Management
Any Edition of Harvard Business Review
Case Studies of Businessworld Magazine
What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School - Mark H. McCormack Physics/Science
Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
Any work of Isaac Asimov
The Tao of Physics - Fritjof Capra Philosophy
Zen And The Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand Abstract Topic
Futureshock, Power Shift, Third Wave - Alvin Toffler Literary Works
God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie Business
Made In Japan - Akio Morito Religion
Any book written by Swami VivekanandSports
Idols - Sunil Gavaskar General
Uncommon Wisdom - Fritjof Capra Law
Any of John Grisham's works Medical
Doctors - Erich Segal Anthropology/Sociology
Manwatching
The Naked Ape - Desmond Morris Note: The above list is just an indicative list.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
MBA Institutes & Web Sites
Name of institute
Location
Website
Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad
www.iimahd.ernet.in
Indian Institute of Management
Bangalore
www.iimb.ernet.in
Indian Institute of Management
Kolkata
www.iimcal.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management
Kozhikode
www.iimk.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management
Indore
www.iimidr.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management
Lucknow
www.iiml.ac.in
Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI)
Jamshedpur
www.xlri.edu
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Mumbai
www.tiss.edu
Indian School of Business
Hyderabad
www.isb.edu
Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University (FMS)
New Delhi
www.fms.edu
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
Mumbai
www.jbims.edu
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies
Mumbai
www.nmims.edu
SP Jain Institute of Management & Research
Mumbai
www.spjimr.org
Institute of Management Technology
Ghaziabad (near Delhi)
www.imt.edu
TA Pai Management Institute
Manipal
www.tapmi.org
Management Development Institute
Gurgaon (near Delhi)
www.mdi.ac.in
Xavier Institute of Management
Bhubaneshwar
www.ximb.ac.in
International Management Institute
New Delhi
www.imi.edu
FORE School of Management
New Delhi
www.fsm.ac.in
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management
Pune
www.sibm.edu
Symbiosis Centre for Management and HRD
Pune
www.sibm.edu
Goa Institute of Management
Goa
www.gim.ac.in
Indian Institute of Forest Management
Bhopal
www.iifm.ac.in
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
New Delhi
www.iift.edu
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Mumbai
www.tiss.edu
Institute of Rural Management
Anand (Gujarat)
www.irma.ac.in
Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
www.mica-india.net
National Institute of Fashion Technology
New Delhi
www.niftindia.com
National Institute of Industrial Engineering
Mumbai
www.nitie.edu
Indian Institute of Technology department of Management Studies
New Delhi
www.iitdmba.org
Indian Institute of Technology - Vinod gupta school of Management
Kharagpur
www.som.iitkgp.ernet.in
Location
Website
Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad
www.iimahd.ernet.in
Indian Institute of Management
Bangalore
www.iimb.ernet.in
Indian Institute of Management
Kolkata
www.iimcal.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management
Kozhikode
www.iimk.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management
Indore
www.iimidr.ac.in
Indian Institute of Management
Lucknow
www.iiml.ac.in
Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI)
Jamshedpur
www.xlri.edu
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Mumbai
www.tiss.edu
Indian School of Business
Hyderabad
www.isb.edu
Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University (FMS)
New Delhi
www.fms.edu
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
Mumbai
www.jbims.edu
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies
Mumbai
www.nmims.edu
SP Jain Institute of Management & Research
Mumbai
www.spjimr.org
Institute of Management Technology
Ghaziabad (near Delhi)
www.imt.edu
TA Pai Management Institute
Manipal
www.tapmi.org
Management Development Institute
Gurgaon (near Delhi)
www.mdi.ac.in
Xavier Institute of Management
Bhubaneshwar
www.ximb.ac.in
International Management Institute
New Delhi
www.imi.edu
FORE School of Management
New Delhi
www.fsm.ac.in
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management
Pune
www.sibm.edu
Symbiosis Centre for Management and HRD
Pune
www.sibm.edu
Goa Institute of Management
Goa
www.gim.ac.in
Indian Institute of Forest Management
Bhopal
www.iifm.ac.in
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
New Delhi
www.iift.edu
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Mumbai
www.tiss.edu
Institute of Rural Management
Anand (Gujarat)
www.irma.ac.in
Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
www.mica-india.net
National Institute of Fashion Technology
New Delhi
www.niftindia.com
National Institute of Industrial Engineering
Mumbai
www.nitie.edu
Indian Institute of Technology department of Management Studies
New Delhi
www.iitdmba.org
Indian Institute of Technology - Vinod gupta school of Management
Kharagpur
www.som.iitkgp.ernet.in
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Frequently asked questions
my advice to students is to understand what can be achieved in this time, and work exclusively towards this goal.
