Thursday, September 24, 2009




Gourav Bhattacharya, CAT 2007 100-Percentiler


Time: 24 hours before the paper
This is when you should be looking at your books for the last time. It doesn’t matter how much you’re going to study on the last day - none of it is going to go into your head, and you are going to retain none of it. In fact, the more you study, the more you tend to forget. This is because before big exams such as the CAT, there’s absolutely no substitute for being calm and relaxed. If you utilize every last minute cramming, you lose out on something very important – your peace of mind! Things you can do one day before the CAT are to get everything you need for the exam in order, such as your admit card, pencils and erasers, and to try and go to your exam centre to familiarize yourself with the route. People DO go to the wrong centres on CAT day. It happened to me this year, but because I was lucky enough to get there early, I got to the other (correct) centre on time. Apart from that, although it sounds clichéd, try watching a movie, especially a comedy. It helps tremendously. Try and get at least 7 hours of sleep.

Time: 3 hours before the paper
Eat a light breakfast, check all of your stuff, and plan to reach the centre at least an hour before the paper starts. You never know what may go wrong during the journey to the paper, and this is one day when you don’t want to take any chances. Carry a chocolate bar with you – it helps to pass time in case you get there early, and also makes you a little more alert before the paper. Don’t forget to carry a water bottle either.


Time: 15 minutes before the paper
This is when you’ll be allowed into the exam hall. Locate your seat and start filling in all of the necessary forms (attendance sheet(s) mainly) and the OMR sheet. You will have plenty of time to do this, but there’s no sense in slacking now and wasting valuable time later on. Don’t forget to keep your admit card with you. Check and recheck your OMR sheet – if you screw this up, there’s no point in sitting there for the next two and a half hours!


Time: Start of the paper
This is when you are allowed to open your question papers. This is NOT when you start writing your paper. The difference between doing well on your CAT and doing badly lies in the first 2-3 minutes. Please don’t start off with the first question blindly. READ all of the instructions on the question paper very carefully. Familiarize yourself with the pattern of the CAT that year. Set yourself a target number of questions (depending on your speed) that you want to attempt. Then look through the sections and mark the questions that you think you can attempt, and the ones you definitely can’t. I cannot overemphasize the importance of this step. The KEY to giving a good CAT lies in proper selection of questions. It is essential that you spend at least 2 minutes selecting questions you wish to attempt and those you wish to avoid. At this point of time you should also allocate how much time you want to spend on each section.


