Tips to crack QA / Maths / DI in CAT

It's CAT Prepping time and most of the MBA aspirants in India might be burning the candle at
both ends to crack supposedly the most competitive examination after SBI PO Qualifying Test

It's out of context, still, You'd b surprised to know that 17 lakh aspirants write the exam while
there are only 1500 posts! And we think CAT is tough! No! It's Not. For that matter, anything in
life can be achieved if you give in the required efforts

Coming to the Title of this post, Let me introduce to you different sections in CAT which most
of you reading this are already aware of. CAT has two sections that test various abilities of
yours.

1. Quantitative Aptitude (QA) and Data Interpretation ( DI)
2. Verbal Ability (VA) and Logical Reasoning (LR)
The first section tests your abilities to solve problems from the topics mentioned below:
1. Probability
2. Permutations & Combinations
3. Number Systems
4. Quadratic Equations
5. Logarithms , Surds
6. Mensuration
7. Sets, Venn Diagrams
8. Analyzing Pie Charts, Bar Diagrams, Data tables
As many disclaimers would say, the above list is not exhaustive :P and only includes some of the
most common topic. If you ever wondered how solving a quadratic equation helps you in your
job, let you be informed that most of the topics have their application in a few of the courses
during your MBA especially in ECONOMICS. Also, once you crack CAT after reading this,
make it to a premier B-school and end up becoming a CEO, the probability of which is very
high <I am an optimist you see>, you might have to interpret those boring bar-diagrams and
pie-charts to understand how your company is performing!

Back to business, all these topics are easy and not really difficult. Well then you may ask if it is
so easy, why people falter in exams. CAT, my friends, is all about Accuracy and Speed. Given
unlimited time, any Tom can bell the cat. It's all about accuracy and managing your time you see.
After all, that is what the so-called corporate companies expect from managers. They expect a lot
and their expectations never match the compensation they give us though. Let us quickly see
how to improve accuracy and speed

How to improve Speed

You should be able to calculate things in the blink of eye. I'd suggest you work on the following
things:

Tables ( 20 x 20)
1. You by-heart all the multiplication tables from 1x1=1 to 20x20=400.
2. Please write down all the tables in your copy/note-book, and read them for half-an-hour
daily.
3. You start this now and you can see the change in 2-3 weeks in your calculations.
4. You practice them everyday. There is a tool for this, which you can download from here.
To begin with, you may start practicing a table a day by changing the limits in the tool.
Once you pick up pace, you can change the limits to 20x20.
1. Please do not wait till you master all topics in terms of accuracy
2. Please do not think by-hearting is not something an ideal student should do. If you do so,
you'll know what the loss is later
3. Do not think that this is Impossible. Nothing is!! Even numbers' tables are always easy
and it is on Prime Numbers' tables that you have to work hard.

Fractions

Just like tables, please also practice fractions!

1/2 = 0.500 ; 1/3=0.333 ; 1/4 = 0.250 ; 1/5 = 0.200
1/6 = 0.166 ; 1/7=0.147 ; 1/8 = 0.125 ; 1/9 = 0.111
1/11=0.909 ; 1/12=0.833; ...... till 1/20

Squares and Cubes

The squares of 1-50 numbers should be by-heart!
The cubes of 1-20 numbers also. You can find them here

How to improve Accuracy

1. By practice, practice and practice. Whichever topic you choose, you should practice and
there are No Tips for that. Just a set of standard steps!
2. For practice, please choose any standard book which you might have already been
following. Many people use Arun Sharma. But considering the time constraint, I would
suggest, go with TIME or CL Material.
3. To improve speed and accuracy, solve 10-20 easy questions from each chapter
4. To gain depth, solve tough questions, in section - ii from each chapter

A few more tips

1. For every topic, once you complete practice, please write down all the important
formulae and tricky logics in a notebook, which you must and should revise weekly once
during the prep. mode and daily in the revision mode.
2. Give Mock tests, not as many as you can, but as many as you can analyse. You should
see where you are going wrong and improve that topic. Also, you'll know your strengths
and weaknesses.
3. Spend more time on your strong topics in the exam and little time on the weak topics. As
time progresses in the prep. mode your strong topics should increase in number and weak
topics should decrease

What to choose and what not to

Many times people keep asking questions like:
How many questions should I answer to get 99.99 percentile ?
I have answered 10 questions. Will I get above 90 percentile ?
If someone tells you that you should answer 20 questions to get XY percentile and you find the
paper to be easy, will you just answer 20 questions ?
If the paper is tough, will you be able to answer 20 questions? If not, you will keep on thinking
that you could not answer and you screwed up the paper and it will impact the next section!
Hence, do not go to exam with a prejudice to answer atleast or exactly n questions. Answer as
many as you can accurately

Be confident! You're the best! Nothing is impossible.
Believe in these three, prepare and go nail the exam
All the best