But this is also a stage where a lot of doubts crop up in the minds of students. This article is an attempt to look at some of the common doubts that students face. It is meant for students taking serious preparation and preferably writing any and all India Mock series.
Whichever section I do last suffers and I am not able to get the cut-off for that section. What should I do?
This is a very common occurrence with students. The main cause is poor distribution of time. While we think we are dividing equally, say 50 min each, what happens actually is more like 56 - 55 - 39. So keeping this in mind, plan for some buffer. e.g 45 - 45 - 45 - 10. The last ten minutes are a buffer to make up for lapses in the three sections. It can also be used for topping up the score in your strength area. You'll also notice that about five minutes go to waste in time distribution. So it makes sense to budget for that.
Also, in general, concentration levels are weaker at the end of exam. To develop concentration levels I suggest that during home study, practice should be done in two and a half hour stretches without a break. This to done to condition the mind to work for longer stretches.In the exam, take micro-breaks between sections. For example, close your eyes and count till 60. We all know that our PCs work faster after rebooting, not really sure why, but it works.
My scores keep fluctuating. Some Mocks I get very good percentiles, and in some I get very poor percentiles. What do I do?
In most such cases we see that what is changing is accuracy. Students tend to have a target number of attempts for each section. It is better to spend a fixed amount of time per section and solve as many questions as we can. Trying to attempt the same number of questions per section/ across papers will either spoil your accuracy or your time distribution.
What kind of accuracy should I have in each section of CAT?
Obviously there is no optimal accuracy for each section. What matters is the Return on Time Invested (ROTI). In other words, faster students with higher attempts can afford to have lower accuracy. But, in general, we should look at 80-90% accuracy in QA and DI sections. And in English, based on the last 2 years CAT an accuracy rate of 60-70% would also do, provided you attempt enough questions.
I don't know which DI set to attempt? Whichever I attempt turns out to be the most difficult?
Deciding which set to attempt is critical to getting a god score. But at first glance, all sets look equally easy or difficult. You need to spend two or three minutes before deciding that a problem set is possible. Firstly, try to understand the data given. What exactly does it mean? What all can be calculated from the given data? Then we have brief look at the questions. The minute you read the question, some idea on the approach should come to you. If it doesn't or the idea is very unclear, you should probably skip the question set.
I take too much in the English section and it is affecting the other sections what do I do?
With the kind of questions that are given these days, I would say that verbal questions require 90 seconds to two minutes approximately and RC questions two to two and a half minutes approximately. Now if you have spent 40 minutes attempting 10 questions, it is obvious that each question did not take four minutes to solve. In fact, I would say perhaps eight questions took about two and a half minutes each and the remaining two questions took ten minutes each. This is obviously non-productive, as most of the time is spent agonising over two very close options.
So try to look at a good number of attempts with an accuracy of 60%+ and you should get a decent score in the English usage section. Don't agonise over close choices, either leave it or, if it is 50-50, take a guess and move on.
Now that only 60 days remain, how many mocks should I be taking?
Last week when I had an argument with one of our employees, he reminded me that he had five years of experience. I had corrected him gently that he had 1 year's experience repeated 5 times. A mock CAT is basically a test of your ability. As long as fundamental ability or test strategy does not change, no point is served by taking mocks.
Any mock test has to be analysed for 6-8 hours -- including the solving of all questions -- and it should give at least one good idea on how better you can tackle the next mock. Also you need to understand conceptually a problem and how to tackle it. To put it simply, when you do a problem or a problem set once, you get the answer but the conceptual understanding is not good enough for you to be able to solve variations of the problem. Remember, you don't really expect that CAT 2007 will contain 75 questions selected from the few thousand that you have solved in you preparation? Especially for DI, I would rather you solve good, quality questions multiple times rather than chasing quantity in terms of material, mocks, etc
How should I go about applying to colleges?
The two basic principles of applying to colleges are:
Is the college good in terms of placement, reputation, etc?
What are my chances of getting an interview call, based on my current mock CAT performance?