Time: 3 minutes into the paper
This is when you should take a deep breath and start attempting your paper. Now, there are several strategies that I used during the mock tests and in the actual CAT paper, for attempting questions. These strategies may not work for everyone, and it is very important to keep experimenting with your own strategies until you zero in on one or two which you are confident about. Most importantly, choose flexible strategies. You don’t know which section is going to be intimidating during your CAT paper. Some of the strategies I would recommend are:
  • Always have a default section which you think you are best at. This is the section with which you will start giving your paper, all things being equal. Only if in your assessment your default section is significantly tougher than the other sections, you should switch to another section.
  • Always have a backup section, which you need to shift to in case your default section is very tough. This happened to me this year. My default section was Quantitative Ability, but on my initial reading I found it to be a little tricky. I immediately started off with Data Interpretation, and came back to Quantitative Ability later on. By then, because I had finished the rest of the paper and was not under much pressure, QA did not seem as tough as it initially did.
  • Have a filler section for when you need to take a break from the other sections. Your filler section could be any of the three, as QA and DI are caselet based anyway, and VA has grammar and RC. The idea behind a filler section is to release pressure. We often panic during CAT thinking of the sections in which we have not attempted any questions at all. However, a filler section is a section in which, after every 25-30 minute spell attempting another section, you pick up an RC or a caselet from and solve. It is a tremendous confidence-booster when, after finishing with two sections and flipping to the third, you find that you have already solved 7-8 questions in that section. You should utilize the mocks that you give in identifying which of the three sections is your default section, and also your backup and filler sections.
  • Try and get an idea of how tough a section is, relative to the other sections. VA sections have been extremely tough for the last couple of years, so there is no sense in wasting time solving every question in order to clear the cut-off. Be confident that the cut-off would be low, and solve only enough questions for you to be confident that you would clear it. On the other hand, since DI sections have been easier, they are worth spending a little extra time on, so that you clear your cut-off and score well overall.
  • In Verbal Ability, avoid attempting more than two Reading Comprehensions one after another. The reason is that your concentration starts flagging after the first couple of passages, and you invariably make careless errors in the third and fourth passages you attempt, if you are attempting them in succession. Instead, mix it up by doing a little grammar or even another section in between passages, to keep your mind fresh.
  • In most Data Interpretation caselets and most Reading Comprehension passages, there will be 1-2 questions easier than the others. Make sure you attempt them at the very least, even if you don’t attempt the rest of the question. Conversely, there is no rule that states that every caselet or passage has to be attempted completely (i.e. all questions answered), so don’t waste time doing difficult questions.
  • Avoid doing Quantitative Ability for long stretches of time, as your concentration starts flagging. Mix up Quantitative Ability with some grammar or some DI caselets.
  • Keep checking your OMR sheet to ensure that you have shaded the correct circles for the questions that you have answered. Every year some people do badly because they shade in their OMR sheets incorrectly.
  • Never ever make solving a question a matter of personal pride. Time is your most valuable commodity during the two and a half hours. If you can’t see how to solve a question, leave it immediately. Think of it as a question you could have solved if you had the time, but chose not to. Spending copious amounts of time on a question breaks your rhythm and comes with absolutely no benefit.
  • Finally, don’t panic. It sounds easy, but it takes practice. This is where your mocks come into the picture. Give enough mocks to get used to exam-like situations. A calm, relaxed mind is paramount. A good way to take a breather and calm yourself down during the paper is to take a minute off to sip some water and re-gather your thoughts.
Time: 2 minutes before the end of the paper
Check your OMR sheet again, and gather all of your things. Prepare to hand in the paper, and then continue solving it. No sense in giving the invigilator the chance to not take your paper by delaying handing it in.




Monday, August 31, 2009

A very commonly asked question is about the relative importance given to different topics in the QA section of the CAT. The unpredictability of the CAT has been one of the reasons that make it difficult to bell.
The following chart shows us how much percent of the QA section of CAT 2004 to CAT 2008 was Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Modern Maths.


Apart from the reducing importance of Arithmetic, no clear pattern emerges from this. More importantly, no topics can be completely ignored for your preparation.
Going into greater detail, it is possible to identify the concepts that are most important in CAT - going by the number of times that they have appeared from 2004 onwards.
Number Theory accounted for almost 26% of the 127 quant questions. Circles and Functions followed with 18% and 12% respectively.
Here is the complete list of concepts that appeared in these five years, along with the number of questions from that topic.
Concept
Percentage of
Questions

Number Theory
26
Circles
18
Functions
12
Time and Distance
10
Permutations and Combinations
10
Sequences, Progressions and Series
10
Quadratic and Higher Order Equations
8
Linear Equations
5
Triangles
4
Inequalities
3
Logarithms
3
Mensuration
3
Sets
3
Algebraic Formulae and Operations
2
Co-ordinate Geometry
2
Quadrilaterals and Other Polygons
2
Surds and Indices
1
Averages
1
Mixtures and Alligation
1
Ratio and Proportion
1
Time and Work
1
Basics of Geometry
1


NOTE: A question that requires the application of more than one concept has been counted only once, under the central, primary concept area being tested. For instance, a question classified under the Number Theory concept could also require basic knowledge and application of percentages, averages and quadratic equations, but we count it only once, under the concept Number Theory. Or a functions question could test your knowledge of higher order algebraic equations or set theory.
Let's discuss the most important concepts:

Number Theory
Number Theory questions usually are based on classification of numbers (even-odd, prime-composite), HCF, LCM, divisibility, reversal of numbers, factorials, squares, cubes and base conversions.
Many of these questions can be solved by testing different sets of numbers to satisfy conditions or by plugging in values in options. Some others can be easily solved if you know divisibility rules for numbers like 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 16 etc.
Having knowledge of the Fundamental Principle of Counting, applications of the Binomial theorem to divisibility problems and notations of Set theory will definitely help.
Remember that on the difficulty scale these questions rank very low, but practice alone can make you comfortable with these questions. Use the Skill Builder and the huge resource (72 questions) of Past CAT Questions in Number Systems and Number Theory for gaining confidence that you can handle this concept.

