Please share your thoughts on QQAD

[amit_adobe]

Aarav/Vineet, most of us agree that QQAD problems are tougher than CAT problems - I think you guys need to be smart here, mix toughies with easier ones' and with some outrageously smart problems like 1-1/n < x < 3+1/n that appeared a sitter but fumbled one and all in the dicussions thread last year.
I was very satisfied with the sectional tests last year - surprisingly no one has talked about that here.

[theGreenScar]

bhailog, my reasons for not reducing the QQAD level:

1. It is a very good way to ponder over maths. If you are really keen on solving a problem, you tend to think it from all angles and finally, you reach a stage wherein you come to acceptable conclusions about the problem. So its the approach to the problem that matters not the final solution itself.

2. the point of the entire exercise is to make you aware of simultaneously different ways to solve the same problem. just like it is in real life. so lets keep the thread tough and keep rocking.

cheers,
TGS.

PS: lets debate this, its a relevant topic for all Puys.

[siddhesh_j]

Originally Posted by Aarav

For the starters, Quant Question a Day was started in Feb 2006 and as the name suggests - was primarily 1 quant question a day, though we kept it dynamic for short durations with even 3 problems in a day. The 1st edition went on till November 1s week and in all 264 questions were delivered along with 2 sectional tests.

The 2nd edition of QQAD started in April 2007 - the format was same as that in 2006, but some additional sectional tests were also delivered. We ran a mini survey last year to know what users think about QQAD's problems and not surprisingly more than 60% rated the problems as tougher than CAT quant questions. 2% found QQAD as child's play.

We would love to start QQAD's 3rd edition but this exercise should have good reasons and motivation.

For starters I participated in the QQAD first edition ...' Last yr's QQAD was too tough'- was the feedback I got from some ppl with whom I was in touch with- 'it was prolly for Olympiad ppl' ...another example ... I myself was looking at QQAD 2k7 for a few days in july-aug 2k7 and trust me, even the great 'warrior' used to take 10 mins to crack QQAD- whenever we tried looking at those qns at our hostels in Joka. And solving such a qns for a cat-asp who isnt warrior-esque or for tht matter aarav-esque or vineet-esque makes no sense ... Looking at all QQAD qns in CAT wud hv made me leave those qns and go for easier ones in CAT... I dont want to do a PHD in Math but want to learn enough to get a 97+ in QA in least time possible and acc to me QQAD 2007 didnt satisfy tht objective ... aarav- some food for thought there...

(1) We have no concrete proof of the fact if QQAD did really help puys score more marks in quant CAT. A good number of QQADites made to IIMs in 2006 and have calls in 2007, but we never ran any statistical test for the Assertion : &quot;Did QQAD help them score 99.XX?&quot;

QQAD 2006 sure did help me ... but I had some of my own theories abt CAT QA which the purists wont agree upon so I better not comment on it ... To give a jist of my theories - No CAT QA qn shud be attempted for more than 100 secs...

(2) Do people see us as just another time-pass product or have faith in QQAD's methodology to teach and benefit aspirants?
(3) Is the existing format good enough to be carried forward or you want some changes in the teaching methods?

for (2) qqad is too premium a product , particularly qqad 2k7 ....for (3) Give ppl qns tht can be solved normally in 180 secs and teach ppl how to do those in 100 secs.. teach them elimination of options ... by the time CAT 2k6 arrived, I had reached a stage where I could instinctively eliminate atleast 1 if not 2 options just by looking at the qn ... Not very recommended but it saved me time, a lot of time...the concept of Time as a resource requires more attention when it comes to CAT... thts what will give the asps a cutting edge NOTE: I am not promoting TIME-the class here... just TIME-the common noun which isnt an acronym

(4) We are terribly short of the bandwidth. Would be great if a known credible face of PaGalGuy.com wants to join QQAD team.

(1), (2), (3) can be answered by people who have experienced QQAD in previous years. We would love to hear from them.

