The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a well-known competitive exam that is conducted on an annual basis. The exam is conducted for students who aim to focus on getting admission to prestigious colleges of management. Students, while being in their higher secondary schooling years wish to take admission to the renowned Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). The CAT exam is a gateway for students to start their journey of university life with the best universities out there.

The CAT exam is not an easy exam to crack. The exam has a fixed pattern with 3 sections, each of which needs to be completed within 40 minutes. The total exam time is 2 hours. Students work very hard to get good marks in the exam. One of the ways that helps the students to get a good hold of the syllabus is the CAT previous year question papers. 

What is the need of CAT Previous Year Question Papers?

Solving the previous year's question papers is a very important part of preparing for any exam. CAT previous year question papers are available on various websites. The previous year question papers also come with solutions. Students can also find the answers to the questions they face difficulty in. The level of difficulty in the actual exam is also seen by the students. The previous year's CAT question papers act as the foundation on which students work. Students get a vision of what can come in the CAT exam and accordingly they prepare themselves.

How to use CAT Previous Year Question Papers?

When used properly, CAT question papers from the previous year can be very useful. The students can find the previous 5-10-year-old question papers on the internet. It becomes very important in this case for students to know the syllabus in advance. This method will save their time, as students will only focus on the important topics and questions that are present in their syllabus.

Take these CAT previous year question papers as serious exam practice papers and try to solve them with that intention. Do not take these papers lightly, as they are the actual CAT exam papers that have come in the previous years. This will help students learn time management with speed and accuracy. After you attempt the paper, evaluate your progress in the exam. Sit for a good amount of time and properly observe where you lack. The quality of the attempt becomes crucial. What was the level of each section, and which section did the students find most difficult? This all can be tallied after attempting the CAT previous year question papers.

Mistakes to Avoid While Attempting CAT Previous Year Question Papers

CAT exam question papers should not only be used to attempt an actual CAT exam. Instead, they should be used to track the real level of preparation that students have put in. Students should keep track of their mistakes so that they can improve over time. It's only when students put in time and effort to know where they lack that they can then make efforts to improve their weaknesses.

Students also make the mistake of ignoring the time limit while solving the exam. They feel that because they are just attempting the CAT previous year papers, they can take as much time as they want to solve the paper. This actually won't help a lot, as students will miss out on the habit of managing their time well. Preparing for the exam is not enough alone; time management also plays a vital role. It's only when students get a grip on the speed that they can actually attempt the paper well.

One of the other common mistakes made by students is that they start practising for CAT question papers from the previous year way too early on in their preparation journey. This is somewhat unhelpful. Students should be well-versed in the current syllabus, attempt new mock tests, and then move on to the CAT previous year question papers. In this way, they will complete their syllabus and also know what topics they need to practise from the CAT previous year papers.

Conclusion

It is very time-consuming to study for any exam. Nothing is easy until you make an effort to work on it. CAT previous year question papers can only act as a tool in helping students get an idea about the questions, but they will not assure you success in the CAT exam. Success will only come when the previous year's CAT papers are taken as a starting point and then worked on with the current relevant syllabus and material. CAT previous year papers are the way to go about the preparation for the exam.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Where can students find the official CAT question papers from the previous year?

Official CAT exam question papers are available on the IIM CAT official website. Students can go and have access to many question papers from previous years that are there on the website.

2. Are the CAT question papers from the previous year similar to the actual exam?

Yes, because these previous-year papers were once conducted as actual CAT exams. They are the most similar to the real exam format and show the exam's varying difficulty levels.

3. Are solutions available for CAT previous year papers on the internet?

Yes, most of the websites that offer CAT question papers from previous years also provide solutions for the same. Even coaching centres give solutions to the students so that they can check their mistakes and correct them.

4. How do students check their performance after solving the CAT previous year papers?

Students need to give themselves 2 hours to complete the exam first and then they need to take out the answer key of the CAT previous year question paper. Each question needs to be checked carefully and then the students need to rectify their mistakes.