Circles
Here you need to apply basic formulae like area of circles, triangles, Pythagoras theorem, mid-point theorem and know the definitions and properties of tangents, chords and arcs. As mentioned earlier, there may be sub-concepts in a Circles question. Basics of geometry, triangles, coordinate geometry, and arithmetic and geometric progressions very often feature in these questions. More often than not, a fair amount of visualisation is important.
There are only a few fundamentals to master in plane geometry, but an endless variety of questions. CBSE/NCERT textbooks of standards VIII, IX and X are a great place to learn the basics and past CAT questions a great place to apply them.

Functions
This is probably the most feared concept. You should know how functions are represented analytically (algebraically) and graphically. Number theory, algebraic equations, inequalities and co-ordinate geometry are concepts that are generally required to answer these questions.
Functions have an uncanny knack of appearing difficult when they are absolutely not. Do not decide whether to attempt a Functions question based on how it appears at the first glance.

Time and Distance
Time × Speed = Distance
We learn this in the third standard. The faster you run, the faster you reach. The slower you run, more is the time you take to reach. If two trains run towards each other, they collide with each other faster than they would, if one was stationary and the other running. This is common sense, right? Well this is what Time and Distance questions in CAT are all about.
You need to understand the concept of relative speed very well. You should know what average speed means and if you understand variation well, Time and Distance questions will be a cakewalk for you.

Permutations and Combinations
This is one topic where most students falter, partly because it is generally taught in classes XI and XII, after which it is not really used, and partly because students have a preconception that this is a very tough topic. Well, Permutations and Combinations can be rated as the most entertaining concept, if you get the hang of it.
You can start with simple applications of the Fundamental Principle of counting, which you will find in any good text book and slowly graduate to solving relatively complex questions on permutations and combinations. Past CAT questions will give you an idea of what kind of questions you can expect in the exam.
Do not take the risk of neglecting this concept. As mentioned earlier, this concept is very frequently useful in Number Theory.

Sequences, Progressions and Series
This concept covers mainly two types of questions. One involves identifying sequences of numbers that do not follow any predefined patterns using logic and the other involves use of arithmetic, geometric and harmonic progressions. The application of this concept also features in Functions, Geometry, Number Theory, and Time and Distance.
As you go through the Past CAT questions you will see that there is hardly any topic that is completely absent. A single question may need an understanding of 3-4 different concepts. Therefore, not knowing one concept may put you at the risk of losing out on the choice of attempting a number of questions.
Hence, it is important to get the basics right across the concepts, and then focus on the ones that you know are important.
If you keep practicing new examples, you will master all fundamentals easily. The best way to learn is by doing, rather than learning by rote.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

The other day a student remarked, “All these years I’ve taken so many different exams— subjective and multiple choice, with negative marking and without, in familiar or unfamiliar surroundings— but they were always paper based. We all were made to sit on separate benches in a school or college classroom and there were one or two supervisors to help us and monitor us. As long as I knew the subject, I was always sure I could crack the exam. But, this time it is different. The CAT is going online! I am not sure how I will fare.”

This seems to be a fear in the minds of many students this year. The CAT this year may be your first experience of a real online test; with CAT already being a tough test, it's natural that you are anxious. Let's see what you can expect in the CBT-CAT and try to alleviate this anxiety.

The Test Taking Interface
The test-taking interface will have the questions and their alternatives and you will have to choose an answer by clicking on the correct alternative. Make sure that you practice as many computer based mock CATs as you can.