The people who have just joined the forum are best suited to answer (3)

(4) - I know many brilliant quant students here - but are they willing to venture into this?
If someone wants to and is unsure himself/herself about what is there in this for him/her - then please avoid exploring.

My 4 years stay on PG.com tells me, Quant section is the least frequented one here - and yet it's the most beneficial one if % of result produced Vs time spend is to be computed.

Please share your thoughts on this - you answers will help many.

no comments But I personally am not qualified to be called a quantasaurus, let alone quantasaurus, not even a quant-mouse if ever there was one ... I was just a student who found ways around the ppr and carved decent percentiles and nothing more ...

[gvi.shekar]

Originally Posted by Aarav

Sir, we would want to start it ASAP, but have lot of things to manage before that. I will be very frank here - chances of going forward with QQAD 3 is 50% right now, and if it has to start it will be in April end or May 1st week only.

Aaravji
Please dont stop QQAD. Ain't it the hallmark of a teacher, that, even if there is only one student keen to learn, the teacher will contnue teaching ?
Maybe, the objective of making all who participate secure 99+ in quant is not being acheived. But instead of stopping QQAD altogether can it not be considered that, maybe, the objective is in itself a bit difficult if not fairly unrealistic.

People will still ignore QQAD, but at the same time scores others will be following QQAD religiously. Maybe a person with 50%ile in '07 Quant will score 90%ile in '08 Quant because of this thread. Aint that more satisfying than all the ppl scoring 99+?

Please Aaravji, do not stop QQAD...pls look at the glass as half full...

[Aarav]

Originally Posted by gvi.shekar

Aaravji
Please dont stop QQAD. Ain't it the hallmark of a teacher, that, even if there is only one student keen to learn, the teacher will contnue teaching ?
Maybe, the objective of making all who participate secure 99+ in quant is not being acheived. But instead of stopping QQAD altogether can it not be considered that, maybe, the objective is in itself a bit difficult if not fairly unrealistic.

People will still ignore QQAD, but at the same time scores others will be following QQAD religiously. Maybe a person with 50%ile in '07 Quant will score 90%ile in '08 Quant because of this thread. Aint that more satisfying than all the ppl scoring 99+?

Please Aaravji, do not stop QQAD...pls look at the glass as half full...

When I say the chances are 50% then it's primarily because we are short of bandwidth to produce 400 quality questions (150 for NL and 250 for sectional tests). I'm 150% loaded with work in my existing assignment and I'm not sure about Vineet's discipline this year.
As I understand from the feedback so far - QQAD should move to street smart questions (inducing error yet easy) rather than too much funda questions - the amount of effort to successfully complete QQAD 3 will only be more than previous 2 editions and not any lesser.

Not saying there isn't a road ahead - there is - 24 hours is a long time in a day for someone like me who is getting a chance to be in action with a subject that I love. But having carried this product for 2 years, I just wanted to share the effort/division of problems designing part with people who have flair for Quant and teaching, while I am able to strategise and execute on how best aspirants can benefit from QQAD.

[implex]

I am new entrant to this race for cat, but I have gone through the QQAD questions posted in the forum, and truly speaking they are good! I dont know what people believe and how do they tackle exams, but i like it this way, doing 10 good problems which stress on concepts, open thinking and awareness rather than routine samples from here and there.

I will urge you guys to give QQAD some more life and give us juniors to be part of this wonderful experience

well for the format question, I believe its quite good, one good problem a day

Thanks
Rahul

[gvi.shekar]

Originally Posted by Aarav

When I say the chances are 50% then it's primarily because we are short of bandwidth to produce 400 quality questions (150 for NL and 250 for sectional tests). I'm 150% loaded with work in my existing assignment and I'm not sure about Vineet's discipline this year.
As I understand from the feedback so far - QQAD should move to street smart questions (inducing error yet easy) rather than too much funda questions - the amount of effort to successfully complete QQAD 3 will only be more than previous 2 editions and not any lesser.
.

Reading the above, I also feel QQAD 3 is very difficult...

