WORK ON YOUR ‘ABILITY TO PERFORM’

ARUN SHARMA SAYS IF CANDIDATES BELIEVE IN THEIR ABILITY TO PERFORM,THEY CAN MAKE THE FINAL STAGE OF CAT PREPARATION HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE


THE last couple of weeks before the CAT should be spent in finalizing your strategies and getting ready for whatever they can throw at you on the D-Day. In today's article we would like to concentrate on a few important issues that will help in putting finishing touches to your preparations.

Many students have a tendency to think that nothing can be done at this stage in terms of preparation. Ironically, the biggest danger, most of you face, is from within. Also most students, at this stage, think that they know about the percentile they will get. Our observation is that they have already defined the range of percentile they are going to land up with i.e. they already know the minimum and the maximum levels they are supposed to get. To put it very mildly this approach is ridiculous.

Consider a phone call we received from a CAT aspirant who was taking two different test series. She was very worried. In one of the two test series she was getting a percentile in the 80's, while in the other one, she was getting a percentile in the 50’s. Her main concern was which of the two should she consider as her actual percentile. Our question to her was —what if there was another test series based on what the actual CAT was? And what if she was getting a percentile of around 99 in that. Which percentile would she count as the correct one then?

Once again we would like to get back to a major issue, which we had addressed, in these columns. The issue is — candidates should not take their mock percentiles seriously. We are reiterating this time and again because it is seen that by having preconceived notions about their scores, students unnecessarily court anxiety.

We have observed that ever since national mock tests have started, there has been absolutely no correlation between the actual CAT scores and the scores students achieve in their mocks.

Just as the performance of a cricket team depends a lot on the nature of the wicket, similarly the performance of an individual depends a lot on the design of the tests. In other words the actual CAT scores depend on the nature of questions in the actual CAT test. A coaching centre and a group of three-four people, who might be developing the tests for the coaching centres, do not define it.

It is important to remember: “The greatest battles can be and have been won if you have yourself on your side.” In case your belief system has already told you that you are not going to make it, no amount of external forces can help you win a war.

Hence what we are trying to tell you is that there is still a lot you can hope to do in the last few weeks before CAT. Even if your percentiles are stuck in the range of 50's you never know what you can achieve through improving your performance on the D-day.

We would like to remind you that even on the last day before the CAT there is something that you can do in order to change your fortunes in the exam.

Last minute preparation strategies:
Competitive examination preparation (and in fact preparing for any challenge you ever face in your life) is about managing two dimensions of preparation:

Ability improvement: The focus in this is on improving your ability to do a certain thing in a better way

Performance improvement: This is more or less a state of mind issue. This essentially refers to the management of your belief systems and your state of mind, which emanate from your dominant belief system.

The fact that performance on the day is the only thing that counts is something that is instinctively understood by any sportsperson. That is why even top sportsmen and champion teams have people to help them perform better. Three lakh people, every year, try to work towards developing their abilities, nobody actually focuses on developing their ability to perform. I completely agree with the point of view that one cannot develop abilities in the last few days before CAT, but performance levels can be drastically enhanced in these last few weeks. Think about it! Focus on it! Find ways to change it.
(The writer is an alumnus of IIM-Bangalore, a nationally renowned CAT trainer and the author of a series of books published by Tata McGraw Hill on CAT and other aptitude exams)