Cat 2005, Pune

[meticulous_guy]

Hey Howard,

Can you please pass me the TIME Speed Math Material this weekend. I'll photocopy it and give it back right away. Also incase you need any IMS/CL stuff do lemme know.

Me.

[Howard_Roark]

Originally Posted by meticulous_guy

Hey Howard,

Can you please pass me the TIME Speed Math Material this weekend. I'll photocopy it and give it back right away. Also incase you need any IMS/CL stuff do lemme know.

Me.

Hi,

i don`t think i will b in Pune on this weekend. in case i do. i will give u a call .

---Howard

[franki_rulz]

Hey ppl,
Sorry if I have offened anyone.It was purely unintentional.I have got some sound advice from 2 senior members...
Neways,thanx a million.
God bless,
Frank

[panchya]

hi there ppl
we are really hotting up i see. a week back this thread was only two pages and now look at it. mostly fountainhead posting though....nevertheless tis indeed great to see the response...
here are some queries for guys who have given cat previously...
1) is quant really very difficult. wot sort of a score should i target in my practise tests. how do i go about improvin it.... practise kya ???
2) my verbal is pretty good as of now... how do i polish it ???
3) what would an ideal preparation go like...??

[meticulous_guy]

Hi Panchya,

Well a decent target should be 50%(mind you not %ile) score per section. So if you have a CAT with 120 questions with 3 sections, your target should be 20+20+20 i.e 60 total. If it moves to 150 questions then it's 25x3 = 75.

About the method for preparation, that is case to case basis. For example, I am really poor at Quant. So I am working hard towards it. But my goal is to start section tests in May. So I should be through with the Syllabus (BRMs etc) by 15th May. June July would be section tests where focus would be on accuracy and question selection. After July, i.e August onwards it will be Mock Cats and more Mock Cats (i.e 2 full length tests per week atleast) and the focus would be on speed + accuracy.

Thats how my plan is. But I'm always open for suggestions. So if any of you'll have some better plans, please suggest.

Regards,
meticulous_guy

[anupam will return]

Originally Posted by panchya

hi there ppl
we are really hotting up i see. a week back this thread was only two pages and now look at it. mostly fountainhead posting though....nevertheless tis indeed great to see the response...
here are some queries for guys who have given cat previously...
1) is quant really very difficult. wot sort of a score should i target in my practise tests. how do i go about improvin it.... practise kya ???
2) my verbal is pretty good as of now... how do i polish it ???
3) what would an ideal preparation go like...??

Hi panchya,

Lemme answer u question by question..

Answer to 1) No.. quant is not really that difficult. If u have a good look at the CAT 2004 quant section, u'll realize that there were atleast 15-16 easy questions which almost anyone with a decent preparation can crack. The story is not only true for 2004 but for any CAT paper for that matter. Every CAT quants section has 15-20 easy doable problems. So, the "golden" question is .. What makes quant one of the most "untackable" sections in CAT ? If there are 15-20 easy questions in the section.. why is the sectional cutoff set to just a meagre 10-12 marks ?
The answer lies in the selection of questions in the section. CAT does not tell u that there are 'x' number of easy questions in "y" part of the section. Please do them if u want to get past the cutoff.. for the rest of the paper just ignore it.. ..U see this is very much not the case..
What is important is the way in which u select the "right" questions and crack them accurately.. this ofcourse is true once u r through with the basics..
While practising do pay attention on the questions which u feel are crackable in 45-75 seconds.. ultimately these are the qs which'll see u through!

Answere to 2) Though my verbal isn't 99+ , I would still suggest u to read a lot for RCs. One very important point which all coaching instts fail to notice..( or even if they notice they fail to tell us.. ) is that newspapers, magazines, journals .. all of them are printed keeping into account that the reader shouldn't have much difficulty going through the matter.. I mean the column size, number of words per line are restricted to just 8-10. But in a normal CAT RC, u'll find atleast 17-20 words per line. This requires practice for the eyes to get tuned.. The soln is to read "BIG" books where the number of words per line are not limited to 10-12 words..
Coming to the verbal part.. Practise is the only word I have.. Go through the type of qs which have come in CAT in the previous yrs.. u'll see a pattern been followed.. try and practise subsequently on those lines..

Answer to 3) An ideal preparation will be to complete the basics by May end. Go for some section tests to analyse ur preparations. Identify ur strengths /weaknesses.. work towards different strategies/appraches to tackle a problem. By july-august start writing mocks and analyse them more and more.. no mock should go to the dustbin after the test.. Even though u perform very well with the mocks.. remember.. every Mock will have something which we could all learn. It's a very practical concept.. has it ever happened that we have written a mock and have got all the answers correct ? I guess not.. we commit mistakes in every Mock.. and its important to identify the mistakes and work towards it.. so that we don't commit the same type of mistakes again and again..

peace,

pow!