Please look at applying to at least 10-12 Business schools. Write three or four exams, minimum. One bad day should not affect your chances of getting into a good Business school. If budget is not a constraint, it is always better to apply to more schools rather than less. A successful student never regrets applying to extra Business schools more but an unsuccessful student almost always feels he or she should have applied to a few more schools.
Look at the latest mock performance, do an honest assessment of your chances, take the help of experts and then apply.
All the best.
But this is also a stage where a lot of doubts crop up in the minds of students. This article is an attempt to look at some of the common doubts that students face. It is meant for students taking serious preparation and preferably writing any and all India Mock series.
Whichever section I do last suffers and I am not able to get the cut-off for that section. What should I do?
This is a very common occurrence with students. The main cause is poor distribution of time. While we think we are dividing equally, say 50 min each, what happens actually is more like 56 - 55 - 39. So keeping this in mind, plan for some buffer. e.g 45 - 45 - 45 - 10. The last ten minutes are a buffer to make up for lapses in the three sections. It can also be used for topping up the score in your strength area. You'll also notice that about five minutes go to waste in time distribution. So it makes sense to budget for that.
Also, in general, concentration levels are weaker at the end of exam. To develop concentration levels I suggest that during home study, practice should be done in two and a half hour stretches without a break. This to done to condition the mind to work for longer stretches.In the exam, take micro-breaks between sections. For example, close your eyes and count till 60. We all know that our PCs work faster after rebooting, not really sure why, but it works.
My scores keep fluctuating. Some Mocks I get very good percentiles, and in some I get very poor percentiles. What do I do?
In most such cases we see that what is changing is accuracy. Students tend to have a target number of attempts for each section. It is better to spend a fixed amount of time per section and solve as many questions as we can. Trying to attempt the same number of questions per section/ across papers will either spoil your accuracy or your time distribution.
What kind of accuracy should I have in each section of CAT?
Obviously there is no optimal accuracy for each section. What matters is the Return on Time Invested (ROTI). In other words, faster students with higher attempts can afford to have lower accuracy. But, in general, we should look at 80-90% accuracy in QA and DI sections. And in English, based on the last 2 years CAT an accuracy rate of 60-70% would also do, provided you attempt enough questions.
I don't know which DI set to attempt? Whichever I attempt turns out to be the most difficult?
Deciding which set to attempt is critical to getting a god score. But at first glance, all sets look equally easy or difficult. You need to spend two or three minutes before deciding that a problem set is possible. Firstly, try to understand the data given. What exactly does it mean? What all can be calculated from the given data? Then we have brief look at the questions. The minute you read the question, some idea on the approach should come to you. If it doesn't or the idea is very unclear, you should probably skip the question set.
I take too much in the English section and it is affecting the other sections what do I do?
With the kind of questions that are given these days, I would say that verbal questions require 90 seconds to two minutes approximately and RC questions two to two and a half minutes approximately. Now if you have spent 40 minutes attempting 10 questions, it is obvious that each question did not take four minutes to solve. In fact, I would say perhaps eight questions took about two and a half minutes each and the remaining two questions took ten minutes each. This is obviously non-productive, as most of the time is spent agonising over two very close options.
So try to look at a good number of attempts with an accuracy of 60%+ and you should get a decent score in the English usage section. Don't agonise over close choices, either leave it or, if it is 50-50, take a guess and move on.
Now that only 60 days remain, how many mocks should I be taking?
Last week when I had an argument with one of our employees, he reminded me that he had five years of experience. I had corrected him gently that he had 1 year's experience repeated 5 times. A mock CAT is basically a test of your ability. As long as fundamental ability or test strategy does not change, no point is served by taking mocks.
Any mock test has to be analysed for 6-8 hours -- including the solving of all questions -- and it should give at least one good idea on how better you can tackle the next mock. Also you need to understand conceptually a problem and how to tackle it. To put it simply, when you do a problem or a problem set once, you get the answer but the conceptual understanding is not good enough for you to be able to solve variations of the problem. Remember, you don't really expect that CAT 2007 will contain 75 questions selected from the few thousand that you have solved in you preparation? Especially for DI, I would rather you solve good, quality questions multiple times rather than chasing quantity in terms of material, mocks, etc
How should I go about applying to colleges?
The two basic principles of applying to colleges are:
Is the college good in terms of placement, reputation, etc?
