Priya smiled. “That’s where everyone loses marks. Don’t buy a 1000-page GK book. Instead, get – but only the last section on ‘Current Affairs of the last 6 months.’ Then, download the ‘CMAT Achiever’s GK Digest’ (a small pamphlet you get at any train station bookshop). Read it for one hour every morning. CMAT repeats 40% of its GK questions from past digests.”
Priya pulled out a pen and drew a small grid on his notepad.
“Go to the campus library and get ‘How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude’ by Arun Sharma .” She tapped the page. “Not the whole book. Just the ‘Level of Difficulty’ sections—LOD 1 and 2. CMAT math is easier than CAT. Don’t waste time on LOD 3. Focus on Time & Work, Averages, and Profit/Loss. That’s 60% of the paper.”
“Logical Reasoning is your scoring area. No formulas, just practice. Buy ‘A Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning’ by R.S. Aggarwal .” She flipped to a dog-eared page in her memory. “Only three chapters: Blood Relations, Syllogisms, and Arrangements. Master those, and you’ll crack the entire LR section.” best books for cmat preparation
Arjun nodded eagerly.
“For Verbal,” she continued, “forget heavy grammar books. Get ‘Word Power Made Easy’ by Norman Lewis for vocab, and ‘Objective General English’ by S.P. Bakshi for the rules. Do 20 minutes of ‘Para Jumbles’ and ‘Critical Reasoning’ every single day. CMAT loves ‘odd one out’ in sentences.”
Arjun scribbled the list frantically.
But Priya wasn’t done. “One more thing. The secret weapon is Do one paper every Sunday, timed. Not for marks—for stamina . CMAT is 2 hours long and has 100 questions. Speed is your god.” The Transformation
Priya pulled up a chair. “Listen. CMAT isn’t about the number of books. It’s about the right four. Want the secret recipe that got me a 99.5 percentile?”
Arjun frowned. “But GK is so vast…” Priya smiled
“You look like a ghost,” said Priya, his senior from the MBA batch, peeking into his room.
“I feel like one,” Arjun groaned. “I have no strategy. Just random books.”