Is Online Coaching Necessary to Score 99+ Percentile in CAT?

While scoring a 99+ percentile in the CAT without coaching is possible, the journey to 99+ for self-learners is often more complex than imaginable. Since the CAT is a test of strategy, consistency, and intelligent preparation, CAT coaching is known for taking care of these intricacies, leaving the task of studying diligently to candidates.

This article will help aspirants clarify whether online coaching is necessary to crack the CAT.

Can You Score 99+ Percentile in CAT Without Coaching?

The CAT exam demands more than just academic knowledge. It requires candidates to clearly understand exam patterns, smart time allocation, and strategic decision-making under pressure. While one can learn the knowledge, applying it can still become difficult. Hence, for most candidates, the path of self-learning often includes unnecessary trial and error, leading to time wastage and a sense of overwhelm and dejection. Another challenge of self-study is the lack of proper feedback and mock test analysis. 

While candidates can take as many mock tests as they like, analysing the results accurately and knowing how to work on them requires experience. This is where some of the best CAT online coaching comes into play. Coaching provides a structured format for candidates to study over the long months of prep, but also helps candidates identify mistakes and weaker areas and recognise trends in accuracy and speed. The best CAT online coaching provides solutions to candidates’ requirements, which allow candidates to move forward without wasting time. 

Without the support of CAT coaching, many self-learners usually experience burnout and demotivation and mismanage their time, especially during the crucial final months. 

Common Challenges Faced Without Online Coaching

Preparing for the CAT exam without the support of CAT online coaching can seem like a cost-effective choice, but it often backfires on the candidates. Self-prep may lead to candidates usually facing difficulties in planning, consistency, and performance analysis.

1. Difficulty with Unstructured Study Plan: One of the biggest issues faced by candidates who self-prepare is not knowing where to start and having an unstructured study plan. Coaching provides a step-by-step schedule, breaking down the syllabus into manageable portions. A lack of a proper plan can make it harder to track progress and maintain momentum over several months of preparation.

2. Lack of Mentorship: One of the most significant advantages of coaching is access to experienced mentors who can offer shortcuts and tailored exam strategies according to candidates’ requirements. Mentors help candidates clarify concepts, solve doubts, and boost confidence before the exam. In contrast, self-learners often rely on trial-and-error methods, leading to time consumption and repeated mistakes.

3. Low Motivation: Self-study demands candidates prepare in isolation, which often becomes lonely and mentally exhausting. Students may lose motivation over time without regular interaction with other students or faculty, especially during setbacks while preparing. This can lead to inconsistency, burnout, or candidates giving up midway through the preparation journey.

4. Too Many Free Resources: The internet is flooded with CAT preparation resources, YouTube videos, PDFs, etc. Though it may seem like a boon at first, as a candidate can get all the knowledge for free, once in, the candidate realises how overwhelming it can be to check out all these resources. Free resources often cover the basics and not in-depth knowledge, wasting the candidate’s time. A coaching program helps candidates with the best updated content, saving time and mental bandwidth.

Is Online CAT Coaching Worth It for Repeaters?

Online coaching help can help aspirants correct past mistakes and refine their strategy. Here are 5 points why online coaching is worth considering as repeaters:

1. Helps realise mistakes: The best CAT online coaching will help candidates identify exactly where they went wrong in their previous attempt and how to fix it.
2. Fresh Perspective: Repeating aspirants can get fresh exposure to a new teaching style and expert insights by joining a coaching program that will help them look at familiar problems in new ways.
3. Change of Strategy: CAT Repeaters will learn new techniques to solve questions, generally involving learning more innovative approaches and tricks they may not have known earlier.
4. Advanced Practice: Joining an online coaching program will provide candidates access to higher-quality mocks and questions tailored to their requirements. As a result, they can work on advanced problems earlier than students who are still building up the basics.
5. Boosted Confidence: As a CAT repeater, candidates might start their preparation with low confidence. Online coaching will help them lift their spirits, and Regular feedback, mentor support, and peer interaction will keep them motivated for the D-day.

Do You Need Online Coaching for 99+ in CAT?

Here are the top 5 reasons to consider enrolling in CAT coaching.

1. Structured Preparation: The basic task of CAT coaching is to provide a topic-wise plan to cover the syllabus efficiently within a set timeline. Best CAT online coaching ensures that the preparation does not go haywire and overwhelms the candidates with the vast CAT syllabus.
   
2. Access to Best Resources: Coaching provides some of the best resources they have curated. These resources are tried and tested and have been used by toppers to get 99 percentiles in CAT over the years.
   
3. Doubt Solving and Mentorship: One of the most significant disadvantages of self-learning is the lack of proper mentorship, which many self-learners face. The best CAT coaching is known for quickly resolving doubts and personalised feedback from experienced mentors.
   
4. Time Management Techniques: The CAT tests students’ ability to manage their time. Candidates must learn to prioritise sectional and topic-wise timing, allocate time for difficult questions, and more. Best CAT online coaching helps master the art of maximising attempts and accuracy within a limited time.
   
5. Consistency and Motivation: One of the biggest challenges in CAT preparation is staying consistent over several months. The preparation journey takes a toll on the candidates’ mental health, often leaving them feeling lonely, demotivated and underconfident. Online coaching creates a routine and regularly engages the candidate with peer and faculty interaction. It helps prevent burnout, breaks procrastination cycles, and helps candidates focus on the exam longer.

While candidates are cracking CAT with 99+ percentile through self-study, one has to realise that those candidates are exceptions and not the norm. Most CAT aspirants benefit immensely from the structured prep, mentorship, and quality study material that some of the best CAT online coaching provides. Hence, serious candidates invest their money in good coaching to crack the CAT.