tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76371711192313768522024-03-13T07:05:42.589-07:00My experience of CATChiranjeev Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04105812704100025971noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7637171119231376852.post-30242519607581592552013-07-13T22:18:00.000-07:002013-07-13T22:18:28.097-07:00What helped me crack CAT? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Let’s
begin with a bit of background. I sat for CAT 2007. By the time I gave CAT, I
had been enrolled in a national level CAT coaching institute for almost a year
and a half. Since, many of my friends were enrolling in such institutes, I also
joined one.</div>
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One interesting thing occurred on the day of my enrolment, which I have not
forgotten since. The institute asked all the new joiners to give a Mock CAT
Test to assess the level of water we were in. The Mock CAT Test was either CAT
2004 or CAT 2005, I don’t remember exactly. I scored 41. I did not know what to
do with this score, until I was told by one of the ladies there, that I had done
really well because the cut-off for the corresponding CAT was 41.33! Quite
near! Though she praised me (and I liked that, not that the lady was smart;
just that I was being praised :)), she didn’t bother to tell me the irrelevance
of coaching for me (I know I was expecting just too much honesty from her).<br />
<br />
However, not all people are dishonest (take this word a bit lightly, here).
Only a couple of months into my enrollment, one of the math faculties at the
institute, told me, in front of the class, that I did not need any coaching.
Though, this was a bit too late, to take or reverse any action (obviously, the
faculty knew this and thus could afford to be honest).<br />
<br />
So, I kept attending classes (whenever I found time!) and finally gave CAT.
Looking back, I think the following factors helped me immensely in coming
within Top 50 in CAT ‘07:<br />
<br />
- First and the most
important factor which contributed to my success was that <u>I never
disbelieved my mind</u>. I listened to all what the institute was saying about
CAT but if my mind disagreed, I followed my mind. There is an old saying “Suno
Sabki, Karo apne man ki”. Let’s see how my belief helped me in acing one of the
most difficult tests:<br />
<br />
o I disbelieved in the relentless focus on the shortcuts and tricks
in the quantitative section. The institute, somehow, believed in devising a
shortcut for every conceivable kind of question ever asked in CAT and then,
asking us to remember that. It was just too much for my memory and my mind was
sort of giving up trying to remember all those shortcuts. Since, there were
hundreds of types of questions that had been asked in the CAT by then; there
were an equivalent number of shortcuts.<br />
<br />
It was then I decided that I shall not be pressing my mind to learn shortcuts.
But then, shortcuts do help by saving time. So, what I did was that I started
figuring out where those shortcuts were coming from (their mathematical
derivations). If the sources were few, I could focus on the sources and can
devise the shortcuts during the exam. For example: When I was told a shortcut
for multiplication of numbers, I quickly figured out that the shortcut was
coming from the formula:<br />
<br />
a2 – b2 = (a+b)(a-b)<br />
<br />
When I was told a shortcut to calculate square of a number between 31 to 50, I
figured out that the shortcut was coming from<br />
<br />
n2 = (50-b)2 = 2500 -100b + b2 = 100*(25-b) + b2 (n is a number between
31 to 50 and is represented as 50-b)<br />
<br />
So, for n=32, we have b=18, thus 322 = 700 +324 = 1024.<br />
<br />
Similarly, I figured out the background of many shortcuts like ncr , power
cycles, why we can check divisibility by 3 or 9 by just checking the
divisibility of sum of digits etc.<br />
<br />
All this background understanding greatly helped me since now I had to remember
only the basic mathematical formulae (which I remembered anyway), instead of a
plethora of shortcuts. This freed up my mind, which could now focus on
understanding questions, rather than wondering which shortcuts to fix there.
Thus, the power balance was restored in the favor of mind again, from memory.
This understanding helped me in one more way: it helped me devise my own
shortcuts, not only during the preparation but also during the exam, customized
shortcuts for the questions!<br />
<br />
o I also disbelieved in the <u>lack of time</u> philosophy,
propagated by the institute. The institute kept telling us that there is very
less time available in CAT and we need to use time saving techniques and
shortcuts for solving questions. Though, I agreed that 150 minutes for solving
75 questions was less (I am talking about CAT 2007), I never really agreed that
I was going to attempt or solve 100% of the paper. Even a 100 percentiler is
not going to score more than 60-65%. That would translate into around 3 minutes
per question. Given that grammar questions of VA section could be done in less
than a minute each (you either know the answer or you don’t. You can’t think
through the syntax of language), I knew I had around 3.5 minutes to solve each
question if I were to target 100 percentile ( I am not assuming 100% accuracy
but 90% accuracy, which is anyway required to reach anywhere near the cut-off.
