CAT 2015 Notification - How does it change preparation plan?

CAT 2015 notification is out. First up, let us get the facts

1. Exam on one day, on Nov 29th.
2. Time-limit now 180 mins ( from 170 minutes previously). Time limit in 3 tight compartments, one hour each for three sections, QA, DI-LR and Verbal. 34 questions each in Quant and Verbal, 32 in DI-LR
3. Some questions may not be of Multiple-Choice type.
4. Onscreen calculator will be allowed for computation.

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose -  The more things change, the more they stay the same
This is not an overhaul. What they test, how long they test it for, roughly when the test happens, and most parts of the format are same as last year's. Notwithstanding what all the "Guru"s and gyaan websites will tell you, the changes are fairly cosmetic in nature. The change to have some questions as non MCQ is also minor. This will not change the approach to the paper or the preparation plan one bit. A great many of the small tweaks have made the test better.

Counter-intuitively, time allotted per section being fixed might make the exam easier to navigate
Now, effectively CAT becomes three one-hour tests  rather than one long test. It appears that some freedom has been taken away from students. However, the freedom to shift time from one section to another was very often something that complicated rather than simplified things. Students jumped sections too many times, started fretting about section cut-offs, strived needlessly to achieve 'balance', and too often just ended up wasting time in the exam hall. Now that this freedom of time-shifting has been taken off, you need to just think of this as three exams in 3 hours. So, forget about section cut-offs and attack this paper with a sense of relief.

Computational pressure being taken off is a joy
The on-screen calculator is a boon. No two ways about it. CAT was never about multiplying or dividing numbers quickly, or about doing 13.8% of 98.4 in 20 seconds. But students never got it, and unfortunately coaching institutes could never tire of peddling short-cuts. Now, this myth has been removed. Learn from the basics, forget Vedic Math. Short-cut nonsense has already made many people sacrifice fundamentals. Perhaps this will help us refocus.

Reading becomes even more important
Previous avatars of CAT gave a student the luxury of 'hiding' in LR. Of planning to attempt 14-15 questions in LR, only one RC passage, 8-10 other questions in the mixed bag bundle and hope to get 99th percentile in the verbal section. Now, that LR has been bundled off as a separate section, there is a huge risk in ignoring RC. The sentence correction, sentence rearrangement, sentence elimination etc are also heavily dependent on comfort levels with reading. So, shed that reluctance to read, select novels, magazines, newspapers, websites and read away.

Exam has neither been made easy for engineers, nor has it become tougher.
Every input from the IIMs is interpreted these days in terms of "What does it do the engineers". Some one somewhere is going to say that online calculators' presence and the divvying up of sections has made the game tougher for engineers. This is humbug. Similarly, someone is going to say allotting only one hour for Quant is going to make it tougher for non-engineers. This is also humbug. CAT tests students aptitude. CAT does not test aptitude as defined by aptitude for engineers and non-engineers separately.

Preparation plan remains same. Mock CAT strategies will have to be tweaked a little bit
Quant, verbal, DI and LR are tested in a competitive exam that is objective and conducted across the Country. This is how CAT could have been described in 1990, 2000, 2010 or 2015. So, prepare from basics, do the drill and fine-tune with mock CATs. The only difference between 2010 or now is that one can sit at home and have access to the best CAT preparation thanks to the Internet. Apart from this, very little has changed.

CAT Preparation - What do teachers expect from students?

As a teacher, I meet gazillion students every year, and am often amazed at how confident they are now compared to how we guys were 15 years ago. Having said that, going hand in hand with this confidence is a feeling of entitlement that is as puzzling as it is unwarranted. Students these days believe things have to be laid out for them on a platter and that they have to be "inspired" and "guided" to do even the bare minimum.

During this time, we have also seen reams and reams in print on how the education system should change to help students. In all this while, I think we have not clearly articulated what the students are expected to do. Ergo, this post.

Do the drill. 
This "replace hard work with smart work" management-speak has taken students to a point where they do not appreciate the old-fashioned drill. Doing 150 questions on quadratic equations creates links in your brain that are worth their weight in gold when you are practicing for a competitive exam. It is not just the speed that you gain, it is the role played by the automaticity that is priceless. You save energy on the regular stuff and this blesses you with more bandwidth for the trickier bits.