Sectional time limits have not been seen in the CAT for some time now but the CAT is known for its ability to surprise students -- it's best to be prepared for all eventualities. In case there are sectional time limits, you may not get to jump between sections while attempting the paper.

A timer is a common feature on all computer based tests. Use the timer, but avoid looking at it every now and then, lest it unnerves you.

Attempt Free Mock CAT in CBT-CAT Player

The Questions
Conceptual clarity and application skill is required just as much for an online test. But there are a few functional things that can adversely affect your performance in the CBT, if you do not have sufficient practice.

Let us take a look at each of the three sections of the CAT, and the impact that a computer-based format can have.

Quantitative Ability

The questions in the QA section are typically short. So there will be no major difference in the way in which these questions should be attempted. However, instead of doing your rough work on the question paper itself, you need have to practice doing your rough work on separate sheets of paper.

For geometry-based questions you may be used to making notes and marking values on the diagram provided in the question paper itself. But now, you may have to sketch out these diagrams on your rough paper and then work on them. This may take a while if there are a lot of geometry questions – practice making quick sketches of figures in geometry questions.

Your ability to solve questions mentally, rather than by putting pen to paper, will help you a lot. Learn multiplication tables, squares and cubes to 30, all relevant formulae and reciprocal percentages well.

Free Lesson on Quantitative Ability

Data Interpretation
If the tables, charts and caselets are very long, you might spend a lot of time scrolling back and forth. You can work these questions out faster by following these steps:

1.      Read the data and understand it well. Summarise the heads in the data in the rough sheet so that you have a list of what is available for ready reference.

2.      Read all the questions related to the table, chart or caselet to get a clear idea of how the common data is to be processed.

3.      Then go back to the data and extract whatever information is needed. If the data table or chart is small enough, you might even consider copying it on paper.

Free Lesson on Data Interpretation

Verbal Ability
Reading comprehension forms a large part of the Verbal Ability (VA) section of CAT—in the last few years, nearly half the section! It is important to practice reading comprehension, as often as possible, on a computer; many people read slower on a computer monitor than on paper. Regularly read the news and articles online to improve your reading speed.

Scanning a long passage to find that “answer” or that “keyword” that you need for the correct answer option is more difficult on a computer. Practice and work out techniques that help you find information as soon as possible. For example, since you can’t underline text online, try noting down one or two key words for each paragraph on rough paper.

Though other VA questions are generally short, in a CBT it is not as easy to keep track of answer options you have eliminated. Practise questions that require elimination strategy on a computer, while keeping track of answer options on paper.
Free Lesson On Verbal Ability

Attempt Free Mock CAT in CBT-CAT Player 

Friday, August 28, 2009



Patrick D'souza, CAT 2007 100-Percentiler


This is the time when you have already prepared with your basics and have started with your test series. You would have written a few tests but soon realize after a few that it is difficult to improve on your percentiles beyond a certain limit. So you go back to your books and study harder. But still your scores don’t improve. You get frustrated, which results in further lowering of your scores. So what do you do? This is what I recommend:


There is no point in going and revising the concepts or rote learning formulae again and again. The best way to improve is by analyzing the papers you have already solved. Your focus of solving now should be on trying new methods as compared to what you have been traditionally doing. If you see the past data, most of the students who score +90%ile in the first attempt normally go down in the second attempt (i.e. their percentile in the second attempt is lower than the first). The reason for this is that you become complacent and feel that whatever method you have adopted for solving is good and with more practice tests you can only improve your percentiles but this is not true! As seen through many examples of students who despite a lot of practice do not improve on their scores. More practice does not improve your scores, but only ensures that you solve the sums with the same method. This will only ensure that your speed will be the same as before or slightly better (as you are not solving with a better method) but could slow you down as your mind is not trained to think in new or different ways.
Download Past CAT Papers with Detailed Answer Keys and Solutions 


One of the good ways to improve on your methods is to go back to the sums you have solved and see if you can solve them in a better method than what you have already done. Also the methods that you get should be even better than the methods given in the explanatory answer, else how will you score better than the rest of the students who are referring to the same explanatory answers and using the same methods. When you go through the papers, imagine that you are a faculty and giving feedback to a class regarding the paper. The students have already gone through the explanatory answer. So now how will you add value to the class? What new ways of solving can you explain to them? You need not get better methods for all the sums that you solve. Even if you get better methods for a few sums it will suffice to improve your performance by leaps and bounds over a period of time.


