CAT Preparation
Crack CAT with Active Mentorship in Action
Don’t just enroll — get mentored. One-on-one personal mentoring from a 99.85 percentiler, with fortnightly reviews and a strategy built around you.
Multiple admissions over the years to top 6 IIMs, XLRI, IITs, IIFT, MDI, SPJain, New and baby IIMs, NMIMS, SIBM etc — because they stayed mentored till the end.
The 80-20 Rule of CAT Prep
Material, tests and faculty constitute just 20% of what is needed to crack CAT. The remaining 80% is completely upto you. It is what you do with the 20% – through structured planning and execution. Then finally remaining calm on the CAT day. As a mentor, I am with you 100% of the journey not just the 20%.
The CAT Mentorship Edge
Three pillars that turn serious aspirants into top-percentile achievers.
Active Mentoring
Active mentoring is about 1-on-1 fortnightly meetings for planning and reviewing progress. It’s about making personalised plans and making you accountable. It’s about keeping you focussed and motivated. It’s about resolving road-blocks in your CAT journey.
Personalised strategy
Creating a personalised strategy of how to use the 2 hours of the exam efficiently. To be able to pick up the easy questions and not lose time in tough ones. Reviewing Mock analysis with you 1-on-1 to create a strategy that works best for you.
Mindset training
Avoiding panic on the CAT Day. Identify your issues that creates panic. Creating a roadmap to resolve those issues. All done 1-on -1 because each person is different and issues are different. Result – a calm relaxed CAT, which leads to your highest potential.
WHO AM I?
Madhu Namboodiri
I (Madhu Namboodiri) have been the centre director of T.I.M.E in a tier-2 city for 19 years and have trained more than 10,000 CAT aspirants. If cracking CAT is a criteria, I have cracked CAT many times with a highest score of 99.85 %ile. I have a highest XAT %ile of 99.89.
I will be taking all the classes and actively mentoring (one-on-one) each aspirant. I admit only 40 students a year because I have to personally teach, push and actively mentor each one. Hence admission is only after the preliminary free mentoring session.
Active vs Passive Mentorship
Many coaching centres promise personal mentorship. But when they have thousands of students and limited mentors, there is a limitation to the extent the mentors can take active interest in your CAT journey. They are spread too thin and mentorship becomes “passive”. I take only 40 students because I want to be actively involved in every student’s journey. I believe in “active mentorship”.
Active Mentorship
- Continuous and active monitoring of journey
- Creates milestones and reviews progress frequently
- Personalized strategy built for your strengths
- Mentor proactively pushes you to break comfort zones
- Creates personal accountability to keep you motivated
- Everything done one-on-one. Hence no time constraints
- Personalised solutions to problems because mentor knows you well
Passive Mentorship
- Self-monitoring of progress. Mentor not actively involved.
- Mentor meetings on request and with time constraints
- General strategy which you will have to personalise
- You will have to push yourself to break comfort zones
- You will have to keep yourself motivated and accountable
- Most mentoring sessions in groups. Or recorded.
- General solutions to problems because mentor doesn't know you well.
Download Active Mentorship vs Passive Mentorship
Dramatically push up your CAT percentile
The 80-20 Rule of CAT Prep
Material, tests and faculty constitute just 20% of what is needed to crack CAT. The remaining 80% is completely upto you. It is what you do with the 20% – through structured planning and execution. Then finally remaining calm on the CAT day. As a mentor, I am with you 100% of the journey not just the 20%.
Fortnightly Meetings
One-on-one sessions every 2 weeks to review the past fortnight and plan the next.
Top Quality Material
20,000+ questions, 25 MockCATs, 40 Mocks of other exams, with strategic demo sessions.
Doubt Clearing
All doubts cleared live — never in groups. Book a slot and come with your questions.
Mock Analysis
One-on-one review of analysis of MockCATs to identify and close strategy gaps.
Attention per student – (20-80 Rule of CAT preparation)
Less than 20% of your time is spent in the classes. Your success in CAT will be determined by what you do in the remaining 80% of your time, when you are expected to work on your materials, take tests and analyse them. All this has to be done alone and that too systematically.
