As CAT 2007 nears, your tension mounts and anxiety rises. No matter how hard you study, your scores won’t increase.

But don’t panic just yet. Even if the above applies to you, remember that roughly 200,000 others are experiencing the same feelings.

Overview

You have approximately 90 days before the CAT (18 November 2007). This is not a test or an exam where you can prepare in the last one week or even the night before and hope to crack it. Every day is important and cannot be wasted.

This is true even if your goal does not include the IIMs, as CAT is an entrance exam to more than 100 Business Schools. Also, the areas that come in CAT are similar to those for every other management entrance exam. In addition, these other exams are scheduled in December and January, leaving you hardly any time to prepare for them after the CAT. Hence, your basic preparation must conclude before the CAT.

One of the fundamental mistakes that people make is to consider mock CATs as the solution for all preparation problems. This is far from the truth. While tests give insight into your exam-taking techniques and help you measure your progress and how far you are from reaching your goal.

However, if you do not strengthen your basic concepts and skills, any number of tests will not serve the purpose.

You have to first understand your strengths and weaknesses in each test area. This can be done by checking your scores in practice tests and mock tests. Unbiased introspection will give the roadmap to your preparation.

The main areas that need concentration are: reading practice and comprehension, quantitative/arithmetic concepts, data interpretation and speed calculation practice and vocabulary/language improvement. This has to be supplemented with practice in various test areas.

With that in mind, let us now look at the best way to use your final 90 days. Today, we’ll discuss how to improve your preparation for the verbal component; tomorrow we’ll discuss how to improve both quantitative and data interpretation.

Reading practice

That there is no shortcut to improve your reading speed is obvious. However, not doing anything about this would make the problem worse. You must read every day. At the very least, carefully read two articles each from two topics used in the CAT.

These are: economics, philosophy, psychology, politics, sociology, language, culture and arts, abstract thinking and sciences. Make the effort of choosing as wide ranging a topic base as possible. Also, read from every possible genre: non-fiction, fiction, novels, magazines, journals, etc.

Consciously improve your reading speed by measuring it every day for the first fifteen days. You’ll notice that your speed varies depending on your familiarity with the subject/topic.

In addition, take a test every two days for reading comprehension. Make sure that you analyse every question and every passage in the test. If, in the allotted time, you do not complete all passages in the test, then take those passages as a test once again. This continuous work will do wonders to your reading comprehension ability.

Vocabulary Improvement

Though it may seem impossible to learn 3000+ words in the next three months, that should not discourage you from increasing your vocabulary from whatever level it is at now.

It’s important to use the words you learn from reading comprehension passages and to write down/memorise their various usages and meanings. Good reading habits will improve your vocabulary automatically and a systematic way of learning will enhance the same.

While referring to the dictionary for the meaning of a particular word, a few other words in the dictionary — synonyms and antonyms — may also catch your attention. This is a splendid source of new words; so make a conscious effort to add them to your vocabulary.

Also, because English has words from Latin, Germanic and other origins, learning the roots of a word will help you immensely. The origins of words, if understood, allows you to infer the meaning of other words with similar origins.

Finally, never forget the importance of prefixes and suffixes. For example, look at the word malevolent. Even if you don’t know the exact definition, the prefix ‘mal’ tells you that the word means something bad or negative. In the same way, look at the word benevolent, with the prefix ‘bene’, which means someting good.

If you keep these simple points in mind — read every day, read from wide-ranging topics, note definitions and meanings, study antonyms and synonyms, study word origins and remember prefixes and suffixes — your verbal score will surely improve.

Popularity: 5%

* When GMAT volume increases or decreases, can I expect to see a change in application volume?

Answer A change in test-taking volume may or may not result in an immediate change in application volume. First, the incidence of repeat test taking has increased with the advent of computer-adaptive testing, so a change in the number of tests taken does not necessarily indicate that more or fewer people are taking the test. Second, scores are good for five years and not all test takers apply immediately after taking the test. Also, not all test takers intend to pursue MBA programs—the GMAT® test is also required for various other business programs. A recent study showed that approximately 20% of GMAT® test scores are submitted to nonbusiness programs.
* Is repeat test-taking increasing? What types of gains can test takers expect?