Another way to improve is to study in groups or study with someone who is better than what you are. Learn from other students methods. Also help the other student with your methods. The moment you start explaining different methods to others, you become stronger conceptually and can use the method in much better manner and also can use it for varied types of sums.
Discuss CAT Question of the Day


Solve different type of puzzles to improve on your Math and Logic section. Puzzles help you think differently as there is no single method to solve all the puzzles and you will have to think of innovative ways to solve them thus helping you with your thinking ability. You could start with Sudoku and then move on to other type of puzzles.
Discuss MBA Puzzles
Fun Learning Games for Mental Agility, English


DI is one area where improvement can be quite drastic. The difference between DI and Math is that in DI there are only few ways of solving the sums. If you can master them you would be very good unlike Math where you have so many topics to study from. For improving on your DI, the key is to calculate approximately. There are various ways of accurate calculations like Vedic Math, etc but I think it is useless unless you have been using it for the last 5 or more years and have mastered it. Vedic Math will only make you slow. Understand this, that CAT does not require accurate answers. You have to get one of the options as your answers. So even if you come close to one of the answers you can mark the right answer and save a lot of time which you would ideally waste in unnecessary calculations. One way of solving DI is to solve DI without a pen or pencil in your hand. Imagine you are traveling in a crowded train where you can hold the paper in one hand to read but cannot use the second hand to solve. Also you have to go through the DI sheet to conduct a CAT class. Now solve the DI sums without using any pen or paper. Even the calculations do it in your mind. When you start doing this you are forced to think of different ways of solving the questions in a shorter way. Also you are forced to calculate approximately to get the answer. This is the best way to develop shortcut methods and also to solve DI faster.


Logic section is usually a part of DI. The best way to improve in the logic section is to solve a lot of puzzles. This helps to build up logical ability. The key to solving a logic problem is to be systematic while solving a problem. When you are solving a logic sum, mark whatever conditions you have already used while solving the sum, so that you are aware as to what conditions you have not used. This ensures that you do not have to read the whole sum to search for some condition and also ensures that you do not miss on any condition (which is the cause of major mistakes in logic sums).


The verbal section requires a long time to improve. But regular reading helps you to improve it to a large extent. In CAT the major question in Verbal is Reading Comprehension. So if you can build up on reading ability it could help you to read faster which in turn ensures that you can solve more questions and therefore more marks. One key technique is fast reading which has to be developed and can be done so within a period of 1 month. ‘How to read better and faster’ is a good book that can help you read faster. Also if you are weak in the verbal section ensure that you read for at least one to two hours daily. Also try and avoid reading fiction or story books. As they have a story line underlying it you read it because of the story. It helps to read from diverse topics as CAT RC passages are from diverse topics. Also by reading from diverse topics helps you to get familiar with different subject areas which ensure that a passage in the exam on a similar subject area you will definitely be able to read faster and comprehend better.


What is most important is that you remain focused and don’t give up. Keep planning and follow the plan. Don’t stop practicing for long periods because then you will lose touch. Constantly keep yourself in touch with papers and try and get yourself into a group that is also preparing for CAT. There will be times when you will feel completely de-motivated and discouraged, it’s alright to feel disappointment but you must remember the phase will pass and you can do better if you don’t lose sight of your goal.


Your mantra should always be ‘CAT is not tough and I can crack it.’ Keep yourself motivated and take the exam. If you have put in effort the rest will take care of itself.
All the very best!!!