What are my chances of getting an interview call, based on my current mock CAT performance?
Please look at applying to at least 10-12 Business schools. Write three or four exams, minimum. One bad day should not affect your chances of getting into a good Business school. If budget is not a constraint, it is always better to apply to more schools rather than less. A successful student never regrets applying to extra Business schools more but an unsuccessful student almost always feels he or she should have applied to a few more schools.
Look at the latest mock performance, do an honest assessment of your chances, take the help of experts and then apply.
All the best.
Strategy for a perfect blend of Speed, Accuracy and Attempt
Think about yourself and another 2 lakh waiting for November 18.
Possibly, they all have worked with expert trainers, preparing for C-Day. Perhaps they have worked on attaining speed and accuracy for CAT 2007. Perhaps they have access to online resources and AIMCATs by various institutes.
They all have deep knowledge of the previous CATs and know that it is not possible -- and rather self-destructive -- to attempt all the questions in CAT.
Then, what makes you superior to them? How will you be first among the equals? How are you going to reach 99.99 percentile?
The answers for these questions lie in your strategy to ensure a perfect blend of speed, accuracy and attempt on November 18. The ability to calculate faster will not only help you in Quantitative and Data Interpretation sections but also in maintaining the blend of speed and accuracy. Hence, expertise in Quantitative reasoning ability is indispensable for CAT 2007.
Quantitative and Data Interpretation in CAT have consistently been rated as difficult and challenging. Even though there have been times when people find the verbal section extremely difficult, still Quant and DI have always been characterised by 'tricky' and 'logical-input based' questions. This makes it vital to study the nature of Quant and DI in a CAT and recall the most effective strategies to excel in the two sections.
Previous CATs: A micros-analysis of Quantitative and Data Interpretation
While analyzisg the past CAT papers, one can easily find half of the questions, which were either tricky or lengthy. A further division into moderate, easier, very easier can be made by analyzing the question statements. Experts at TCY have categorised the questions of last 3 CATs into 'very easy', 'easy', 'moderate' and 'difficult' on the following basis:
Very easy: These are direct formula or theorem based questions. There seems to be no trap in language or calculation and does not seem to have high level of implementation of logic.
Easy: This is the one that involves a little application of concept and one or more formulae. Questions involving language traps also come in this category.
Moderate: Generally this category consists of the questions from Geometry, Mixture & alligation, time & work, and some sub-topics of number theory. Good observation & analysis, fast pace of calculation and comprehensive understanding of the concept are vital in solving these questions. An example for such type of question from CAT 2006 is given below:
Example Question:
The sum of four consecutive two-digit odd numbers, when divided by 10, becomes a perfect square. Which of the following can be one of these four numbers?
(1) 21 (2) 25 (3) 41 (4) 67 (5) 73
Strategy:
Here the conceptual expertise will be possessed by the one who knows that maximum sum of any four consecutive two digits odd numbers can at most be 389. Now on twisting the question we have to think of a number less than 389 which when divided by 10 will result in a perfect square.
Hence the feasible sum can be 360, 250, 160 or 90. Now let's go with the options as answer should be a number near to � of the sum. 5th option is easily eliminated as � of none of the assumed sum above is near 73. It should be near 90, 63, 40, and 23 and checking further we get numbers 41 as the part of four odd numbers i.e. 37, 39, 41 and 43 as the numbers, that are odd and which add up to 160 thereby satisfying our conditions.
So 41 is the right answer.
Difficult: These are the questions with ambiguous and confusing question-statements. It is recommended to leave these questions unless you are very strong in math and have plenty of time to solve.
The following graph gives an overview of the analysis done by TCY:
The above graph explains that share of 'very easy' questions is increasing since 2004 and year 2006 experienced more than half (52%) of the quant questions were very easy. Similar trend was observed for DI questions (40% were very easy).
Moreover, the share of difficult questions in Quantitative is declining with time which is not the case with Data Interpretation though. Hence, with more and more logical reasoning inputs, Data Intepretation is becoming more challenging than Quantitative
Possibly, they all have worked with expert trainers, preparing for C-Day. Perhaps they have worked on attaining speed and accuracy for CAT 2007. Perhaps they have access to online resources and AIMCATs by various institutes.
They all have deep knowledge of the previous CATs and know that it is not possible -- and rather self-destructive -- to attempt all the questions in CAT.