Answer A recent study showed that approximately 21% of GMAT® tests are taken by individuals who take the test more than one time in a given year. Within the mean score range for the GMAT® Total score, 500 to 540, approximately 28% of tests are taken by repeat testers. Great care is taken to match test takers on multiple demographic variables so as to minimize the possibility of mismatching test administrations.

Most repeat test takers test two or three times within a year. Very few test more often than that. GMAC® has a policy to prevent excessive repeat test taking. Test takers can take the GMAT® test as many as five times within a 12-month period. In order to test more than five times in a 12-month period, a test taker must submit a written request to GMAC®.

The average gain between the first test and the second test is about 30 points on the GMAT® Total score. The amount of gain varies depending on the amount of preparation undertaken by students prior to initial testing, among other things. Not all repeat test taking results in an increase—scores can also go down when the GMAT® is taken more than once.
* On the preadmission report, the test taker’s raw score is presented along with a percentile. How is this percentile computed?

Answer The percentile is based on three years’ worth of GMAT® scores. Three years worth of data is used to balance out random fluctuations. [When a test administration older than five years is pulled, new percentiles are not computed—the test takers' scores are presented relative to the tests taken three years prior to the date of the administration.] When a test taker requests an additional score report (ASR), his or her GMAT® scores are presented relative to the current three years of tests. So, if a test taker took the GMAT® test in 1998 and requested an ASR in 2002, the percentiles presented on the ASR would have been for the tests taken during the time period January 1998 through December 2000, whereas on the original preadmission report the percentiles would have been presented relative to tests taken during the time period January 1995 through December 1997.
* How can I compute the percentage of scores that are above a certain score, say, 600?

Answer The percentages presented in Guide to the Use of GMAT Scores (downloadable at left) can help you calculate that. For instance, Table 2 shows that 70% of tests taken were below 600. Thus, 30% of tests taken were at or above 600. Information is presented for each of the four GMAT® scores—Verbal, Quantitative, Total, and AWA.
* How reliable is the GMAT? Do scores vary a lot from test to retest?

Answer The standard error of measurement of the GMAT® Total score is 29 points—meaning that the test taker’s true GMAT® Total score is within 29 points (above or below) of the score he or she received on the test. Thus, test takers with GMAT® Total scores of 580 and 600 may not be materially different in terms of their performance on the GMAT®. This is why GMAC® does not recommend the use of hard cut-off scores. The average reliability for the GMAT® Total score is 0.92 (1.00 is the highest possible reliability coefficient).
* How valid is the GMAT? Does it actually predict the academic achievement of MBA students?

Answer The predictive validity of the GMAT® has been established by analyzing the statistical relationship between GMAT® scores and first-year (or midprogram) grade point average. Analyses of the relationship between a combination of three of the GMAT® variables—Verbal, Quantitative, and AWA—and first-year (or midprogram) grade point average have been conducted at numerous schools since the inception of the GMAT®. The average (represented by the median) statistical relationship is +0.41 out of a possible 1.00. When undergraduate grade point average was added to the three GMAT® variables the predictive power increased to +0.47. Thus, a combination of the GMAT® variables does contribute to the prediction of how well candidates for admission might perform academically in an MBA program. Other variables such as motivation, time spent studying or otherwise engaged in learning also contribute greatly to student achievement. The GMAT® is an extremely useful predictive tool, yet it is only one of many tools that are necessary to make a good admissions decision.
* How can I keep track of candidates? We keep a file of the preadmission reports, but there must be another way.

Answer Management school rosters are sent to your school on a monthly basis and quarterly rosters are sent on a quarterly basis. These rosters facilitate record-keeping by providing the test scores as well as the (self-reported) demographic information for all of the individuals that have sent score to your institution within a month or a quarter. The rosters can help to capture patterns in score sending—month over month, quarter over quarter and can aide in the tracking of score sending patterns year over year.
* How can I keep track of competitors?

Answer Annually, your school is sent a multiple score report. This report lists the top 25 programs (based on volume) that receive scores from your candidates. It also indicates the number of scores that were sent to your program only.
* How can I know which factors are most predictive of academic success in my program?

Answer Conduct a validity study. Validity studies are offered at no cost to schools that use the GMAT®. The study helps to validate current admissions processes and provides current and valid statistical ammunition to use when you have challenges regarding admissions criteria. See Validity Study Quick Facts/FAQs for details.

There are three ways to register:

Registering by Phone: You may call up Prometric office to register. Make sure to call at least THREE BUSINESS DAYS before the test date.

