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WINNERS DON’T DO DIFFERENT THINGS, THEY DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY
To do justice to this topic, it was not possible to keep it too short . How to prepare is mainly divided in following subtopics
Fundamentals of Preparation - This is common to all competitive exam preparations
Exam Specific Preparation - Important Areas for CAT
Books - A brief on text and reference books for CAT. You can also use TestBag study material

In short - first believe in yourself - you can do it  and build will power, learn to manage time, study specific to competition - then self assess each topic wise- identify gap - fill gap - move on - on completing syllabus move to mock tests and finally no match to practice
Fundamentals for Preparation

Construction of knowledge in your mind is the key because only you have to reproduce this knowledge in exam. Teaching (Instructions) from school / coaching class / digital media are methods of giving knowledge to you but far more important is how much have you gained (construction of knowledge in your mind) and for that only your efforts will matter.  Memorising is short lived. Learning is lasting as you have put in efforts to understand each topic. In objective exams there is no shortcut to learning

CAT mainly tests your concepts with speed and accuracy

In most competitive exams, your knowledge is important but how much you know more than others is more important. As CAT has a limited curriculum, do not leave anything

This year CAT is computer based. You may be required to practice on computers beforehand. However the nature of preparation is same

You can divide your CAT study in two phases

Phase 1 is setting your fundamentals right. Master each topic chapter wise. Self assessor would be of great help

Divide you curriculum into short objectives. Each objective should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. The overall period of all short term objectives should not extend beyond 10th October

1. Start QA, DI & DS and VA simultaneously
2. Master topics step by step

Phase II -  Start practicing to improve your speed and accuracy. Test simulator will come handy

Methodology

Study yourself from any good book
90 minutes maths
30 minutes Reasoning and Logic
45 minutes Data Sufficiency and Data interpretation
30 minutes English Proficiency and Usage
45 minutes Reading Comprehension

There after take ten to fifteen minutes self test  on each topic of the subject studied by you to assess level of understanding achieved in the topic studied. These tests draw questions from a large and specific knowledge pool based on your selection criteria.  Kindly ensure that there is sufficient challenge in your self test. Your number of questions be more than 10 for the topic, level of questions should be at least L2 (except in Elementary maths where it should be L1) and time should be bare enough to solve questions.

Analyse results. For questions done incorrectly refer to books to understand where you have gone. try to complete this exercise alone. Alternatively take help of your mentor. The mentors can be your school teacher or teacher in coaching class. To economise time prefer  coaching if necessary only in subjects where you are weak.

Thereafter retake test with new set of questions. Once confident, move to next topic. This is active learning as you have yourself put in efforts to understand topics. You will start enjoying your studies and these concepts will be long lasting in you mind
Remember - Move step by step to ensure that you cover all topics and avoid confusion


Start arithmetic with number system - understand concepts from any good book. Initially take a 10 minute tests with 10 questions on number system in TestBag at question level L1 with question type Any. (Number system questions in CAT can be straight objective multiple choice or common data type where more than one questions are linked to a common data or comprehension)  Analyse what is not known to you and what mistakes are you doing. Go back to books, peers in group study or take help of teacher. Take tests again and till you achieve requisite confidence

Repeat this for other areas in arithmetic - ratio proportions, simplification, averages, logarithms, ages, boats and streams, time and work, time and distance, calendars clocks . Thereafter work on Mensuration , followed by geometry. And now cover the most important - Algebra (mainly Theory of Equations,Inequalities, Logarithms and Permutations andCombination). At the end work on Probability

Start English with Vocabulary, then move to English Proficiency  ( working on sentence improvement, rearrangement of words in sentence, sentence in paragraphs, paragraph formation, paragraph completion etc) and then move to English Usage (common errors, spotting errors, in appropriate usage)

Start Reading comprehension with history paragraphs, move to science and technology paragraphs, sociology and philosophy

Start data interpretation with less complex tables, bar charts, pie diagrams, line graphs and then move to complex graphs, charts, mixed diagrams

Start Reasoning with data arrangements, data comparison, move to analytical reasoning and case lets

Remember - Move from simple topics to complex and excel step by step.