I hate to be this old man narrating his experiences, but I think my experience might be relevant here. A group of my friends and I were preparing for CAT in 2000. We had all cleared JEE barely three years before that (back when JEE was a tough exam) and dealt with Fourier and Laplace transformations as part of our course curriculum. A bunch of the guys had done well in assorted Olympiads and as a group, we were ultra comfortable with math,

Largely because our seniors had given us some material for CAT preparation, we started with some speed-test book. We started with percentages and within 5-6 questions realized that the material was largely BS packaged as genius content (a tactic still followed by the industry) . We still powered through and did all 50 questions in that topic and knocked off topic by topic over the next 2 weeks, practically just for the heck of it. The material did not really push us, but we gave it a go chiefly for the sake of "completion". Now, 15 years later, if you ask me to find 42% of 707, I would think of it as slightly less than 3/7th of the number and guess in the ball park of 300. All because I did gazillion questions rather unscientifically 15 years ago.

Powering through is very instructive. Do not underestimate this. I hate it when students say they get "tired" after doing 4 sets of Data Interpretation. That is just nonsense. The idea of finishing something off, solving ALL possible questions, etc have become old-fashioned notions. Getting questions under the belt can change the dynamic in unforeseen ways.

Retain humility (for some students this should read as "acquire humility")
A simple requirement for learning anything new is to have some humility towards what you are learning. These days I see some students get so cocky by the time they reach level of difficulty of 7 that the brain shuts down for levels of difficulty 8, 9 and 10. Respecting the content also might enable to get some joie de vivre during the preparation process. This again is vital for competitive exams; else the pressure will drag you down.

My colleague, K.S. Baskar has been training students for nearly 20 years and took his CAT nearly 25 years ago. If you handed an interesting question to him today that left him stumped, it would immediately put a smile on his face. Purely out of the joy of having learnt something new. Its a shame that many students do not even get to see this feeling of joy.

Note that I asked for students to respect the content, and not necessarily the teacher. Contrary to popular perception, teachers do not yearn for gratitude or thirst for approval from students. If you learn well and have a great learning attitude most teachers wont care whether you are grateful to them. Or whether you hold them in high esteem.

Dont fret about the imponderables
I am going to start this bit with a personal warning. The next student who asks me "I have scored 75% in 10th, 62% in 12th standard and 65% in undergraduation, what are my chances of getting into IIM-A?" risks serious physical injury.

To get into IIMA is incredibly difficult. Someone who has been mediocre throughout has even less chance than someone who has been exceptional so far. So, if you have a middling record, your chances are low. It is understandable that you think you are way more capable than what your past record suggests. It is also unlikely that IIMA will share this blinkered view. The simplest and most fool-proof way to bring them around is to get a good CAT score. So, work on that.

So, if your track record is sad, you should have a simple rule - Start waffling after getting a decent CAT score.

I had a rather unremarkable CGPA in my undergraduation. Unremarkable enough for me to fret about admissions into the IIMs. I felt so apologetic about this that I avoided mentioning this. I was so afraid of defending my poor record that I dreaded going to the interviews because of this. These days, students talk about a poor record as if they had nothing to do with it.

The poor marks in 10th standard and 12th standard are because you goofed off. Not because of anything else. Dont expect someone to say "You are good in spite of this". You might be. If you want the world  to believe it, prove it.

Dont sit around waiting for a great preparation plan, or worse, for inspiration.
Before you think about having a grand preparation plan that is a ten-step ride through to IIM-dom, actually consider some preparation. Print the following statement and stick it on your bedroom

"An hour of preparation is worth 12 hours of preparation planning". 

Too many students waffle about having a grand plan and start dreaming too early about going places. If half the time spent on early-stage planning were replaced with actual preparation, it would be brilliant. You should not require someone to say "There is a genius waiting inside you" to solve 25 questions in algebra.

And lastly, own your preparation.
Have a simple preparation plan, and execute this well. Do not outsource your preparation entirely. See where you stand periodically, and set ambitious targets for the amount of effort you put in. The result will follow (it always does).

I realize that I risk coming off as a cantankerous old man hankering after good-ol' times. If it were not already clear, we teachers do not really care that much about what students think of us. I think I speak for all teachers when I say "We are here to put hajaar fight for you. But as the old saying goes, one can only take the horse to the pond."

