With about a month or so to go, the question that junta is asking at this point is not “Do I have it in me to crack CAT?” as much as “Do I have it in me to crack me in crack CAT in a month?” Now let us presume that you present your problem t…
With about a month or so to go, the question that junta is asking at this point is not "Do I have it in me to crack CAT?" as much as "Do I have it in me to crack me in crack CAT in a month?"
Now let us presume that you present your problem to a management consultant like say McKinsey, what would they come up with? Remember they would give you only strategic advice, no actual implementation level micromanagement. Here are a few pointers that could actually turn up in their analysis report:
(1) Don't boil the ocean
Simply put, don't try to do something unimaginably huge (boil the ocean) to bring results that are not proportionate (get salt). This ways you will just cause more anguish when you realize half way through that the latent point of boiling for the ocean is pretty huge. Another way to put it is: Work smart, not hard.
Try to come up with a list of possible tasks for CAT and try figuring out what the amount of effort required to do it is. At the end of it, you can either lessen the effort or cross it out completely. Here is an example. A lot of you may be wondering if it is really wise to "do" the word-list. Go through a realistic run of where you are. This is a good time to go through the kind of words given over the last 4 years (over which CAT has kind of streamlined the questions) and figure if you really need to go through those huge word-lists. Amazingly at the end of the exercise, you might want to do away with it all together, or go through a selective portion just to ramp up your rusted skills. (For example, you might decide to do only the "High Frequency" words from Barron's GRE.)
(2) Pluck the low-hanging fruits first
An important point that many students don't realize at this juncture, due to immense pressure, is that it makes more sense for one to consolidate what he/she knows, rather than make an immature attempt to try learning everything. Do not attempt anything that is difficult. I have seen many students coming to me at the nth moment asking if they should be attempting "Permutation Combination". My simple answer is - If you have not done it in your schooling, if you have not done it in college, if you have not done it through out your CAT prep so far, then the chances that on November 21st the neurons in your brain actually go into a synaptical surge and the answer will plop in front of you are .........well, to be frank - quite bleak! Rather I would strengthen topics I know well - percentages, profit-loss, mensuration etc.
On the flip side, is it wise to be completely ignorant about these topics? The answer is a resounding NO!!!! I strongly suggest you take out some time (a few hours perhaps from an otherwise eventful study schedule) for each of these dreaded topics and figure out which are the formulae and basic types of problem. The test-setters of the more diabolic variety are known to sneak in a few deceptively. Most test-takers are blissfully unaware of this till the coaching institutes print a bold "SITTER" next to that question a day after the CAT and the cutoff seems all the more further away. Better safe than sorry!
(3) Think out of the box
Edward De Bono once famously remarked "An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgments simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore."
Try to ensure that whatever you do from now on is not something that is mechanical or by rote, but something that involves you actively in the process. So take up each problem and try figuring out stuff like - can it work with some variation? How can anyone twist this problem? Is there a simpler way of doing this? How I can design a problem for someone along these lines? etc. etc. In short - try to "internalize" the problem you are solving.
A classic example is the mock CATs you have taken so far. Even for those questions which have helped you inch towards the elusive cut-offs - try to figure which were ill-considered attempts. I have seen many instances in the past when my reason for choosing a correct answer was preposterous to say the least (I have, in good humor and on occasions, picked up answers because, from among others, it "sounded" correct!) and yet managed to get them right. Try to sit and figure if the same problem has a better way of doing it.
(4) Peel the onion
Layer by layer......one thing at a time
Let us presume you have a problem with reading large data in DI. In short, number crunching is not exactly one of your virtues, (normally these are areas you would not touch with a ten-foot pole!), yet is a necessary evil which cannot be avoided (like say P&C;). We need to figure out how best to deal with this.
Take a couple of the mocks you have taken and try figuring out how you have done in it. See what is it that actually stopped you from getting in the top percentile. "I suck at numbers" is an answer which will neither aid your morale nor help you analyze yourself better. Be more objective and tough. Speed? Bad at approximation? The questions were too ambiguous? Whatever the reasons - try making a list of those things. Now instead of racking your brain alone over what can be done for that, speak to someone at your institute. Better still, catch a friend/mentor who has "been there and done that" for his/her insights on what can be done to help bridge this gap. Remember that you may also use the "boiling the ocean" principle here and remove any ideas of indulging in frivolous activities like learning Vedic mathematics at this point.
(5) Pareto's principle
The 80/20 rule. Some of the variations are :
20% of the time goes in doing 80% of the tasks, 20% of the business brings 80% of the revenue,20% of the world controls 80% of the money etc. The point here is: Try to figure which is the 80% that is bringing you the marks and focus on that. I read somewhere what one of the CAT 2003 100%iler had written - he had wanted to maximize on Verbal and tried to get cutoff in quant. And sure he maximized in Verbal with a score of 45 (and just around 17.5 in QA)!! There is no use spending all 1hour in quant and getting 2 marks more than the cutoff and spending 20mins in verbal and get barely get the cutoff.
(6) Parkinson's Law
The law states - "Work expands to fill the time available to do it" I think the scourge of every self-respecting graduate is doing a "night-out" to write that college journal a day before the submission. And we carry this habit with us to the work place too. Just look around you it keeps happening all the time - software project, advertising campaigns, government decisions - you name it! So is it with CAT.
Set yourself challenging schedules and stick to it. Tell yourself you are going to analyze those dreaded mock cats which have been piling on a corner for the last few months. Sounds impossible right? But as the Nike ad says "Just do it!" Even if you are not able to complete it, so be it, at the least you started and finished in a go. Keep challenging yourself; try sneaking out every last minute you have to get something done. Do those distasteful tables when you are having your smoke after lunch. Do those obnoxious RC practices when you are reading the morning newspaper.
