CAT 2026 is on Sunday, 29 November. From mid-October, that leaves about six weeks. Six weeks is not enough to learn the syllabus from scratch, but it is plenty to turn what you know into marks, if you spend the time on the right things. Here is a week-by-week plan built on two study methods with strong research behind them, plus the key dates to keep in view.
The dates to know
From the official schedule, as reported by Careers360 and Physics Wallah:
Admit card: 4 November 2026, on iimcat.ac.in
Exam: 29 November 2026, conducted by IIM Indore as a computer-based test
Sessions: 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Reporting times are 7:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Result: expected in the first week of January 2027
The paper has three sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Ability (QA). Check the official information bulletin on iimcat.ac.in for this year's exact question counts, sectional timings and marking scheme rather than relying on last year's pattern.
The two methods this plan is built on
In 2013, five cognitive psychologists led by John Dunlosky reviewed ten popular study techniques in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. As the Association for Psychological Science summarised, only two earned their highest utility rating:
Practice testing: quizzing yourself, for example with mock tests and sectional tests.
Distributed practice: spreading study over time rather than cramming a topic in one go.
Rereading, highlighting and summarising were rated low utility. The release notes that rereading and highlighting, two of the strategies students use most, seem to provide minimal benefits.
For CAT, this means: fewer hours rereading notes, more hours solving timed questions and analysing your mistakes, with each topic revisited several times across the six weeks.
The six-week plan
Week 1 (mid-October): take stock
Take one full mock under real conditions, in the same time slot as your likely session.
Analyse it for at least as long as you took to write it. For every wrong or skipped question, note the reason: concept gap, calculation slip, misread, or time.
List your five weakest topics across the three sections. These are your targets for weeks 2 and 3.
Weeks 2 and 3: fix the weak spots
Two full mocks a week, each followed by a proper analysis.
On non-mock days, do short timed sectional sets on your weak topics. Revisit each weak topic at least twice, a few days apart, rather than finishing it in one sitting.
For VARC, read one long article a day and summarise its argument in two lines from memory. That is practice testing applied to reading.
For DILR, practise choosing sets: in your first two minutes, scan and rank sets by difficulty before solving.
Week 4 (early November): admit card and strategy
Download your admit card when it goes live on 4 November. Check your name, photo, session and centre address. Visit or map the route to the centre.
Fix your exam-day strategy for each section: which question types you attempt first, which you skip, and your target number of attempts.
Continue two or three mocks a week, now testing that strategy rather than learning new topics.
Week 5: consolidation
Make a single-page error log: the mistakes you have made more than once. Read it before every mock.
Re-solve questions you got wrong in earlier mocks without looking at the solution. If you can now solve them, the learning stuck.
Do not start new topics. A half-learned topic in the last fortnight tends to cost more time on exam day than it earns.
Week 6 (the final week): taper
One or two mocks early in the week, then stop full mocks three or four days before the exam.
Light sectional practice and your error log only.
Fix your sleep time to suit your session. If you are in the 8:30 a.m. slot, you need to be alert by 7.
Pack the night before: admit card, a valid photo ID, and whatever else the admit card instructions list.
Pros and cons of more mocks
Students often ask whether to take a mock every day. The honest answer: more mocks help only if you analyse them. A mock without analysis is practice testing without feedback, which loses much of its value. If you have to choose, two mocks a week with thorough analysis beats five without.
Keeping it realistic
Your percentile depends on the whole cohort, the paper's difficulty and the cut-offs of each institute, none of which you control. What six good weeks can do is make sure that on 29 November you attempt the questions you know, avoid the traps you have already fallen into, and do not lose marks to panic or fatigue. That is a goal you can actually hit.
If the pressure starts affecting your sleep or mood, take it seriously. Talk to someone, and keep at least one evening a week free of study. Your result matters, and so does reaching the exam in good shape.