CAT 2014 Notification: What does this mean?

CAT 2014 notification is out .

First up, let us review the facts

Time duration: 170 minutes instead of 140 minutes
Number of questions: 50 per section, instead of 30 per section previously
Dates: Nov 16th and Nov 22nd, two sessions per day, instead of 40 sessions in the previous avatar
Change in pattern: Candidates can shift from one section to another, the time limit is 170 minutes for the overall paper. Previously, we used to have 70 minutes per section. Now, the time limits are not in silos and one can choose to spend unequal amounts of time on each section.

Thankfully, the IIMs have chosen to clarify why they are doing these changes. All these changes have been done to make the exam "aspirant-friendly". They might have changed the format dramatically, it is reassuring to know that the IIMs have at least retained their sense of humour.

How does this change preparation strategy for individual sections?
The study plan remains the same. The syllabus, framework remain the same. Practice the basics, build intensity and take lot of tests in the end. Do not pontificate too much on why these changes have been made. Be happy that the test has been made more aspirant-friendly, and continue preparation with the warm glow that comes from knowing someone is looking out for you.

How does it change the plan for CAT?
1. Stamina matters: Taking an exam for 170 minutes is tough. This is not a college exam that can be taken even with "day-dream spells" in the middle. This is an intense exam. The extra half hour can be sapping. I have been taking CAT in the past few years purely for the experience (the implication being that the pressure is less). I get drained out completely by the end of the 140 minutes. I am so tired that I can barely drive back home. An extra 30 minutes is going to kill applicants who do not have stamina. So, start building intensity and stamina from now on.

2. Time management needs to be better: Given the freedom to shift from one section to another, students might flit from one section to another too many times and kill momentum in both. Have a plan that broadly allocates time across the two sections, and have one buffer for going for playing it safe in case you are worrying about section cut-off. Do not plan to shift from section I to II once every 10 minutes. Just because the freedom has been given , it does not mean one has to use it. Till 2009, CAT gave students the freedom of shifting from one section to another. Those of us who have taken CATs in both forms will tell you that this freedom of shifting from one section to another is a double-edged sword. I used to consistently "steal"  a few minutes from quant and use this for verbal. This did not help my overall performance much. My best results came when this freedom was taken away from students. The pressure of worrying about section cut-offs sometime takes something away from the performance. So, be careful with this new found time-management freedom.

3. Students with one strong suit and one weak suit will have a small advantage: A student who is frightfully good in quant and just about average in verbal can now spend 95 minutes on verbal and 75 on quant and "balance" things out. Because this option is now available, students with sharp variance between the two sections can now plan with this in mind. Just a word of caution though, trying to be too cute can come back to bite you in this exam. Plan to have mild tweaks, avoid major overhauls.

Obviously, you will have to take a few mock CATs to get used to the new pattern. As always, the best place for getting the newer version of mock CATs is 2IIM.

Best wishes for CAT 2014.

Three step process for CAT Quant preparation

The below is an extract from the article published on MBA Universe that can be found here

For each topic in Quant section, you must break the process into three steps - 

 1. Learn the theory from first principles: Make a conscious effort to learn theory from basic ideas. We have a tendency to ‘jump’ steps when we get familiar with a topic. Resist the temptation to use plug-and-play formulae and learn the theory with an open mind. Let me illustrate this with a simple example – 

Consider a class of 40 students with an average score of 60 marks. Two students leave this class and the average mark increases by ‘x’. If no student can take a negative mark, and x is a positive integer, how many values can the average of the two students take? One can write equations and solve this. However, someone who has learnt from basic ideas will follow a more intuitive approach.

Let us look at this approach. Let us start with a simple case where the average does not change when these two students leave the class. In this case, the two students should have scored 120 marks overall (average of 60). Now, since the average has increased, these two together should have scored less than 120.

If the average increases by 1, then they should have scored 38 marks less than 120. If average increases by 1, total should have increased by 38, or the two that left the class should have ‘taken out’ 38 less than 120. So, if they had scored 120 – 38 = 82, the average would have fallen by 1.