Each test is build on previous patterns or by subject matter experts and clearly indicating topics included, number of questions, level of questions and type of questions. Each test simulates exam like environment with time and marking pattern of CAT
Mock tests and old papers have fixed question. But test patterns every time generate new online tests where computer based on specific  parameters randomly generates questions from CAT knowledge pool. This pool keeps getting enriched regularly

Again the new set of questions replaces old questions in mock tests after regular time intervals
Test Simulator will help you to build Speed and Accuracy and indicate

• your shortcomings so that you can  initiate steps for improvement
  
• your mistakes so that you can avoid them
  
• topics you have not covered or covered inadequately
  

Test Bag is very comprehensive for CAT preparation and is available at a reasonable cost.
Books : Study from any good book. Preferably use only one/two books as your base/test books . Other books be only used for reference. This saves lot of time. Few books are mentioned below

Topic	Name of the Book	Writer/Publisher
Maths	NCERT Maths from 8th to 10th	NCERT
Maths	Quantitative Aptitude for CAT	Nishit Sinha/Pearson
Maths	Quantitative Aptitude for MBA Entrance Examinations	Abhijit Guha
Maths	Quantitative Aptitude for MBA Entrance Examinations	R.S. Aggarwal
Maths	How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT	Arun Sharma/TATA McGRAW HILL
Maths	Puzzles and some other number books	Shakuntla Devi
Maths	Higher Algebra	Hall and Knight
Maths and DI	Crack The Cat Quantitative Aptitude & Data Interpretation	Vivek Gupta and Sandeep Amar
Data Interpretation	Any good book in Statistics
Data Interpretation	How To Prepare For The Data Interpretation And Logical Reasoning For The CAT 3rd Edition	Arun Sharma/TATA McGRAW HILL
Data Interpretation	Course in Mental Ability and Quantitative Aptitude	Edgar Thorpe
Data Interpretation	Fundamental of Reasoning  A Logic Book	Robert M. Johnson
English	High School English Grammar and Composition	Wren and Martin
English	Word Power Made Easy	Norman Lewis
English	Business English and Communication	Clark Grade C
English	All about Words	Rosenblum and Nurenberg
English	How to Prepare for the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT	Arun Sharma & Meenakshi

More Info. About CAT >>
Common Admission Test(CAT)
CAT Syllabus
CAT Exam Analysis and Cut Off
CAT Topic Analysis
IIM Seat

CAT  Exam Analysis  
1. The duration of the test is 2 hours and 30 minutes including initial 15 minute tutorial. No breaks will be given during the test. The test consists of questions that evaluate a candidate’s quantitative, verbal, and logical & data interpretive abilities. The paper had 60 Qs, 20 QA, 20 DI/LR and 20 VA 
2. Each Question has 4 options for marking and only one answer is correct for each question.3.  Each question carries 3 marks each, so maximum marks for paper is 180.
4. Although there was no mention but there should be negative marking . As such  1 mark should be deducted for each incorrect answer
5. The coverage of questions in three sections were similar to previous CAT papers although the difficulty may have been a notch lower
The exact questions are not known but some indications of CAT 2010 are as under
The paper was of 2 hours 15 minutes duration with 20 questions each from Verbal Ability, LR and DI and Quantitative Aptitude section.  

In Verbal Ability Section, common pattern of questions is

Topic	Number of Qs
Completion of paragraph/sentence	2
Paragraph Jumbles	4
Grammar (Sentence Correction)	2
Correct Usage of words given	2
Vocabulary Based Questions
Fill in the blanks (2 blanks)	1
Reading Comprehension
RC 1	3
RC 2	3
RC 3	3

In LR and DI, common pattern of questions is

Topic	Number of Qs
Logical and Critical Reasoning reasoning questions	14
Calculation based questions	6

Broadly following areas are covered in DI questions
1.Table
2. Pie-chart
3. Bar chart
4. Stacked Bar
5. Line Graphs
6. Mixed Diagrams
7. 3D Charts
8.  Maxima & Minima

Broadly following areas are covered in  Reasoning Questions
1.    Set of conditions
2.    Logical Arguments and conclusions / deductions
3.    Puzzles
4.    Venn Diagrams


In Quant  Section , common pattern of questions is

Topic	Number of Qs
Algebra  and Number System	8
Geometry and Mensuration	3
Probability	1
Arithmetic  and others	8

 Broadly following areas are covered in arithmetic, algebra , geometry and others
Arithmetic
1. Number Systems and Number Theory
2. Percentages - Details
3. Profit and Loss - Details
4. Simple and Compound Interest
5. Speed, Time and Distance
6. Pipes and Cisterns
7. Races
8. Averages
9. Ratio and Proportions
10. Mixtures and Alligations

Algebra
1. Linear and Quadratic Equation
2. Logarithm
3. Progressions - AP, GP, HP
4. Binomial Theorem
5. Inequalities
6. Permutation & Combination
7. Probability
8. Function
9. Set Theory

