Last Updated on March 20, 2014 by MBAUniverse.com News Desk
7 Days to CAT 11: Excerpts from live chat with Arun Sharma
Arun Sharma received and answered a plethora of questions asked by the CAT takers on managing weak areas, strategy for test taking, how to clear cut offs.
With just one week to go for the start of the CAT 2011 test phase, MBAUniverse.com has started special series of Live Expert Chat to guide the CAT 2011aspirants at this critical juncture. Now that there are few days left for the biggest exam of the year, everyone wants to give their best shot.
The first chat of the series was held on October 13, 2011 with Arun Sharma, the renowned CAT exam guru and author of bestselling books on CAT preparation. Arun Sharma is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore. Arun Sharma received and answered a plethora of questions asked by the CAT takers on managing weak areas, strategy for test taking, how to clear cut offs and more.
Read the excerpts from the live chat with Arun Sharma:
Q: Shanti: Im getting very confused with my preparation. Sometimes Geometry bothers me sometimes it is DI. How to cope with this situation?
A: CAT preparation is about getting to know things and getting to know that you know things. So the key is to develop the beliefs. In the final days your focus should be on improving your belief system on whatever areas of the portion you have a grip on. Remember it is only your belief that will be with you on the D Day.
Q: Sonal Jain: Quant is my weak area. What marks should I score in QA to clear the cut off?
A: Sonal since this year onwards we have Quant and DI together, so your first target should be to get a minimum of 14 to 15 questions all correct. After that try to make it as close to 20 as possible but remember avoid errors as much as you can.
Q: Soumya Sarkar: How shall I prepare for geometry in the last few days?
A: Soumya, Focus on trying to develop your thought process within the problem. Visualize all formulae and have clarity of vision of which formulae to use in what situations.
Q: Diwakar Tiwari: How can I improve my RC in next 15 days? I have to attempt the exam in next week of the starting week of CAT 2011. How many questions should I attempt in every section for making good percentile?
A: Diwakar, please read my answer to Srikarthik about RC. As far as number of attempts is concerned, the first threshold one would look at would be 13 to 15 all correct and the next would be 18 to 20.
Q: Komal: My Logical Reasoning section is good on paper but when it comes on computer I make silly mistakes, reading problem and consistency problem, what would you advice? What is the way?
A: Komal, focus on controlling your mind. It is just a mental control issue. There is no difference between solving things on paper and solving things on the computer screen. The thought process remains the same in both cases.
Q: Ravi: I would like to know whether one should take some time in reading the whole paper. I mean skimming through the whole paper or go on attempting the favorite section of the paper.
A: Ravi, Take it as it comes. Question by question, remember to leave questions in which you are likely to get stuck along the way so that you are able to reach the last question and have seen all the questions in the paper.
Q: Satish: Sir, what should be the minimum number of attempts in each section for 90+ percentile?
A: Satish, I would think 15 to 17 all correct (or maybe with a maximum of 1 to 2 errors) should guarantee 90 percentile.
Q: Subby Jacob: My average mock percentile is 90. Im scoring well in DI & Quant but VA pulls me down. Please help.
A: Subby, focus on the fragment of your mind that creates the errors while solving. Remember, even if you can overturn three errors in your test it is likely to give you a huge percentile jump.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more Live Expert Chats.