The Common Admission Test, CAT, is a very important entrance exam for MBA aspirants. Every year there are thousands of students who are applying to appear for the CAT exam. The CAT exam is conducted by the Indian Institute of Management for admission to 21 direct IIMs and other top business schools. There are various ways with which the students are trying to prepare for the CAT exam. The CAT mock tests are one of the ways that play a crucial role in helping the students prepare for the exam. Mock test papers are practice tests that provide important questions from the exam point of view to the students. There are various sources where the CAT mock test papers are available.

CAT Exam Pattern

The CAT exam is a computer-based online test which is conducted in three different slots. The time duration of the CAT exam is 120 minutes. There are a total of 3 sections in the CAT exam. Each section has 40 minutes of time duration. The names of the different sections of the CAT exam are Verbal ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Aptitude. There are a total of 68 questions. The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section has 24 questions, the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section has 22 questions, and the Quantitative Aptitude section also has 22 questions. The total marks of the CAT exam are 204 marks. There's a mix of multiple-choice questions and type-in-the-answer-type questions. In the CAT exam, for every correct answer, students are awarded 3 marks, and for every incorrect answer, there is a negative marking of 1 mark. There is no negative marking for the type in the answer-type questions.

What are CAT Mock Tests?

CAT mock tests are model question papers that are based on the exact exam pattern of the actual CAT exam. The mock test papers help the aspirants to get a better understanding of the CAT exam syllabus, the CAT exam pattern and the type of questions that are usually going to be asked in the exam. In order for students to have a better idea of the structure of the exam, most of the students try to solve as many CAT mock tests as possible. The CAT mock test replicates the exact section-wise structure and pattern of the actual CAT exam.

Where Can Students Find The CAT Mock Tests?

These days there is an excess of CAT preparation material that's available to the students on various platforms and also in offline mode. There are many educational websites that offer the CAT mock test online for free. Students can usually go on these websites and solve the mock tests in online mode and also keep a timer to assess their time management skills. The CAT mock test online also helps students to get a real-time experience of how it would feel to give the actual CAT exam, as the CAT exam is a computer-based online test. Students can also go to various bookshops and get offline CAT mock tests available to them in the forms of printouts or books. With the help of these ways, students can actually have access to a lot of material and prepare in the most comprehensive way possible.

Benefits of CAT Mock Tests

There are numerous benefits of solving the CAT mock test papers for the students. In simple terms, the preparation of an entrance exam is never a bad idea. Students can have practice in a lot of ways, but the mock test papers are some of the most crucial and important aspects of the student's learning journey. The mock test papers really help the students to access a lot of different aspects of the examination. Giving an entrance exam is not just about cramming the syllabus and appearing for the exam. There are a lot of other aspects that students need to be well versed with in order to be able to have a solid preparation for the exam.

Mock test papers obviously help the students with understanding the exam pattern. There are many doubts of the students while they're initially preparing for an entrance exam. All these doubts get solved when students are well versed with the aspects of the exam. Students get to know about the 40 minutes of sectional time limit that's a part of the CAT exam, and the mock test papers also help students to work on their time management in order to do better in the exam. Practising with various mock test papers in a timed manner helps the students to become more familiar with the exam environment, and students can, with practice, get used to managing their time in a way where they're able to complete each section within the time limit.

Then the mock test papers also help the students with analysing their performance. There are various mock test papers that are available with different kinds of difficulty levels for the students to practise with. When students are trying to solve the mock test papers and they check their answers, they get to know where they stand in terms of the scores they'll get. This helps students in two ways. Firstly, it helps the students to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and based on understanding the topics that they are weak at, students can go in and revise and get more clarity on those concepts. Students are also able to have an idea of whether they will be able to get their desired percentiles in the actual exam or not. This kind of motivates the students to perform better.

Conclusion

CAT mock tests are very important from the perspective of the preparation of the exam of the students. There are other practice tools that students can learn with, but mock test papers have their own importance. There are many students who heavily rely on practising with the mock test papers. Various coaching institutes also provide mock test papers in a very systematic manner to the students. Mock test papers are known to provide the right kind of help and guidance to the students. This helps them to work in the right way. Students are able to learn how they want to give the exam when they're familiar with attempting the mock test papers. Therefore, students should try to solve as many mock test papers as possible for having good practice at hand.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Where are CAT mock tests available?

CAT mock tests are available in both online and offline modes.

2. How many mock test papers should students solve?

Students should try and solve 10 to 15 mock test papers.