About Author:
Patrick Dsouza: Patrick D'souza, equipped with a B.E, MMS from JBIMS and a CFA, has been training students for CAT for the past 8 years. He has worked with NIIT and IMS as Centre Head before leaving it all to start his own institute, Quoin Academy. Patrick has taken the CAT and scored 100%ile in CAT 2007 and 99.98%ile overall (100%ile in Quant and DI sections) in CAT 2008. His constantly innovative methods and shortcuts have kept him at a top position in his attempt to CRACK the CAT.


More CAT Strategies by Past CAT Toppers



Friday, January 30, 2009

Munira Lokhandwala, CAT 2008 100-Percentiler
Hi Everybody,
I am sure that even before you start reading this article, many of you would have already made assumptions about my natural abilities based on my background and my consistent performances in CAT over the years. That is why I would like to tell you a little more about my background. All of us would remember the seventh standard scholarship exam that tested the math, verbal and visual skills of students. In that test I scored 36 out of 100 in Math, 64 in Verbal and 50 in visual reasoning. (Nowhere near to what a typical scholar would have got!!) So you definitely cannot say that I was born with the aptitude of cracking all such examinations.
So the obvious million dollar question: How does someone who is not born with the required aptitude skills go ahead and crack the CAT? Not just once to get into IIMs, but every time with confidence!
Most competent CAT aspirants do realize that the difference in knowledge between them and one of the guys who has made it to the IIMs is not high enough to warrant a massive difference in CAT scores. (Here, by “knowledge” we mean "CAT related knowledge".) Still most aspirants become skeptical about their own abilities during their CAT preparation and start looking at other exams or other institutes. When I was preparing for my CAT, I didn’t even consider taking the other entrance exams for various institutes. Was this misplaced arrogance? Let’s see.
For my CAT 1996, even I had started my preparations in February. Whew! I was in the same boat as most of you are. I was in the second year of my Bachelor’s studies. So I started in Feb, took a break in April for exams, in May for some holidaying and started again in June and continued till the end. Excluding these breaks, I was preparing for the CAT 2-3 hours a day, 6 days of the week, every week. This article is all about this long preparatory period before the CAT right from when you decide to take it to a nice slightly chilly Sunday morning when you are checking your pencils, eraser and admit card. And the result is in front of you: calls from all 4 IIM’s (IIM I and IIM K had just started that year and I hadn’t applied to either).
  1. Plan backwards
You will never know exactly when your CAT preparation started, but you will always know when it will end. Did I hear 15th November? No, it will end on the 13th of November. The CAT is an exam where presence of mind is essential; studying till the last minute or till the last day leads to an exhausted mind. So it is a good idea to stop preparing on the Friday evening before the CAT. So currently your deadline is 13th November. The last few months will be spent primarily on taking comprehensive tests. Let’s try and work that out.

Right now is a good time to decide how many comprehensive tests you will take. The main objective behind taking comprehensive tests is to get your test taking strategy in place as you measure your own strengths across different sections. The secondary objective is the relative performance measurement.

I think 30 tests are fairly sufficient as there is no point taking a test everyday or worse still take 2 tests per day. Working with 30 tests will easily take between 70-80 days. This is because if you take a test with feedback on day 1 you will revise and take some section tests on day 2; you may also need 1-2 days break. So assuming 75 days for comprehensive tests takes your deadline to the end of August.

Before you formulate your test taking strategy, you need to measure your performance in individual sections. That is where section tests come into play. So in the last fifteen days of August you should take around 2 section tests at least from each area and spend some time going through the analysis and feedback for the tests. This will be the first time usually when you really start solving with the second hand making a loud noise every second. So get used to the idea before you venture into the comprehensive test territory.

