastage. 

Practice & practice and achieve mission CAT 2012.

Author: MBARENDEZVOUS.COM

CAT 2012: 2 New tips for DI

Time allotment is the key factor if we talk about cracking the CAT 2012. There is this age old strategy that says - time allocation should be in the same proportion as marks allotted. So it becomes obvious that if the set consist of 5 question and 10 marks out of a total of 50 marks, one should spend around 10 minutes to solve it. Again when we look at the bifurcation of these 10 minutes, one should ideally spend 2 minutes in understanding the set. After the initial two minutes one can judge as how to approach further.  Hence the decision of selecting the set should not be done merely on the basis of graph. 

Read for interpretation:

Interpretation is what is tested in the section of DATA INTERPRETATION. A single misinterpretation from the hidden texts might mean disaster. Jot down the keywords like maximum/minimum, must be, can be, possible, etc. in your scratch sheet. These words if not given due importance can trap you and you will end up marking the wrong answers.

Organize the data:

Data analysis is what is expected from you and to check that analyzing skill of yours, generally the data given in the question is not in the structure that is required to answer the question. Hence the approach should be to organize data as per question asked. So that it becomes very imperative to read the questions before starting the solutions.

Author: MBARENDEZVOUS.COM

CAT 2012 preparation for Reading Comprehension

CAT itself has undergone a huge change over the last few years. From paper based test, it has become computer-based. And but obvious the difficulty level has gone up as well. These changes mean you need to rethink your strategy for RC that is in terms of preparation, as well as answering the set of questions.

You need to concentrate on 'Reading' and 'Comprehension' to ensure a good score. This means you must read as well as understand a range of topics like economics, philosophy, psychology, medicine, arts, anthropology, genetics, politics, etc.

Reading Speed: How important is it?

As per few old school experts, you need to have a minimum reading speed of around 350 words per minute to be able to make some headway in the exam.

But, is it actually required?

Yes, because the faster you read, the better it is for you. However, your reading speed need not be constant. Rather it can’t be; it will keep changing with the subject of topic. If you are an economics graduate, your speed in reading about medicine could be slower than your speed in reading about economics.

Is it possible to enhance reading speed?

Yes. Let's say your reading speed is 150 wpm. If you read for about half an hour today, with a conscious attempt to improve your speed and comprehension, can’t you make it 155 wpm in a week?

If you continue doing so every week, you can gradually improve your speed by, say 10 wpm per week. For now, you have close to 20 weeks. If you diligently make an effort to read for at least half an hour every day from various sources, you should be able to improve your reading speed by a cool 350 wpm in the time that remains. This means, even if you read at 100 wpm at present, you can reach close to 225 or 250 wpm before the exam. Increasing your reading speed is easy, provided you read for half an hour every day.

Practice and perseverance will help you to achieve mission CAT 2012.

Author: MBARENDEZVOUS.COM

Tips for CAT 2012 Preparation

Compare & Discard

This is immensely useful for the Reading Comprehension section of the CAT Exam.

While there may be a 'Perfect' answer to a question, it may not appear as one of the options. What you need to do is compare the different answer choices and choose the best one available. In fact you can usually zero down on two choices and discard the ones that are distinctly different from these two.

Use Short-cuts only when necessary

It is extremely important to be aware of all the possible shortcuts that are available to you, however, these are to be used only if you are unable to apply the ‘regular’ methods.

Analyze your Strengths & Weaknesses and create a study plan unique to them.

The important thing here is NOT to ignore your strengths, and to stick to your study plan.

Managing Test Anxiety

More than anything else, the CAT is a test of your nerves. There are hundreds of brilliant students who score MUCH lower in the CAT than they do in their practice tests. It is important to manage your test anxiety.

  

Author: MBARENDEZVOUS.COM