[spiro]

as far as preparation goes.. u've been consistently performing well in VA but for the last mock, so check y did u falter to score this time.. is it tat over-hyped pressure of urs.. and still take the positive tat even wen u dint perform well in ur strongest section still u managed a very decent percentile.. tis means tat u must hv scored well in other two sections..

u've mentioned tat u r already working on DI so no need to say about tat.. still practice variety of questions in DI.. reasoning, charts, data sets.. and practice Data Sufficiency as it requires the conceptual understanding..

P.S. all i can give are suggestions.. the strategy has to be ultimately devised by you.. and chuck out tis pressure thing from your mind.. one or two day before CAT plz stop thinking about CAT and go with an open mind.. forget about the mocks, pressure and all..

ATB for the D-Day [/quote]

thanks for the booster dost...!!!

vaise there have been slight misunderstandings :

first the positive one--- i haven't left my job for good ..am planning to go back after cat...so in a sense i have a back-up (one that i hope i don' have to use)...

now the negative one.....i scored 98.89 in 0909 not in 0908....

in AIMCAT0908...I SCREWED UP MY va which used to be my fort , otherwise , helping me to get to 92-94 overall...but ditched me this time...din't even cear the cut-offs....and as a result my overall percentile came down to 81....an all time low..

hope this is only a one time disaster...

anyways thanks for your kind n encouraging words dost....

at the end i know il have to put in all the hard work,the rght strategy as well as kepp my cooool-- i thnk this one is most important...

regards,

spiro

[AnkitKumarNigam]

I have a problem quite peculiar..

wenever i do badly in mocks, i become serious and sad...
i work hard and get back my percentiles.

but wen i get back to track i become over confident and loose the lead. I very well kno that thius will happen but change never reflects in my attitude.

Also, I have a habit of belittling my achievements. I do a tough DI set.. but wen done i feel that it was easy and could b done by anyone.

I mean i am never proud of myself. Either I am very low on confidence, which is very big hurdle for performing gud or I am Over-confident which removes the caution and thoughtful strategy.

What to do?? I am in trouble.

Also, I converted call for IIT-K MBA with ma Btech last yr but left it because when i looked back at it, i felt that what i did could have been done by anyone. i mean i wasnt proud of it. I have no penitence for it. But dunno why my confidence level doesnt go up steadily. It follows spikes or deep troughs.

What to do??

regards,
Ankit

[IAYF]

Originally Posted by AnkitKumarNigam

I have a problem quite peculiar..

but wen i get back to track i become over confident and loose the lead. I very well kno that thius will happen but change never reflects in my attitude.

Also, I have a habit of belittling my achievements. I do a tough DI set.. but wen done i feel that it was easy and could b done by anyone.

But dunno why my confidence level doesnt go up steadily. It follows spikes or deep troughs.

Ankit, Your problem itself isn’t very unique mate! It’s a relative world and these kind of mindsets are prevalent. But I’ll try and show the bad side of it.
I agree that you intend to achieve higher goals but consider this – every year 250 odd guys join IIM Ahmadabad…if one thinks that 249 other individuals have done it and feel low about it then it’s just sheer pessimism…
Just going by this concept of ‘if anyone can do it, so why should I?’ – Any CEO would think that there are thousands of other firms and they all have CEO’s, so what’s the fun in being one.
I would suggest you to think on broader terms…relate these achievements to your long term plans and carry on with the course of life…one more suggestion – realize that your aim is not to crack that one DI set or for that matter a particular mock…whether you crack it or flunk it, in any case it’s not an estimate of your abilities by any means…it’s a part of your journey towards attaining a larger goal…once you see it this way, hopefully the spikes and troughs will smoothen out to give you a more ‘normal’ curve...
I hope you take it in right spirit!
IAYF.

[jain.er]

Originally Posted by AnkitKumarNigam

I have a problem quite peculiar..

wenever i do badly in mocks, i become serious and sad...
i work hard and get back my percentiles.

but wen i get back to track i become over confident and loose the lead. I very well kno that thius will happen but change never reflects in my attitude.

Also, I have a habit of belittling my achievements. I do a tough DI set.. but wen done i feel that it was easy and could b done by anyone.

I mean i am never proud of myself. Either I am very low on confidence, which is very big hurdle for performing gud or I am Over-confident which removes the caution and thoughtful strategy.

