Academic FAQs

First, the basics: the exam date is fixed, the level of the exam is fixed. Your other commitments don't change either. CAT is a competitive exam, and what separates top performers is test-taking skill — which only comes from writing a lot of mocks. Ask anyone who did well last year and they'll tell you the same thing: finish the syllabus early, then write 40+ mocks.

To get those 40 mocks in, the syllabus has to be done by 15 August.

So depending on when your exams wrap up:

• Exams ending first week of May — get straight back into class, target 25 topics this month.
• Exams ending second week of May — about 15 days available, target 10 topics.
• Exams in second half of May — squeeze in 10 topics during the first half and on exam break days.

When we meet for your monthly prep plan, we'll lock in the exact list of topics. And just to be clear — a topic counts as completed only after you've taken the BMT for it.

Yes, 7 months is enough. Most students who clear CAT spend 500-700 hours of total prep time. The honest math: 2-3 hours on weekdays plus 5-6 hours on weekends gets you through the syllabus and 20+ mocks. Nothing more is needed; consistency does the rest.

The hard part isn't the hours — it's protecting them. Students who chip away every weekday end up with more useful study time than students who try to cram on weekends. Find your slot, guard it.

Generally, no. CAT is an aptitude test, not a knowledge-heavy one like UPSC — it doesn't reward 12-hour study days the way those do. And work experience genuinely helps your profile in the IIM interview round; we see this play out year after year. Only consider a break if your work hours regularly cross 12 hours, leaving you with no time for even basic practice. Otherwise, find your 2-3 weekday hours and protect them.

There's been some confusion on this and we're trying to fix it once and for all. For the next 3 months, we focus on completing the syllabus from IMS India — that's it. After that, we shift into workshops, mock practice, and refining test-taking skills.

Every IMS question already has concept videos and explainer videos attached, so you don't need to hunt around for clarity.

You don't need — and probably can't stick to — a fixed schedule every day. The key thing is this: if your monthly plan is on schedule, the daily rhythm can vary. Lock in the monthly target, and let the days flex around your life.

QA: take the Practice tests (both Easy and Normal), then the benchmarking test.

VARC and LRDI: there are practice sets after each class. The flow is — attend the class → solve the practice sets (easy, moderate, difficult) → solve the benchmarking test.

Mock progression:

• PreSimCATs at 25% syllabus completion.
• Take-home simCATs (1 per week) once 30% syllabus is done.
• Proctored simCATs once 40% syllabus is reached.

Take accuracy very seriously. Benchmarking tests should sit at 75%+. SimCAT scores should climb from one mock to the next.

Start now — even if your syllabus is only 30-40% complete. The mock isn't there to give you a score yet; it's there to teach you the interface, build time-pressure muscle, and tell you which chapters need more attention. The exact progression (preSimCATs at 25%, take-home weekly from 30%, proctored from 40%) is in the previous question.

The bigger thing: a mock is only as useful as the analysis that follows it. Spend twice as long analysing as you spent writing — 2 hours on the mock, 4 hours on the analysis. Without that loop, a mock is just a stress test.

You don't need to target a 100 percentile here. First things first — let's define what score clears the QA cutoff. For most students, Arithmetic + Algebra alone is enough to do it. So that's where the foundation work goes — and within those, four core topics carry the load: Calculations, Percentages, Equations, Ratios. Get these solid and the cutoff stops being a worry.

Start with Arithmetic. It's the most intuitive section, carries the highest weight in the paper, and doesn't reward exotic formulas — it rewards clean logic. Avoid the trap of trying to memorise tricks for every topic; you don't need them.

The number that actually matters: 10-12 accurate questions in QA is enough for 99th percentile. You don't need to attempt all 22. Build that accuracy first; speed comes later.

VARC is an extremely important section — it has to be rock solid. And here's the catch: inside a mock, VARC gives you zero feedback. You won't know whether you got a question right or wrong. That judgment has to be built into your thinking — which is why accuracy is non-negotiable. Solve every question like your life depends on it.

Stay consistent and the score keeps climbing. The moment you stop practicing, it slides back to baseline.

Practically: build the reading habit with 3-4 novels (that's it, not a library), and chip away at the practice material — we have plenty to cover.

Zoning out is what happens during passive reading. Switch to active reading. Two changes:

• Read with a pen in hand (or your cursor tracking on screen). The physical act of pointing keeps the eyes engaged.
• After every paragraph, ask yourself: “Why is the author telling me this?” Summarise it in one line in your head before moving on.

If you catch yourself zoning out, don't push through — stop and re-read that paragraph. Pushing through is what ruins the comprehension downstream.

This is the make-or-break section in CAT. If you can't crack a set in the first 15-20 minutes, it's very hard to recover from the shock. So give this section adequate time every single day. The good news — once the aptitude is built, it stays with you for life.

LRDI has three layers:

• Concepts of each topic — about 10% of the picture
• Language of the topic — another 20%
• Practice — the rest, and that's where the real work is

Your time per set will start at 30 minutes and gradually come down to 10. Target: at least 300 sets at CAT LOD over the next 6 months.

One specific habit to build: in the first 2 minutes of any set, decide whether to solve it or skip it. Set selection is half the score on this section.

All sets below are on myIMS 3.0.

LRDI Practice Sets

VARC Practice Sets

You may not have been able to give adequate time to prep so far, so there may be backlogs. Say your batch is moving on to Algebra and you're still not confident in Arithmetic. Two ways to go:

1. If you feel you can manage the missed topics alongside the ongoing ones, stay in the same batch. The current topic is your first priority; missed topics get covered around it. Choose this if you're confident you can put in more than 6 hours of self-prep once exams are done.
2. If the load of ongoing + missed topics feels like too much, take a batch transfer. Just understand the trade-off — your syllabus completes a bit later, which means you start simCATs a bit later. But it's better to go slow and finish things thoroughly than to hurry through and later wonder why scores aren't coming.

How do I change my batch? Just drop a message in your group saying you need a batch transfer — Jayesh sir will take care of the rest. Easy as that.

The current list of Batch Mentors:

Simply put — trust us to create the structure for you. You just focus on the immediate tasks. Once simCATs start, every completed topic gets revised through them naturally. With each simCAT question there's a Revise with AI option — it walks you through the concept and gives you enough practice to lock it in. So revision happens as you move forward, not by going back.

There's no cap on the number of mentoring slots — we'll keep adding more as you go forward. If you have any doubts, reach out to me anytime. Or drop a message in your group and Jayesh sir will book a slot for you. You can also book a slot directly from myIMS 3.0.

We'll happily share a profile-building plan tailored to your profile, your strengths, and the time you have. The first priority is always CAT prep — about 7 hours a day. Anything you can manage on top of that is fair game for profile work.

Broad rule of thumb: if you're scoring 90+ percentile in mocks, profile becomes very important. Below 90, CAT percentile carries proportionally more weight — so prioritise CAT prep until your mock scores cross that mark.

Two habits show up consistently. First, they keep an error log — a running record of every mistake from every mock and bench test, paired with the concept the mistake exposed. They revisit it weekly. The point isn't the log itself; it's that the same mistake never repeats.

Second, they spend more time analysing than solving. After a mock, after a practice set, after a bench test — they read every wrong answer, figure out what they missed, and put it in the log. Solving more questions without that loop just trains the same mistakes deeper.