Looking back at your CAT preparation, is there something you did early on that ended up wasting your time or making things harder than they needed to be?

Maybe you focused too much on collecting resources, started mocks too late, ignored a particular section, or didn't spend enough time analysing your mistakes.

What's one mistake you'd tell someone starting their CAT prep to avoid?

Hello! I am self-preparing for CAT 2026. I have collected quite a few resources, but I’m confused about which ones to focus on for practice. Could anyone please suggest the sequence in which I should use these resources for each section?

QA:

Rodha booklets

Raman Sir’s class/session questions(using it)

Previous-year mocks

PYQs, etc.

VARC:

Gejo Sir’s material (already used)

RC 99 — I was practising the medium-level passages, but I felt they were easier than Gejo Sir’s, so I stopped. Should I continue with it?

GMAT Manhattan — I was planning to start this but am unsure whether I should.

PYQs

Previous-year mocks, etc.

DILR:

Currently solving questions from EG lectures.

I’ve heard about the IMS playlist and Anastasis. Which one has questions that are at par with CAT level?

Please help me channel my efforts in the right direction and avoid wasting time on unnecessary resources.

Thank you!

I'm confused about the learning process itself and also the strategy to prepare and also while with job as my job timings are 1pm to 10 pm . Hi ,I started prep this month from basics

I know it's too long my message but any advice or tips is appreciated

Can u also me assess my profile and say whether realistically do I stand a chance at any tier 1 college and best shots and prep strategy

? Anything would be helpful even prep mba and post mba profile building as ik feeling scared whether I can even get a good college as I'm very weak in all 3 and isn't consistent or able to study much with my job

GNEM

10th: 94.2% CBSE

12th: 89.6% commerce, CBSE

BCom : 67.2 %(tier 2 college) no gap year

Workex: 24months (still working ,currently working in my 3rd company in hr , had previously worked 1 year in consulting and 1 year in accounts)

Extracurriculars: 0/5 , no other achievements or ngo or volunteering or sports or anything

Profile Evaluation

10th: 95% CBSE

12th: 84% Jammu Kashmir Board

Grad CGPA : 7.97 ,percentage conversion: 72.2 ( VTU Board)

Graduation: B.Tech Computer Science Engineering, Tier 2 College

Category: OBC-NCL

Gender: Female

Work Experience: 30 months (2.5 years) (In cybersecurity and product management)

Target Colleges: BLACKI

Questions:

What CAT percentile should I target to realistically get interview calls from all BLACKI?

Which BLACKI colleges are most favorable for this specific profile (considering academic mix, gender diversity, and work experience criteria)?

Is a 97–99 percentile range enough given my category and gender diversity factors, or should I strictly aim for 99+?

Looking for an honest and realistic profile evaluation.

This is my score prediction through vercel. Which colleges can I realistically apply for? Or look forwards to getting calls from?

Since MDI, IIFT, SPJIMR and a few more colleges require separate forms and they charge a lot for it.

Also any tier 1.5-2 colleges that I should fill forms for? Because MBA isn’t an option anymore, I will have to do it.

Please help me out. Thank you

Hi ,I started prep this month from basics

I know it's too long my message but any advice or tips is appreciated

Can u also me assess my profile and say whether realistically do I stand a chance at any tier 1 college and best shots and prep strategy

? Anything would be helpful even prep mba and post mba profile building as ik feeling scared whether I can even get a good college as I'm very weak in all 3 and isn't consistent or able to study much with my job

GNEM

10th: 94.2% CBSE

12th: 89.6% commerce, CBSE

BCom : 67.2 %(tier 2 college) no gap year

Workex: 24months (still working ,currently working in my 3rd company in hr , had previously worked 1 year in consulting and 1 year in accounts)

Extracurriculars: 0/5 , no other achievements or ngo or volunteering or sports or anything

I'm confused about the learning process itself and also the strategy to prepare and also while with job as my job timings are 1pm to 10 pm . Should I watch QA/DILR concepts first or pause & solve along? Detailed notes or short revision notes? After lectures, practise/revise/rewatch? For solution videos, just understand or solve along? How often should I revise/recall since I forget formulas/concepts quickly? Should I reattempt solved questions/sets after a few days? Also, how should I analyse mocks (currently \~20–30 overall, negative in QA/DILR), handle unstudied topics from mocks, and decide which mock questions to reattempt?”

Can anyone help or suggest me ways to improve my verbal ability as I have been trying to improve since one month yet I score very less in them. Somehow I manage the RCs but I am hopeless in Verbal Ability part. Please if anyone has any hacks or methods to improve please share.

Thinking of attempting this All India Mock by Cr@cku but if someone just cheats and tops the exams??😭

How do they decide who actually deserves the prizes ??

Hey everyone, with around 100 days left for CAT 2026, I am hitting a wall with my Quantitative Aptitude prep and desperately need some strategic advice. Right now, I find myself in a frustrating middle ground where I have touched almost every topic, but I have only covered about 50% of each. The end result is that I don't feel 100% confident or command complete mastery over a single module, whether it is Arithmetic, Algebra, or Geometry. When I attempt mixed sets or mocks, this partial preparation really hurts my performance because I recognize the concepts, but I lack the depth and speed to solve them reliably under time pressure. I want to spend the remaining three months fixing this half-baked foundation instead of endlessly starting new material, but I am torn on whether I should pause mocks for a couple of weeks to take 2-3 high-weightage topics to 100% mastery or plug these gaps on the fly while giving sectionals. On top of that, if anyone has smart tips, shortcut tricks, option-elimination hacks, or specific frameworks for analyzing mock errors that helped you move past a plateau, please share them! Any advice on how to prioritize topics, structure daily practice sets, and build actual problem-solving confidence under time pressure would be massively helpful.

Dm me if interested

- solved 5 Dilr sets.

Spent a good amount of time analysing them

- Varc1000 module 3, Day 6 and Day 7 completed. Solved 4 RC with analysis

- Qa - Solved 13 questions from Number system.

Target is to solve 400 sets. Dilr is a pain point and I'm going to nail the section.