Making the best out of your Mistakes (Mock Tests)

When we are preparing for an exam, it might seem for a while that there’s not much that is improving. Some days seem as good days, while others not so much. When we are just practicing and studying new topics, we do not understand if we have practiced enough or not.

For all of these questions, the most important thing to do is give mock tests continuously. I have had endless people ask me if they should wait to finish the entire syllabus before giving mock tests. Many people don’t attempt any mock test till as late as 2-3 months before the exam, all for the fear of scores there.

Ideally, you should start giving mock test as soon as you decide that you want to appear for any exam, especially CAT. What is the worst that could happen, you get 10%ile? So what! It is just a mock test, by giving the test you can gain so many insights which can help you improve remarkably. Attempting mock tests just gives you the final exam feel without the result dependency, it is the best way to prepare for your exam. Not only can you just focus on weak sections, you get to learn a lot from the solutions as well.

By giving mock test, you just make yourself less ignorant of your strong and weak topics. And that knowledge is very important for your overall preparation, because when time availability is low it is best to focus on topics where you need more improvement. By analyzing mocks properly you can also understand the nuances of mistakes you make, and ensure you don’t repeat them. You also get to identify few tricky questions and mark them for revision later on. If you have only 10 hours to study for the exam in a week, I would give 3 hours mock test, and spend 2 hours in analyzing it. Then the rest 5 hours in studying the concepts and topics I’m lacking.

By giving 30-40 mock tests, you almost cover all the possible topics that you should study. Hence giving mock tests can be the best way of revising the entire syllabus. I used to keep a record of how my accuracy / score is improving in each of the sections as well. It gave me amazing insights on individual sections and I continued to improve on all the scores.

The best can be taken out of a mock test by analyzing it properly. Give it a proper 2-3 hours, do it in one go and do it as early as possible!

For more details on analyzing mock tests, do watch: https://youtu.be/_lo64dFcD70