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Books to Prefer for Getting 99 Percentile in CAT

by IBNS 02 Oct 2017, 08:38 am

Common Admission Test, popularly known as CAT, is a national level MBA entrance test conducted by the IIMs. Indian Institute(s) of Management select candidates for various management courses on the basis of CAT scores. Since IIMs are amongst the top MBA colleges in the country, many candidates aspire to get a seat in them.

But getting a seat in an IIM is not an easy task. You need to attain a very good percentile in CAT, probably a 99^th or more, in order to get shortlisted for further processes.

As we all know, scoring 99 percentile in CAT is not at all an easy task, students work hard to prepare for years to achieve this mark. So, we believe one mantra to score well can be in choosing the right study material. As thatis the source of information or the starting mark to reach your ultimate goal. But consulting the wrong books can create a lot of confusion and can result in wasted efforts.

Therefore, to help you select the right kind of books, we have curated a list of best books to be used while preparing for CAT.

Before we move further let’s keep a check on the important dates for CAT Exam:

The official notification for CAT was released on July 30, 2017. Following which CAT Registration was open from August 9, 2017 till September 20, 2017. However, the date for CAT exam is November 26, 2017 and students can expect the result of their hard work in January 2018.

Check Out the List of Books mentioned below!!

Best Books for CAT Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability

Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability Section of CAT has emerged as the most scoring section of CAT. This section has turned out to be a bit easier than other two sections, but it does not mean that one should take the preparation lightly. Since a high score in this section can help you attain an overall good score.

According to the latest pattern, this section contains 34 questions, covering topics like Reading Comprehension, Odd Sentence Out, Sentence Rearrangement (Para jumbles) and Paragraph Summary. Apart from these topics, questions can be expected from Critical Reasoning, Paragraph Completion and Some vocabulary based questions.

Note: A score of around 70 out of 100 yielded 99^th percentile in CAT 2016, which means you need to be good in all these areas.

To ace this section, –Reading Speed, Comprehension Ability, vocabulary, good grammar and a lot of practice is required.

Here is the list of best books to score 99^th percentile in this section of CAT –

Best Books for Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation Section

From last two years, LRDI section has become the most important section of CAT. This is not only because it has been made a separate section, but also due to the level of difficulty of this section. Therefore, to ace this section, not only you need have a strong hold on basics, but also need to have the ability to solve tough questions within the limited time available to you.

This section of CAT includes 32 questions, which are divided in the form of 8 sets, with 4 questions each. However, last year there was no proper distinction between DI and LR questions. Rather, most of the sets were actually reasoning based DI.

Note: A score of around 50 out 100 resulted into a 99^th percentile in CAT 2016, which translated into the fact that candidates also need to have the art of picking up right questions and solve them accordingly.

A good book for this section needs to have – all type of questions that can be asked in CAT, detailed explanation and an adequate number of questions for practice.

The table below provides the list of books that will help you ace this section –

Best books for Quantitative Aptitude Section

Quantitative Aptitude is the most feared section of CAT and mastering this section becomes a tedious job for many. There are a lot of reasons of why many candidates fail to perform in the quantitative aptitude section of CAT.

These are lack of practice, lack of speed (not knowing the easy tricks and shortcuts), not being good at basics or fear of mathematics because of belonging to a non-mathematics background.

Syllabus for QA section is huge. 34 questions are to be answered in 60 minutes which are from topics like Arithmetic, Geometry, Number System, Algebra, and Modern Mathematics. Last year only two of these, Arithmetic and Geometry covered around half of the section (17-18 questions).

Note: A score of around 60 out of 100 meant 99^th percentile in CAT 2016.

A good book for QA section of CAT must contain all the relevant topics, must offer a healthy number of questions for practice, should have the shortcuts and tricks and also offer good explanations to questions.

Thankfully, there are enough books available in the markets which cater all these needs. The list of best books for QA sections of cat is mentioned below –

Advanced Practice Books for CAT

All the books mentioned above include questions from beginner level to expert level for practicing for CAT. But apart from these, there are some other practice books that are available in the market which can be of great use.

We suggest you some advanced preparation books which can take your percentile from a 96-97 to a 99.5 or more.

Note: Overall, a score of 160 in CAT 2016 was needed to score 99^th percentile.

Also, these books must be solved only after you have gone through the books mentioned above and have attained a good grip on all the concepts.

The list of all such books is as follows:

The purpose of these books is to offer you questions on the next level of difficulty. These books can prove handy in last 2 months of your CAT preparation.

How to make best use of Books?

Using the books properly is as important as buying the right book. You should take care of a few things while using the books. There are –

First of all, make notes of all the rules and tips of a chapter, and use them while solving questions. In the initial days, focus should be just to solve all the questions, does not matter how much time they take.

Most of the books divide questions in 3 levels of difficulty, first complete the first two levels of all chapters (easy and medium; LOD 1 and LOD 2, whichever way they are classified).

After doing these two levels of all chapters, then move to higher level of questions. Practice from Advanced books and that of high difficulty questions should be time based.

Books are an important part of CAT preparation. Therefore, it is quite imperative that you have the right set of books on your shelf. If you solve questions from proper books for all 3 sections religiously, a high percentile can surely be expected.