Season III - Quant Question A Day CAT 2008

[pavanpadekal]

Originally Posted by jha16june

Hi puys! No need to say that every pus is following the QQAD religiously. But I have a different view on it.
Well solving problems of higher difficulty level does help as far as training of mind is concerned. And I do appreciate the effort being put in by PG team to this end. But what is disheartening is to see many questions being plagiarised. Well if questions alone are being taken will do but solutions too, is something not welcome. There should be some level of ingenuity as far as posting QQAD is concerned. Well I dunno if this post will be taken in right spirit or not. But I do feel that if some questions are being taken from some source, the refernece must be mentioned. And this rule is followed even in IIM's where plagiarism is strictly dealt with.

I believe the questions are not exactly plagiarised. If you observe the question carefully, the question is modified and that makes sense. There is a beautiful question with a beautiful solution , why not learn from it and allow many more people to pick up the finer details? If you feel its plagiarism I must say modifying questions to highlight the finer details is what most top notch lecturers also do in Mathematics.That's the way learning is done.

Well if you insist on quoting the source maybe that can be done.(Ideally in the next day's newsletter as otherwise it would tempt people to see the solution too early and beat the purpose of the question.)

Aarav bhai! No regrets ..Beautiful job. You invest QUITE a bit of time for us.Benefits us tremendously.Nobody's hurt if you modify a question from some place.
Thanks again for a wonderful job Aarav Bhai

[Aarav]

Originally Posted by jha16june

Hi puys! No need to say that every pus is following the QQAD religiously. But I have a different view on it.
Well solving problems of higher difficulty level does help as far as training of mind is concerned. And I do appreciate the effort being put in by PG team to this end. But what is disheartening is to see many questions being plagiarised. Well if questions alone are being taken will do but solutions too, is something not welcome. There should be some level of ingenuity as far as posting QQAD is concerned. Well I dunno if this post will be taken in right spirit or not. But I do feel that if some questions are being taken from some source, the refernece must be mentioned. And this rule is followed even in IIM's where plagiarism is strictly dealt with.

Source is Art of Problem Solving Forum -> I have never kept this as secret. Refer my 1st post when we started QQAD way back in 2006. I keep mentioning this site whenever people ask me to refer good resource base. You may feel a bit heartened to know that I have seen at least dozen CAT problem plagiarized from this source and a XAT 2008 problem also. Bottom line is -> we are here for good learning, ingenuity or not -> at least I am devoting 2 hours daily to search that forum and filter out good problems for you. As far as the solution is concerned, the best is presented (based on my judgment, a 99.99 quant percentiler in CAT if I may say this with some hubirism).

And you may be glad to know that less than 40% of the problems in QQAD is from the source I have mentioned above -> there is lot of brain work involved in creating fresh problems (30% in QQAD) and I do it regularly. The rest are again plagiarized and moulded as CAT problems from numerous sources, but I don't see any harm in that. If there is someone, he/she may chose to skip QQAD (on ethical grounds or any other compulsion).

Suggestions/Views are again welcome

[implex]

Originally Posted by Aarav

Source is Art of Problem Solving Forum -> I have never kept this as secret. Refer my 1st post when we started QQAD way back in 2006. I keep mentioning this site whenever people ask me to refer good resource base. You may feel a bit heartened to know that I have seen at least dozen CAT problem plagiarized from this source and a XAT 2008 problem also. Bottom line is -> we are here for good learning, ingenuity or not -> at least I am devoting 2 hours daily to search that forum and filter out good problems for you. As far as the solution is concerned, the best is presented (based on my judgment, a 99.99 quant percentiler in CAT if I may say this with some hubirism).

And you may be glad to know that less than 40% of the problems in QQAD is from the source I have mentioned above -> there is lot of brain work involved in creating fresh problems (30% in QQAD) and I do it regularly. The rest are again plagiarized and moulded as CAT problems from numerous sources, but I don't see any harm in that. If there is someone, he/she may chose to skip QQAD (on ethical grounds or any other compulsion).

Suggestions/Views are again welcome

I agree to it, there is nothing wrong in that because in AOPS also, people post the problems they can't solve or they would like others to solve. Most of the problems are taken from various olympiads, contests, magazines etc.

