Hello,


First of all you will have to apply for an undergraduate degree.After you will take admission in graduation you will have to decide from year you want to start your preparation.Some students start in 1st year while some start in final year.So, its upto you.
Now follow the steps afterwards.Now, one more thing you need to decide is whether to prepare at coaching or by self study.

Take coaching material or utilise the internet
Those who opt for coaching get the tailor-made section-wise preparation material. But, even if you do not go for coaching classes and cannot access the expert notes, there is no dearth of right study material. There are ample question banks, sample papers and study materials by expert authors available online as well as offline. With the boon of technology, you can interact with the experts and fellow CAT takers in various social media platforms and exchange study materials and sample papers.

Get the right materials and study in a systematic and diligent manner. Also, utilise the practice papers so that you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses.

• Understand the exam pattern and syllabus

The foremost step to crack an exam is to know and understand the CAT exam pattern and syllabus. Before preparing you must know the areas or topics you have to prepare, like we say, before shooting you must know what you are aiming for. In case of CAT, if there are no changes in the exam pattern this year compared to last year where the sectional time limit was there along with Non-MCQs and use of a calculator, there will be four topics to cover:

Quantitative Ability
Data Interpretation
Logical Reasoning
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
It is important for you to cover the syllabus and clear the basics. Usually, the syllabus for all four topics cover Class 10th and 11th level NCERT books, but the questions are a bit tricky and require logical thinking. The best way to understand and complete the syllabus is to make a plan and work accordingly. Manek Daruvala, T.I.M.E. Director says, The most important aspect would be to improve fundamentals (Basic concepts). Focused preparation would be the key during this phase while striving to improve on the fundamentals across areas/topics.

Get your basics strong
Once you know your syllabus and have your study plan ready, you get acquainted with the basics in each section of the test. Having the fundamental concepts clarified is the biggest asset any CAT aspirant can have as an answer to how to prepare for CAT exam. If you have conceptual clarity, you can solve any tough problem.

Meet Agrawal, CAT 2017 100 percentiler  says, In the first six months, I just used to revise, clear my basics, and took regular mocks."

Start section-wise preparation
Like last year, this year too you may not have the liberty to choose the order of the section. The order of the section is given below:

Verbal and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
Quantitative Ability (QA)
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DI & LR)
QA:  Use the reverse strategy for it, take mock paper, try to solve it with timer, and later analyse it from the solutions available.

DI& LR:  Focus on being familiar with versatile forms of data representation like pie chart, bar chart, line graph, piled bar chart, spider chart and complex combinations of these. Later, analyse your preparation via mock tests

VARC:  Focus only on those question types where comprehending the content is a core requirement like Para-jumbles, RCs, etc.

To know more about CAT, follow the link below:

https://bschool.careers360.com/articles/cat-when-and-how-start-preparations


I hope this helps.

For MBA, if you want to get a head on start, apply for BBM, BBA courses. They make you a better analyst and prepare you for the ultimate MBA goal early on in your career.

After that, you will have to appear for CAT - the entrance exam conducted by IIMs for admission into the colleges.

There are other entrance exams like XAT, NMAT (for Narsee Monjee) etc. So, yes, do apply for all of them and prepare well.

Mind you, CAT has to be taken in the first semester of the last year of your UG course. If not, you can attempt it a year later, but you will need to explain your reason for a sabbatical.

Good luck!