While answering five to six questions correctly can fetch you the 90 percentile, answering seven to eight questions without any mistakes can fetch you the 95 percentile.
Focus on a few basic topics so that you can solve medium-to-difficult questions about them, suggests MBA expert and rediffGURU Patrick Dsouza.
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In one of the first classes that I was taking for a batch, there was an engineer who was giving quick answers in quantitative aptitude (Quant).
Four non-engineers were sitting in the class felt overawed by him.
They even approached that student to teach them.
I saw this and called them aside.
I told them that their approach to Quant for the Common Admission Test (CAT) should be different from the way most engineers usually approach this topic; their approach is more formula-centric. Instead, I suggested, they should focus more on a logical way of solving the questions -- using options, substituting values, etc.
They were open to learning.
I was able to track their progress and, over time, all four improved a lot, eventually securing admission to the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, the Xavier School of Management (XLRI), the S P Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) and the Management Development Institute (MDI).
Another example is of a student who, after writing a few mock tests, was not scoring as much as some of his other friends who were engineers.
He came to me and said that he would never be able to compete with engineers in Quant. I told him to give his best shot and we formulated a strategy to prepare for the exam. He managed to score 99.8 percentile in the Common Admission Test and secure admission to the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
What usually happens with non-engineers is that most of them believe that engineers are generally better at Quant as they have studied some quantitative aptitude during their degree. This idea sits somewhere in the back of their mind and every time the non-engineers don't get the answer to a sum they're solving, it gets reinforced.
What I have noticed over time is that, provided they use the right strategy to prepare and believe in themselves, they can reach their target in the quantitative aptitude section.
Let me walk you through three different scenarios (this applies to both engineers and non-engineers):
CAT strategy for above-average students
These are students who are able to solve easy and medium-level sums but struggle because they've lost touch.
They can maximise their marks in quantitative aptitude with proper preparation. The key is not to follow the formula approach as it will make you comparatively slow in solving sums; also, you'll struggle with CAT sums as most of them are not formula-centric. Instead, develop approaches that let you solve sums faster in a way that's more tuned to the Common Admission Test.
If you're able to save time on a few of the easy sums, you can use it to solve the difficult ones.
A student should focus on both the topics they are strong at (to find better methods and save time) and the topics they are weak at (to maximise their score).
CAT strategy for average students
These are students who can solve easy questions but struggle with medium-level questions.
Students in this category can look at scoring 90 to 95 percentile in quant.
Five to six questions answered correctly can fetch you the 90 percentile while seven to eight questions answered without any mistakes can fetch you the 95 percentile (this could vary a bit based on the difficulty level of the exam).
The key here is to cover the basics of most topics but focus on a few to reach your target.
Cover the basics of most topics so that if an easy question comes from any topic, you're able to solve it.
Focus on a few topics so that you can solve medium-to-difficult level questions about them.
I had a student who prepared in such a way that he focused on topics that together carried a weightage of 13 to 14 questions (focusing on only half the topics that had higher weightage and covering the basics of the others).
He managed to attempt eight of the questions and get seven correct, scoring 95 percentile in Quant, with an overall of 99.3 percentile, as his verbal score was good; he got admission in IIM, Ahmedabad.
CAT strategy for below-average students
These are students who struggle to solve easy questions.
Here, the aim is to clear the cutoffs.
It has been observed that in most CAT exams, if you get four questions correct without any wrong answers, you should reach 80 percentile, which clears sectional cutoffs for most colleges.
This number may vary based on the difficulty level of the paper.
I had a student who used to score negative marks in Quant in her mock tests. We then made a plan where the focus was not to get negative marks -- ie not to solve any question she wasn't sure of.
After that, we focused on getting just one or two questions correct.
Here, I told her to focus on a few topics she was comfortable with that could fetch her those one or two questions.
Next, we learnt some methods for a few types of sums that helped her secure that four-question target. She managed to get 80 percentile in Quant, with an overall of 95 percentile, and secured admission to MDI.
Another of my students with the same problem managed to get three questions correct (78 percentile), clear the cutoff for Quant, score an overall of 98.9 percentile, and secure admission to the IIM-A.
The key is to know where you stand and prepare accordingly.
Don't focus on other students' scores; you may get demotivated.
Most of the time, students don't do well in Quant because they believe they are not good at it.
Change your mindset and be more confident; it will go a long way in helping you do well in this section.
- CAT and MBA-prep related questions? Ask rediffGURU Patrick D'Souza HERE.