You can’t spend so much time arriving at the wrong answers). I believed 3.5
minutes was not too less a time.<br />
<br />
This disbelief in the lack of time ideology greatly helped me. While the rest of
my fellow students were focusing on building their speeds from the beginning, I
only focused on developing my understanding ability. I worked really slowly
initially. I knew if I developed my understanding ability, speed would come
naturally. I disowned most of the shortcuts, since they tried to short-circuit
my thinking ability. Gradually, as my understanding increased and my mind
started grasping mathematical questions easily, speed came naturally.
Obviously, I never used to take less than 70-80 second on any questions while
some of my friends used to solve some questions within 15 seconds. But I had to
resist taking their approach.<br />
<br />
o Lastly, I also disbelieved in the test taking strategy offered by
the so-called test taking experts. I was told that if I had spent more than two
minutes on a question without considerable progress, I should not waste any
further time on it. When the strategy was given, none bothered to define the
word ‘considerable’, which happened to be the most significant word in the statement.
In any case, I didn’t believe in any such suggestion. I decided that I would be
the one deciding when to continue or drop a question. While taking a high
stress test like CAT, with varying difficulty level across questions and across
years, I reasoned, only a test taker could decide when to drop a question after
having spent some time with it. This helped me by giving the power to handle
the situation to my mind. Since there was no time limit per question, I could
decide in as less as 10 seconds to drop the question or I could continue the
question beyond 5 minutes. My mind was calm in both the situation since I was
not exceeding any time limit (because there was no time limit per question!)<br />
<br />
- Second important factor
after empowering my mind was that I focused on my strengths. There were a
couple of areas, including geometry, in which I was not as strong. Though I
practiced these kinds of questions, I never gave any special attention to
these. This is because I knew that combined strength of these two sections
could never cross 20% in the quant section, that too in a worst scenario.
Since, I never wanted to be the first person to score 100% in CAT, I could
ignore these sections. As someone has said, “Focus on your strengths”, it
actually helps to build on your strengths since these yield much quicker
results. Further, in a difficult test like CAT, where one needs to have a
really high caliber to solve each question, a few strengths are better than
having working knowledge of all types of questions.<br />
<br />
Of all the strategies which worked in my favor, the most important was, to
focus on my thinking abilities, than memorizing shortcuts. One of the main
disadvantages of following a short-cut based approach is that in this approach,
one is moving against the tide. By this, I mean, that one is moving against the
objectives of the IIMs, who conduct CAT. Their purpose cannot be to select
people who are masters of shortcuts; they would be requiring people who have
thinking abilities, who can think through problems and devise solutions in
complex situations.<br />
<br />
A shortcut based approach moves exactly opposite to this objective and thus
yields little results. This exact opposite approach is one of the main reasons,
IIMs don’t like coaching institutes. At times, IIMs decide to take this
approach head on by changing the kind of questions. This wreaks havoc on
students trained on shortcuts, which solve only previously asked kind of
questions.<br />
<br />
Thus, my suggestions to the CAT Aspirants are:<br />
<br />
- <b><u>Empower your
mind</u></b>: Believe that your mind can solve questions. If the questions are
designed to test your thinking abilities, believe that you can think through
the questions. This might be difficult to start with but will yield much better
results in the long run.<br />
<br />
- <b><u>Be a
tortoise in the beginning</u></b>: First hone your thinking/understanding
ability, and then work on saving time. Actually, your speed will improve
automatically as your comprehension and problem solving abilities increase.
But, note that I am asking you to work on your thinking abilities, not on your
memory. If, from the start, you are just memorizing shortcuts and spending time
to figure out which shortcut applies in which situation, then your speed may
not improve with time.<br />
<br />
By working on your thinking abilities, you’ll observe that, gradually, your
speed will increase to a point where you would not find 3 to 3.5 minutes per
question, too less a time. So, be a tortoise in the beginning and quietly work
on your mind. Ever wondered why, in a tortoise vs hare race, tortoise wins the
race?!<br />
<br />
- <b><u>Go for the
test with an open mind</u></b>: Just follow your heart and mind in the test
room. This is one of the ways to stay calm. If you keep checking that you have
spent more than x minutes on a question, you’ll keep skipping questions you
could have solved and lose your much needed calm in the process.<br />
<br />
- <b><u>Work on your
strengths:</u></b> Weaknesses should be worked on. However, given the
level of difficulty of a CAT exam, a few but honed strengths are better than
working capability on a large number of questions.<br />
<br />
I sincerely hope that after reading this article, you follow “Suno sabki, karo
apne man ki” approach and not follow 100% of anything that I have mentioned.
Rather, you use the above knowledge to figure out the best approach for
yourself. I wish you all the best for your CAT preparation and I wish that you
always believe more in your mind than any other external source. Happy
Preparing!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Chiranjeev Singhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04105812704100025971noreply@blogger.com0