If they had scored 120 - 38 x 2 = 44, average would fall by 2. If they had scored 120 – 38 x 3 = 6, average would have fallen by 3. Three different possibilities exist. The intuitive method scores over the formulaic method in questions like these. It is very important to retain the more intuitive approach and not get consumed by the algebra .........more

Common traps to avoid in the Quant section

For most candidates, Quantitative Aptitude is probably the most challenging section to crack in the CAT.  During your preparation, or at least during your full length test-practise stage, you would have developed an idea of what your strongest and weakest areas are (if you haven't, do it at the earliest! It is important to know your strengths as well as your weaknesses.).

The reasons why Quant can be the toughest nut to crack are varied. Most students have a sufficiently good grasp of fundamentals. But, when a challenging question presents itself, they are all at sea. Most students also have a problem with time management. Some would have lost touch with Quant basics after high school. Some don't have the raw speed of formulation and calculation that most “math whizzes” take for granted. Whatever be your tale of woe, remember that that whole point of the CAT preparation exercise is to understand what your weakness is, and work towards improving it.

In the following pages, a few common traps and pitfalls are detailed. Beware of these on the day of the exam. But don't fall into the trap of assuming that these tips have only to be glanced over once before exam day. You may need to go through these in the test practise stage (and possibly even during the preparation stage), so that you can identify and rectify your “favourite” mistake area.

Common pitfalls in the Quant section

1. Problem vs You

The test makers of CAT are experienced in the art of mixing up easy and difficult questions. When you take the CAT, you will find that there are a few absolutely easy questions that you could have solved when you were in 7^th standard. You will also find questions that are extremely tough. This is not done to identify and select the math majors! The reason there is a mixture of questions of varying levels of difficulty is that it reflects real life situations. But, given that you have a deadline, you have to pick and target the lowest hanging fruits.

The CAT will definitely contain difficult problems, and there are good chances that you might start solving them and get stuck somewhere, only to realise eight minutes or so later that you aren't making any headway. So what should you do? Leave it right there and move on to the next question. But what do you do instead? Spend another three minutes just to try to solve the problem and show it who the boss is!

This is probably the most common trap – getting into a literal “fight” with the problem, where solving one problem becomes more important than getting a good sectional score overall. This is a definite way of losing good time that can be employed productively elsewhere.

So how do you avoid this trap? First of all, be aware of it when it happens. When you realise that you have spent more than reasonable time on a question and you are still nowhere close to finding an answer, it is time to consider moving on. How do you know that you are falling into this trap? 

Here are some indicators that might help you decide:

• Your equations begin to get bigger and uglier
• You have filled up half the rough-sheet and have made no real progress
• None of the answer substitution or elimination tricks appears to work
• You go back to reading the question several times
• You see the clock ticking, and you realise that you still haven't even attempted a majority of the section.
• Most of all, you have spent five minutes on this question already and you are still where you started.

What do you do in such a situation? Do you panic and give up? Doing so is going to give you a sense of failure, which will not only affect the rest of your Quant section, but also likely spill over into the Verbal section. At the same time, you can't continue spending time on the same question.

The best way to deal with this situation is to not let it arise in the first place. Make sure that you pick the easy questions first and dispatch them. Then, move on to the marked questions which you think can be solved with some effort. Finally, only when every easy or medium-difficult question is attempted, should you even consider taking up questions from areas you are not comfortable with. 

Remain calm throughout the section.

If you do find yourself in such a situation, identify early when to give up and move on to the next question. Your ego might hurt a bit, but it is definitely not worse than leaving questions unattempted towards the end.

2. Knowing a formula is not the same as Understanding a concept

A lot of students, especially in the later stages of preparation, say that they know all concepts very well, but when it comes to solving problems, they get stuck in the question interpretation or the formulation stage. For example, you “know” what the modulus of a number is. You have read and memorised all the definitions, and you even remember the textbook example well. You also know how to solve each equation type, and yet when you see an equation such as the following one, you get stumped:

|2x – 5| > 2

Now, ask yourself this: If you know all the formulae, theorems and definitions in a particular topic, does it mean that you really “understand” the topic? “Understanding” doesn't mean being able to reproduce or replicate a stated theorem or a solved example. You understand a concept when you are able to visualise it and, and then use your creativity to formulate and obtain a non-mathematical model of something as “dry” as a modulus equation, for example. In this instant case,  |a – b| would mean the distance from the point “a” to the point “b” on the number line. So the distance from the point “2x” and the point “5” is more than 2 units. Or, “2x” is either greater than 7, or less than 3. Aim to achieve a good visual parallel for as many concepts as possible. This not only saves time in solutions, but also gives you clarity of thought.