Why does the 80% matter more?
"Most coaching institutes focus on the 20% and leave the remaining 80% for you to figure out. I think differently. I'm interested in the 80% as much as the 20%."
Here's how I do it:
- Fortnightly one-on-one meetings: In these meeting study plans will be made for the upcoming fortnight and the previous fortnight’s performance will be reviewed. (click here to see a demo)
- Classes: I would be taking all the classes. It will be a combination of recordings of live classes for the basics and live classes for advanced topics, previous CAT papers, MockCAT analysis, strategy demonstration sessions etc. (some samples)
- Practice area: About 20000 questions, 25 CAT Mocks, 40 Mocks of other exams (XAT, SNAP, NMAT, IIFT, TISS etc), 100 sectional tests. The 80% of your work happens here and that’s what I’ll monitor systematically.
- Doubt clearing sessions: All doubt clearing sessions will be live with me and that too one-on-one. You book a slot, come in and get your doubts clarified. No group doubt clearing sessions. Only one-on-one sessions.
- Mock Analysis Sessions: After every four mockCATs, we will analyse the mocks together (one-on-one session) to identify gaps in the preparation and strategy. Corrective measures will be part of the study plan.
Robust Strategy Generation
What is the process? After every four mockCATs, we analyse the mocks together (one-on-one session) to identify gaps in the preparation and strategy.
Why should it be one-on-one sessions?
"I'm good in all sections, wrote and scored well in 60 mocks, analysed every mock. But on the day of the CAT, I couldn't handle the pressure. I panicked and disaster struck. I underperformed big time."
A full year is lost when, on the day of the CAT, the student underperforms. Nobody has a perfect CAT exam day. There will be setbacks during the exam. A good strategy will minimise these mistakes. It will also help you to bounce back quickly from a setback.
A strategy that works for Sehwag will not work for Dravid, and vice versa. It just has to be individualised because each person is unique. It is also about being deeply aware of one's strengths and weaknesses. It is also about tuning the strategy to the mindset and personality of the student.
What happens in most coaching institutes is a general talk on 'strategy' and then it is left to the students to figure it out, because creating a robust strategy individually for each student is time consuming. It can't be a group exercise.
The best way to create a robust strategy is mock CAT analysis. If you can get your analysis reviewed by a CAT expert (someone who has worked with many others), then his expertise and experience get added on. I do the review of the mock analysis done by each student.
Our Courses
Choose the path that matches where you are in your CAT journey.
Free Preliminary Mentoring
What’s covered
- Strength & weakness analysis
- Mindset Mapping
- Reasons for diversions
- Present potential mapping
- Fixing priorities – smart work
- Preparation plan with schedules
- Monthly milestones fixed
- Materials recommendations
- Identifying potential obstacles
- Broad action plan
Robust CAT Strategy Plan
Everything in Preliminary, plus
- Personal exam strategy generation
- Multiple MockCAT analysis one-on-one
- Live MockCAT strategy analysis
- Mindset training
- Stretch goals — comfort zone busting
- Identifying potential obstacles
- Linking milestones to action plan
- Obstacle busting strategies
MBA Comprehensive Plan
Everything in Strategy Plan, plus
- CAT/XAT/IIFT/SNAP/NMAT preparation with active mentoring
- Live classes for advanced topics
- Recordings of live classes for basics
- One-on-one doubt clearing sessions
- Materials with 20,000+ questions
- 25 CAT mocks + 30 sectionals
- 40 other Mocks (XAT/IIFT/SNAP/NMAT)
- 70 other test sectionals
- Private FB group for additional practice
Active mentoring
- Fortnightly plans with schedules
- Fortnightly monitoring and reviews
- Milestones and targets fixed
- Linking milestone to action plan
- Stretch goals (comfort zone busting)
- Obstacle/diversion busting strategies
- Mindset training
- Support for GDPI WAT
Any Questions?
To set a time to discuss your CAT aspirations and to get a first-hand experience of Active Mentorship, please schedule a free mentoring session. Only if you are serious about CAT.