Then, what makes you superior to them? How will you be first among the equals? How are you going to reach 99.99 percentile?
The answers for these questions lie in your strategy to ensure a perfect blend of speed, accuracy and attempt on November 18. The ability to calculate faster will not only help you in Quantitative and Data Interpretation sections but also in maintaining the blend of speed and accuracy. Hence, expertise in Quantitative reasoning ability is indispensable for CAT 2007.
Quantitative and Data Interpretation in CAT have consistently been rated as difficult and challenging. Even though there have been times when people find the verbal section extremely difficult, still Quant and DI have always been characterised by 'tricky' and 'logical-input based' questions. This makes it vital to study the nature of Quant and DI in a CAT and recall the most effective strategies to excel in the two sections.
Previous CATs: A micros-analysis of Quantitative and Data Interpretation
While analyzisg the past CAT papers, one can easily find half of the questions, which were either tricky or lengthy. A further division into moderate, easier, very easier can be made by analyzing the question statements. Experts at TCY have categorised the questions of last 3 CATs into 'very easy', 'easy', 'moderate' and 'difficult' on the following basis:
Very easy: These are direct formula or theorem based questions. There seems to be no trap in language or calculation and does not seem to have high level of implementation of logic.
Easy: This is the one that involves a little application of concept and one or more formulae. Questions involving language traps also come in this category.
Moderate: Generally this category consists of the questions from Geometry, Mixture & alligation, time & work, and some sub-topics of number theory. Good observation & analysis, fast pace of calculation and comprehensive understanding of the concept are vital in solving these questions. An example for such type of question from CAT 2006 is given below:
Example Question:
The sum of four consecutive two-digit odd numbers, when divided by 10, becomes a perfect square. Which of the following can be one of these four numbers?
(1) 21 (2) 25 (3) 41 (4) 67 (5) 73
Strategy:
Here the conceptual expertise will be possessed by the one who knows that maximum sum of any four consecutive two digits odd numbers can at most be 389. Now on twisting the question we have to think of a number less than 389 which when divided by 10 will result in a perfect square.
Hence the feasible sum can be 360, 250, 160 or 90. Now let's go with the options as answer should be a number near to � of the sum. 5th option is easily eliminated as � of none of the assumed sum above is near 73. It should be near 90, 63, 40, and 23 and checking further we get numbers 41 as the part of four odd numbers i.e. 37, 39, 41 and 43 as the numbers, that are odd and which add up to 160 thereby satisfying our conditions.
So 41 is the right answer.
Difficult: These are the questions with ambiguous and confusing question-statements. It is recommended to leave these questions unless you are very strong in math and have plenty of time to solve.
The following graph gives an overview of the analysis done by TCY:
The above graph explains that share of 'very easy' questions is increasing since 2004 and year 2006 experienced more than half (52%) of the quant questions were very easy. Similar trend was observed for DI questions (40% were very easy).
Moreover, the share of difficult questions in Quantitative is declining with time which is not the case with Data Interpretation though. Hence, with more and more logical reasoning inputs, Data Intepretation is becoming more challenging than Quantitative
Six tips you must remember
Here are six sets of tips aimed to help you at this stage of CAT preparation:
Method(s) of solving questions
You can use any of the four methods to answer the question in Quant or DI section.
Direct or convectional method as you does in your school days going from the question to the answer. This method, however, is least preferable.
Eliminating the options or going with the options. This is always the best and quicker way to reach the required answer.
Substitution of some values in the question. This method is very much useful for Algebra problems
Using direct method and Elimination method simultaneously.
Selection of Questions
While selecting the questions to attempt we have to be very careful. One must remember that in exams other than CAT we have to do complete as many number of questions as we can. On the other hand, in CAT a possible scenario may be the one where the test taker leaves nearly half the questions and still makes it to the top. The ability to select questions with easy statements and not-so-close answer choices can be developed by analyzsng your MOCK CATs regularly at this stage.
Improving speed of calculation
The time spent by a student in Quant and DI section on calculation is about 20% and the rest 80% is spent on comprehending the concept of the question. So beside your basic concepts you should have to work more on your calculations. It is recommended to spend at least 15 minutes daily on doing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Also ability to recall tables, squares & cubes up to 30, and multiplication between some common numbers like 13 x 12, 18 x 24 etc will be handy in getting the best out of the 20% time one spends on calculations.
