In this series, we invite leading test-prep experts to present their slog-over strategies for CAT 2007. In this article, New Delhi based Roots Education offer their mantras.
Roots Education on 'Countdown to CAT –2007':
SECTION-I:
Quantitative Ability:
Target 15-20 math problems a day – preferably a balanced mix from Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry.
The topics you should focus upon:
Circles, triangles and area-volumes in Geometry
Quadratic Equations and Permutations & Combinations in Algebra
Number System, Mixtures and Allegations, Speed-Time-Distance in Arithmetic
Quantitative ability is the section where question selection is an extremely important step. Hence, you really need to do your homework well here. The final aim is twofold: One, you are equipped to attempt the relatively easy questions from all areas/topics so that you don't lose out on a source of great advantage and two, you know your strengths well enough to attempt nearly all questions from your stronger areas, while being selective about those from your weaker areas.
Focus not only on solving the problem but also more importantly on checking whether your approach is logical and efficient. According to Mr Puneet Garg, an IIT-IIM alumnus who is a part of the core team at MBAGuru, the successful MBA prep course offered by Roots Education, "Think of alternative ways of approaching the problem – this will not only make your approach more robust but will also enable you to associate with, interrelate and internalize various concepts that you have learnt. This is what CAT today requires you to do."
SECTION-II
(a) Logical Reasoning:
Target 5 LR problems a day – from any good book (Puzzles to Puzzle You - Shakuntala Devi, The great book of mind-teasers and puzzles – George Summers, Analytical Reasoning – M.K. Pandey, Amazing Math Puzzles – Adam Hart Davis) or web sources such as www.mathfoodreasoning.com, www.rinkworks.com/brainfood (which has puzzles that test your logical, verbal and quantitative reasoning skills!) and www.brainden.com.
More than aiming for more practice, the emphasis has to be on identifying the basic structure of various kinds of problems. The better you become at identifying the framework that you can use to crack a problem, the easier the LR section would sound.
"This is a section for which you need not prepare, and ironically, this is the section for which no amount of preparation would suffice," says Mr Deekshant Sahrawat, an IIM Calcutta alumnus, a founder-director at Roots Education, where he heads the MBAGuru initiative. According to him, the only preparation you can do is to develop a sound approach rather than looking to solve problems and practicing. You can gain much more out of 5 problems a day if you focus on understanding how the problem is framed than you probably would if you solved 25 problems a day. The logic is simple enough: the nature of the questions will change and would probably be unlike any that you have practiced; but if you develop that sound approach, it will help you crack the problems no matter what their type is.
(b) Data Interpretation
10 Simple calculations a day – write down expressions at random and approximate them mentally and logically. For example something like 25.37 x 49.28 (= 1250.23) can easily be approximated as 25 x 50 = 1250 by increasing and decreasing the 2 numbers respectively in their approximate original ratio of 1: 2.
"CAT is not testing whether you can replace the calculator or the PC, it only tests a certain comfort level with numbers since as a manager you deal with numbers day in and day out" says Mr Sahrawat, who has also been scoring a 100 percentile in the DA-LR section of CAT for the past three years straight.
SECTION - III
(a) Reading Comprehension:
You must aim to read 3-4 passages of 800-1200 words spanning as diverse topics as possible – the idea is to become as comfortable as possible with things that you are generally not comfortable with. Apart from the editorial page in newspapers and various magazines, you must read sections such spirituality and philosophy on websites such as www.indiatimes.com, www.hindustantimes.com and from web sources such as the philosophy section under www.mckenziestudycenter.org , varied articles at websites such as www.time.com, www.csicop.org and www.sciam.com. The Rooters' communication board in the MBAGuru section at www.rootseducation.com carries a regularly updated list of articles handpicked by experts from around the globe from diverse domains such as philosophy, technology, arts, history and social sciences that would be immensely beneficial to CAT and MBA exam aspirants, informs Ms S. Nithya, who heads the English department at MBAGuru.
You must also focus more on developing a basic understanding of the questions based on title of the passage, central idea of the passage, tone of the passage and application based questions which test your grasp of the author's logic or viewpoint. The other kind of fact and inference based questions then come as a natural extension of your understanding.
(b) Verbal Ability:
Target 20-25 questions with focus on:
Reasoning based questions: theme completion, critical reasoning, para-jumbles.
Grammar: the correct ways of expressing an idea and use of idioms.
Vocabulary: usage based questions.
Says Ms Nithya, "Reading will help a lot here too since this section is now more application based rather than knowledge based as was the case earlier." Understanding the Logical connect between words in a sentenced, ideas in a paragraph and paragraphs in a passage – this would be as handy for Verbal Ability as for Reading Comprehension. Apart from the sectional tests and assignments that you get from the institute that you are preparing for, you should refer a lot to web sources such as www.dictionary.com (which gives you great information about usage and meaning of any word along with its pronunciation), www.dailygrammar.com (for basic grammar), and the learning English section at www.bbc.co.uk. These are fantastic sources for enhancing your command over a language that is as "slippery as an eel", says Ms Nithya.
Apart from this ofcourse, there is a lot that you can draw out from the Mock CATs that you write at your institute as a part of the Test Series.
These are only representative inputs and may need to be fine-tuned slightly according to individual needs. While these will certainly give one level of improvement to most aspirants, the real potential can only be harnessed through individual guidance by expert mentors. The individualized skill building tests at MBAGuru enable each individual to identify his/her own strengths and weaknesses and reach his/her best. Remember, finally there is only one person you are competing against – and that is you! If you gear up to perform anywhere near your best, you stand a good chance at making it your dream Business School.
(Roots Education was formed by graduates from IIMs, IITs and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. The institute was incorporated in 2003. It offers services for all management entrance tests for leading B-Schools in India and GMAT for admission to leading post-graduate schools across the world.)
