The score is what determines whether a candidate succeeds or fails in an exam. The same holds for the CAT; the first step to securing admission at the highly regarded Indian Institutes of Management is the CAT.
The score is also determined by two factors: accuracy and number of attempts. These two factors are interdependent. They act almost like arch enemies most of the time. The number of attempts can be increased, but accuracy is affected. The number of attempts will drop if accuracy is the main focus.
Are there ways to make these arch-enemies into friends? Simple answer: Yes
Selection of questions
There must be no other way. You must answer all sections in the given time, which is 60 minutes according to the CAT. If time allows, you can move on to the more difficult questions once you have answered the easier ones. This requires that you choose the questions to be answered, and then judge their difficulty level by reading them. It is important not to skip any difficult questions in the test. How many times have you realized that you missed some simple questions on the test? You don't have to answer them all. There could be simple questions that you didn't even consider. This is a huge mistake in the context of the CAT.
How can you make sure you don't miss easy questions? Each question must be viewed carefully and you should decide whether it can be attempted or not based on its topic/concept and your knowledge of the subject. Only attempt questions that seem feasible. You will be able to complete the paper in the time allowed and ensure that you don't miss any easy questions. Once you have completed the paper, it is time to make a second pass. This will allow you to select the easiest questions from the remaining ones. To ensure that you attempt the most difficult questions, you could do as many passes as needed. This will make sure that you only work on the most difficult questions.
You would have asked two questions:
How can I tell if a question is possible?
The main factors here are practice and exposure. You can increase your chances of encountering certain types of questions in the exam by practicing more.
How can I get to the end of the paper on time?
You will learn to avoid difficult questions and will only attempt the easy ones. Let's assume that the number of easy questions is around 15. To reach the end of the paper, you would need to spend no more than 30-45 mins in a worst-case scenario (two-three minutes for each easy question). If the number of questions you have is less than 15, it will be easier to reach the end.
You will be able to complete the paper if there are more easy questions than you have. In the best scenario, this means that you will get around 30 questions, and in the worst-case scenario, about 20 questions. You don't need to think too hard because there are so many simple questions.
Read the following paragraph and then try to integrate it with the one above.
Many of the AIMCAT scores/percentiles would be visible by now. You may have also seen the actual scores from CAT. It would be obvious that the 99 percentile was hovering around the 55-65 percentage level. This would mean one could answer 75 percent of the questions and expect to fall within the 99 percentile range. If you don't answer the remaining 25% of questions, then you only have about one hour to complete each section. This is for approximately 25-26 questions. This means that the time per question is reduced from 1.7-1.8 minutes (if all questions are counted) to 2.4 minutes. A scenario that is somewhere in between the worst and best cases will be the most effective for you. It will also put you in the 99+ percentile. You will need to work harder to push it past that.
How will question selection make arch enemies into friends?
Let's see. At any given moment, you have only answered the easiest questions on the paper. An easy question takes less time to answer. Naturally, the number of attempts goes up. The chances of you getting it wrong are also lower when the question is simple, especially compared to the more difficult questions. We are increasing both accuracy and the number of attempts.
Here are some additional tips on how to select the right question.
You are asked the following question: Should we scan the paper first or do we answer the questions on the go according to the difficulty level? It would depend on which section you are working on. It is not logical to go back to questions in a section such as Verbal Ability after scanning them. Most of the questions can be answered or left out during the first reading.
The constraints for the Quantitative Ability section are however different. You can leave the questions unanswered for the first reading and solve them later if you have identified all the difficult questions on the paper. This would lead to duplication of effort when it comes to reading the same questions again. The reason is that the information about the question won't stay in your mind after scanning is complete. You will need to read the question again once the scan is finished. You can avoid this by dividing the time allocated for each section into chunks. For example, divide 60 minutes into four chunks each of 15 minutes. In each chunk of 15 minutes, concentrate on one set of questions that you want to scan for difficulty and attempt. You can make sure that every question is read and that you attempt all of the medium-to-hard questions.
Similar steps can be taken for the DILR section. The advantage is that many questions would already be divided into sets. This makes your job easier.
Your mental state will be a major factor in passing the exam. You need to keep your cool, forget all the hoopla and focus on the exam.
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