Some CAT aspirants take a mock test every day while others wait for two or three weeks before taking the next one. In fact, neither of these extremes is good for your CAT preparation.
According to our experts, you must change your CAT preparation plan as your preparation progresses.
One possible solution is to take 1 mock test every 2-3 weeks in the first phase, 1 mock test every 7-10 days in the second phase and 1 or 2 mock tests per week in the last 6-8 weeks.
However, you must analyse every CAT mock test you take.
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How Often Should You Take CAT Mocks?
The frequency of CAT mock tests determines how much time you have to analyse your performance and improve. However, there is no ideal frequency or number of mocks to be taken as an aspirant.
The table below shows how often you should take CAT mocks depending on your preparation phase:
| CAT Preparation Stage | Recommended Mock Frequency | Primary Focus |
| Early Preparation | 1 mock every 2–3 weeks | Concepts and question-solving ability |
| Middle Phase | 1 mock every 7–10 days | Time management, accuracy and strategy |
| Final 6–8 Weeks | 1–2 mocks per week | CAT-like exam performance |
| After Every Mock | Detailed analysis | Finding mistakes and improving decisions |
Early CAT Preparation: Take a Mock Test Every 2-3 Weeks
When you are in the first stage of your CAT preparation, you should not take full-length CAT mock tests too often.
At this stage, the primary purpose of taking a mock test is to determine your preparation level. In this stage, you should focus on developing your question-solving ability. It is recommended that you take 1 mock test every 2-3 weeks.
Using these mock tests, you should:
- Determine conceptual gaps
- Determine questions that waste too much of your time
- Determine the questions that you find difficult
- Determine topics that you do not understand well enough
Middle of Your Preparation: Take a Mock Test Every 7-10 Days
As you move to the second stage of CAT preparation, it is time to start taking mock tests more frequently.
By the second stage, you are already comfortable with the syllabus and have a good understanding of CAT question patterns. In this stage, you should take 1 mock test every 7-10 days.
As per our experts, the following should be the primary focus during this stage:
- Time management during the exam
- Selecting the right questions strategically
- Maintaining accuracy and improving accuracy in weak areas
- Managing challenging questions in Quant, DILR and VARC
- Improving performance in weak sections
The time between two mock tests should be sufficient for you to improve on the weak areas identified in the previous test.
Taking another mock test without addressing the shortcomings in the previous test will only waste your time and effort.
Final 6-8 Weeks: Take 1 or 2 CAT Mocks Per Week
As you enter the final 6-8 weeks of your CAT preparation, mock tests should become an essential part of your preparation. It is recommended to take 1 or 2 full-length CAT mocks per week.
At this point, you should not spend much time trying to understand how to approach CAT questions.
You should use these mocks to develop a performance mindset and prepare yourself for the CAT exam conditions. The following areas should be the focus of your preparation during this stage:
- What questions to pick first
- How much time to spend on a challenging question
- How well you perform in individual sections
- How accurate you are in your answers
- How well you recover from a difficult question or set of questions
- Whether your performance is consistent across sections
A CAT mock test by MBA Karo at this stage should simulate the conditions of the actual CAT exam as closely as possible. Do not treat these tests as informal practice sessions.
CAT Mock Frequency: A Three-Phased Plan
Here is a simplified three-phased plan for taking CAT mock tests:
- Phase 1 → 1 mock every 2-3 weeks: Focus on developing conceptual clarity and question-solving ability
- Phase 2 → 1 mock every 7-10 days: Focus on improving question selection and accuracy while managing your time better
- Phase 3 → 1 or 2 mocks per week: Focus on strengthening your performance mindset and preparing for exam conditions
Is Taking a CAT Mock Test Every Day a Good Strategy?
Taking a full-length CAT mock test every day is not a good idea for most CAT aspirants. A full-length mock test provides you with valuable data about your performance.
However, you cannot utilise this data if you take another mocks without analysing the previous one.
For example, if a particular question on the test wasted 5 minutes of your life for only 2 marks, taking another mock test the next day will not help you fix this issue.
You need to spend some time figuring out why you got stuck on that question. You should also identify other similar questions so that you can avoid them in future mocks.
The objective is not to maximise the number of CAT mocks you take. It is to maximise the improvements that come out of each mock.
What Should You Analyse After Every CAT Mock?
A significant amount of useful information can come out of a single CAT mock test.
