CAT (Common Admission Test) is a national-level entrance test for admission to prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). CAT 2021 will be conducted in November 2021 by IIM Ahmedabad, the exam conducting body for the 2021 exam. Final year undergraduate students have a good chance of cracking the exam by following a meticulous approach for CAT 2021 preparation. It would be prudent for final year undergraduate aspirants to give around 25-30 hours a week to prepare well for CAT 2021 exam. 

CAT aspirants who are in their final year of graduation have several advantages in CAT preparation like more time to take coaching and the overlap of CAT Quantitative Aptitude Syllabus and the Syllabus of several engineering and management courses. Check CAT 2021 Syllabus

Latest Update: CAT 2021 notification will be released in the last week of July 2021 on the official website iimcat.ac.in. CAT 2021 exam is scheduled to take place in the last week of November 2021. Check CAT 2021 Exam Schedule

Read the full article for all the tips and strategies on how to prepare for CAT exam for final year undergraduate students. 

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CAT 2021 Study Plan for Final Year Undergraduate Students

With only a few months remaining for CAT 2021 exam, it is strongly recommended for you to have a comprehensive and customized study plan that you will pursue over the next few months before CAT exam. Also, you must first identify your strengths and weaknesses and further divide each one into two parts. 

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• CAT Preparation Tips
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Section-wise CAT Preparation Tips for Final Year Undergraduate Students

Section 1: Verbal Ability

1. Read various kinds of magazines and books, including those beyond your comfort zone. This will help you find a lot of new words. 

2. Attempt a number of VARC mock tests to expose yourself to a series of questions that will evaluate your verbal ability. 

3. Utilize appropriate verbal ability study materials when training for CAT VARC. You will need to look at CAT sample papers to identify the correct syllabus book. 

4. To make learning fun, download mobile apps like Vocabulary Builder, Word by Word, etc. 

5. Use in your daily communication with friends or family the new words or phrases you learn. Such use of those words will help you remember better.

6. Watch movies or TV series and play word games to identify more words when you get bored reading. 

7. Highlight daunting dictionary terms, and study their meanings. It is advisable to keep your dictionary nearby when watching movies or reading books.

Section 2: Reading Comprehension

1. Each day, select a passage from a magazine, book, newspaper, or novel to recognize your reading comprehension skills. 

2. Work to develop your vocabulary by making flashcards of words that seem new to you as you read. Read those flashcards frequently. 

3. Just enjoy what you read to boost your vocabulary. Do not make it an unremitting chore. 

4. Briefly summarize your readings. 

5. When you feel tired, interpret the passage aloud. 

6. Go through every part of a given text. Do not miss any bits, however small they can appear. 

7. Discuss with your friends about your readings and their interpretations, and have rational debates with the learned vocabulary.

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Section 3: Data Interpretation 

1. Work to enhance your capacity to understand voluminous data. 

2. Maintain familiarity with various types of charts. 

3. Strengthen your analytical maths skills. 

4. Practice raising the speed when problem-solving. 

5. Learn how to measure the rise or decrease in percentage or contrast ratio. That would be a useful skill to save time. 

6. Solve DI sets that demand reasoning skills on a consistent basis and increase your understanding of these questions. 

7. By attempting as many questions as possible well in advance, you will have a clear understanding of the DI sets. 

8. Do not leave out DI sets that appear to be big on the volume of data. More data does not automatically mean a tough collection.

9. Do not seek to fix any of the problems at once. Attempt to answer a lot of easy questions at a time and some tough ones. 

10. In 2 to 2.5 minutes, try questions that you can answer confidently. This would help improve your score. 

Section 4: Logical Reasoning

1. Take a few seconds, and analyze the problem carefully. A brief explanation must run through your mind as to why every choice is right or wrong. If you practice this tip in logical reasoning sample questions, then you can do well in the actual exam.

2. Do not assume or use any details which the question does not provide you. This is not an evaluation of how much you know about a subject generally. Perceive only the information given when selecting an answer for each reading passage among the alternative solutions. 

3. Go through the factual passage and the instruction for completing the sentence carefully. Both of these must be remembered when making your decision. 

4. Be sure to read all answer options carefully before deleting or selecting one of them. 

5. In questions that ask you to select a logical conclusion, always choose the one conclusion that is sure to follow from the knowledge that you are given. Pick the one conclusion that certainly does not fit the information provided to you in questions that ask you to find the wrong alternative. 

6. After reading the factual information each question provides, pay close attention to words such as "all," "none", and "some" Also relevant are other terms such as "other than," "only", or "unless" Such terms can play a crucial role in deciding precisely the details that are to be used in your case. 

7. Please make note of negative prefixes such as non-, un-, or dis-. It may be necessary for the interpretation of the paragraph's essential details.

8. You ought to be very careful about any response choices which contain the quantifiers "all" or "zero." Overall, these terms are not markers of incorrect answer choices in the questions of sample practice and the actual CAT assessment. They will show up in both correct and incorrect answer choices. 

9. Watch out for the word "only" and the phrase "if and only if."

Section 5: Quantitative Aptitude

1. Although on-screen calculators will be provided for CAT, it is highly recommended that you practice mental math while preparing because those calculators will take up more time than simple mental math. 

2. Write out formulas on flashcards and keep revising them as often as you can.

3. Frame your own strategies for different topics under this section.

4. Improve your mathematical skills so as to improve your accuracy, understanding of mathematical terms, and problem-solving speed.