This is a trap students often fall into. Math problems on the CAT test more than your memory. They test how well you can adapt to situations, and apply simple concepts in complex problems. Be aware of this from an early stage in preparation. Spend more time on the basics. If you have trouble understanding a concept at first, reflect on it till it makes sense. This is more important than solving a dozen questions based just on formula application.

3. Poor time management

Another trap that most test takers fall into is lack of proper time management. Given that there are only 30 questions in a section, and more than two lakh students write the CAT, the difference between an extremely high and a low percentile could be a matter of just one question. You need to make sure that you have at least seen and attempted all the questions in each section, lest you should leave out easy questions towards the end. This calls for a lot of practise. Do as many full length practise tests as possible, and get used to the rigour of a full-length test. You need to sustain your concentration for the entire duration of the test, and you need to have the endurance to finish the test with almost the same energy and alertness as when you started.

Do not leave too many questions to the end. Doing so will only make you more nervous, and you may lose out on some really easy questions.

4. Improper reading of the question

Sometimes you solve an entire question correctly only to find out that you had made a mistake in reading the question. Even though you did everything right, your answer was wrong. Such errors in reading or interpretation show a lack of focus in the early part of solution.

• You may have to slow down while reading the question, and maybe even read it twice to understand it completely. Do not try to save time in this stage!
• Pay special attention to words and phrases in the question whose incorrect interpretation may change the answer drastically. Some examples of such words are:

◦     Distinct, Integer, Positive / Negative / Non-negative, At least / At most, Odds in favour / Odds against, Some / All, And / Or, Not less than / Never greater than

• Also after solving the question, you can verify your answer by re-checking it with the scenario presented in the question. You may not always have time during the test to double-check every solution, but if you have a serious doubt, you can always exercise this option.
• After getting the answer, read the question again because it may ask you to process the solution before arriving at the answer. For example, you may have solved an equation for x, but the question may ask you to find the value of x + 10. Re-read the question to be sure.

6. Silly errors

This is probably the most frustrating of them all. Everything about your solution was correct, except  that you made a silly addition mistake in the final step, and you lost everything because of that. Errors in calculation or solution happen to the best of us, and it is never good when it happens.

Can you improve your accuracy and reduce the number of silly mistakes? Absolutely, yes. Just slow down while solving equations, or be a bit more careful with calculations. Also, practise a lot. Learn the multiplication tables and ratio charts. Do the grind. All that is good enough preparation. But will that help you completely eliminate calculation errors? Unlikely.

Humans are prone to making errors in calculations. You cannot completely eliminate calculation or solution errors. But you can definitely improve your accuracy and reduce the time you take for calculations.

Here is what you can do:

• Find out your strongest and weakest areas. Figure out where you need improvement the most? Is it multiplication tables? Is it quadratic equation solutions?
• Work hard on improving your speed and accuracy in those areas. Keep working on it on a daily basis. You will definitely see an improvement in performance.
• Practise, Practise, Practise.
• On the day of the test, accept that you may still make mistakes. Allow for a margin of error, but be extra careful in areas where you know that you have a proven weakness. If possible, double-check your answers by working backwards from the answer options.

All these things are easier said than done, and it is always easier to rely on hindsight and compile a list than it is to log your errors and rigorously practise on a daily basis. But do remember that whatever your starting point is, you can always, always improve. And whatever be your level of preparation, a bit of caution on the day of the test will definitely pay large dividends.

7.  Build your Eye for detail

Relentlessly train yourself to pick anomalies. If you did not notice, we have jumped from point 4 to point 6 on this list! Every time you let something like this pass you by, make a mental note to look or detail. Just becoming more ‘switched on’ makes a big difference and can be built with practise.

The above article was contributed by Vimal Gopinath, an XIM Bhubaneshwar alumnus who runs 2IIM Bengaluru. The article also features in the CAT Quant book authored by Rajesh Balasubramanian.