Accuracy
Since, the time doesn't permit us to solve all the questions. It becomes important to make sure that one solves 50% of questions at an accuracy rate not less than 80% rather than doing 80% of questions with 50% accuracy rate. If the paper is trickier, then an attempt and accuracy can be adjusted to find the optimum balance.
Handling traps in the language of the question
A well prepared student can fall in the traps in a few questions in CAT. You have to clearly see what is being asked in the question. For example, consider the following question:
Question: A student is expecting of getting 90 marks in the math paper and overall 75% marks in five papers but he actually gets only 80. What percentage of the marks he finally gets if the marks in other four papers are same as expected?
Solution: Well the very first answer from majority number of students will be 73% as they themselves imagine the maximum marks of a paper as 100, which is a trap in the question. This happens because in many examinations maximum marks are 100, but this does not hold true in this situation.
So the answer for these questions will be data insufficient or can't be determined.
Preparing for a changed CAT-Quant pattern
Be prepared with every type of permutation and combination for the pattern of CAT 2007. Will it have 5 or 4 options per questions; is it going to be .25 negative or .333 negative for a wrong answer; will the number of question decrease or increase; will the sections have sub-sections and further sub-sub-sections with varying marks per question or not; which topics would be visible more in the CAT 2007; what adjustments should be made in the attempt pattern if there are more questions from an unexpectedly less preferred topic like functions, time and work etc. All these uncertainties should be addressed and discussed with your trainers at this stage only in order to be prepared for the same.
Hence, in order to reach the 99.99 mark it becomes imperative to have familiarity with different ways of managing the attempt and finding the answers to the optimum number of questions. Keeping many sources of questions handy with you (like previous CATs and hundreds of tests and new questions available on http://www.tcyonline.com/) and their continuous analysis are indispensable for CAT preparation at this stage.
All the best.
Method(s) of solving questions
You can use any of the four methods to answer the question in Quant or DI section.
Direct or convectional method as you does in your school days going from the question to the answer. This method, however, is least preferable.
Eliminating the options or going with the options. This is always the best and quicker way to reach the required answer.
Substitution of some values in the question. This method is very much useful for Algebra problems
Using direct method and Elimination method simultaneously.
Selection of Questions
While selecting the questions to attempt we have to be very careful. One must remember that in exams other than CAT we have to do complete as many number of questions as we can. On the other hand, in CAT a possible scenario may be the one where the test taker leaves nearly half the questions and still makes it to the top. The ability to select questions with easy statements and not-so-close answer choices can be developed by analyzsng your MOCK CATs regularly at this stage.
Improving speed of calculation
The time spent by a student in Quant and DI section on calculation is about 20% and the rest 80% is spent on comprehending the concept of the question. So beside your basic concepts you should have to work more on your calculations. It is recommended to spend at least 15 minutes daily on doing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Also ability to recall tables, squares & cubes up to 30, and multiplication between some common numbers like 13 x 12, 18 x 24 etc will be handy in getting the best out of the 20% time one spends on calculations.
Accuracy
Since, the time doesn't permit us to solve all the questions. It becomes important to make sure that one solves 50% of questions at an accuracy rate not less than 80% rather than doing 80% of questions with 50% accuracy rate. If the paper is trickier, then an attempt and accuracy can be adjusted to find the optimum balance.
Handling traps in the language of the question
A well prepared student can fall in the traps in a few questions in CAT. You have to clearly see what is being asked in the question. For example, consider the following question:
Question: A student is expecting of getting 90 marks in the math paper and overall 75% marks in five papers but he actually gets only 80. What percentage of the marks he finally gets if the marks in other four papers are same as expected?
Solution: Well the very first answer from majority number of students will be 73% as they themselves imagine the maximum marks of a paper as 100, which is a trap in the question. This happens because in many examinations maximum marks are 100, but this does not hold true in this situation.
So the answer for these questions will be data insufficient or can't be determined.
Preparing for a changed CAT-Quant pattern
Be prepared with every type of permutation and combination for the pattern of CAT 2007. Will it have 5 or 4 options per questions; is it going to be .25 negative or .333 negative for a wrong answer; will the number of question decrease or increase; will the sections have sub-sections and further sub-sub-sections with varying marks per question or not; which topics would be visible more in the CAT 2007; what adjustments should be made in the attempt pattern if there are more questions from an unexpectedly less preferred topic like functions, time and work etc. All these uncertainties should be addressed and discussed with your trainers at this stage only in order to be prepared for the same.