5. Understand the applications of formulas while learning them because this will make it easier to apply them to questions.

6. Take part in group studies to widen your strategy-forming plans. 

Read Best Books for CAT Preparation 

Advantages of Attempting CAT 2021 for Final Year Undergraduate Students

1. Enhanced CAT preparation

It takes approximately 9-12 months to prepare for CAT exam. It would be ideal to prepare for CAT along with the final year exam preparation for a candidate. BTech, BSc, and BCom students can prepare better because a few of the subjects in their course; mathematics, in particular, coincide with CAT Quantitative Aptitude(QA) Syllabus.

2. More time for CAT coaching

Unlike a working professional, students can easily take time out to attend coaching classes in their final year of graduation. Such individuals are not bound by a timetable of 9-5. It might not be appropriate for all to take coaching lessons for CAT training but it does help the applicant to focus and streamline planning. A working professional will not have this advantage due to time constraints. 

Know Best CAT Online Coaching

3. There will be no gap year 

As noted earlier, it takes at least 9-12 months to prepare for CAT. A candidate who has already graduated will have to spare that number of months for it. This will likely result in a gap between UG and PG education.

4. No possible loss of income 

Most working people who want to appear at CAT must leave their well-paid jobs to train for CAT. All those who are preparing for the test when working have to work hard to plan well to manage their 9-5 job as well. Not to mention, aspirants who leave their employment will lose money. Nevertheless, an aspiring undergraduate is secured from such a situation.

5. Can attain work experience before admissions to IIMs

The IIM allows candidates chosen for admission to postpone their admission if they wish to gain work experience before pursuing the PGP course for up to two years. For such candidates, roughly 10 percent of seats are kept aside. For a given year, if a final year candidate clears entry, he/she can also take up a job for one or two years before completing the program.

As mentioned previously, there are MBA colleges that pay greater attention to a candidate's profile. Hence, for a final year UG student, it would be a minor disadvantage. Obtaining a 95 + percentile score ought to be a student's first priority, provided which, a job experience must always be the fallback option after MBA. Offer it your best try every time and gain admission in any of the top B-Schools in the country.

5. Syllabus Overlap Between Undergraduate Courses and CAT Exam

There is considerable overlap between the syllabus of undergraduate courses like B.Tech, B.Sc, and B.Com, and CAT.

This overlap occurs in the subject of Mathematics which is known as Quantitative Aptitude in CAT. As a result, QA, which is considered a tough section in CAT, can be made easier to attempt through the preparation of the topics for the undergraduate degree as well. Syllabus management thus becomes quite easy with regard to Mathematics and Quantitative Aptitude. 

The topics which are the same in the syllabus of undergraduate courses and CAT are: 

Quick Links:

• CAT QA Practice Papers

• CAT VARC Practice Papers

• CAT DILR Practice Papers

CAT Eligibility Criteria for Undergraduate Students

• The minimum eligibility requirement for CAT is graduation. Final Year Candidate will have to submit a certificate issued by the Principal/Registrar of the College/Institution by the specified date. The certificate should mention that the candidate has completed the requirements of the course.
• However, only if a candidate clears graduation with a minimum of 50 percent marks (45 percent for SC, ST, and PWD/DA categories) will he be admitted to a course.
• The percentage achieved in the bachelor's degree gets calculated using the practice followed by the university/institution concerned. For grades/CGPA, the conversion has its basis on the method specified by the university/institution concerned. In the absence of any percentage conversion scheme, the CGPA of the candidate will be divided by the maximum possible CGPA and the result multiplied by 100. 
• There is no age limit to apply for CAT 2021.
• CAT eligibility criteria are verified by IIMs and other management institutes at different stages of the selection process.

Check Detailed CAT Eligibility Criteria

How to Manage Placement Time with CAT Preparation?

There are several students who have a dilemma regarding whether to prepare for Campus Placements or for CAT. Not planning for Campus Placement means taking your career to high risk. It is also going to be difficult for you when you see your peers get a job and you do not get one of the best employers. This anger may begin to affect your personal life and your studies as well. Not training for CAT also means you will be leaving your dream that you have had for the past 2 or 3 years. If you do not continue your CAT preparation, you will be in a position that will demotivate you to take CAT.

CAT training does not end with earning a good percentile. For further progress, you will also need a reasonable academic history. Thus, you must not forget to prepare well for studying in your college. It will also help you with the Campus Placement as well as with various IIMs' personal interviews. It is found that most of the questions come from UG departmental topics in most interviews with the IIMs. So, it is easier to study the topics of the final year as well as the subjects of the preceding year. It will help with your Campus Placements as well. 

Managing placements and CAT preparation can seem to be a daunting task for final-year students. However, by abiding by the tips given below, you can easily ace both, CAT and placements. 

1. Every day, read the newspaper for a total of an hour. 

2. Seek to take one mock test every two days. After completing the mock test, look for any difficulties that specific questions pose to you. Try to analyze these questions and try to solve the same kind of problems more. 

3. Aim to answer as many questions as you can in the DI-LR segment after the day you take the mock exam. 

4. Try every day to answer 4-5 RC passages and 5-6 VA questions. 

5. Solve 15-20 QA questions a day on different topics. 

6. Learn your department subjects three times a week.

Indeed, attempting CAT while in the final year of graduation comes with several advantages to students.