There are a few quant-whiz in the cat 08 thread, maybe we can rope them in.
Even if not QQAD, Quant Concept A week will also be helpful...

If concepts are clear, then I guess 80% of the works done...

[Aarav]

Originally Posted by implex

I am new entrant to this race for cat, but I have gone through the QQAD questions posted in the forum, and truly speaking they are good! I dont know what people believe and how do they tackle exams, but i like it this way, doing 10 good problems which stress on concepts, open thinking and awareness rather than routine samples from here and there.

Exactly my point - if some people don't want to learn hard way and scrap through fluke then I can't help. After all it's just 1 question in a day - if you solve that in 2 minutes - QQAD will be a FLOP (not that we are claiming great victories right now). At the same time we DON'T want you to struggle for 30 minutes daily in a useless excercise and reach nowhere.

I don't really feel CAT questions are any smarter as pointed by Monil - ask any good student of Mathematics and he/she will laugh at the quality of CAT quant problems. They just score on pressure aspect - the paper in itself is rubbish (without any aim to correctly test the candidate and completely at the whims and fancies of paper-setters), it's the competition that makes monster out of CAT.

Let's for a moment assume QQAD questions have been olympiad stuff and some gods take 10 minutes each to solve each problem. My question to them is - doesn't at the end of the day make them more learned? If you want 100 seconds questions on QQAD, why do you need to be here - you can get these from a book next shop. Please don't tell me that solving 200 100 second problems make you much better to handle an exam than solving 200 hardcore conceptual problems.

With such a widespread criticism, it makes sense to reduce the level of QQAD problems - though I'm not convinced about its efficacy.

[implex]

@ aarav
well I dont think it will serve that much purpose by reducing the levels as such, because level of difficulty is a very subjective thing, and when we look at the background of various students, most of them fear quant, and if you reduce or not they will still find it difficult.

Given conscious effort and sufficient time, one should be able to do quant problems,
QQAD is a right approach towards that goal.

[reachmonil]

Originally Posted by Aarav

Exactly my point - if some people don't want to learn hard way and scrap through fluke then I can't help. After all it's just 1 question in a day - if you solve that in 2 minutes - QQAD will be a FLOP (not that we are claiming great victories right now). At the same time we DON'T want you to struggle for 30 minutes daily in a useless excercise and reach nowhere.

I don't really feel CAT questions are any smarter as pointed by Monil - ask any good student of Mathematics and he/she will laugh at the quality of CAT quant problems. They just score on pressure aspect - the paper in itself is rubbish (without any aim to correctly test the candidate and completely at the whims and fancies of paper-setters), it's the competition that makes monster out of CAT.

Let's for a moment assume QQAD questions have been olympiad stuff and some gods take 10 minutes each to solve each problem. My question to them is - doesn't at the end of the day make them more learned? If you want 100 seconds questions on QQAD, why do you need to be here - you can get these from a book next shop. Please don't tell me that solving 200 100 second problems make you much better to handle an exam than solving 200 hardcore conceptual problems.

With such a widespread criticism, it makes sense to reduce the level of QQAD problems - though I'm not convinced about its efficacy.

Solving a question a day, so has to be a little tough, certainly not a sitter. Agreed. Period. After going through the solution, it should induce a feeling of Eureka! Ah, so simple, I couldn't get this!

But, this is not what happens many times after seeing the solution. Atleast that is what I feel. I am still lost. I still consider that I haven't understood is well enough I can solve any similar problem that I may come across in the future. I still have to browse through the QQAD discussion thread looking for a simpler sounding and elaborated solution. I would do it and have done so because I love maths per say. But, students are left in awe and fear coming back to QQAD. I am sure this is not the purpose. This is what I feel should be addressed. Now, only two possibilities could lead to the same, questions are tough or answers not lucid. If it is the latter, then a detailed solution including the concept / theorem can be used so people really understand it well from the basic concept to the application in the stated problem. But if former is the case, then something needs to be thought of at the drafting table.