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Updated 2026-04-06 · 2026 Edition

CAT 1-Year Plan

A complete 365-day plan covering 31 highest-weightage topics — prioritised by subject weight, not alphabet. No signup, no fees.

Days
365
Topics
31
Subjects
3
Phases
4
Generate My Personalised Plan → ← CAT Overview
Long-horizon mastery a from-scratch concept pass, two depth passes, and a months-long mock campaign

How to actually use your 365 days

A year to build from the ground up: deep concepts, multiple passes, and a long mock campaign.

Daily study
2–3 hours
New topics / day
≈ 0.08
Approach
a from-scratch concept pass, two depth passes, and a months-long mock campaign

This 1-year plan gives you 365 days to work through 31 weighted CAT topics across 3 subjects — roughly 0.08 new topics a day at 2–3 hours of focused study. That light daily load is sustainable for a full year without burning out — consistency beats intensity over this long.

CAT marks are not spread evenly across subjects. QA, DILR, and VARC carry the heaviest weightage in recent papers, so this plan front-loads them — so the early months build deep fluency in them while there is time to spare. Cut nothing. Over a year, low-weight topics are exactly where you build the edge most candidates never reach — depth compounds at this length.

A full year means you are not preparing for CAT so much as mastering it — building every one of the 31 topics from first principles, including the low-weight ones that separate top ranks from safe passes. The year-long failure mode is silent drift — early months feel relaxed, then the second half panics. Run monthly self-tests so a slipping schedule shows up early.

What to prioritise & cut

Cut nothing. Over a year, low-weight topics are exactly where you build the edge most candidates never reach — depth compounds at this length.

Mock tests & revision

Light topic tests in the first months, monthly full-length mocks from the midpoint, shifting to weekly in the final 10–12 weeks. Revisit your error log on a spaced schedule throughout.

Weekly rhythm

Quarter-by-quarter: foundations, depth and problem-solving, full-syllabus revision, then a mock-and-fine-tuning quarter. Re-touch every subject at least three times.

Phase-by-phase plan

52 weeks total

A 365-day plan only works when you sequence it. Here is how the 1-Year Plan breaks down — foundation, depth, then mocks.

  1. 1

    Foundation Q1

    12 weeks

    Concept pass + textbook coverage

    NCERT/standard-text mastery
    Topic-wise notes
    Concept tests
  2. 2

    Advanced Q2

    12 weeks

    Higher-difficulty material, problem journals

    Reference book problems
    Topic-wise journals
    Weak-area drill
  3. 3

    Practice Q3

    14 weeks

    PYQs + topic-wise mocks

    Last 10 years PYQs
    Topic-mock cycles
    Error log
  4. 4

    Mocks + revision Q4

    14 weeks

    Weekly full-length mocks + final revision

    12+ mocks
    Final cheatsheets
    Last-mile drill

Week-by-week schedule

Week Days Topics covered
1 1–7 VARC: Reading Comprehension (w5)
2 8–14 DILR: Data Interpretation Tables (w5)
3 15–21 QA: Percentages (w5)
4 22–28 VARC: Critical Reasoning (w5)
5 29–35 DILR: Logical Reasoning Arrangements (w5)
6 36–42 QA: Profit-Loss (w5)
7 43–49 VARC: Verbal Ability (w4)
8 50–56 DILR: Logical Reasoning Puzzles (w5)
9 57–63 QA: Time-Work (w5)
10 64–70 VARC: Summary (w4)
11 71–77 DILR: Data Interpretation Charts (w4)
12 78–84 QA: Time-Distance (w5)
13 85–91 VARC: Para Jumbles (w4)
14 92–98 DILR: Data Interpretation Graphs (w4)
15 99–105 QA: Equations (w5)
16 106–112 VARC: Grammar (w4)
17 113–119 DILR: Blood Relations (w4)
18 120–126 QA: Triangles (w5)
19 127–133 VARC: Odd Sentence (w3)
20 134–140 DILR: Caselets (w4)
21 141–147 QA: Ratio (w4)
22 148–154 VARC: Vocabulary (w3)
23 155–161 DILR: Data Sufficiency (w4)
24 162–168 QA: Inequalities (w4)
25 169–175 DILR: Direction (w3)
26 176–182 QA: Functions (w4)
27 183–189 QA: Circles (w4)
28 190–196 QA: Coordinate (w4)
29 197–203 QA: Permutations (w4)
30 204–210 QA: Probability (w4)
31 211–217 QA: Logarithms (w3)

Subject-wise topic split

Each topic shows its weightage (1–5 dots) and the concepts you'll cover. Higher-weight topics appear first.

VARC

8 topics
  • Reading Comprehension ●●●●●

    Comprehending and answering questions from passages on diverse topics including humanities, business, science, and social issues.

