Why Taking Sectional Mocks is More Important Than Full-Length Mocks for CAT?

Why Taking Sectional Mocks is More Important Than Full-Length Mocks for CAT?

The "Common Admission Test" (CAT) is a nationally applicable exam for admission to any postgraduate program offered by institutions that are part of the IIM system. This gives entry to the 21 IIMs, and NITIE Mumbai has joined the cluster as IIM Mumbai. The speed-based CAT exam touches upon all subjects, including Quantitative Ability (QA), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC). The level of difficulty for the exam is moderate to high.

Over two lakh applicants sit for the CAT exam each year. CAT 2023 saw a record-breaking 3.30 lakh applications, and 3.29 lakh people have registered for CAT 2024. In addition to the IIMs, candidates who pass the CAT exam can enroll in more than 1300 MBA programs in India.

Full Length vs. Sectional Mocks

Sectional mocks are more important than full-length mocks for CAT preparation because they enable concentrated improvement in particular areas of weakness, resulting in a more strategic approach to preparation.

Compared to the three-hour full-length mock exams, sectional mocks are less exhausting.

Here's a more thorough analysis:

Early Stage Focus:
You can efficiently manage your study time by using sectional mocks to determine your strengths and weaknesses in (Verbal Ability, Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation, and Logical Reasoning).

Improved comprehension
Achieving a high score requires a deeper comprehension of the subtleties of each section, which sectional tests offer.

Gaining Self-Belief:
Performing well on sectional mocks increases your confidence in your ability to do well on the test.

Time Management:
While full-length practice tests are useful for mimicking exam conditions, sectional practice tests can assist you in creating efficient time management plans for every section.

Making a Strategic Plan:
You can save time and strategically focus your preparation by concentrating on your weaknesses rather than your strengths early on.

Why Conduct a Mock Test?

The only way to assess your present level of readiness and adjust your preparation strategy is to take a practice exam. Additionally, it familiarizes you with the types of questions that could be asked on the MBA entrance exam. You have a great chance of passing the CAT with a high percentile if you can answer the questions from the previous five years. Mock assessments inform candidates on which topics they have mastered. After that, they can focus their education on other topics and devote as little time as possible to the subjects they understand.

Importance of CAT mocks: Why is it necessary?
Analyze Strengths and Weaknesses:

The practice test will force you to analyze your areas of strength and weakness. It is crucial to focus on the subjects that you find challenging while continuing to practice the ones that you find easy. You can answer every question when you are working on a single topic. However, you become disoriented as soon as the mock appears. When you solve mocks, you can find and fix all problems.
Additionally, you will comprehend the questions that you can answer under any circumstances, and you will be able to use this strength to your advantage during the test. It will therefore assist you in preparing your approach, which brings us to the final and most crucial point.

Time - Management:

Time management is an essential component of CAT. You have an average of 1.7 minutes for each question in the 60 minutes allotted for each section, which consists of 34 questions (32 for DILR). And I assure you that the majority of the questions require more time than this. Therefore, time management becomes crucial for CAT, and mocks are a better way to measure this.
You will notice that you have spent a lot more time on some questions that might not have been necessary when you first start giving mock exams. Because of this, you can’t complete the required number of questions. Providing dummy cats will assist you in this regard.
Mocks will help you determine how much time to spend on each question, which ones to answer, and which ones to ignore.

Familiarizes you with the test:
Mocks are a replica of the CAT Exam. Professionals who have studied the previous CAT format and are familiar with the IIMs' CAT exam preparation methodology have chosen them. It can be intimidating to administer the CAT exam because of the time limit, pressure, need for concentration, etc.
Mocks will assist in familiarizing oneself with this. You will become familiar with the exam procedure and time management skills needed for the test day. Additionally, it will expose you to the same stress and exam environment that you will have experienced on the exam day.

When can I begin taking the mock CATs?

Practice tests should be started weeks before the test if a student is serious about taking the CAT. Prior to these weeks, you should complete your foundational preparation and become acquainted with the ideas. It is important to remember that you should only offer standard mock CATs that range in difficulty and cover all relevant subjects. To get the most out of these mock CATs, you should focus on your preparation, evaluate the mocks, and strengthen your areas of weakness.

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Final verdict

Mocks are as important to your overall preparedness as learning the basics. Most students prefer to focus on answering topic-based questions because they think mock exams are useless. However, this creates problems when the test is given. If you do well on one or two mocks, try not to get ahead of yourself. If you look at the success stories of toppers, you will see that they have all followed the same motto: solve as many mocks as you can. So, start practicing and get ready to ace the CAT on test day! I hope this article about the significance of cat mocks is useful to you.

Sambhavi Prakash