Deepa N Swamy, a CA, passed out from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, in 2008. She is currently working as a management consultant in Mumbai. She shares her experience and offers special tips to Arunima Rajan.
What would you think are the advantages of the going online?
The tendency to go back and forth between questions would certainly be reduced.It will definitely reduce the number of errors due to wrong/incorrect shading.
Experts claim that every student needs a personalised strategy to crack the CAT exam. Is it true?
Yes. Everyone has their own strong and weak areas. Some topics are so important that they are sure to come every year — those cannot be missed. Infrequent topics can be prioritised. This is why knowing yourself will help a lot — this also comes only with practice and analysis.
Do you think discussing the results with your friends help?
Never discuss the results after the main CAT exam, and before the results. After mock CATs, discussions help tremendously. But they must be constructive and about the process of solving and not so much about the scores.
How can a student improve the speed and strike rate?
Speed can be improved only by practice and periodic timed tests. For strike rate, one has to first know the topics he/she is good at, try to read all questions by the end of the mock exam, assess if the question is easy, and then attempt it. The strike rate will improve if this is done religiously across mock CATs. But it must be supplemented with regular test paper analysis.
Do you think feedback is very useful?
Feedback can be extremely useful. Personally, I have gained a lot from feedback sessions, especially when they are conducted by professionals. The sessions help you look at the whole paper differently, and understand the paper and yourself better.
Comments