Almost all of us are now at a juncture in our preparation where we have to decide between studying and taking tests. But where one ends up depends a lot on where one started from. Hence let’s look at the possible stages where a student could find himself/herself. We can then look at when one should take comprehensive tests vis-à-vis studying concepts. Current Students could be divided into one of these three categories:
2. Have started three months back or before and have prepared haphazardly
3. Have started three months back or before and prepared with some schedule
Now the possible paths for each of these categories are:
Just started or recently started
The first thing that you should do is read the article Confessions of a serial almost- 100 percentiler. The article will give you an idea on how to start your preparation. You will of course have to re-modify the schedule and study at least 5-6 hours instead of 3 hours. Your aim must now to be to cover relevant theory by the end of August. Comprehensive tests should start by early September or mid September. You can start taking section tests from mid – August after you are familiar with at least 50% of the theory.
Have started three months back or before and have prepared haphazardly
If you have been preparing without any structure then whatever you have achieved could have been increased by 50%. The first thing you must do is to make a list of the concepts that have yet to be covered by you. After the list is complete give each item a date and then follow the date given and keep the end of July as your deadline for studying. In August you can take section tests along with revision of topics every alternate day. You must start taking comprehensive tests by the beginning of September.
Have started three months back or before and prepared with some schedule
Do you really need this article? If you have prepared with a schedule then you must be comfortably moving towards completion of your theory. Keep the 15th August (Independence Day) deadline in mind and try to finish all theory by that time. If you think you may finish earlier then you can start taking section tests. Otherwise as some immortal philosopher must have said “You are doing just fine”.
Now let’s get to the important question of when do we start taking comprehensive tests? The ‘when’ can be read in two distinct ways: ‘when’ with respect to time and ‘when’ with respect to the stage in your preparation. Before we analyze these two aspects we should comprehend the purpose of comprehensive tests.
Why do we take comprehensive tests?
Speed: The first and foremost reason should be to increase speed and that happens only with practice. But remember practice is not the only cause behind increase in speed. There are other important factors like knowledge of important concepts, understanding of basics: if you do not understand basics you cannot apply them to tougher problems. Both these attributes are a prerequisite for speed; taking test papers without these attributes is pointless. Also speed can be developed by taking section tests first.
Concentration: Most of us are not used to sitting two hours at a stretch, a high degree of concentration is also not easy for first time test takers. Comprehensive tests make us sit for two hours at a stretch and we increase our attention span. Hence taking tests as soon as you can makes sense. But remember studying two hours at a stretch whenever you study can increase concentration. Of course studying for two hours at a stretch is not as rigorous as taking a test but that is a better way to start your two-hour sessions than comprehensive tests.
Time Management: A very important value provided by the comprehensive test is an idea of our strengths and weakness. If a student takes a section test, he/ she has no idea about time management in a comprehensive test. Remember a comprehensive test is not simply ‘n’ section tests rolled into one. In a section test you have no option but to give 40/ 30/ x mins to your section but in a comprehensive test when you have 2 hours for the entire paper then you have some more flexibility to maximize your chances of getting calls. This is especially important for students who have strong strengths / weakness. Let me explain– if a student very weak in Math and strong in English takes a normal 3 section comprehensive test he/ she can easily get a very high score in English but a fairly poor score in Math. In this case the student can realize that there is no point scoring absurdly high marks in English when the quant score is not even competent hence he or she can decide to give 5/10 mins out of English into Math, this may lower the overall score but definitely ensure that the student gets all calls. This is where analyzing and taking enough comprehensive tests is important. Students should use them to work out which type of time break up suits them best. Of course if the actual CAT is a timed section test then you have no choice but if it is not, you should utilize the freedom to maximize your score. For some students who are good at all sections they can give say 5/10 less minutes per section and use the last 15 to 30 minutes across sections to maximize score.
But all this makes sense if you have done all the background work of theory, basics and concepts. If you do not know everything for a particular section then whatever data you get regarding scores will be definitely incorrect.
Other Reasons: Of course, there are a lot of other reasons like selection of questions, analyzing strengths and weakness within a section, work out the time for varieties of questions but all these objectives could be addressed by section tests. In fact these minor issues should be clarified first by taking some section tests in every section and only then moving ahead with comprehensive tests.
When do we take comprehensive tests?
Now based on the above analysis it is fairly obvious that any comprehensive test should be taken after basic theory / concept completion. Also some section tests should have been attempted before taking comprehensive tests.
In terms of time as I have analyzed in one of my earlier articles 30 comprehensive tests should be taken on alternate days with revision of some important topics on alternate days. Including some unforeseen off days this should take around 75 days. Hence beginning of September is a good time to start taking comprehensive tests.
So please focus on concepts first and then start taking section tests, followed by comprehensive tests in September.