Career Avenues presents "Guru Gyan-Country's 1st online personalised CAT prep program

[profootball25]

Hi Amit,I am appearing for CAT for the first time in 2006.

My Profile.
10th - 84.4 %
12th - 94 %
B.E. (Comps) - 68 % - 2005 passout

Currently working in s\w industry with 15 months work exp. by Dec 31 2006.

I did not join any classes, but joined Mock Test series. Have given abt 4 mocks in the test series, and the 2 MoCats uplaoded on PG.
I dont think i can look much into the MoCat results as very very few ppl give the test ...
In the 4 mocks i have given , the general trend has been wot most ppl struggle with, Quant .

My startegy
50 mins - QA
50 mins - DI
40 mins ( max ) - VA ( as im sure this will ensure i clear cut off's by atleast 1 or 2 marks ) and then back to QA ( usually coz i know i m missing tht cut off, havent gone back to DI yet, though it may be poss if DI is tough in the paper).


The thing is i spend 1 hr on QA to barely clear cut off's or even miss them sometime, and my over all suffers as i cannot score in VA.
I do think my VA is very good, but general papers ( CAT and Mocks tend towards tought QA and DI and relatively easy VA ).
I know, by analysis, if i can clear QA cut off in 50 mins then i can score well, but i just find it tough to comprehend most questions. I get a lot of them after coming home and sitting with a relaxed mind.

Any suggestions as to wot i can do to improve scores ....shd i change my strategy, or just keep working hard to improve my quant ..

[candybean$$$$]

This will be my first attempt at CAT and needless to say I am pretty confused with the way my mock cat results are coming up.

I have missed 3 mocks and lotsa coaching classes due to some family problem so I am unsure about my preparation as of now.

My profile:

10th: 81.6%
12th: 73% (Medical)
Grad: B.Sc hons in Human Genetics

Was working with Dell International Services till August 1, 2006 in the Customer Support segment. Have a 1 yr work ex. With the job and night shifts and stuff, I was very irregular with the preparation and classes. Now since I have quit, I have the whole day with me and can manage to devote 10-12 hrs to padhai.

3 months to the exam and I have still not been able to figure out a strategy for the paper

VA has always been my bone of contentment but the story has not been good since the mocks started. When I attempt parajumbles at home I score pretty well. In a set of 15 questions, I usually attempt 13 questions and end up with a score ranging from 11-12.67. Now, when I am taking the mock I barely manage to get 1-3 questions correct. I just fail to understand where I am going wrong.

RC is something I hate to do but its easy to score, again when I attempt it at home. Whenever I am taking the mock, I get real nervous cos I keep looking at the other passages. Still havent been able to figure out what kind of questions I need to attempt and what should be my approach towards RC. I usually attempt direct questions and leave the inference ones. But even then I get them wrong

QA: I still dont attempt anything at QA. Its only 3 months to the exam and still I have a quant phobia. Mainly becuase I did my bachelors in medical and most people end up telling me that since I have a medical background I should just forget about CAT . I have been practising consistently since 2 months but I am not satisfied with my performance in quant. Either I score -ve or b/w 1-2 which of course is pretty bad. The questions are so difficult and I am still struggling with the easy ones. Now I am sure that I cannot score 99 in quant but I atleast want to clear the cut off so as to manage admission in a decent institute. Dont know if I should keep a stupid goal as clearin the cut off but at this point of time with due respect to my prep, I frankly dont know

[andy_jaan]

may we have some more info abt wat exactly this guru gyan about? Hope we are talking about some morale support only

smiles
Andy

[sanipi]

hi,
This will be my third attempt,i have taken coaching in ims for cat 2004,time cat 2005 ,and now erudite for 2006 cat.i am working in infy and have daily 12 hr weekdays so only weekends left for me..to study thats the biggest problem..still somehow i have managed good marks 60+ in the 2 mockcats i have given thsi year although the toughness ofthe paper was similar to the freemocat102,am not satisfied with my level of preparation...main probelm area is quants and di because i donot manage to score 15 + in both of them while english va nd rc is my strength area.First tiem i gave cat got 94%tile,got calls from tapmi and mica couldnot convert second time was in my job training so could not fimd enough time to prepare,this time busy working lets see wher it goes

[Amit@Career_Avenues]

The more I know, the better I can try to come out with an effective prep plan and strategy. So please be more specific. I will be choosing the first couple of people for this initiative based on how much I know about your predicament.

Sid_sharth
Could you be more specific. Eg. Scores / percentiles in last 2 years CATs. Accuracy percentage across sections ? And if you have done any analysis of your errors ?



Rosh !
Is your problem across all topic in Quant ? From what material have you done your basics, and what tests are you taking ? What has been the total effort in your prep as of now ? And what material have you done as you moved from basics to mocks ?



Satiago ji,
Probability ? Have not seen it in CAT for the past 10 years ?? But great explanation of your problem area ? Need some more info. Time spent to do 50 questions in VA/RC ? Number of questions attempted in QA and DI, with accuracy percentage? Areas that you enjoy in Quant ? An area in Quant where you are ready to take my challenge test ?



