Using Arun Sharma for CAT Prep: What Actually Works
Arun Sharma's books are the most recommended Quant and DI resources for CAT aspirants in India. You'll find them everywhere. The question isn't whether they're good, but whether they match your current level and study approach. Most people who complain about Sharma's books got the wrong book for their stage or went through the material inefficiently. I've seen this play out over years of coaching and mentoring students through this exam. Yes, but with specific caveats that most prep blogs don't mention clearly enough. Sharma's "How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT" by Arun Sharma covers everything from basic arithmetic to advanced topics like number systems, permutations and combinations, and modern math. His Data Interpretation book is equally thorough. The strength is in the volume of practice questions and the categorization by difficulty level. The weakness is that the book assumes you already know the basics before it asks you to apply them. I remember one student who started with Sharma's Quant book completely fresh, with no prior practice in geometry or algebra. She spent three weeks stuck on the first few chapters because the book jumps into moderate-level problems without building the foundation step by step. She was burning hours on questions she couldn't attempt. We switched her to RS Aggarwal for concept building first, then came back to Sharma two months later when her fundamentals were solid. That took the study time per chapter from about 12 hours down to roughly 4.
Here's the thing most people miss: Sharma's book is not a textbook. It's a practice resource. The theory explanations are condensed and efficient, sometimes almost too brief. If you need detailed derivations or step-by-step conceptual walkthroughs, you'll need supplementary material. I usually pair Sharma with online video lectures for the initial learning phase, then use the book strictly for timed practice and concept reinforcement. The DI book deserves separate attention because it operates differently. The sets range from straightforward to genuinely tricky. Some of the later sets mirror the actual CAT difficulty well. A common mistake is attempting all sets linearly. It's better to do topic-wise sets first — table-based, bar graph, caselet — and track your accuracy and time per set. If you're taking more than 8 minutes for a set after the fourth attempt, you're approaching it wrong or picking unsuitable sets. For LR, Sharma's book is less comprehensive than his Quant and DI volumes. Many aspirants end up using additional resources like Nishit K Sinha or coaching institute materials for the reasoning section. That's a reasonable approach rather than forcing one book to cover everything.
The real value of Sharma's books comes when you use them in the right sequence. Build your base first using any standard source. Then use Sharma for targeted practice in weak areas. Time yourself. Review every mistake. The book doesn't teach you how to review — that's your responsibility. I've watched students do 500 problems from Sharma without reviewing their errors and see almost zero improvement. The same students started analyzing each wrong answer, noting whether it was a concept gap, calculation error, or time management issue, and within six weeks their mock scores reflected it. If you're scoring below 60 percentile in mocks and this is your first serious attempt, Sharma might be too aggressive upfront. Start simpler. Once you cross the 80 percentile mark, his material becomes genuinely useful for pushing toward 95 plus. The book works best as a progression tool rather than a starting point.
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