If you are starting your CAT 2025 preparation now and wondering, “Am I too late?” You are not alone. Every year, thousands of asiprants ask this exact question. The anxiety of starting late can often lead to rushed decisions, skipping important topics, and eventually poor performance in exam. But it’s never too late, if you follow the right strategy and avoid common mistakes.
In this article, we’ll walk you through five major mistakes students often make when they start late, and ways to correct those mistakes so as to boost your chances of scoring 99+ percentile. These insights come from our top CAT mentor Mr. Abhishek Leela Pandey. Read on to know more.
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No Clear Strategy or Study Plan for CAT
Mistake:
- Many students make a rigid 3-month study plan thinking that it will bring structure and discipline. However, this often leads to mental pressure after 3-4 weeks and hence your motivation will drops.
Solution:
- Adopt a “Rolling 7-Day Plan”, because when you are starting late, all your fixed plans fails at a very fast speed.
- Aspirants must review their performance every 7 days and modify the strategy. This adaptive planning keeps your routine dynamic and helps you stay accountable.
- Students must priortize easy-to-master topics and also the topics which carries high weightage like Arithmetic, Algebra, Quant-based reasoning topics, Graph-based DI, etc.
- Most of the students plan extensively and delay execution, you have to be very calm and consistent while planning for CAT 2025. You must use “20/80 Time Split Rule”, which says that 20% of your should go into planning and 80% into execution.
Skipping Basics of CAT
Mistake:
- Many late starters panic and jump straight into solving previous year solving questions or tough-level mocks, ignoring the weak fundamentals.
Solution:
- To overcome this mistake build your foundation first. All of us are aware that CAT is tough, but it is not unbeatable if your basics are clear. Think of CAT preparation as constructing a building but a shaky foundation will collapse under pressure, same goes with the CAT preparation.
- iQuanta offers essential modules tailored for non-engineers and for students who are weak in Quant. Non-Engineers’ QA series provides bite-sized concept videos from NCERT (Class 6th -10th), VARC Essentials offers most common word-based RCs for vocabulary & Reading comprehension, and LRDI Essentials provides conceptual breakdown of reasoning puzzles, basics & fundamentals of LRDI which were never taugh in schools.
- Also, practicing with “Concept Anchors” also plays an important part wherein for each topic you have to identify 4-5 core questions that define the concept. CAT 2025 aspirants can go through iQuanta’s Youtube playlist of Arithemtic, Algebra, and other important topics as well.
Ignoring CAT Mocks
Mistake:
- Many CAT aspirants delay in giving mocks until they feel ready, and by then it’s often too late.
Solution:
- Start giving mocks as soon as you are done with Arithemetic in Quant. Initially give one mock every in 2 weeks and grdaully increase the the mock frequency to one per week, and when you D-day is near try giving two-three mocks per week.
- This will not only builds stamina but also trains your brain to focus uner exam-like pressure.
- Create a mock ritual, wherein, take the mock at the same time each week, avoid taking breaks during mocks, and use the same real exam time setup to simulate exam conditions.
- Also, analyzing mock is very important. iQuanta provide AI-powered iCAT Mock platform which helps in building strategies as per your mistakes, tracking error in patterns, aspirants will get instant topic suggestions, and can access 5 similar practice questions for each mistake.
- Just 3 hours per mock (2 hours to take + 1 hour to analyze/practice weak spots) can drastically improve your scores in CAT 2025.
Comparing Yourself With Others
Mistake:
- When CAT aspirants see someone solving 10 questions in 5 minutes on Instagram, or any another person scored 120 in a mock, they got panic.
Solution:
- You must understand that social media only shows highlights, never the full story. You must be seeing someone’s day 100 while it may be your day 1, so don’t compare your journey with someoneelse’s destination.
- Remember, nobody will posts their worst mock scores, so do not compare your reality to someone else’s highligh reel.
- Aspirants must replace comparison with competitive benchmarking by asking, “If someone got 99%ile, what did they do in week 10 of CAT preparation?”.
- Everyone starts somewhere. If you are starting now, focus on your growth week-by-week, not someone’s else scores.
Over-Planning or Over-Consuming Content
Mistake:
- Aspirants spend hours searching for the “perfect strategy”, watching multiple youtube videos, collecting PDFs, but actually not studying.
Solution:
- Stick to one reliable sources, iQuanta offers you a structured learning path wherein you can join watsap groups, ansk queries and get instant 24*7 doubts assistance from CAT top mentors.
Join this free whatsapp group to get the latest information about CAT exam along with the strategies by CAT experts
The CAT 2025 exam is noy just about solving questions. It’s about having a study plan that evolves with your growth, executing consistently, keeping your basic fundamentals strong, practicing via mocks and real-time analysis, and most importantly, trusting your own pace instead of comparing yourself with others. You still have time, but everyday counts. Join iQuanta’s CAT 2025 ecosystem today. Whether you are a beginner, or a late starter, the path is open—as long as you are willing to take the first step.
