Need genuine guidance — 100 days left for CAT and I’m stuck with my mocks
Asked by Anonymous on 2026-08-19 in CAT Prep
Hi Shweta ma’am and everyone in the community,
I really need some honest guidance because I’m genuinely struggling with my CAT preparation and my mock performance is making me lose confidence.
I have around 100 days left, and I’ve completed only around 40% of the syllabus.
My recent IMS mock scores have been:
15 → 29 → -1 → 17 → 5 → 5 → 10 → 8
I’m practicing daily, but I’m not seeing any consistent improvement in my mock scores.
Here’s where I currently stand:
QA: I’m able to solve PYQs, questions posted in the community, and other practice problems. However, it usually takes me around 5–10 minutes per question. So I feel I can solve many questions, but I’m much too slow.
VARC: This is probably my biggest problem. I’m struggling even to read and properly engage with an RC passage during practice/mocks. I’m not able to understand how to approach RCs, and consequently my VARC score is very low.
DILR: I would rate myself around 6/10. I can solve sets during practice, although I’m not yet consistent.
The biggest problem I’ve noticed is this:
I can solve PYQs and other questions when I practice. I can also solve questions from a mock after the mock is over. But during the actual mock, I’m unable to solve them.
This is what is confusing and frustrating me the most.
Another issue is that my mock analysis takes 1–2 days for every mock. By the time I finish analyzing one mock, a lot of time has already gone.
I’m practicing every day, but I feel like I’m putting in effort without knowing whether I’m doing the right things.
I genuinely don’t know where I’m going wrong.
With only around 100 days left, I’m scared that I’m wasting time and that I won’t be able to improve enough.
Shweta ma’am and everyone in the community, please help me understand:
1. What exactly could be causing such a huge difference between my practice performance and mock performance? 2. Should I continue giving full-length mocks at this stage or focus more on building concepts/sectionals? 3. How should I analyze my mocks so that it doesn’t take 1–2 days? 4. How should I approach RC from scratch when I’m struggling even to read the passage properly? 5. What should my strategy be for the next 100 days considering that I’ve completed only ~40% of the syllabus? 6. Most importantly, what should I change in my preparation from tomorrow?
I’m not looking for motivation alone. I would really appreciate a practical, actionable plan from people who have faced something similar or from Shweta ma’am.
I’m willing to work hard. I just need to know where to direct that effort.
3 Answers
Pratibha jain · 2026-08-19 · 1 helpful
I think your main issue is not solving ability but doing it under time pressure if QA is taking 5 to 10 mins per question focus more on speed and question selection for VARC start with 1 or 2 RCs daily and just focus on understanding the passage and main idea for mock analysis don't spend 1 to 2 days just classify mistakes into concept gap / time issue / silly mistake and work on the biggest one first I gave an iQuanta free mock and that’s where I got the idea of analysing mocks this way my mock scores were in negatives when I started too I used to take a lot of time while practising questions and didn’t realise it then in mocks I would feel the time running out and panic and even end up getting doable questions wrong. So I feel you should work more on speed question selection and staying calm in the mock also instead of directly giving back to back full length mocks try giving sectionals/topic tests
Subham · 2026-08-19 · 1 helpful
1. your both mock and practice performance is different due to time constraints or time panic . you havent mastered how to solve under a timer well it takes times to get used to so i would say start giving sectionals more .... you can give mocks on weekends but give more and more sectionals..... get atleast mastery in one section and thats enough rest you can manage 2. as for mock analysis i think 2 days is too much time ... i would say take one day start from morning and end it by the night and keep doing the analysis but try to do it a little faster .. 3.as for approaching rc i would say do practice on hard sets like lod 4 or gmat level try to get more exposure to this type of sets under practice then try to use a timer during practice too so that you can practice under the panic .... do hard rcs and you will learn to do the rest easily..... approach an rc by first reading a para and write a one line summary to anchor the main points of the passage because without writing sometimes its confusing.... 4. from tommorow try to do more practice and try to do hard stuff aat the starting you will feel hopeless kepp anlysing keep going and you will easily clear the exam....