| TITA-first, skip hard MCQs<\/td> | 50<\/td> | ~105 marks<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n The data above makes the case plainly. A student who attempts 55 questions with 85% accuracy scores approximately 117 marks. By contrast, a student who attempts 66 questions with only 65% accuracy scores just 86 marks. Fewer attempts with higher precision win \u2014 every single time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Time Per Question: The Hidden Cost Nobody Calculates<\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe CAT exam gives aspirants 40 minutes per section, with roughly 24-26 questions in VARC and 22 in each of DILR and QA. Therefore, the average time available per question hovers between 90 and 110 seconds \u2014 which sounds reasonable until difficult questions start consuming 4 or 5 minutes each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a student commits to attempting everything, that time budget collapses quickly. Additionally, the psychological damage of spending 5 minutes on a question and still getting it wrong is severe \u2014 it rattles confidence for the questions that follow. Smart time allocation, not brute-force completion, separates high scorers from average ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 90-Second Rule<\/h3>\n\n\n\nA widely recommended heuristic among top CAT coaches is the 90-second rule: if meaningful progress on a question has not been made within 90 seconds, flag it immediately and move on. This single habit, practiced consistently across every mock, reclaims 10-15 minutes per section that would otherwise be lost to difficult questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. The Psychology of Attempting Everything<\/h2>\n\n\n\nThere is a well-documented cognitive bias known as completion anxiety \u2014 the discomfort experienced when a task is left unfinished. CAT aspirants are particularly susceptible to this bias because school exams conditioned them to believe that attempting all questions is standard good practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a CAT mock, however, the student who strategically skips three difficult questions and uses that saved time to double-check five easy answers will consistently outperform the one who powers through every question with diminishing accuracy. Building this counter-intuitive discipline is precisely what mocks are for \u2014 not for validating the anxiety-driven urge to attempt everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “A blank answer never hurts you. A wrong one always does.” \u2014 Fundamental CAT Scoring Principle<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nBreaking the School Exam Conditioning<\/h3>\n\n\n\nSchool exams rewarded volume. CAT rewards precision. Accepting this shift intellectually is easy; internalising it behaviourally requires deliberate practice over multiple mocks. Each time a student resists the urge to guess randomly, that resistance becomes a trained reflex that shows up on exam day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. Section-Specific Guidance on Skipping<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVerbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)<\/h3>\n\n\n\nVARC is the section where skipping is most misunderstood. Students often attempt all RC questions from passages they have only half-understood, simply because the text sits in front of them. A smarter approach, instead, involves abandoning a difficult passage entirely and redirecting attention to a cleaner passage or strong VA questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Para-jumble and odd-one-out questions follow a TITA format, meaning no negative marking applies. These deserve generous attempt time. Ideally, the target should be completing 20-22 questions with high accuracy rather than all 26 with a coin-flip outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThis section is widely regarded as the most critical in recent CAT exams. The key insight here is that sets \u2014 not individual questions \u2014 must be selected strategically. Spending 18 minutes on a brutal set and then rushing the remaining time is the single biggest DILR mistake aspirants make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first 5 minutes should go toward reading all four sets and identifying the two most approachable ones. Subsequently, 15-17 minutes each can go toward those two sets with accuracy above 80%. Attempting a third set with 3 minutes remaining rarely yields meaningful marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quantitative Ability (QA)<\/h3>\n\n\n\nQA questions range from 30-second computation problems to 4-minute derivation problems \u2014 often sitting side by side. As a result, a student attempting every question will inevitably waste time on hard ones while rushing through easy ones. The right approach is to scan the full set first, complete all sub-2-minute questions, and then return to the harder ones with whatever time remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. What a Mock Should Actually Be Used For<\/h2>\n\n\n\nA CAT mock is not a performance event \u2014 it is a diagnostic instrument. Unfortunately, most students treat it as the former, aiming for a high score in the mock rather than using it to identify patterns in their decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After every mock, three questions deserve systematic examination. First, which questions did the student skip that should have been attempted? Second, which questions were attempted that should have been skipped? Third, how much time did each question type consume, and was that distribution optimal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n |