So finally we have come to our first major deadline 15th August i.e. Independence day. By this date, you would ideally finish learning new concepts. From 15th August you will be primarily looking at applying what you have learnt and if you have learnt it well, then believe me you will enjoy the process.
  1. In-depth Scheduling
With 15th August as the deadline you should make a list of what is the kind of theory you want to complete till that time. I have made a rudimentary representative list here to work from:
  • Reading
  • Word List
  • Study Material for the following areas
  1. Verbal Ability questions
  1. Reading Comprehension questions
  1. Analytical Reasoning
  1. Data Interpretation
  1. Math
Your maximum time should be spent doing two major activities: reading and Math.
  1. Daily schedule
Make a daily schedule which incorporates all your routines and breaks. If you watch movies a lot then it would be silly to make a schedule which does not consider 3 hours a week on the week-end spent in catching the latest release. Also try to shuffle the subjects so that you do not get bored with one subject. A good time table for 2 days can look like this:
  • Day 1:
  1. 0.5 hour reading
  1. 0.5 hour word list
  1. 2 hours math
  • Day 2
  1. 0.5 reading
  1. 0.5 word list
  1. 1 hour analytical reasoning / data interpretation
  1. 1 hour reading comprehension exercises / verbal ability
  1. Reading
For those who read as a hobby, this will not be a major problem. For others, it is essential that you take out anything between 0.5 hour to 1 hour for reading, daily. For the uninitiated reader, you can start by reading fiction but there is no use if you spend 3 months reading one big book; instead pick up any collection of short stories by assorted authors and start reading those. You will get used to various styles and different settings and of course different content. After reading fiction for 1-1.5 months you can graduate to non-fiction. So next time you log onto testfunda start a parallel window where you google on various CAT topics and read articles on them. The advantages are two-fold, firstly you will get used to CAT like passages and secondly you will start gaining some knowledge on these topics so next time you have an RC on the same topic you will not feel completely lost. For these reading sessions never focus on time only; focus on understanding as well, if you read enough your time will automatically decrease.
Reading will not only help you in the verbal section, but also increase your comprehension in the other sections. It is the single most important factor that will help you crack the CAT.
MBA General Knowledge and Current Affairs Articles
  1. Word List
There are very few questions that directly require knowledge of words. But knowing a lot of good words and improving your vocabulary will never harm but always help you in your CAT preparations. So pick up a good word list and start doing the word list every day or if your vocabulary is already good then every alternate day. Even if you do an alphabet a week you will take around 6 months to complete the word list. Having a good vocabulary also ensures fluency in GDPI. This is the part where students are lazy, but after the CAT if you feel that just knowing one word would have got an extra mark in no time then that should really hurt.
  1. Math
Math based on strengths and weakness should be done either every alternate day or every day. Go through the theory, solved examples and then tackle exercises. If you cannot solve a problem do not rush to the explanatory answers, give it some time, think, get your mind to oil those rusted math gears and levers.
  • Try solving problems in the head, minimize pen on paper. To achieve this, one should be able to simplify a complex problem situation and should know tables well to do calculations faster.
  • Make a note of important relationships in a topic.
  • Make a note of innovative approaches.
  • Remember writing a lot is very unhealthy for the CAT, but after you solve it in your head, writing the explanation will clear doubts and reinforce learning. So please make good notes.
  1. Puzzle Solving
With the increased focus on logical reasoning based Data Interpretation, one should practice solving puzzles from books like George Summers. Puzzle practice helps in developing a logical base and in thinking in diverse directions.


Monday, January 19, 2009


 Shantanu.Gangal, CAT 2008 100-Percentiler


Many students feel that the performance in Quant & Logic sections of the CAT written exam hit a ceiling at some point or the other. Thankfully, the Verbal section of the paper always has a scope of further improvement.

In this article we shall broadly try and understand what purpose the Verbal Section serves and how should we try and score well in it.
Since communication is a very important tool in all spheres of management, this section tests a person’s skill at the English Language. That the CAT paper increased the number of questions in this section, points to the importance that the examiners attach to testing us on Verbal Ability. By this, the schools want to gauge how well a person,
i.    Comprehends the given data (passage / sentence) and understands
        1.    the meaning of each of the words used,
        2.    the explicit message conveyed,
        3.    the implicit undertones of the passage or sentence,
        4.    the correctness of grammar (punctuation, usage etc.) and
        5.    the direction / conclusion that is being hinted at.
ii.    How well he manages to respond to the question posed by applying similar analysis of each of the 4 / 5 options presented, before picking his answer.

