[mansoor316]

Munira, can u tell us what ur ranks were like in mocks when u were prepping in 1996?
Was there huge variation then or were u as consistent as you are now?

[Aimar]

Ok this is a little late in the day for me to post a quote for this particular thread - but i had no idea that this one was about Munira - my guru.
Guys i have 7 calls in all this year (LACKI included) and i am one of the students who attended the catalyst4cat group last year and that is the only reason I have the 7 calls. Not only is Munira a serial 100 percentiler she is an excellent teacher too.
As far as i'm concerned all you need to do to crack the CAT is follow all that Munira says and with a little bit of luck you'll get there.

[Psychodementia]

Originally Posted by mansoor316

Munira, can u tell us what ur ranks were like in mocks when u were prepping in 1996?
Was there huge variation then or were u as consistent as you are now?

Sorry to butt in, but just thought I'd reply. I was possibly the only other PG-ite who was prepping in 1996 for CAT

That time there were no mock CATs. Can you imagine ? IMS used to give some arbit figure on the first page of the test papers and that would be our only bench-mark. There was no CL, no TIME, no nothing. IMS all the way. Brilliants did come up with some decent prep material but dropped the ball somewhere around the late 90s.

Arun

[Psychodementia]

Originally Posted by Munira Lokhandwala

Hi,
This is primarily in response to DG. Though it may surprise you but I have actually refused students. Two students last year and five students this year. I think it is fairly obvious that all students cannot crack the CAT, a case in point is my house maid . Where we all disagree will be the number of students who have the potential to crack the CAT. It would be a good survey to find out how many students actually go to the exam center feeling confident about the preparation they have put in, I think very few. If there are x students then I am sure that less than x/10 students do not get calls. The article is meant to clear issues around how to prepare.

Valid. So you are saying that if CAT were just a test of acquired skills (as opposed to aptitude) you might have taken up even your house maid ? Which means that CAT does require some level of aptitude right ?

Originally Posted by Munira Lokhandwala

Also it would be interesting to see an article on aptitude preparation, that to assuming one year MAX preparation. Such an article should be gifted to the parents of the student very early in life, sir aap puzzles karege to aap ke honewale baccho ka iq badhega? Or mam badam khaiye......
If a person solves one equation then it may be a fluke, (God knows I have seen enough of those cases in IIMC). But a person who solves all equations given to her of various types. Then perhaps he/ she can actually write a book on how to solve equations or get into the "business" of tutoring students to crack equations. Cool analogy??
Munira.

Now let me contradict myself by saying that CAT actually can be cracked by acquired skills without much "aptitude". Its just that these skills take more than the prescribed 4-6 months advocated by the coaching classes to acquire. It might take years. Give me a boy who is in his 10th standard and I can inculcate habits and motivate/guide him to crack a BLACKI over the next 5-6 years. Give me a boy who is in 2nd standard but there is not guarantee he will do a Phd in Nuclear Science from MIT. Now *that* requires aptitude.

So to make things easier I would say:

Easily Acquired Skill = Driving a car

Difficult to acquire skill = CAT

Mostly aptitude = Phd from MIT

I don't know if I made sense here but my 2 cents.

Arun

[theginsoakedboy]

Originally Posted by Psychodementia

Brilliants did come up with some decent prep material but dropped the ball somewhere around the late 90s.

Thats some news - coz i always thought why brilliants did not enter this space till now - they have been pretty successful in the other ones like JEE and HSC

[Psychodementia]

I just re-read my posts and I feel that the conversation is unncessarily being hijacked I had a geniune feedback and lets stop it at there.

Actually *I* for one would any day go for a tutor who has the credentials like Muneera. There are very few 100%ile material out there who actually teach. Definitely so if personal attention is given.

Arun

[theginsoakedboy]

Munira, given your experience and expertise in this space - what do you think is one thing that really makes a difference?

You said you rejected students coz you thought they couldnt make it - what did they lack on the whole - i mean the reason for rejection?

[Munira Lokhandwala]

??:

Originally Posted by theginsoakedboy

Munira, given your experience and expertise in this space - what do you think is one thing that really makes a difference?

You said you rejected students coz you thought they couldnt make it - what did they lack on the whole - i mean the reason for rejection?

Hi,
As Arun has mentioned earlier, during 1996, there was exactly one all India mock that I sat for: surprisingly it was held on some monday evening. I think I scored around 125, (this was where 120 was a 4 call score). In my actuall cat I attempted 165 questions that would be 135 - 140 ka score given my accuracy rates.

Now to get back to theginsoakedboy's query, there are two main reasons I have rejected students:
1. Extremely poor in English listening/ reading skills. This is because a person pathetic in Math can pick up enough math in a year to score 10 -11 marks in the final exam, but a person similarly handicapped in English sadly cannot pick up enough english and there is no reason to promise them otherwise.
2. The other reason is that some students do not have the enthu to learn, for instance, if a question will be solved in the head they would still prefer the equation neatly written down method, the way they have been taught in schools.
Lets understand that the CAT is a very different exam from the other exams that we take and hence the way we think needs to be changed. The teaching that looked great in your 12th classes will not work for your CAT. Alas, some students like been spoon fed and more alas (for them) I dont believe in spoonfeeding. Thankfully some particularly stubborn students themselves agree that I may not be a good teacher for them ??:
So all's well that end's well.

Munira.

[orca]

Originally Posted by Munira Lokhandwala

1. Extremely poor in English listening/ reading skills. This is because a person pathetic in Math can pick up enough math in a year to score 10 -11 marks in the final exam, but a person similarly handicapped in English sadly cannot pick up enough english and there is no reason to promise them otherwise.
...........................

Munira.

This one really stood out, cant help agreeing here even though this might be off topic. Ive seen ppl miss IIM calls year after year inspite of cracking the QA and DI sections(99.2+) because of a poor EU which they couldnt really improve even over a period of 2-3 years.

On the other hand, guys really pathetic at QA and DI were able to get decent %iles after putting in a decent amount of prep for arnd 3-4 months. For eg: take my own case here . I went from 71.XX to 98.XX in DI and 37.XX to 91.XX in QA wrt CAT2K4 and 2K5(mind you I did spend 40 mins on QA in CAT2004).

For me it is as simple as this, if you are really bad at EU, no amount of prep can see you through CAT unless you get really lucky on the D-day.

[shyamnaren]

Originally Posted by Psychodementia

Valid. So you are saying that if CAT were just a test of acquired skills (as opposed to aptitude) you might have taken up even your house maid ? Which means that CAT does require some level of aptitude right ?



Now let me contradict myself by saying that CAT actually can be cracked by acquired skills without much "aptitude". Its just that these skills take more than the prescribed 4-6 months advocated by the coaching classes to acquire. It might take years. Give me a boy who is in his 10th standard and I can inculcate habits and motivate/guide him to crack a BLACKI over the next 5-6 years. Give me a boy who is in 2nd standard but there is not guarantee he will do a Phd in Nuclear Science from MIT. Now *that* requires aptitude.

So to make things easier I would say:

Easily Acquired Skill = Driving a car

Difficult to acquire skill = CAT

Mostly aptitude = Phd from MIT

I don't know if I made sense here but my 2 cents.

Arun

second u all d way...make perfect sense....gr8 post,pretty insightful!!