Your overall score on the mock test tells you how well you performed, but it says little about how you can improve. After taking a mock test, classify the questions you attempted based on the following criteria:
The Questions You Should Have Attempted: It is vital to identify the questions you skipped that you could have attempted. This information will tell you whether you are choosing your questions wisely.
The Questions You Attempted Without a Clear Idea: Sometimes you attempt a question with no clear idea about how to approach it. It is important to identify such questions as well.
The Silly Mistakes You Made: Track the number of silly mistakes that you made on the mock test. If a certain type of mistake occurred more than once, it might be a good idea to practice those areas.
The Questions You Wasted Too Much Time On: Some questions require too much time and do not give you enough marks in return. Tracking these types of questions can help you prioritise the questions better.
The Questions That Had an Easier Approach Than What You Tried: There might be questions that you eventually solved but took a long time to do so. Sometimes there is a much simpler way to solve them. Tracking these types of questions can help you make the most of your time.
The Wrong Choices You Made in RC and DILR Sets: When it comes to CAT VARC and DILR, it is not enough to just understand the concepts. You need to practice choosing the right sets as well. Use the following criteria to improve your set selection:
- What RC passages did you choose? Did any of them turn out to be a waste of time?
- What RC passages did you skip? Were they worth attempting?
- What DILR sets did you pick? Did you pick the right ones?
- What sets did you skip? Could you have attempted them?
Your Weak Concepts: If you have weak areas, a mock test can help you identify them. Make sure to make a separate list of these topics and review them before taking the next test.
CAT Mock Analysis: What Data Should You Track?
When you analyse a CAT mock test, make sure you track the following data:
| Metric | What It Tells You |
| Overall Score | Current performance level |
| Sectional Score | Strength and weakness by section |
| Accuracy | Quality of attempts |
| Attempts | Approach to question selection |
| Time per Question | Time management |
| Unattempted Solvable Questions | Missed scoring opportunities |
| Wrong Attempts | Accuracy or selection problem |
| Time-Consuming Questions | Poor time allocation |
| Wrong RC/DILR Selection | Sectional decision-making |
| Repeated Weak Topics | Conceptual gaps |
What Can You Do If Your CAT Mock Score Is Not Improving?
Analyse your performance after every mock first. Depending on the results of your analysis, take the following steps:
- High attempts + low accuracy: Focus on improving accuracy
- Low attempts + high accuracy: Focus on improving selection and speed
- Good VARC score + poor DILR score: Spend more time practising DILR sets
- Good DILR score + poor QA score: See if there are any recurring conceptual issues in QA
- Good section scores but poor overall score: Review your exam-day strategy
How Many CAT Mocks Should You Take Before CAT?
There is no magic number of CAT mocks that will guarantee you a particular score. In fact, it is more important to focus on improving your test-taking skills than to chase a specific number of CAT mocks.
As mentioned earlier, taking mocks every 2-3 weeks in Phase 1, every 7-10 days in Phase 2 and every week in the last 6-8 weeks of your CAT preparation is a good idea.
Remember: as you move from one phase to another, your mock test frequency should also change accordingly.
CAT Mock Test Strategy: The MBA Karo Experts’ Advice
Our experts recommend treating each mock test as an opportunity to identify and address your weaknesses. Here is what a good mock test cycle looks like:
Take the mock test → Analyse your performance → Address the identified issues → Practice → Take another test
For example, if your last mock test shows that you waste too much time on difficult DILR sets, the next step should be to practice set selection.
You should spend some time improving your set selection skills.
Similarly, if you consistently make calculation errors in quantitative aptitude, targeted practice is a better option before taking another full-length mock test.
CAT Mock Test Frequency: Final Words of Advice
How often you should take a CAT mock test depends on your preparation phase.
For example, you can take a CAT mock test every 2-3 weeks during the early stages of your preparation, every 7-10 days during the middle phase and every week during the final 6-8 weeks of your preparation.
Do not take a CAT mock test just for the sake of taking it. The mock test gives you information, and the analysis tells you what to do with that information.
The most useful piece of information provided by a mock test is the list of questions you should have attempted, the questions with poor selection, silly mistakes, time-wasting questions, questions with a better approach, and weak concepts.
If you want to take CAT online coaching, CAT mock tests, and get performance analysis, then MBA KARO’s CAT Online Coaching can help you follow a much better preparation and mock test cycle.
Make sure you use each mock test to improve your performance before taking the next one.