Geometry
1.Geometry
2. Co ordinate Geometry
Trigonometry
Mensuration

CAT 2010 Cut Offs :
Cut Offs are compiled on basis of  likely cut-offs for various business schools for admissions to their MBA/PGDBM programmes.  There is no rule in compiling same. It is based on data sourced from B Schools, from candidates getting calls. Kindly call respective B schools for specific information. The said information is only indicative

Correct Questions	Marks @ 3 marks for correct question	Percentage	Expected Percentile		Expect Call fr
37	111	62	100		All IIMs
36	108	60	99.5		At least 3 IIMS
35	105	58	99		At least 1 IIM
34	102	57	98		At least 1 IIM
33	99	55	97		MDI Gurgaon
32	96	53	96		MDI Gurgaon ,IMT G
31	93	52	95		NITIE, IMT G,IMI. MDI HR
30	90	50	94		SP Jain, Nirma, FORE
29	87	48	93		IMI New Delhi, TA PAI Manipal
28	84	47	92		UBS Chandigarh,
27	81	45	91		KJS, ISWBM
26	78	43	90		NIRMA
25	75	42	89		LBS, IMDR, NIBM, BIM-Trichy
24	72	40	85		NIA, BIM-Tech, SDM-IMD, EDI
23	69	38	80		Geat Lakes, Chennai
22	66	37	75		IIFM, NIT-Trichy
21	63	35	70		Welingkar, IMFR Chennai
20	60	33	65		Amity Noida

 CAT 2008 Exam Analysis
 The paper was slightly more difficult than last year. In addition there was more stress on verbal ability with increase of 15 questions in that section
There were 90 questions of 4 Marks each.Negative marking -1 for each question
                    Section I -    Data Interpretaion ,Data Sufficiency and Reasoning 25 Q
                    Section II -  Quantitative Aptitude  25 questions
                    Section III -  Verbal Ability and   Reading Comprehension  40  Q


CAT 2008 Cut offs


Overall cut off for CAT 2008 for IIMs for General category between 120+ to 140+

Section wise cut off

Quantitative Aptitude :  32 - 35

Data Interpretaion:  32-35
Verbal ability :   46 - 49

CAT 2008  Selection Criteria Institute wise
  

	Category	Section I (QA)		Section II	RA	Section III	VA	Overall
		Percentile	Marks	Percentile	Marks	Percentile	Marks	Percentile	Marks
Maximum Marks		100	100	100	96	100	160	100	356
IIM Ahemdabad	General	94	35	94	35	94.5	47	98	121
	OBC	80	21	80	25	80	28	88	79
IIM Calcutta	General	96	38	96	38	96	51	99	133
	OBC	85	25	85	28	85	32	94	98
IIM Bangalore	General	90	32	85	32	85	26	90	82
	OBC	80	25	75	26	60	12	80	65
	ST	50	13	50	12	50	9	70	52
	SC	50	13	50	12	50	9	70	52
IIM Indore	General	80	25	80	28	80	21	99	132
	OBC	75	23	75	26	75	19	95	98
	ST	65	19	65	19	65	14	72	55
	SC	65	19	65	19	65	14	83	71

More Info. About CAT >>
 Common Admission Test(CAT)
CAT Syllabus
CAT Topic Analysis
CAT Tips for Preparation
IIM Seat

There is no fixed syllabus for IIM CAT. Past exam pattern depict the questions are mainly from these areas usually divided into Four section

1. Verbal ability and reasoning
2. Reading Comprehension
3. Quantitative skills
4. Data Interpretation 

Verbal ability and reasoning accounts for half of the verbal section
A typical 50 marks section of verbal comprises Verbal ability and reasoning section and the Reading Comprehension section. Verbal ability accounts for about 25 to 30 marks questions in the verbal section and the reamining 20 to 25 marks questions are Reading comprehension questions.

In CAT 2004 there were 0.5, 1 and 2 marks questions in the verbal section and in CAT 2005 there were 1 mark and 2 marks questions in the verbal section. CAT 2006 and CAT 2007 had 25 questions in the Verbal Ability section with each question carrying 4 marks. Of these 12 to 15 questions were Reading Comprehension question and the remaining questions were Verbal Reasoning questions.

