CAT is one of the most competitive exams in the world. The race to secure a seat at one of the top IIMs is fierce – IIM A, for example, selects around 400 students from over 2 lakh CAT aspirants (0.2% success rate), while the Harvard Business School selects around 1000 students from just 10,000 applicants (10% success rate). So, statistically, you could say that making it to IIM Ahmedabad is nearly 50 times tougher than making it to Harvard. That, though not completely true, indicates how competitive CAT is.
Given this context, what is the ideal time to start your preparation for CAT?
There are 3 factors you should consider to arrive at a close-to-ideal duration for yourself.
Factor 1
CAT does not require you to sit at home and slog away mindlessly. You can prepare for CAT along with your college or your job. In fact, that generally works better from the interview angle and it also allows your prep to be more productive and positive. But then, being in a college or job does limit the number of hours you can invest in your CAT Preparation daily and has an impact on the ideal duration for which you need to prepare. A comprehensive prep for CAT usually requires around 1000 hours. This number could be a little higher, in case you are weak in more than one of the areas (English, Quant, DILR) being tested or a little lower if you are really good in all/most of these areas.
So, depending upon the number of hours you can look to invest daily given your college/job schedule, you can estimate the ideal time for beginning your CAT Preparation. For someone who can put in 3 hours daily, a 10-11 month kind of a prep period is ideal.
Factor 2
You need to assess if you are uncomfortable around numbers, logic or language. For example, if you are weak in an area such as English (which, being a language, takes more time to improve) a longer duration prep will give you a better shot at success. That’s because developing certain areas, or overcoming our fears, is not simply a function of the total number of hours. It needs a certain duration to happen. Similarly, if you have a phobia of Maths (Quantitative Ability), then you may need to spend additional time building the basics from sources such as the NCERT books of Grades 7 to 10 and overcoming your fear in the process.
Factor 3
The final factor you need to keep in mind is your intensity. If you are not a sincere CAT aspirant, then you may not sustain your focus and intensity over a long period. In such a case, a shorter duration CAT Coaching of say 5-6 months would perhaps be better suited to you. In that case, you will have to put in 6-7 hours daily in your CAT Prep unless you have an innate aptitude for the areas being tested. On the other hand, if CAT is a priority for you, and you want a better balance between your CAT Prep and your college/job requirements, a longer duration of 10-15 months (which would mean a daily investment of 2-3 hours) would be more suited to you. Also, you can always access the best coaching classes for CAT to gain a decisive edge over your competitors.
Most of the students who succeed finally, figure out the duration and intensity that best suits them.
It is advisable to plan your duration of your CAT Preparation around these 3 factors: the daily time you can invest, weaker areas that you may need to develop comfort in, and your likelihood of maintaining intensity throughout your preparation.
About the author: Deekshant has sleep-walked through several 100 and 99.9 %iles in practically every section of the CAT. That he is a cricket fan and he writes okay is evident from most of his posts. 1000s of our students swear that he can motivate almost anyone to double his/her percentile through very simple yet powerful inputs. And that’s why every MBAGuru student has direct access to him via mail and Telegram. Oddly, he somehow also finds the time to write songs professionally. And yes … almost missed this … he is an alumnus of IIT Delhi & IIM Cal 