What to do?? I am in trouble.

Also, I converted call for IIT-K MBA with ma Btech last yr but left it because when i looked back at it, i felt that what i did could have been done by anyone. i mean i wasnt proud of it. I have no penitence for it. But dunno why my confidence level doesnt go up steadily. It follows spikes or deep troughs.

What to do??

regards,
Ankit

I feel that you should stop pondering over your performances too much . You have the tallent to make it big and you also know that . Things would happen for you , just stop too much contemplating. Always try to counter the over confidence feeling by saying to yourself some inspirational words (like saying that journey is still half traversed and still there is a lot to go etc....) also in case when to loose confidence and try to belittle yourself .
You are not concerned what others are capable of doing , others are capable of winning an olympic gold ...r u ? of course not. Just be concerned with yourself , you kno that you are the best and let others do their best .
Every child is special and so are you Just prepare mechanically ; keep the emotions aside for 2 months . Have no feeling whatsoever ..keep your eyes firmly set on the C-day.
ALL THE BEST
CHEERS>>>>

[spiro]

Hi Friends ...can anyone here guide me as to what should be the best stratgey for crackind di section....

I am ideally lookinf gor the source of the material....again this should be something that can be done in about 2-3 weeks putting in about 3-4 hours daily....i am sure you would apreciate that i plan to try and finish my "preparation" latest by oct10th or so..so that i can start taking the test papers after that....

i have asked particularly for DI as im currently not able to clear the cut-offs (scoring between 50-75%ile)....

as advised by fellow puys earlier, i have completed the various sets from last year's aimcat's(time) as well as the hand-outs given in the class...

So, now i am looking for something that gives me a decent exposure to various sets likely to be questioned...

friends, this is a very genuine concern for me as i think i will comfortably clear cut-offs in VA and quant and don' want to be let down by DI alone.....

the more precise and to the point the reply the better it would be fr me....

Thanks a ton...in advance...:happy:

spiro

[Whetstone]

what do your study schedules look like? How many hours do you people manage to put in a day?? And how do you get rid of that absolutely irritating grudge that you carry back home from office just because the credit for your work went into some other lucky b*****d's lap...

how do you guys manage to EAT,SLEEP and DREAM CAT??? I want to clear it as much as any of you do but i am just finding myself lost in the entire melee right now ....
Worse is , there's noone in my office peer group to even TALK cat with...so its a completely disconnncted story for me..

n coming back to my earlier Q on this thread, at this point in time , should it be Section Tests followed by Full Lengh Tests? i have just jumped onto the CAT bandwagon..albeit a bit late...and to top it all , i ve jumped in with high hopes that seem to come crashing down every single day...
i need to build some sorta momentum...but how is what i dont know..

wadya have to say about this??

[hanum31]

Hi Whetstone,

Let me tell you that there is a lot of similarity in our situations - no one to talk about CAT in office (most of them are already post grads), credit going to someone else, et al.

Answer to ur questions now:
-what do your study schedules look like? for me, there is no defined schedule but instead I keep daily/weekly targets and try to cover them
-How many hours do you people manage to put in a day? weekdays 1-2, weekends 0-4
-And how do you get rid of that absolutely irritating grudge..? well, i would say - welcome to the corporate world. its up to u how u take it. I take it as a great learning experience as IIM or any other institute does not promise a hassle free work life after passing out. if u have the courage/inclination to change things around - do it. if not, concentrate on CAT for now
-sectional/FLTs - I would say, first sectional tests and then Full lengths. don't panic, u'll have time for both (remember we have 24 hrs in a day)

Hope this helps..

[priyank12]

Guys,

I am looking for some material on RCs. Whatever material I find on RC is easy and the one we face in Mock CAT are quite difficult, so anyone has any pointer to some really good stuff on RC,,,

Thnx

[iammanusharma]

Hi,
I have 2 years of work exp in IT, i'm confused over which stream to choose for mba... on what basis do v select stream upon?? Anyone i ask they say either finance, HR or marketing ..If i want to grow high in IT which stream suits the best??

[raghav507]

hi puys,
a very good morning to you all...
here's the next article in the Monday Arun Sharma series...