Registering by Fax: If registering by fax, you must send your fax at lest SEVEN DAYS prior to your first choice of a test day.

Registering by Mail/Courier: Fill in the form, get the draft made (if you are not paying by credit card), and submit these to the Prometric office either by hand or by registered post/courier. You must send the documents at least THREE WEEKS before your choice of a test day.

On receipt of your documents, an appointment will be scheduled for you to test at the Prometric Center. Confirmation of the date, time and location of the appointment will be sent to you. If you do not receive confirmation at least THREE business days before your first choice of test day, please call the Prometric office to verify your appointment.

Prometric Testing Private Limited
2nd Floor, DLF Infinity Tower - A
Sector 25, Phase ll
DLF City, Gurgaon
Haryana 122002
India

Tel: 91-124-5147700
Fax: 91-124-5147773

You will receive an admit card normally within a week of applying. Remember to keep a copy of the form and the draft with you

There is just 60 days left for cat exam.SO I JUST TRIED TO ANSWER FAQ.

But this is also a stage where a lot of doubts crop up in the minds of students. This article is an attempt to look at some of the common doubts that students face. It is meant for students taking serious preparation and preferably writing any and all India Mock series.

Whichever section I do last suffers and I am not able to get the cut-off for that section. What should I do?

This is a very common occurrence with students. The main cause is poor distribution of time. While we think we are dividing equally, say 50 min each, what happens actually is more like 56 - 55 - 39.

So keeping this in mind, plan for some buffer. e.g 45 - 45 - 45 - 10. The last ten minutes are a buffer to make up for lapses in the three sections. It can also be used for topping up the score in your strength area. You’ll also notice that about five minutes go to waste in time distribution. So it makes sense to budget for that.

Also, in general, concentration levels are weaker at the end of exam. To develop concentration levels I suggest that during home study, practice should be done in two and a half hour stretches without a break. This to done to condition the mind to work for longer stretches.

In the exam, take micro-breaks between sections. For example, close your eyes and count till 60. We all know that our PCs work faster after rebooting, not really sure why, but it works.

My scores keep fluctuating. Some Mocks I get very good percentiles, and in some I get very poor percentiles. What do I do?

In most such cases we see that what is changing is accuracy. Students tend to have a target number of attempts for each section. It is better to spend a fixed amount of time per section and solve as many questions as we can. Trying to attempt the same number of questions per section/ across papers will either spoil your accuracy or your time distribution.

What kind of accuracy should I have in each section of CAT?

Obviously there is no optimal accuracy for each section. What matters is the Return on Time Invested (ROTI). In other words, faster students with higher attempts can afford to have lower accuracy. But, in general, we should look at 80-90% accuracy in QA and DI sections. And in English, based on the last 2 years CAT an accuracy rate of 60-70% would also do, provided you attempt enough questions.

I don’t know which DI set to attempt? Whichever I attempt turns out to be the most difficult?

Deciding which set to attempt is critical to getting a god score. But at first glance, all sets look equally easy or difficult. You need to spend two or three minutes before deciding that a problem set is possible. Firstly, try to understand the data given. What exactly does it mean? What all can be calculated from the given data? Then we have brief look at the questions. The minute you read the question, some idea on the approach should come to you. If it doesn’t or the idea is very unclear, you should probably skip the question set.

I take too much in the English section and it is affecting the other sections what do I do?

With the kind of questions that are given these days, I would say that verbal questions require 90 seconds to two minutes approximately and RC questions two to two and a half minutes approximately. Now if you have spent 40 minutes attempting 10 questions, it is obvious that each question did not take four minutes to solve. In fact, I would say perhaps eight questions took about two and a half minutes each and the remaining two questions took ten minutes each. This is obviously non-productive, as most of the time is spent agonising over two very close options.

So try to look at a good number of attempts with an accuracy of 60%+ and you should get a decent score in the English usage section. Don’t agonise over close choices, either leave it or, if it is 50-50, take a guess and move on.

Now that only 60 days remain, how many mocks should I be taking?

Last week when I had an argument with one of our employees, he reminded me that he had five years of experience. I had corrected him gently that he had 1 year’s experience repeated 5 times. A mock CAT is basically a test of your ability. As long as fundamental ability or test strategy does not change, no point is served by taking mocks.

