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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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