How can a working person prepare for CAT without joining coaching if he wants to target CAT 2020?

This is for people who are planning to write CAT 2020. It is based on my personal experiences and what I learned during my CAT journey. You might disagree with some of these things, and I am open to suggestions from everyone of you. I will edit it as I get wiser. First and foremost thing that you need to do is bring a huge change in the way you do things every day. Try and utilise every single minute of free time for preparation. Whenever free, try and do something that will help you in one way or the other (mental calculations/reading/revising formulas etc. ). People in a very demanding job, stop giving excuses that you are not able to study coz of work. Even though it is true, there is nothing that you can do about it except maybe resign (The worst possible thing that you can do for CAT prep). So take it as a challenge. 2 hrs per day on weekdays and 6 hrs per day on weekends are more than enough for scoring a very good percentile in CAT. Enjoy this preparation, this struggle. Do not think about the result too much, focus on process, the journey. I will give you some key points in no specific order - 1. If you are a 1st timer, write a mock test, any mock, and get a rough idea as to where you stand right now. 2. Get hold of study material from any institute and make sure that you go through at least QA and LR from start to end asap. 3. A very important thing (that most people don't do) is that every time you try and solve questions, do it with time limit. Right from the very first question of the study material you pick up. CAT is a speed based game these days and you'll be able to develop that skill only with practicing speed day in and day out. Every time you plan to study even for a stretch of say 30 minds, plan to solve say 18-20 questions in those 30 with a timer and try and maximise your score in this. This way, you'll develop the art of leaving questions. And then devote another 30-60 minds to learn from the questions you couldn't solve or solved wrongly. Practising within time limits makes your brain think faster and more efficiently under stress and you try and maximise your score this way. I repeat, DEVELOP THE ART OF LEAVING QUESTIONS. 4. Once you start writing mocks, maintain an excel sheet to keep track of questions in VA and QA topic wise. After every mock, during analysis, just fill this excel sheet, something like this.

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