In the world of CAT preparation, we often hear about what to study, how many hours to put in, which books to follow, and what the toppers did right. But here’s an insight most strategy guides miss: some of the highest scorers didn’t study everything. In fact, they intentionally skipped certain topics without hurting their percentile.
So what did they skip? More importantly, why did skipping those things actually help?
Let’s break it down.
The CAT Success Strategy No One Talks About
The CAT is not a memory test. It’s a decision-making test under pressure. Toppers realize early on that attempting to study everything leads to burnout and dilution of focus.
Instead of spreading themselves thin, they go deep where it matters—and confidently ignore what’s not worth the time.
What Toppers Skipped (And You Can Too)
1. Vocabulary Lists & Word Memorization
Many students still waste hours memorizing obscure word lists. Toppers don’t. CAT doesn’t test direct vocabulary.
What they did instead:
Focused on reading editorials and RCs to understand vocabulary in context. This helped build retention, tone recognition, and comprehension.
2. Grammar Rules and Exercises
Questions asking you to identify gerunds or dangling modifiers are absent from CAT. Toppers skipped detailed grammar drills.
What they did instead:
Focused on logical sentence structure, tone, and flow—because these are tested in para jumbles, summaries, and odd-one-out questions.
3. Low-Yield Reasoning Chapters
Input-output machines, blood relations, direction sense—rarely seen in CAT papers.
What they did instead:
Prioritized practice-heavy reasoning sets that mirror actual CAT LRDI patterns—distribution, puzzles, selections, and matrices.
4. Formula-Heavy Arithmetic Topics
Boats & streams, pipes & cisterns, and time-speed-distance questions in their traditional forms don’t appear often.
What they did instead:
Toppers built conceptual understanding and mental agility in arithmetic. They emphasized pattern spotting, unit digit tricks, and visual estimation.
5. Geometry Beyond the Basics
No one’s asking you to prove the angle bisector theorem. Toppers left out niche geometry theorems.
What they did instead:
Learned triangle properties, circle basics, and coordinate geometry to handle visual and spatial questions confidently.
If you’re unsure what to prioritize in each section, this section-wise preparation guide offers a clear breakdown of what matters most.
How Toppers Made That Decision
Skipping wasn’t random. It was calculated. Here’s how they decided what to drop:
- Frequency Filter: They solved past CAT papers and identified low-frequency topics.
- Effort-to-Return Ratio: If a topic took 10+ hours to master but appeared in only 1 out of 10 mocks, it got dropped.
- Mock Performance: If a topic consistently yielded low accuracy, they prioritized stronger areas. Analyze your own mock performance here.
If you’re following a consistent mock schedule, patterns like topic frequency and accuracy trends become obvious, giving you the confidence to skip safely.
Explore a structured mock series that helps you track these patterns clearly.
Should You Skip Topics Too?
Yes! if done thoughtfully.
Here’s how to decide:
- Review CAT papers from the past 5 years.
- Highlight topics that rarely appear or don’t align with your strengths.
- Use your mock analytics to spot low-ROI areas.
Skipping doesn’t mean avoiding hard work.
It means doing the right work.
The CAT syllabus is broad but not every topic is equally important.
A quick glance at the CAT 2025 syllabus breakdown shows which areas deserve your attention (and which don’t).
Strategy > Syllabus Completion
The syllabus is vast. The paper is selective. Toppers know the difference. Don’t try to study everything. Study what matters. Then double down on practice, mocks, and accuracy.
Want Help Prioritizing Topics for CAT?
FundaMakers mentors can guide you with personalized strategies: what to focus on, what to leave out, and how to maximize your percentile smartly.
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