English Score Made Easy
YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR TEST SCORES IN ENGLISH BY EMPLOYING A FEW SHORT TERM STRATEGIES.ARUN SHARMA TELLS HOW


The question "How can I develop my test scores in English?" is an oft-repeated question that is asked by students across the country. The question and more importantly the answer to it becomes of paramount importance in the context of the CAT being less than two months away- and most aspirants facing down the barrel when it comes to English preparations. The answer to this question differs with respect to the abilities of different levels of students and also the time available to develop their scores.

The strategy and the recommended exercises change for students preparing in the short run as against those preparing in the long run. In today's article I would like to concentrate on short term strategies to develop one's scores especially because the CAT exam is less than two months away.

The most commonly asked question types in the VA & RC sections can be divided into:

• Questions testing sentence level skills: Appropriate word usage questions, facts inference judgment questions and grammatical error questions come under this category.

• Questions testing paragraph level skills: Paragraph jumbles and critical reasoning (consisting of question types like strengthening and weakening arguments, concluding sentences, summaries etc) are included in this category.

• Questions testing passage level skills: This comprises mainly of reading comprehension.

Each of these question types concentrates on testing the aspirant on his/her ability to understand sentences, paragraphs and passages. Needless to say, no matter how good or bad your English might be, your focus of preparation has to be on trying to improve your ability to grasp the meanings of sentences, paragraphs and passages on a variety of topics.

Before we start to look at the specific requirements for English, we first need to understand the most basic problem for CAT aspirants in the English section. If you were to ask test takers about how they fared in English in a given test, most test takers would be unable to give you an estimate of how many questions they would have solved correctly. In fact, this lack of awareness about an error made while solving an English question often becomes the biggest hurdle for most students in order to improve their scores. Besides, it also results in the creation of huge amounts of uncertainty in the minds of test takers--- they are not able to realise whether they have done enough in this section. The carry over of this uncertainty to the other sections, results in an overall drop in confidence and ultimately in the scores.
Any attempt at improving your scores in VA & RC has to necessarily address this issue.

The best short term method for improving your language test scores is to become aware of the error types that occur while you solve different question types. It is only then that you will be able to identify the specific thought error that you are committing - and only after identification of the same can you work to remove it.

The following process if adopted thoroughly has the potential to help you remove the repetitive errors that you are making and hence develop your test scores.

Step 1: Solve an exercise with or without time limits. While doing this be sure to work on one type of question at a time.

Step 2: Without looking at the solutions, go back to every answer that you have marked. Evaluate the logic of each answer and based on your confidence in the logic you have used in marking the answer, mark each answer as:
a) Definitely correct
b) Probably correct
c) Probably wrong
d) Definitely wrong.

Step 3: Check your answers and find out your scores for each answer type as specified above.

Step 4: Analyze your errors based on the following error types:

Error Type 1: Definitely correct gone wrong: What was the specific logic that you missed out on while solving this question and then marking your answer as definitely correct.

Error Type 2: Probably correct gone right: Why were you not able to eliminate the incorrect option completely?

Error Type 3: Probably correct gone wrong: Why were you not able to spot the strength of the specific logic that supported the correct option.

Error Type 4: Probably wrong gone right: Why were you not able to eliminate the incorrect option completely? In fact, what made you think that the incorrect option was right??

Error Type 5: Probably wrong gone wrong: Why were you not able to spot the strength of the specific logic that supported the correct option.

Error Type 6: Definitely wrong gone wrong: You would only mark a question
as definitely wrong, if you had somehow realized that the original logic you had used was incorrect. In such a case, you need to ask yourself the question: Why were you not able to spot the correct answer while solving the question for the first time?

Error Type 7: Definitely wrong gone right: You should have been able to identify the question as definitely right. Only goes to show that you never got a hang of the specific question (or it's options). In such a case, you need to identify the logical oversight that occurred during your analysis of the question that made you mark the answer as definitely wrong instead of definitely correct.

In my view, in case you are unable to solve a specific question in English, it means that the level of doubt inserted inside the question is beating you. Hence, the main thrust for short term preparation for English has to involve teaching yourself how to overcome the doubts that are currently beating you.
— The writer is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, a nationally renowned CAT trainer and the author of a series of best-selling books published by Tata McGraw Hill on CAT and other aptitude exams