Any mock test has to be analysed for 6-8 hours — including the solving of all questions — and it should give at least one good idea on how better you can tackle the next mock. Also you need to understand conceptually a problem and how to tackle it.

To put it simply, when you do a problem or a problem set once, you get the answer but the conceptual understanding is not good enough for you to be able to solve variations of the problem.

Remember, you don’t really expect that CAT 2007 will contain 75 questions selected from the few thousand that you have solved in you preparation? Especially for DI, I would rather you solve good, quality questions multiple times rather than chasing quantity in terms of material, mocks, etc

How should I go about applying to colleges?

The two basic principles of applying to colleges are:

* Is the college good in terms of placement, reputation, etc?
* What are my chances of getting an interview call, based on my current mock CAT performance?

Please look at applying to at least 10-12 Business schools. Write three or four exams, minimum. One bad day should not affect your chances of getting into a good Business school. If budget is not a constraint, it is always better to apply to more schools rather than less.

A successful student never regrets applying to extra Business schools more but an unsuccessful student almost always feels he or she should have applied to a few more schools.

Look at the latest mock performance, do an honest assessment of your chances, take the help of experts and then apply.

what is GATE ?

* The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all-India examination administered and conducted in eight zones across the country by the GATE Committee comprising faculty from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and seven Indian Institutes of Technology on behalf of the National Coordinating Board - GATE, Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Government of India.

objectives of GATE exam :

* To identify meritorious and motivated candidates for admission to Post Graduate Programmes in Engineering, Technology, Architecture and Pharmacy at the National level. To serve as benchmark for normalisation of the Undergraduate Engineering Education in the country
* Important dates :
* Availability of GATE forms: October, 1st week
* Last Date for filling up forms: November, 1st week
* Exam Date: 2nd Sunday of February
* Results: March 15st



GATE exam details :

* The examination is a single paper of three-hour duration of the objective type. Negative marking is adopted for some questions in the paper. The results of qualifying candidates will be ranked on an all-India basis and indicate a percentile score. A percentile score of 99 means one is in the top one per cent category of the candidates who appeared for GATE.
* Candidates who get less than 70 percentile get no score card.
* GATE scores are valid for 2 years. One can reappear for the GATE exam if one is not satisfied with the earlier score. The new score (if better than the old one) will be used for admission.
* Students have to apply to individual institutes and get application forms after the GATE results are out. M.Tech. course admission details are advertised in leading newspapers from April 1 till July end. However, some institutes do not advertise and students should approach them directly for the forms. The concerned institute may conduct a written test and/or interview for admission.
* Students of M.Tech. are paid scholarships by the Government of India for the entire 18-month period







Eligibility criteria

* A master's degree in any branch of science or M.Sc. in Mathematics. Students in the final or pre-final year of these programmes are also eligible.
* A bachelor's degree in engineering/technology/architecture/pharmacy would also suffice. Candidates in the final or pre-final year may also apply.
* Candidates in the second year or above of the B.Sc. four-year Integrated Master's Degree Programme, or in the third year (or above) of the five-year Integrated Master's Degree Programme in engineering/technology.
* Candidates with professional qualification equivalent to BE/B.Tech. through a UPSC/AICTE-recognised examination.





SPECIAL:

We encourage 3rd year students to also appear GATE alongwith Final Year students since:

* GATE score is valid for 2 years.
* The syllabus as required by GATE is generally over by 5th semester.
* Anyway, it will be a good try ! If it is a bad score you can always try again

1.Collection of Material

* First and foremost thing is to collect the syllabus and follow the Tips and TRicks of GATE
* Refer all the relevant books based on the subject(Divide the books in two groups - (1) Fundamental and basic concepts (2) Problem oriented
* Some books which are helpful for the pre-requisite knowledge on the subject
* Refer Some of the good guide books for GATE and follow Tips and Tricks of GATE
* Collect the Previous questions papers and practise them

2.Keep contact with some expert and take feedback from GATE experienced persons.

3.Study - Go through the Syllabus and Previous questions papers and solve them.

4.Start from the first chapter and complete it with some time limit.(ensure that you are thourogh in that particular topic)

* Read at least 5 books(of different authors), it will widen your knowledge(if necessary consult with the books for pre-requisite knowledge or with some expert)
* Note down the probable concepts(definitions, unit, dimension etc.)
* Note down all the necessary theories, formulae etc
* Solve the problems as maximum as possible(from text books, Guide books,previous question papers etc)
* Think about a problem in every angle keeping all the concepts and formulae in mind.