Aarav is doing a tremendous effort.I regularly browse AOPS, help people there and also ask for help. The thing is most of the problems are above CAT, but one has to make them CAT like, I have tried a bit as well, using AOPS and problemcorner.org

The thing with problemcorner is that problems are so varied, it might take you for a spin and you might lose interest, but its like tonic for me, and the problems I feel might help others for cat, I bring them here, and leave the rest there itself or in my rough sheets

Thats my few cents!!

[Aarav]

Originally Posted by jha16june

Hi puys! No need to say that every pus is following the QQAD religiously. But I have a different view on it.
Well solving problems of higher difficulty level does help as far as training of mind is concerned. And I do appreciate the effort being put in by PG team to this end. But what is disheartening is to see many questions being plagiarised. Well if questions alone are being taken will do but solutions too, is something not welcome. There should be some level of ingenuity as far as posting QQAD is concerned. Well I dunno if this post will be taken in right spirit or not. But I do feel that if some questions are being taken from some source, the refernece must be mentioned. And this rule is followed even in IIM's where plagiarism is strictly dealt with.

Did I answer your query or you were looking for something else?

[amit_adobe]

Originally Posted by jha16june

But I do feel that if some questions are being taken from some source, the refernece must be mentioned. And this rule is followed even in IIM's where plagiarism is strictly dealt with.

The whole VA/RC of CAT is being plagiarized from sources available on the internet. This has lead to so much subjectivity in VA/RC lately. Guess, IIMs never mentioned the source in the paper or afterwards. What do you want to convey here?

[jha16june]

Originally Posted by Aarav

Did I answer your query or you were looking for something else?

Yeah it does! I have absolutely no problem on questions being taken from good sources. But official solution, PG team sud pull some thing really distinct from its hat. Well for people who have not seen those solutions at those sources will really feel ashtonished and stunned but for those who have, it appears a farce. Nonetheless keep the good work going.

[Aarav]

Originally Posted by jha16june

Yeah it does! I have absolutely no problem on questions being taken from good sources. But official solution, PG team sud pull some thing really distinct from its hat. Well for people who have not seen those solutions at those sources will really feel ashtonished and stunned but for those who have, it appears a farce. Nonetheless keep the good work going.

Have told you before, the best solution is presented.

And I'm amazed some statements and words like "farce" coming out from someone who is not above these things -> marking 108 as answer for problem #002 when you had solved for 109 is a point in example for that. Who solves the problems for real and who does googling is pretty evident from replies here.

[amit_adobe]

Originally Posted by jha16june

Yeah it does! I have absolutely no problem on questions being taken from good sources. But official solution, PG team sud pull some thing really distinct from its hat. Well for people who have not seen those solutions at those sources will really feel ashtonished and stunned but for those who have, it appears a farce. Nonetheless keep the good work going.

Yaar free mein tujhe achche questions bhi chahiyen, PG ki hat bhi chahiye, wahan se bhi ache solutions chahiyen - jaan le le tu bachche ki

[nbangalorekar]

My views on the plagiarism issue:
as Aarav has already mentioned (n my views too r completely in sync wit his), this shud be looked at more from learning perspective.
but Aarav im not too happy with the point system (i know iv mentioned before). if u just browse thru the posts u will find so many ppl just posting the answers without ne good explanation or nething supporting their answer.
this is just for the sake of a few points.
rather atleast keep points for an answer with a different explanation (if at all we have to keep points). this will encourage ppl to think from different perspectives. n thats wot matters more (i.e. the approach than the answer).
Aarav please do consider this.
sorry if iv been too blunt or sumthing but i feel abt it strongly. coz otherwise qqad wont be as fun as it used to be.

[Aarav]

Originally Posted by nbangalorekar

Aarav im not too happy with the point system (i know iv mentioned before). if u just browse thru the posts u will find so many ppl just posting the answers without ne good explanation or nething supporting their answer.
this is just for the sake of a few points.
rather atleast keep points for an answer with a different explanation (if at all we have to keep points). this will encourage ppl to think from different perspectives. n thats wot matters more (i.e. the approach than the answer).
Aarav please do consider this.
sorry if iv been too blunt or sumthing but i feel abt it strongly. coz otherwise qqad wont be as fun as it used to be.

Giving points is really tough job -> it may not always be possible for people to post a different solution and who is copying (and who is Googling) and who is genuine is something very difficult to decide. Some times the difference is evident and I attempt to ensure the points are distributed fairly. I'm trusting everyone here -> actually has to, because in the end the points here wouldn't fetch them IIM admit.

Let's focus on Learning and everything else will fall in place sooner on later.