Hence, in order to reach the 99.99 mark it becomes imperative to have familiarity with different ways of managing the attempt and finding the answers to the optimum number of questions. Keeping many sources of questions handy with you (like previous CATs and hundreds of tests and new questions available on http://www.tcyonline.com/) and their continuous analysis are indispensable for CAT preparation at this stage.
All the best.
Advanced Verbal strategies
Verbal section which can be employed in the final few weeks of preparation.
This discussion presumes that the reader has finished the basics of the three broad categories of questions in CAT Verbal:
~ Vocabulary
~ Grammar
~ Reasoning
There are not many direct vocabulary based questions in CAT. But a strong vocabulary base is an absolute must before reasoning comes into play.
In CAT-2006, there were no questions based on grammar. But this is more likely to be an exception than a rule. Nevertheless, the fact remains that there is an increased emphasis on verbal reasoning. Our winning strategies are:
Reading Comprehension:
You cannot ignore RC. Give it the respect it deserves. The term Reading Comprehension is a misnomer. The term actually does not mean 'read and comprehend', but 'comprehend the main idea and answer'.
There are no marks for reading. Run through the passage once, twice, thrice (in a maximum of two or three minutes); go through the question stems in between; ask yourself whether you have got the main idea and proceed to answer by the Process of Elimination (POE).
~ Speed reading strategies include skimming, scanning, column reading, phrase reading etc. The crux of the argument is that the questions are not based on the passage; they are rather based on the important ideas of the passage.
So learn to read for ideas, not for words. The first reading may be structured. Read the opening couple of sentences, opening sentence of each paragraph, and the concluding couple of sentences. Then have a look at all the question stems to get an idea of what is being asked.
The second reading should have varying speeds. Rush through the less important parts, but slow down where you believe something important is being discussed.
At the end of the second reading (2 min), ask yourself whether you have got the central idea. If you have, proceed to answer the questions. Otherwise have a third look (10-15 sec) for repetitive words. The main idea is likely to repeat itself.
~ Don't look for the right answers. Look for the best, by eliminating the rest.
~ Go through each answer option carefully and find a reason to reject it.
~ It is not the passage that is difficult. Invariably it is the questions that are, since most questions are inference based and there is a very thin line of demarcation between the best and the rest.
~ It is not necessary to attempt all the questions based on a passage. You could skip an odd question that proves too difficult.
~ Always keep the main idea in mind while selecting the right answer. The best answer is more likely to revolve around the main idea.
English Usage
Be ready with strategies for questions based on short passages, like
Case I: What succeeds the passage (CAT 2005 and 2006).
Case II: What precedes the passage?
Case III: What comes in between parenthesis?
The strategies here are not much different from RC strategies; except that the last sentence (Case I); first sentence (Case II); both the preceding and the succeeding sentences (Case III), become more important here.
Have a good look at the question types that have figured in the last few CAT examinations. You may not get the same type of questions, but you will get a fair idea of what type to expect.
Expect the unexpected
To be more specific, think 'old wine in a new bottle'. Remember, CAT 2005, where the sentence completion (gap fill) questions were given in a different format with unknown words (in italics) replacing the blanks? Expect these types of changes.
Who knows? You could find our old friend, parajumbles, in a brand new package where there could be four paragraphs in place of four sentences. A variation of odd-one out could be four or five sentences, in place of four or five words. Also, the concluding assertion type of questions could come in 'Upstream statement, Downstream statement, Supporting statement' format.
Expect questions based on grammar
They could more likely be sentence improvement (GMAT format) rather than sentence correction. Here the key is pinpointing the error and then looking for the answer option that rectifies only that error.
~ For questions based on word usage, look not for an error in grammar or syntax, but an error where the word is not correctly used.
~ For sentence completion questions, try to catch the flow of the sentence and supply the filler yourself, before having a look at the answer options. Same is true of many other question types like parajumbles.
~ For other vocab based questions, don't get put off by words you are not conversant with. Try to split the words, or at least work out the negative positive. This might eliminate certain answer options straightaway.
