What are the things you learned only after appearing for the CAT exam?

Here are some of the things that you will realize after appearing for the CAT examination.

• Spend the first few minutes going over the papers before diving in. Browse through the problems and start with the ones that you know you can solve in one go.  CAT prioritizes solving not sequence.
• If you aren’t sure about an answer, leave it. Concentrate on other problems. You shouldn’t spend more than 2-3 minutes on a single problem. 
• Don’t use the elimination method, if you can solve the problem in less than 1 minute. Do rough work thoroughly. Don’t answer any questions, just by guessing. 
• There will be a few lengthy questions. Try to ignore these. Even CAT toppers don’t score the full marks. 

CAT doesn’t test your knowledge. The only thing matters are how much you score. So, try to attempt as many questions as you can correctly. 

According to one of my friends who experienced the CAT exam first hand mentions a few things, these are the ones following:

• CAT is a lot easier than the Test series and Mocks they used to solve during practice sessions.
• Generally students try to use some tricks to better remember or for understanding a lot of things, but during the exam they realized solving the questions does not require this as they could be done easily.
• Some lengthy problems are deliberately put in exams to test students.
• Browse through all the problems. Never miss a simple question. By concentrating on the tougher problems all the time, you could skip the easier ones.
• The last 30 seconds of the exam are crucial.
• If you are not sure about the answer, leave it to save time. 
• Always give a 5 second pause after reading a question and think about what the question is asking and which is the best method to solve it.
• Do rough work fairly, and complete the calculation. Never mark the answer just because the last two digits are matching.
• Reading a passage in 6 minutes is the same as reading a passage in 3 minutes and rereading to search for an answer.

These are some of the things my friend mentioned which you will get to know only if you encounter the CAT exam.