Mock analysis is the most important part of CAT preparation. Giving a mock and moving on without analysing it in depth is a wasted opportunity. Here’s how you should go about it with a CAT-specific approach:

1. First, understand that mocks are not just for testing knowledge.

They are primarily meant to test three things:

• Question selection
• Time management
• Mental stamina under pressure

CAT is not about solving everything. It’s about solving the right questions in the right order.

2. After the mock, don’t rush to check just your score.

Open the full mock and go question by question. Break your analysis into four categories:

• Correct and solved within reasonable time
• Correct but took too long
• Incorrect with a silly mistake or misread
• Incorrect due to lack of concept or unattempted

This classification helps you diagnose whether your mistakes were due to judgment, accuracy, time allocation, or conceptual gaps.

3. Section-wise breakdown:

VARC:

• Revisit all RC passages. Even if you got the answer right, ask why that option was correct and the others were not.
• If you got questions wrong, try to understand if it was because of poor comprehension or weak elimination skills.
• Check if you picked the wrong RC passage to begin with. Passage selection is a huge factor in VARC.
• For VA (summary, para-jumbles, odd-one-out), make a note of where your logic differed from the official key.

DILR:

• Ask yourself: did I pick the right sets first?
• Time how long you took to identify and solve each set.
• Even for unsolved sets, spend time solving them now. Check if you could have cracked them with a calm mind.
• Revisit the logic. Most DILR sets repeat in pattern. You’ll start seeing types with enough analysis.

QA:

• Don’t just re-solve incorrect questions. Look at the method you used.
• Was there a shortcut? A formula you forgot?
• Note down recurring weak topics – is it geometry, algebra, or arithmetic?
• If you guessed and got lucky, don’t count that as a strength.

4. Maintain a mock logbook or Excel sheet.

Track the following for every mock:

• Date and score (section-wise)
• Attempted and accuracy
• What went well
• What went wrong
• What you will do differently in the next mock

This reflection helps you avoid repeating the same mistakes.

5. Re-attempt the mock untimed.

Do this 2–3 days later to check if you actually learned anything from the mistakes. If you still make errors, that’s a conceptual gap. If you get everything right, it was either a speed or pressure issue.

To answer your last question directly:

Yes, you should ideally review every question — even the ones you got right. That’s where you learn the most. Some questions might be correct but sub-optimally solved. Others might have better options you didn’t consider.

Doing 20 mocks with poor analysis is less useful than doing 10 mocks with intense post-mock review. CAT rewards strategy, not just knowledge.

Let me know if you want a sample mock tracker or section-wise plan.