When he was asked in an interview on how he saw the game of winning (football or life), Joe Paterno, the most successful American football coach, had this to say: "every game has one or two moments that will define the outcome of the gameNot knowing when they will occur, means that you had to be prepared at all the times throughout the game to capitalize on those moments" there lies the funda for all of us to be ready to bell the CAT by being ready at all times to encash every opportunity that life throws at us.

The CAT 2012 is few months away and the prepared mind is really nervous. At such times we need strategies to continually get better of the best of us. Here are some of the suggestions to do the same.

The prima facie step would be to get appropriate information as to when the entrance exam is to be held, places where forms are available, date of submission of the forms and various subjects that are part of the syllabus. CAT 2012 exams are mostly held in the month of November and the subjects comprising in the entrance are quantitative ability, data interpretation, data sufficiency, logical reasoning, reading comprehension and verbal ability. The aspiring CAT student should do a strength weakness analysis on self to know about his/her capabilities and accordingly plan schedule for studies. One can know the areas of weakness and strength by attempting 3-4 mock tests. The candidate should work on improving weaker areas and should devote more time to them. CAT candidate should not miss out areas of strength also and should practice them to attain better marks.

Abilities checked in CAT Exam

• The CAT exam usually tests your abilities in the following areas:
• Quantitative Aptitude
• Data Interpretation
• Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning.

The candidate should divide appropriate time to each subject. Whether it is a college student or working professional, who is appearing for the CAT exam, each one should start preparing for it 10- 12 months before the exam. A proper chart should be made allocating time to different subjects and following it properly. Time management is utmost important for CAT students. One should get into the habit of reading good literature. Since CAT is a difficult entrance exam so the candidates require proper guidance for the preparation. Several institutes provide guidance to aspiring students. While choosing an adequate CAT institute candidates should check the faculty, course content they teach and how many mock tests they hold for practice of students.

CAT candidate must keep attempting practice tests and keep track of his/her performance in all the areas. The candidate should try rectifying the errors and avoid repeating them again. After clearing the obstacle of written CAT exam the candidate faces GD and interview. For both these phases a candidate should have vast knowledge about current events and market trends. In these CAT candidates are tested for communication skills, team work along with leadership qualities and personal attributes. Confidence is most important in these two phases.

The CAT 2010 topper Kr. Anubhav shares his experience and says: “CAT was different from other exams. Though every exam required unique preparation still they had many things in common too. CAT requires proper understanding of the basics as well as the ability to apply them in time. Other exams such as FMS and JMET were not hard problem solving kind but yes they indeed check your speed along with the accuracy thus the practice is necessary beforehand.”

Finally, Here are some suggestions for the preparation towards India’s most reputed competitive exam. The first being, ‘Understanding’. If you are passionate about doing MBA, then you are halfway in the process. You might have come across the quote, “When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one and you reach that deep well, where passion lives; nothing is impossible.” Yes, it takes a lot of passion and belief for one to reach, where they wanted to be; again, if you are passionate on what you want to do and ready to put the effort, then that’s a great start. Secondly, “Planning”. Planning is very essential for the preparation of CAT. You must start with collecting information about the CAT preparation material; if required, do inquire about the CAT coaching institutions. There are plenty of good coaching institutions; you can choose one, by the quality of coaching they provide. Some say collecting all the required material in the beginning will be useful; that might be helpful, but you may not have all the time in the world to do that. No one knew what to be expected on the examination paper, so it is better to get started. The more you delay, the more you stress yourself; form a good strategy that works for you, such as spending couple of hours a day and may be spending more time during the weekends. A systematic approach will help you with gauging, where you stand towards your goal. Along with all this proper ‘Execution’ is very crucial. From your planning process, you must have decided, when you are deciding to take the exam. Once decided, you start working towards that goal.

You should slowly increase the pace of your preparation; being consistent in your preparation is quite crucial. You should start discovering the areas, where you are strong and where there is a room for improvement. You must make your stronger area into the strongest and work towards improving the weaker sections. Always keep yourself motivated; do not stress yourself, by studying all the time. Over dosage often, as they say, kills. Hence, it is better to prepare at the pace, which would be working best for you. And no one better than you can calibrate the amount of effort, you can expel towards the preparation. Keep check-points in your schedule to see the trend in your performance, if the trend is pointing towards growth or positive direction, and that’s what you wanted.

A suggestion would be that you start with understanding the concepts of the areas to be tested, followed by speeding up the process; through such processes, you can quickly get to results! Do not let go your passion at any cause; always keep your spirit high. And last but not least; keep up the hard work, until your exams are on the verge!