Frequently Asked Questions

Coaching gives a structure to the preparation. Almost everyone uses the resources of coaching centres — the bare minimum being the test series for practice. The crux is how well you use the resources. People who complain about coaching centres are those who don’t have the discipline to make use of the resources properly.

Choose any one of the top coaching centres — all of them have great material, tests, and excellent faculty. The real question to ask yourself is: will I make effective use of the quality resources available?

It is impossible to do mentoring without being able to control the resources the student uses — only then can the course be properly structured. So this is a proper coaching centre with all top-quality resources including tests. Mentoring is an add-on. You will not need any outside resources except a second high-quality Mock test series.

Yes. It is not possible to mentor effectively on the schedule of another coaching centre because they have their own structure and philosophy. High-quality materials and tests are provided to support the mentoring process — the coaching and mentoring is complete in itself.

Pure mentoring is offered only to a select few students who have no content gaps in Quants and LRDI — a VARC gap is acceptable. Such students need support only in strategy and mindset.

Active mentorship is for you if you want someone to push you to your highest potential, if you’re likely to lose focus after a few weeks, or if you need to be monitored and want to avoid trial and error in your preparation.

If you are a topper, mentors will take extra interest in you. But most institutes have a large student population so mentors are spread thin. If you’re an average performer, you’ll have to follow up incessantly for support. There’s a significant difference between active and passive mentorship.

Yes — students in the 50 percentile range have moved to the high 90s and got into Tier 1 colleges. What matters is commitment, seriousness, and a fairly good base in Quants.

The whole course including mentoring is priced at par or at a slight premium with top-tier online coaching courses. It is far more economical than offline courses. Admission is only after an initial assessment of the aspirant’s seriousness.

CAT RC passages have been getting progressively tougher. Comprehension is the critical skill. Read genres that break your comfort zones and summarise everything you read in your mind. Summarisation is one of the best ways to improve comprehension.

Along with strong comprehension, you need to develop critical reasoning skills — conclusions, inferences, assumptions, strengthening and weakening arguments. Even though this question type doesn’t appear directly in CAT, these skills are essential for improving RC accuracy.

Reading speed helps you answer more questions — but only if it doesn’t drop your comprehension. No set of “5 tips” can achieve that. It is an organic process built through extensive reading with active summarisation.

For most people, it’s advisable to comprehend the passage thoroughly before attempting the questions. The quality of passages and questions has gone up — direct questions that can be answered by skimming are now rare.

A couple of passages plus some VA questions can take you to 95%ile if accuracy is maintained. If you have the speed to handle 3 RC passages well, going beyond 99%ile becomes realistic. Strong comprehension combined with critical reasoning is the key.

Basic books introduce topics with “pure” questions — linked directly to that chapter’s concept. Working through them builds your LRDI muscle so you can handle CAT-level complexity later. Think of it as foundational strength training.

CAT LRDI questions have become mixed — concepts from different chapters get combined. LR mixed with DI, quant-based LR, or entirely new question types. This shift has accelerated from 2017 onwards.

After mastering the basics, solve as many questions from Mock CATs, sectional tests, and previous year papers (2017 onwards) as possible. A target of 400+ sets is a solid benchmark.

Exposure to 400 CAT-level sets is the only way to develop that judgement. A familiar set type is not automatically easy — familiarity and difficulty are very different things.

This varies year to year, but as a rule of thumb: 2 sets with high accuracy can push you to 95%ile; 3 well-solved sets can make 99%ile a realistic target.

Shortcuts work best for those already strong in Quants. Only conceptually sound students can reliably identify non-conventional approaches. Faster methods are taught, but students weak in Maths may find them hard to apply without a solid conceptual base first.

The red line is your ability to form linear equations for word problems. If you’re comfortable with that, improvement through practice is very achievable. If linear equations feel foreign, start with school-level maths books first, build that comfort, then move to CAT Quants.

Easy to medium questions from Arithmetic and Geometry can get you above 90%ile. Adding easier Algebra topics — quadratic equations, logs, progressions — can push you closer to 95%ile.

Theoretically possible only if you can solve tough Arithmetic questions — but a student who can do that is typically competent enough to handle easy Geometry and Algebra as well. Relying only on easy Arithmetic makes 90%ile unlikely.

A common trap is labelling a question “easy” just because it’s from a familiar chapter like Percentages or Time & Work. Familiarity ≠ ease. Improving judgement through consistent Mock CAT analysis is the only reliable path.

Choose two series from institutes where national-level competition is serious — TIME, IMS, Career Launcher, or Cracku. These four have serious national-level competition in their mocks. Without that national benchmark, your preparation plans can go off track.

Two Mock series means roughly 30 to 35 mocks. Add previous year papers to that total for comprehensive practice.

Mock analysis builds the skill of picking easy questions and avoiding tough ones. Consistent analysis creates a feedback loop that progressively sharpens your in-exam judgement — and that judgement is what separates high scorers from average ones.

Coaching institutes deliberately set mocks at a higher difficulty level than the actual CAT. The intention is that when you walk into the real exam, it feels comparatively manageable. Training above the target level is standard practice in high-performance preparation.

Panic sets in when you lose control. You enter the exam with a plan for attempting each section — panic happens when that plan goes off script. The goal is to build mental discipline to keep your plan intact, and the resilience to recover when it doesn’t.

No — plans rarely survive contact with the actual exam perfectly. There will be bumps. What matters is training your mind to handle those deviations without spiralling. This is worked on in 1-on-1 sessions, using the same mental conditioning methods applied to top-level athletes.

The coaching methods used for elite athletes and sportspersons are applied here — because the CAT exam is, in many ways, like batting in a World Cup Final. The deeper, personalised work happens in 1-on-1 sessions.