Can I crack the cat exam by self study?

Yes, you can. There are various reference books and materials that can help you for preparing.

For preparation you can refer to following reference books as per your choice: 1) How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT How to prepare for Data Interpretation for the CAT How to prepare for Logical Reasoning for the CAT How to prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT 2) Pearson Guide to Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Nishit Sinha Pearson Guide to Quantitative Aptitude and Data Intrepretation for CAT by Nishit Sinha Pearson Guide to Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning for CAT by Nishit Sinha There are others books like Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis, High School English Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin etc to help you for your preparation. You can also join various coaching institutes like TIME, CL, IMS etc or the online coaching institutes also for concepts and mock tests. All the best!

Yes definitely you can crack CAT exam with self study. You need to start your preparations of all sections right from baiscs.

For quantitative ability you can refer to a book by Arun Sharma which is pretty good because of its detailed explanations and variety of difficult questions. You should always start from baisc questions and jump to next level only when u r sure that your basics are perfectly strong.

For Verbal Ability you need to start reading lots of good books written by the good authors like Charles Dickens, Agastha Christie, Sydney Sheldon and various good newspapers like Hindu which will help you in improving your English literature. For vocabulary you should start learning 5 new words daily with their meaning and correct pronounciation and use them in your daily conversations so that you can memorize them properly. For RC section you should start reading passages and understand the thought process of author and what is his intentions and what message he actually wants to deliver through the pasaage. You can also refer a book by Arun Sharma to practice different types of questions asked in the CAT exam.

Along with this once when you find out that your basics for all the 3 sections are at at good stage then you should start attempting lots and lots of free online mock test available and analyse solutions of each mock test thoroughly which will help you in overcoming your mistakes and making up a strategy to attempt the paper which will definitely help you in improving your marks and percentile.

All the best for your preparations!!