QUESTION PAPER STRUCTURE

The question paper of GATE 2007 will be fully objective type.
Candidates have to mark the correct choice by darkening the appropriate bubble against each question on an Objective Response Sheet (ORS).

Main Papers (Non-XE/XL Papers)

The question paper will be for a total of 150 marks divided into three groups:

Group I : Question Numbers 1 to 20 (20 questions) will carry one mark each (subtotal 20 marks) .

Group II: Question Numbers 21 to 75 (55 questions) will carry two marks each (subtotal 110 marks). Out of this, Q.71 to Q.75 may be questions based on common data .

Group III: Question Numbers 76 to 85 (10 questions) will carry two marks each (subtotal 20 marks). These questions are called linked answer questions. These 10 questions comprise five pairs of questions (76 & 77, 78 & 79, etc.). The solution to the second question of each pair (e.g. Q.77) will be linked to the correct answer to the first one (e.g. Q.76) in the pair.

Each question will have four choices for the answer. Only one choice is correct.

Wrong answers carry 25% negative marks. In Q.1 to Q.20, 0.25 mark will be deducted for each wrong answer and in Q.21 to Q.76, Q.78, Q.80, Q.82 and Q.84, 0.5 mark will be deducted for each wrong answer. However, there is no negative marking in Q.77, Q.79, Q.81, Q.83 and Q.85.

Papers bearing the code AE, AG, CE, CH, CS, EC, EE, IN, IT, ME, MN, MT, PI, TF will contain questions on Engineering Mathematics to the extent of 20 to 25 marks.

The multiple choice objective test questions can be of the following type:

Each choice containing a single stand-alone statement/phrase/data
How does one prepare for GATE, specifically GATE 2009


How do you choose which coaching material to go with. This is something that is quite subjective. A coaching material cannot be assessed until you have gone through it. So, you could go by the word of your seniors as to what coaching material they followed to prepare for GATE.

Here are some parameters on which you can decide whether you should go for a particular coaching institute, use a particular coaching material, or tests:

1. Uniqueness in their study material: Study material provided by the coaching institutes is of little assistance if they are compact copy-paste or rewrite of materials taken from other books. If the reading of such material doesn't increase interest and enjoyment then they are not worth it. There are plenty of standard books on each subject by good authors, which can make your study enjoyable during preparation.

2. Collection of quality books in their library: During the process of theory conceptualization and building application capabilities, you need good books, which can really put your brain on exercise. Check out their library!

3. Flexibility in the Coaching Model: What happens when your pace of learning is much faster or slower than the average? Is there any mechanism by which the model can identify exactly where you need help and provide the same? Is it possible in that coaching model to minimize the wastage of your time?

4. Quality of questions discussed: Number of questions discussed is not that important. By discussing and solving 10-15 conceptual questions on each topic you can build a good application capability. On the other hand solving many tricky non-conceptual questions will simply waste your time.

5. Tests and evaluation model: How is the progress of your preparation tested and analyzed? To what extent the feedback helps in identifying the areas for further work? Here I must say that this is the most crucial part of the preparation. This is the area where most of the students fail due to lack of proper test materials which can help them to build in themselves a real-test-like environment and temperament. Once you are able to choose the correct assistance for your GATE journey, it will be an enjoying and thrilling experience.

Here are some things apart from working on your engineering concepts, that you should do for a complete preparation for GATE:

1. Solve previous years' GATE papers: Solving previous years' papers gives you a fair idea of what the actual paper would be like. It also brushes up your basics and exposes your 'areas of improvement'.

2. Solve test papers: Solve as many test papers as possible. This actually is the best way to keep improving as you prepare for GATE.

3. Analyze : Analyzing your test results is a very important part of taking the test. If you do not analyze, the test does not add value. You should minutely analyze and define as to where you could have scored more; analyze your accuracy rates in various topics and maintain a topic wise datasheet which lists your performance topic wise for different test papers.

4. Simulate actual test environment : This is very important. The actual test happens in a classroom, and is timed. When you take up the test, switch off your cell phone, have a timer which times your tests, and avoid taking any breaks. Also, if possible, take up a mock test series which enables you to take the test in a classroom environment.