[panchya]

Hey man anupam
that was a great reply. informative and very complete. thanks indeed.
i have got all the ims material. should i get cf and cl material xeroxed . will it really help....?

[anupam will return]

hi,

While IMS is famous for its VA/RC , CL will be good for its quants...
Do go through some of CL's last years Mocks.. especially the quants section..
I have no idea about CF .. maybe someone'll throw some light on CF too..
comin to DI.. I still hold the view that last few years CAT papers (1999 onwards, especially CAT2000,2003(retest),2004)..contain the best DI caselets..
Take time interpreting each and every caselet.. and spend considerable amount of time to master all the types of questions.. this shud do u good ..

peace..

Anupam..

[Govi]

Hey great to see some really good posts. Lotsa good points have already been mentioned and Anupam that was nice informative post Probably you can add in more in the next meet

Well for me, right now its" strengthen the foundation" kindsa focus. As has been said on this thread and many others that RC and DI are the two legs that will take you to an IIM. Last CAT didnt take it that seriously but a rigorous analysis on all aspects of what it meant, cleared even the minutest of doubt left in my brains.

For RC's this method seems to be working - Well nothing new to mention as most of the inst do use the same method. The BRMs and the practice exercise have sufficient number of RC's covering topics on diff subjects. I collected the material from some inst viz TIME IMS etc and grouped the RCs subject wise (thanks to the suggestion from Anupam) Broadly speaking Economics, Philosophy, Art, Literature, Science, Metaphysics, Political, Social etc I have started practising on these sets, have applied the same rule as we use for RCs noting down the length of the passage,time taken to read it, writing its summary and a punch line which conveys the gist of the entire passage. I randomly select topics everyday and try to do it as religiously as possible. The analysis of questions that follow has also helped me to hone my approach and identify with the writer's way of thinking

The method may not be new but its implications are certainly very beneficial atleast in the long run. To summarise would like to add in my take on its benefits

- a familiarity level with different levels of subjects helping you find subjects of your interest. This further has developed my interest in the not so interesting subjects like abstruse philosophy and metaphysics I can now find the gist of the passage and the important parts where possible answers could be found and what possibly the writer thoughts would be. Still working on this part but most of the time especially solving the inferential ques I have improved on my correct ans..... Hope that sufficient practice could refine my thinking here

- The part which some guys here had suggested that newspaper and magazine reading is faster cos they are meant to be read fast. You are presented with a custom made fixation length and unfortunately CAT passages tend to have 17-20words in a line. For the seasoned reader this may not be much of a problem, but for the not so good one's its certainly a difficult time. One method suggested was to read books that have such a set-up, but for working guys its not that easy. Here I dont mean that one should not read books Ofcourse its important but from CAT perspective I find it a better approach. Getting in the habit of solving such type of RC's unconsciously moulds you to increase your eye fixation length.

Well me still in that process so wrote whatever i have observed till now. Suggestions are welcome

thats it with RC Will try n post more about this as it evolves and DI will follow later

Keep the information flowing

Ciao

Govi...........

[anupam will return]

Hi,

That was a wonderful post by Govi..

Coming to RC yet again.. some points which I wud like to add on what govi said :

a)Every CAt passage till date has some easy and some difficult questions .. People who don't consider RC as their strength should focus only on attempting the easier ones.. by easy questions I mean the direct questions.. ofcourse now a days, we find that the most of the questions are inference type.. but again.. in every passage u'll find some 2-3 odd questions which can be tackled easily.

b)It's important to set time limits for doing a particular RC and stick to it..ideally an RC should take us 6-7 mins.. anything more than this .. either we are wasting time fiddling with a difficult question else.. our familiarity with that particluar topic is limited. Either way u loose the battle.. Setting time limits will ensure that additional pressure doesn't mount on you and u'll also be able to spot the right questions and crack them in the given time limit. Ofcourse, this requires practise.. but then as Govi had rightly said.. once the familiarity "thing" has been dealt with , the next stage beccomes slightly easy. .

c)Try to attempt all the RCs.. this will happen only if u set time limits for the RCs.

Another very important question which we al ponder on is.. "When to attempt the RCs ?"
Somecoaching instts insist that RC shud be attempted in the first 30-40 mins when the mind is fresh and the concentration levels are high.. Some suggest that attempting RCs at the end is often considered as bad.. as the "fatigue" factor comes in..
One method which I sometimes followed in last year's mocks was to attempt say 2 Rcs in the first 35-40 mins and then tackle another 1-1.5 RCs after u are through with 2 sections..Don know whether this'll really help.. but nothing wrong in trying it..

do lemme know ur views on it...

cheers