The questions that typically appear in the verbal section can be classified in one of the following types 

Vocabulary Based
 Questions based on testing one's vocabulary could be plain vanilla "synonym - antonym" questions as it appeared in CAT 2001, CAT 2002. Alternatively, the questions on vocabulary may appear as fill in the blank with the appropriate word as it appeared in the 0.5 marks section of CAT 2004 or as part of the 2 marks section in CAT 2005.
There have been interesting variations to this question as in CAT 2001 and CAT 2002 where a simple word was given. Four alternate usages for the word was given and four different shades of meaning for the word was given. One had to match the usage with the appropriate meaning. A sample of such a question is given if you follow the link at the bottom of the page.
However, please note that the emphasis on vocabulary has been on the decline and the need to memorize meanings of words such as "pleonasm" or "pterodactyl" is not essential to crack such questions in CAT.
English Usage / Grammar
 Sentence correction or Grammar based questions appear in different flavours in the CAT verbal section. It could be questions where you are asked to spot the section of a sentence that is gramatically incorrect or it could be questions where a part of a sentence in underlined and you are provided with four or five alternative choices. You have to select the choice that0 corrects the error in the underlined part.
More recently in CAT 2005, questions on grammar appeared with a twist. A set of 4 sentences were given and you had to find out how many out of the 4 sentences were gramatically correct.
A good understanding of the basics of English grammar coupled with adequate exercises on the different types of common errors that appear in CAT will help you sail through these kinds of questions.
Verbal Reasoning
These questions could take multiple forms. The most common one is that of rearranging sentences of a paragraph. It could also include paraphrasing what has been said in a paragraph. In some CAT papers questions similar to the ones that appear in the Critical Reasoning section of GMAT have been tested.
CAT 2006 witnessed the comeback of Fact Inference Judgement questions. These questions which were a standard feature in CAT in the early 90s made a comeback in 2006. You will be given 3 or 4 sentences and will be asked to select which of the statements is a fact, which a judgement and which an inference.

Reading Comprehension accounts for a third to a half of the verbal section in CAT
A typical 100 marks section of verbal comprises Verbal ability and reasoning section and the Reading Comprehension section. Verbal ability accounts for about 40 to 60 marks questions in the verbal section and the reamining 60 to 40 marks questions are Reading comprehension questions. In CAT 2006, 15 out of the 25 questions in the verbal section were reading comprehension questions (i.e., 60 out of 100 marks). In CAT 2007, 12 out of the 25 questions in the verbal section were reading comprehension questions (i.e., 48 out of 100 marks).
Reading Comprehension questions come in groups of four to eight questions, and are based on reading passages that range from 250 to 750 words in length.
CRACKING THE SYSTEM
To be able to perform well in these types of questions you need to:
read quickly in a way that will allow you to understand the main idea of the passage
eliminate answer choices that could not possibly be correct
take advantage of outside knowledge
take advantage of inside information (the answer that is generally correct in exams like CAT), and
find answers in some cases without reading the passage.
BASIC PASSAGE TYPES
Passages that you will find in the CAT exam can be broadly classified into one of the following types.
1)The social science passage
This usually concerns a social or historical issue. You might see a passage about world population control or  the history of the rise to power of a clan in medieval India.
2)The science passage
This might describe a scientific phenomenon, such as aviation, super conductivity or plate tectonics.
3)The business passage
This usually discusses a business-related topic. For example, you might see a passage about the privatization of state-owned industries, pricing of options and futures or the causes of inflation.
4)The entertainment passage
This usually discusses a topic related to entertainment, sports, leisure. The passage could be on a topic such as the lifestyles of the rich and famous, the reason for the success of a Hollywood or Bollywood movie.


CAT Quantitative Ability (Quant / Math)
Syllabus, Topics tested in IIM's Common Admissions Test
The Quant (Math) section in CAT usually accounts for a third of the questions in CAT. For instance, in CAT 2006 and CAT 2007 the quant section had 100 marks worth questions out of the total of 300 marks worth questions. More often than not students who take CAT find the quant section as the toughest one. Albeit, CAT 2006 was an exception

IIM's CAT Math Refresher Books cover the following topics
Broadly categorized as Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry CAT typically tests a student's quantitative ability from over 25 topics. These topics that appear in CAT are of high school level. Click on the links that follow each topic for details of what is covered in 2IIM's Quant Refresher books on these topic and for accesing an archive of sample questions from these topics.

    Arithmetic

1. Number Systems and Number Theory
2. Percentages
3. Profit and Loss
4. Simple & Compound Interest
5. Speed, Time and Distance
6. Pipes and Cisterns
7. Races
8. Averages
9. Ratio, Proportion
10. Mixtures and Alligations

1. Linear and Quadratic Equation
2. Logarithm
3. Progressions - AP, GP, HP
4. Binomial Theorem
5. Inequalities
6. Permutation & Combination
7. Probability
8. Function
9. Set Theory

1. Geometry
2. Co ordinate Geometry
3. Trigonometry
4. Mensuration

More Info. About CAT >>
Common Admission Test(CAT)
CAT Exam Analysis and Cut Off
CAT Topic Analysis
CAT Tips for Preparation
IIM Seat