What is the secret to cracking the Common Admission Test 2005? 
Get Ahead invited Brijesh Singh and Jasveen Grewal of Top Careers & You for a chat with readers; this is what they had to say: the killer combination is a mix of accuracy and speed.
Brijesh is project head, MBA, at Top Careers & You. He is an MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, and regularly writes features on CAT for various publications.
Jasveen is project leader, MBA, at Top Careers & You. She has completed her MBA from the International Management Institute, New Delhi. She writes regularly on the importance of Verbal Ability in B-school entrance examinations.
For those of you who missed the chat, here is the transcript:
Part I: Is the pattern likely to change?
Part III: A strategy for D-day
Anshul: Sir i have been getting above 99.5 percentile in Prac-Cats but rarely able to clear my English Cut-off. Can you please suggest me something?
TCY: Focus on English Usage and read a lot.
ashish: What is the negative marking policy used by IIMs
TCY: Nobody is sure, but IIMs are known to have step negative marking, starting from a negative marking of .25.
hemendra: How can we judge ourselves based on MOCK CATs ..say TIME or IMS
TCY: There must be consistency in your percentile.
catfreak: what is your the mantra for CAT??
TCY: Balance between accuracy and speed. Learn to handle your nerves.
tvs: is it better to appear in CAT than in XAT for entry in S. P. jain. I had appeared in CAT last year with 88 Percentile.what should be my Percentile to have a chanse to get in to S.P.Jain.
TCY: You need around 96 to 97 percentile to get a call from SP Jain.
Pankaj: Sir plz tell how should i go about the verbal section in the coming 4 weeks to crak this section. I particularily loose cuttoff by 5-6 marks in this section i am engineer with 2 yrs of workex in Software industry.
TCY: Find out your weak areas after analysing the mock test and improve on them.
Rishi: What is the IIM's Percentile cut-offs fro each section & overall?
TCY: Generally, 30 to 33 per cent for every section if the paper is average.
AK: whats your opinion about IMI, New Delhi?
TCY: It is a good institute and rates among the top 20 in India.
hemendra: what sort of percentile? Is 95-96 is enough ..getting in top 1500 in every test.
TCY: To get a call from IIM you require a 98 percentile. 95-96 for SP Jain.
vpower: How would u rate XIMB? Does it come in top 10.
TCY: Surely in the top 15.
rahowl: Does JMET needs special preparations?
TCY: Focus on your quant section.
vpower: Which one is better SIBM and SCMHRD.
TCY: Both of them are in the same league.
rahulmit: Sir, as now a days its tough competetive market and getting a job is quite v. tough, so pls also advice in which streame i shall appear.
TCY: It depends upon one's preference but marketing/ finance/ systems are known to have the highest placement packages.
Abe: What about Symbiosis? How do you rate it?
TCY: Symbiosis has got many institutes, which one are you referring to?
gauravsharma007: hi, i am persuing cat first time and want to get adminssion in a good institute and do not join any institue....what should i do??i am doing mca and having 14 months exp. in s/w industry...
TCY: Mock CATS will tell you your present level of preparation. Keep on giving the mock CATS and you will improve.
Arindam: Quants and DI is the bottleneck to my CAT prep. I mock CTS, I miss the cutoffs by less than 1 mark, every time. How do I improve them?
TCY: Analyse mock CATS. Find out your weak areas and improve.
Nike: wht is the paper patern of CAT. which is the part that has to be covered in CAT.
TCY: There are three sections -- quant, verbal and data interpretation/ sufficiency.
Pankaj: I have heard SP Jain gives calls before the CAT Results what r the basis and how much minimum experience on require for pre CAT CALL from SP Jain
TCY: SP Jain looks at other parameters like academics, work experience, profile, etc.
rajdeepak: Sir please answer..i have work ex of 3 years in MNC...PLS TELL ME.
TCY: You should try for top three IIMs.
Suchi: Sir, with less than 2 months in hand how does one go abt revising the quants section? What is the minimum net score required by good institutes in this section?
TCY: Give the mock CATS and find out the weak areas and revise the basics of these weak areas.
avishek: how to improve the RC section.
TCY: Scan the questions once before attempting the RC. Attempt the passages which deal with areas you are comfortable with.
Arindam: Can you suggest any technique for selection of questions in Quants or DI?
TCY: There are two strategies in quant. First, select on the basis of length of questions. Second, start with their favourite topic. In DI section, attempt Date Sufficiency first.
AK: whats percentile required to seek GD/PI call from SP Jain and NITIE?
TCY: Around 96-97 percentile.
KARTIKUY: I DONT HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE WILL I BE GIVEN LESS IMPORTANCE IN THE SELECTION PROCESS AS COMPARED 2 PPL WITH EXPERIENCE.
TCY: Depends upon the B-school. Some like SP Jain give lot of weightage to work experience.
Manoj258: i done my BE and Mtech in Electrical then working in IT and wanna to go for MBA, will this diversity effect my career and in what ways?
TCY: With proper explanation of this shift from electrical to IT, probably it will not.
catfreakagain: do we have to be a jack of all trades or master of one to crack cat?
TCY: The IIMs check your competency in all the three sections.
Dreamer: What do you think of this startegy: Cross the cut-off in 2 sections with a decent score and then try for huge score in the best section to improve our percentile???
TCY: For the IIMs you need to clear the cut-offs for all the three sections. The strategy will work if you have cleared the cut-off for the third section.
virtualme: Given that we have less than 2 months for the actual CAT, what should be our preperation like ?
TCY: Just improve the weak areas. In the last fortnight make your strongest section, even stronger.
Part I: Is the pattern likely to change?
Part III: A strategy for D-day
Illustration: Dominic Xavier
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