Thus in order to do well in this section, we need to demonstrate competence on the above metrics. It is easy to see that each question type asked in the CAT paper is trying to test us on one or more of the above. Since the reading comprehension section of the CAT employs almost all these skills in parallel it poses the most hazard to a student.

It is also known that students who are voracious readers do well in this section. This is now clear since they have honed their above skills for years. Hence, in order to excel in Verbal one should start well in time.

Read a lot:
The most important part of Verbal preparation is the reading up. [In fact, not only does it help in the Verbal section of CAT but also in General Awareness section of other MBA entrances.] This effort can’t be intensive in nature, since we need to assimilate what we read. Thus the reading has to be consistently spread out across a few months or more.

Why to read:
It is much easier to understand any language by knowing the way its words are used, its sentences framed and ideas conveyed than by opening an English guide. Also, noticing how a word is used will cement the correct meaning and usage of the word / phrase than learning it by rote.
The structure of the paper is such that a lot of time is required to read a passage. Irrespective of the style of answering followed (reading before answering or vice versa) the speed at which you read the passage is critical. Someone who can read an average length passage (400 words) in 3 mins. has a definite edge over someone who takes 4 mins. The best way to improve reading speed is by reading articles in progressively lesser time.

What to read:
Since, management schools want us to become good business leaders they dish out stuff that an MBA graduate is most likely to read. However, due to exam constraints the passages in the exam are often excerpts of a bigger and wider article. These articles typically deal with economic, social, political etc. issues and the impact of these issues on the intended reader.
I think however it is much better to start off and read articles longer (abt. 5000 words) than the ones that appear in the exam (abt. 400 words). A complete article has a proper structure unlike those in the exam. However, it is important to figure out how excellent English is written.
Also, while reading in English we should make a conscious effort to start thinking in English as well, since this can be a handicap for many of us who come from vernacular schools.
I personally found that articles in reputed magazines / newspapers like The Economist or the New York Times are written well.

How to read:
Upon reading an article it is important to discuss it with friends who have read it. You should make sure that all the implicit opinions / arguments are talked about and not missed. Often at the face of it the article seems straightforward but we fail to locate the point the author is trying to make. Correctly filtering the facts from the author’s opinions help get an insight into the article.
Similarly, it is important to get a feel as to how arguments are built by good writers and what is an expected line of thought, following a seen passage. This again comes with discussing the passage with friends who have read it.

Learn Vocabulary:
While learning words organically (through essays and articles) is an excellent long term option, with the view of preparing for the CAT exam – it makes sense to parallely learn the less common words. Many students praise the virtues of books like Word power made easy for improving vocabulary. These books help students derive the meaning of a word from its word roots and other techniques. However in case of extreme crunch, its best to pick up a standard word list provided by books that prepare students for GRE, TOEFL etc. and attempt learning them by rote. As the CAT draws closer these lists are a good tool to recall what one has learnt. Whenever a new word is learnt, try using it in a sentence for better retention.

Practice:

The verbal section too calls for a lot of practice, which should be duly done in the last few months. The scores in the Reading Comprehension section get tremendously boosted by practice followed by analysis of the questions attempted incorrectly. The associated explanation to an answer is very important since it shows what the examiner thought was the correct answer, why and how it was different from what we thought. While answering subsequent RCs, we should be mindful not to repeat earlier mistakes.
For questions in the vocabulary section it is important to also know why the incorrect answers were incorrect. In case, the options to a question throws up a new word make it a point to check the word up in a thesaurus.

In summary, scoring in Verbal Section can be elevated by sincere efforts towards improving the language followed by extensive practice. It is very difficult to score well unless a person has good command over English as a language. Similarly, it is very easy to make many mistakes in case a person is over reliant on his English skills without the requisite practice.
Every person should try and modify his approach to suit him best, while remembering the above skills at the back of his mind.

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