Profootball
Can I get to know your scores / percentiles in mocks ? Number of questions attempted on an average ? Strong areas in Quant, etc ?


Candybean$$$$
Please complete the story. And you should be surpised to hear that I have worked with two doctors in the past who have made it into top 8 Bschools. So please give me more info on DI, effort put in quant prep, and time spent across the sections in mocks.

[vinit456]

Originally Posted by Amit@Career_Avenues

Wow, looks like i am soon gonna have more than my hands full.

Vinit456
Can you give me more info? Is this your first CAT ? Past experiences ? How many Mocks approx you may have taken ? Time spent per section (2 hour test) ? Order of sections if any ? Score / Percentile range per section and overall ? Which test series and what course are ? and finally Chage in test taking style necessiated by 2.5 hrs pattern. I may need more info soon.

Cheers
Amit

Hey Amit,

I have given CAT once before but that was without adequate Prep and without any plan/strategy in my mind. So in that sense this would be a genuine attempt.

I have given 4 AIMcats till and have managed to clear the quant offs as thats not my strenght and just I just feel comfortable starting off with it, no specific reason Start of off with quant. But like I said the problem arises with a 150 question paper. I have papers of previous years and that's how I got to know about the problem. Time usually alloted is
Quant-60 mins
Verbal and DI would be shared with min of the first 40 to VA for 2 2.5 hr paper.

In a 2 hr paper its Quant - first 40 and in both patterns my time toward VA n DI would kinda change depending let' say on the RC's.

But like I said once the paper is done there are questions which could have been done.

Lets put it this way. If I have attempted a certain question which has its own sub questions I am not sure how good the Idea is leave some sub questions beacuse I have spent time in understanding that question be it LR or a certain graph. Then I am left with the choice of either attempting the questions which may take some time but would eventually get it or do i go to the next question understand it @ the cost of spending time over it and also the fact there maybe the same question which my consume it.

I have been through the Mock analysis sessions by the Institute and what I thought was that the tough sub questions should have been left. And then you should have moved to certain so n so question. But thats easier said than done once the paper is over.

So my approach ended up being pick the question and do it completely unless I am very sure that it'll take a lot of time.

So please do suggest a way out of this. Do we attempt every question or do we go with the approach of trying- to- clear- cut- off thing.

Also for us the unfortunate non-engineers how wise/ok it is to not do topics like Trignometry. As lot non-science students have not gone through those aspecst in quant for about 4 yrs now (in my case). I mean Sin and Tan means something else for me.......

Please do let us know. And from you experience how have successful candidates(non-science) in your veiw tackled this issue as you would have received similar queries.


Thanks,
VA

[illogical]

Dear Amit could you please offer more details in your advices?

[beldcat]

Originally Posted by Amit@Career_Avenues

Wow, looks like i am soon gonna have more than my hands full.

So here we go. I need more information from some of you.


BeldCAT
Past CAT experience if any ? Time spent on CAT in a week ? Is it that you even make easy qns difficult in a test scenario or is it that u r unable to differentiate them. And in a 40 minutes for quant scenario, what approach do you have (based on only 1 marks situation, and with differential marking)

More soon. Please add anything that you think may help me get to know your style better..

Cheers
Amit

See amit i nvr had any experiences in cat.this will be the first atempt.

Time spent:this is high time i am having i mean the month of AUG..so studying at an aveage of 4-6 hrs...tat includes quant ,verbal...readings ...and basic books ...i mean analysis of exams also...but the out comes are yet 2 b seen coz i have adopted this funda from 1st aug. i have my degree mdterms in sptember..and den finals in CAT week ..so really screwed frm all sides..so just wana complete the studies by this month..so tat only mocks are left...me not haunted from quant ready 2 wrk hard 2 make it my strength..till now able 2 score 12-15 in eng..and 6-8 in data in TIME mocks

some times happened wid me tat i was not able 2 solve easier ones in exam..and was able 2 solve after words...but i think it hardly hapened.coz my attempt has been low in quant..may b arnd 6-8 question highest til date.
strategy is tat i just goo by scanning for in 40 mins..try 2 geometry.trigno ques if able 2 do...1 or 2 question from algebra...no. system..see it depends
hope i have answered it all..i think i m wrong some where in attempting...but cant find out in last 4 mocks..hope 2 improve in quant...and ya i have nvr attempted Probability..and permutations..was weak wid these in +1 so nvr tried here..but will do it by aug 15t 4 sure...i think where lies the prob is tat i m not able 2 do the higher level quest at a fast speed means the way they need 2 b done...like 2 mins to a quest...i need 2 find some tricks and some thing of tat sort...i feel this way...hope this info helps...if u need some thing more do tell me

[orca]

Sorry to butt into this thread but I recommend that the ppl struggling with QA wud do well to read Amit's post at http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/271825-post53.html

I found that pretty useful in choosing which Q to tackle and what to avoid when I tried my hand at CAT last year. The key is to keep thinking thru the paper, especially in those sections u r weak at.

[dilton]

CAV and PG are going places!!!!!! Great, another feather in the hat for PG and CAV. Good work Amit.