How to crack CAT? IMS Vs T.I.M.E.

Hi folks,
I checked in this page, it has a nutshell view of CAT.
IMS Catbulletin

Yesterday I was talking to 10-12 students, just to assess which coaching institutes churn in the most number of students. I thought it would be IMS as I personally has consulted their materials - though I did not take their coaching. But, to my amusement both IMS and T.I.M.E. churn out almost equal number of students! The first years rate both the materials as equally good. Their quants materials are much much better than other coachings. TIME provides, according to some, somewhat better material on VA whereas IMS is ahead in DI part. It's now your choice.

This week I had a talk with a student with IIT Kgp production engineering background. He did not take any coaching for CAT, he was preparing for GRE; the GRE materials, especially those of Baron's helped him a lot for CAT. Everyday, he practised for about 5 hours daily - 3 mock tests of GRE/CAT every week and rest four days would be his feedback time. In feedback time he thought about possible strategies and where his preparation is going wrong or what he is doing right. He also prepared in a group - total 4 students, all of whom landed in IIMs. Hence, a good, sincere, intelligent group definitely helps! His strength was Quants and he did extremely well there. He did farely well in other sections too. His cat percentile was 99.9. Impressive!

For GD-PI he enrolled in IMS. Everyday browsing of ET, Business India, etc. helped him to feel confident. His GD was on a single page case on Xerox Inc. He was not very vocal initially but kept a note of whatever everyone said. Last 10 minutes he spoke where he validated and extended some student's points and rejected others with a solid argument. Two students got change from his GD group.

His PI was for 45 minutes. Main questions were from acads. The panel consisted of 5 professors from IIMA, they did not ask him anything about industry but were focused on his academic career and his software background. One question was asked about a corporate entity, he said he was not much aware of the present scenario in different sectors.

So, what do you gain from this? That -

• In nutshell, concentrate on your strengths for CAT, get a very focused group, practice-practice-practice together and learn from others.
• In GD, Over-enthusiasm sometimes hurts, be sure about what you're talking with good logic and rationale, take a note of what others are talking too.
• In PI, Profs will ask on your strong points mainly - so need to mugg everything up overnight. Mention topics on which you know quite deep- shallow knowledge won't help!
• If you don't know, say no in PI - don't make a story there.
  

Keep preparing and Enjoy!
Boss