~ Expect questions based on logical reasoning and critical reasoning. Reasoning based questions essentially have three parts: assumptions, evidence, and conclusion. The right answer need not touch the conclusion. Submit the assumption/evidence to denial test. If the conclusion also gets weakened, you might have found your answer.
~ Above all, if you get the unexpected, don't lose your head. It is more likely to be something you have prepared for, though in a different format. Take time to decide how it is connects with what you have prepared
This discussion presumes that the reader has finished the basics of the three broad categories of questions in CAT Verbal:
~ Vocabulary
~ Grammar
~ Reasoning
There are not many direct vocabulary based questions in CAT. But a strong vocabulary base is an absolute must before reasoning comes into play.
In CAT-2006, there were no questions based on grammar. But this is more likely to be an exception than a rule. Nevertheless, the fact remains that there is an increased emphasis on verbal reasoning. Our winning strategies are:
Reading Comprehension:
You cannot ignore RC. Give it the respect it deserves. The term Reading Comprehension is a misnomer. The term actually does not mean 'read and comprehend', but 'comprehend the main idea and answer'.
There are no marks for reading. Run through the passage once, twice, thrice (in a maximum of two or three minutes); go through the question stems in between; ask yourself whether you have got the main idea and proceed to answer by the Process of Elimination (POE).
~ Speed reading strategies include skimming, scanning, column reading, phrase reading etc. The crux of the argument is that the questions are not based on the passage; they are rather based on the important ideas of the passage.
So learn to read for ideas, not for words. The first reading may be structured. Read the opening couple of sentences, opening sentence of each paragraph, and the concluding couple of sentences. Then have a look at all the question stems to get an idea of what is being asked.
The second reading should have varying speeds. Rush through the less important parts, but slow down where you believe something important is being discussed.
At the end of the second reading (2 min), ask yourself whether you have got the central idea. If you have, proceed to answer the questions. Otherwise have a third look (10-15 sec) for repetitive words. The main idea is likely to repeat itself.
~ Don't look for the right answers. Look for the best, by eliminating the rest.
~ Go through each answer option carefully and find a reason to reject it.
~ It is not the passage that is difficult. Invariably it is the questions that are, since most questions are inference based and there is a very thin line of demarcation between the best and the rest.
~ It is not necessary to attempt all the questions based on a passage. You could skip an odd question that proves too difficult.
~ Always keep the main idea in mind while selecting the right answer. The best answer is more likely to revolve around the main idea.
English Usage
Be ready with strategies for questions based on short passages, like
Case I: What succeeds the passage (CAT 2005 and 2006).
Case II: What precedes the passage?
Case III: What comes in between parenthesis?
The strategies here are not much different from RC strategies; except that the last sentence (Case I); first sentence (Case II); both the preceding and the succeeding sentences (Case III), become more important here.
Have a good look at the question types that have figured in the last few CAT examinations. You may not get the same type of questions, but you will get a fair idea of what type to expect.
Expect the unexpected
To be more specific, think 'old wine in a new bottle'. Remember, CAT 2005, where the sentence completion (gap fill) questions were given in a different format with unknown words (in italics) replacing the blanks? Expect these types of changes.
Who knows? You could find our old friend, parajumbles, in a brand new package where there could be four paragraphs in place of four sentences. A variation of odd-one out could be four or five sentences, in place of four or five words. Also, the concluding assertion type of questions could come in 'Upstream statement, Downstream statement, Supporting statement' format.
Expect questions based on grammar
They could more likely be sentence improvement (GMAT format) rather than sentence correction. Here the key is pinpointing the error and then looking for the answer option that rectifies only that error.
~ For questions based on word usage, look not for an error in grammar or syntax, but an error where the word is not correctly used.
~ For sentence completion questions, try to catch the flow of the sentence and supply the filler yourself, before having a look at the answer options. Same is true of many other question types like parajumbles.
~ For other vocab based questions, don't get put off by words you are not conversant with. Try to split the words, or at least work out the negative positive. This might eliminate certain answer options straightaway.
~ Expect questions based on logical reasoning and critical reasoning. Reasoning based questions essentially have three parts: assumptions, evidence, and conclusion. The right answer need not touch the conclusion. Submit the assumption/evidence to denial test. If the conclusion also gets weakened, you might have found your answer.
~ Above all, if you get the unexpected, don't lose your head. It is more likely to be something you have prepared for, though in a different format. Take time to decide how it is connects with what you have prepared
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