  • Critical Reasoning ●●●●●

    Evaluating arguments, identifying assumptions, conclusions, and logical flaws in reasoning-based questions.

  • Verbal Ability ●●●●○

    Contextual usage of words, fill-in-the-blank, and sentence completion based on logical and semantic coherence.

  • Summary ●●●●○

    Identifying the main idea and picking the most accurate summary from multiple options for a given passage.

  • Para Jumbles ●●●●○

    Rearranging jumbled sentences to form a coherent paragraph by identifying logical flow and connectors.

  • Grammar ●●●●○

    Error identification, sentence correction, and application of standard English grammar rules.

  • Odd Sentence ●●●○○

    Identifying the sentence that does not logically fit into a paragraph from a set of jumbled sentences.

  • Vocabulary ●●●○○

    Synonyms, antonyms, contextual meanings, and word usage in high-frequency MBA entrance-level vocabulary.

DILR

9 topics
  • Data Interpretation Tables ●●●●●

    Extracting and computing values from structured tabular data including schedules, registers, and statistical tables.

  • Logical Reasoning Arrangements ●●●●●

    Linear and circular seating arrangements, sequencing, and ranking puzzles with multiple conditional constraints.

  • Logical Reasoning Puzzles ●●●●●

    Complex puzzles involving tournaments, team selections, floor arrangements, and binary logic conditions.

  • Data Interpretation Charts ●●●●○

    Reading and interpreting pie charts, bar charts, and mixed chart types to answer calculation-based questions.

  • Data Interpretation Graphs ●●●●○

    Analysing line graphs, radar graphs, and other graph formats for trends and comparative values.

  • Blood Relations ●●●●○

    Family tree problems with coded relationship terms, generating accurate conclusions from given connections.

  • Caselets ●●●●○

    Paragraph-based data interpretation where information is embedded in a descriptive passage rather than a chart or table.

  • Data Sufficiency ●●●●○

    Determining whether given statements provide enough information to answer a question without actually solving it.

  • + 1 more topic on the full roadmap →

QA

14 topics
  • Percentages ●●●●●

    Percentage conversions, successive percentage changes, and applications in profit-loss, SI-CI, and ratio problems.

  • Profit-Loss ●●●●●

    CP-SP relationships, discount and marked price, and gain/loss percentage calculations in business scenarios.

  • Time-Work ●●●●●

    Work equivalence, efficiency-based problems, pipes and cisterns, and work-sharing in partnerships.

  • Time-Distance ●●●●●

    Speed-time-distance relationships, average speed, relative speed, train problems, and boats in streams.

  • Equations ●●●●●

    Linear and quadratic equations, forming equations from word problems, and simultaneous equation solving.

  • Triangles ●●●●●

    Properties of triangles, congruence, similarity, angle bisectors, medians, centroid, and Pythagorean theorem.

  • Ratio ●●●●○

    Ratio simplification, proportion, direct and inverse variation, and ratio-based mixture and alligation problems.

  • Inequalities ●●●●○

    Quadratic inequalities, modulus inequalities, and number line-based inequality reasoning problems.

  • + 6 more topics on the full roadmap →

Why a 365-day plan beats a 1,200-page prep book

DimensionTypical CAT bookThis 1-Year Plan
Time to startHours of reading before any study startsSeconds — plan is already here
PersonalisationOne-size-fits-allFits exactly your 365 days
FreshnessPrinted months agoUpdated for the 2026 cycle · verified 2026-04-06
Weightage signalAuthor guessDerived from last 5 years' papers
Cost₹500–2,500₹0
Sign-up requiredOften (with a trial trap)None

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CAT 1-Year Plan — common questions

Is 365 days enough to prepare for CAT? +

A full year means you are not preparing for CAT so much as mastering it — building every one of the 31 topics from first principles, including the low-weight ones that separate top ranks from safe passes. The honest answer depends on your starting point, but this 1-year plan is built to get the most from the time you have: a year to build from the ground up: deep concepts, multiple passes, and a long mock campaign.

How many hours a day does this CAT 1-year plan need? +

Plan for 2–3 hours of focused study, covering about 0.08 new topics a day. Quarter-by-quarter: foundations, depth and problem-solving, full-syllabus revision, then a mock-and-fine-tuning quarter. Re-touch every subject at least three times.

What should I skip if I am short on time? +

Cut nothing. Over a year, low-weight topics are exactly where you build the edge most candidates never reach — depth compounds at this length.

When should I start mock tests on this plan? +

Light topic tests in the first months, monthly full-length mocks from the midpoint, shifting to weekly in the final 10–12 weeks. Revisit your error log on a spaced schedule throughout.

Already know the pattern? Generate a topic-by-topic plan.

The full personalised roadmap covers weak topics first, tracks completion, and adapts as you mark topics done.

Generate Personalised Plan →