To excel in the country’s premier aptitude test CAT and come out with flying colours, a student should have conceptual knowledge in each test area and should also develop a strategy to face the exam. So here are some tips to ace CAT exam.
It is the right combination of knowledge, approach, and skill which can help a candidate to be ready for the exam.
Quantitative Aptitude (QA): QA being the most challenging section to crack in CAT is the general apprehension among most of the candidates . The reasons why Quant can be the toughest section to crack are varied. Most students have good grasp of fundamentals but when an application based question comes they are all at sea. Most students also have a problem with time management. Some don’t have raw speed of formulation and calculation. Whatever be your tale of woe, remember that your percentile score is fully dependent upon your ability to segregate the doable questions as per your strength along with the optimization of speed and accuracy.
The test makers of CAT are experienced enough. They are master of the art of mixing up easy and difficult questions. When you take the CAT, you will find that there are few absolutely easy questions that even 8th or 9th standard students can solve. You will also find the questions that are extremely tough in time bound scenario. This is not done to identify and select the math majors !! The reason there is a mix of questions of varying difficulty level is that it reflects real life situations. But, given that you have deadline, you must pick and target the lowest hanging fruits(easy questions).
CAT does not focus on theoretical knowledge but application of basic concepts. This essentially means that your knowledge of Basic Arithmetic skills, Proportionality tools, Numbers, Elementary combinatorics, Algebra and Geometry is more than enough to help you crack the test. Most of the problems present a level ground for everyone so there isn’t much of an advantage that ‘maths people’ have. Most students get carried away and focus on ‘glamorous’ concepts while neglecting simpler ones.
Basic mathematical skill is just one dimension of QA section and the other dimensions are more important. These are the ability to perform in a pressure situation, observation skill, decision making, adaptability/flexibility and finally an ability to comprehend the questions. Questions are normally cleverly framed to test conceptual clarity and smartness in approach. Solving a CAT quant problem is a step wise process and the basic algorithm is Step-I: Comprehension of question, Step-II: Interpretation i.e. what is given and what is required etc. Step-III: Problem solving (If required). Before moving to step -III one should explore all the possibilities of answer option elimination through various approaches like observation or through finding out the range of guesstimate values after analysing the extreme cases. To inculcate the above set of skills, one needs to practice hard.
Time bound practices will help the students understand what concepts they require to revisit. Prepare a compendium of formulas and concept map topic-wise so that one can revise it on a regular basis.
Data Interpretation and Logical reasoning(DILR) Section: DILR section is less knowledge-oriented and more skill-oriented, so this section is an equalizer in the true sense. The latest pattern suggest that majority of the question sets are amalgamation of DI and LR both. There is no subsections in the name of DI and LR within DILR section. These areas involve fewer concepts and require regular practice. Practicing under time pressure is important. Finding the right strategy to navigate the LRDI section is the key to success and test takers are suggested to solve as many quality sets as possible in a time bound manner.
DILR ability is closely correlated with general intelligence. However, familiarity with the types of questions and practices of the latest pattern mock tests and some strategies for solving the questions will certainly help you perform better.
DILR sets are normally tough to tackle and time-consuming but a stepwise approach may help the candidate to crack it in lesser amount of time. Step-I: Comprehend each and every statement carefully and patiently. Step-II: The correct interpretations of each and every statements and restrictions. Step-III: Case analysis and try to contradict the maximum of possibilities to reach the final conclusions. Some of them could be quite difficult to comprehend, owing to the depth of reasoning involved. Students who keep their balance and know the techniques to segregate the doable one will certainly excel. Remember, puzzles test your stamina and thinking performance in time limit.
Look at one rule at a time. There may be extraneous data within the question, which is designed to confuse you. Focusing on a single aspect “what is given’ and ‘what is required’ can help you work out what is important and what’s not.
The recommended strategy of attempting a DI/LR section is in two rounds of equal time left after the time invested in scanning the complete section. We should first scan the section and identify the sets that seem the first choice to be included in Round One. In the first round, all the relatively easy and doable sets should be targeted, and then in the second round, moderately difficult sets should be targeted. The time limit for scanning followed by time allocated for each round could vary from one Mock to another depending upon the difficulty level of the sets, and hence the student should be flexible for that, though it is imperative that the student fixes the approx time limit for each set once he/she is done with the scanning of the section.
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension: For the English section one should practise RC and VA questions regularly. Doing passages, para jumble, para completion, summary, critical reasoning, fill in the blank, should form the basis of the preparation. Basic grammar and Vocab building with a bit of focus on idioms and phrases can help you enhance the reading speed and the level of understanding.
There is no fixed distribution of RC topics so one cannot neglect any topic/ area during the preparation. The passages and paras can be from areas like Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, History, Biology, Economics, Literature, etc. A good number of questions may come from the neglected topic/area in your CAT slot. So, selective preparation strategy is very risky.
While doing passages develop a habit of writing short summary, title, important points, etc. Understand different genres of passages and try to work on comfort level and the reading speed .Gather the words picked up during general reading and note it down with the meaning and usage. A good vocabulary is definitely a key to better reading. Though the focus in the next two months should be more on the RC practice than just reading articles and novels.
Please note that RC needs accuracy more than speed. If you achieve that reading speed but do not understand the passage, then there is no benefit. Even the top performers do not attempt all the questions. If you are still struggling, try to do a deep analysis and figure out how to pick easier passages and drop tough passages during the exam.
Taking the Mocks regularly can surely take off the load from your head and help you get used to the time pressure and stress, which the aspirants feel during the actual exam. To enhance the score and percentile one has to work on increasing the attempts and accuracy a lot. The regular practice will also help avoid silly errors which usually is the offshoot of being under pressure while taking the test.
Written by, Pradeep Pandey, Academic Head, T.I.M.E.
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