And remember you cannot really challenge yourself unless you have a hard target to achieve.
(7) The fish cannot bat and I cannot swim
Words from Boycott could not be truer in the CAT perspective. Realize what your areas of strength and areas of weaknesses are. But still at the end of the day there will be the odd ball "stud" who licks the field clean. So in your approach you would be wise if you remember to steer clear of any ego-issues. Don't try tackling that extra toughie DI problem set which goes into 3rd decimals of approximation or the arcane RC passage on Madhubani paintings just because you are out there trying to prove you too are one. The point in case is that if you were one, you would not have been struggling.
Last year there was this guy in IIT Chennai. He was a math and physics Olympiad with an IIT-JEE AIR of 12. He ended up with a 100%ile (and a score of 103 in CAT 2003!). He went on to join IIM-B. Realize that there are always going to be guys like this. Instead of worrying about them, realize that at the most there are going to be around 100 odd guys like this. Forget about them. Think about the 1100 others who are vying for the same seat as you. And if you are really bothered about such guys, then stock your fridge with some cold beer!
(
Fail to plan then you plan to fail
Put in excruciating detail into the planning/scoping work before you start out. Make sure every waking hour is accounted for. Doesn't mean you have to go overboard and start planning to account for each minute. Rather, a detailed account of how you are going to spend time over the next month. A caveat to the fore-mentioned point. At times we do things just because it was in the original plan. Make sure your plan is flexible. If a week before CAT you figure that doing more practice in RC is going to pay off, so be it!! But make sure you constantly check your plan and ask "Is it the right thing to do?" rather than "Am I doing it correctly?"
(9) Life is what happens when you are busy making plans - John Lennon (1940-1980)
Some words of wisdom that I keep telling myself everyday, CAT or no CAT. "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. "
At the end of the day it is a just an exam. Nothing more. Nothing less. No reason why you should treat it differently. No reason why you should worry more. No reason why you should not think about other things in life. No reason why you should not keep your cool. If you were expecting a list of dos and don'ts I am afraid I might have disappointed you. But this is not meant to serve as one in the first place - the institutes are already doing a pretty good job of that. What I have done is tried summarizing a few points (which I believe are neither mutually exclusive nor collectively exhaustive) to give you a checklist against which you can verify the usefulness of everything that you would be doing from now on.
Arun
best article in pg.com....indeed this was the article which made me registered for pg.com
The Excellent Article That I Ever Read..hats Off To Mr. Arun
a eye opener to CAT aspirants ............. but i would wish tht if u can think so deep abt it y not give nother try 
??:
This was something I had written on a different thread a long time ago. At the cost of being redundant, here goes:
I think at the end of the day it is important to realize that there has to be SOME way to assess intelligence and aptitude in potential managers. The IIMs have chosen CAT to decipher that. There are many pros and cons (which have been beaten to death till now) but the fact remains that the CAT paper wants someone who is very good in English AND Maths. Its hard for a guy who is JUST a quant jock to get high percentiles in Verbal. So to say its biased towards people with good math skills (which has been substituted by the word "engineers" so far in the discussion) is wrong.
But at the same time, the only flaw (as I see it) is the distinct advantage it provides to anyone with good math skills, who has not studied in a vernacular medium has it easy.
Having said that let me tell you that tests to measure intelligence (and intelligence in itself) has been a topic of interest for me. There are as many as 27 different forms of intelligence which has been observed in human beings. Tendulkar can flick a ball over the ropes off a Shoaib Akhthar (the reaction time required is something like 0.6s). You need to be a genius to do that. Beethoven was deaf yet composed some of the greatest pieces of music ever to be heard by the human ear (he could diffrentiate between 1/10th of a note). The kind of aura Rajneesh had around him was supposed to make the most ardent of non-believers spell-bound (he was once listed on the guiness book of world records for having a record 27 limousines - the most for anyone on the planets AND all gifts by his followers). Maradona many followers of the game say, has to be the greatest wizard with the ball and put him even above Pele (his 1986 worldcup goal where he dribbled right up from the 'D' stands testimony to this judgement)
You need to be a genius to do ALL of the above. But would they clear CAT ? So the IIMs figured that you don't need to flick Shoaib for a 6 outside offstump or compose the 9th symphony or give discourses on world-peace and sex to be a manager. You need to know how far the shadow the dad will cast and use basic trigo to solve it. You need to know based on a 2para passage, which of the given options most weaken your assumption about decent of Tsavo lions . You need to know based on a esoteric matrix, who won the second round match against Spain, especially if that team lost the first round match against Argentia. This is what it takes to be a manager is what the IIMs feel.
I for one, disagree. I feel I would have more value-addition in a course where I am surrounded by the Tendulkars, the Beethovens, the Oshos and the Maradonas than the ones who were good at cracking the "aptitude" test.
The point being that, one has to agree to the fact that CAT might not be aligned with what is ones innate strengths. In my case, I think I can never been a number crunching humanoid. I am not saying that CAT is "evil", I am just reiterating what I had to say about attitude in my article. I have missed getting calls by as little as 2-3marks. I had my time, but I blew it and there is no point being a damn fool about it. Its time to move on. As simple as that.
Arun
Such a nice article Arun. Very interesting one. You have analysed every bit of the process deeply. Its lovely..
And I wonder if you need a CAT score anymore :)
I have missed getting calls by as little as 2-3marks. I had my time, but I blew it and there is no point being a damn fool about it. Its time to move on. As simple as that.
There goes the most important line...moving ahead in life....Thats very important but whatever be it ..we ususaly cant...we try to stick to things ..to plans...But moving ahead at the rite time from the rite thing is important..
Pooza
Man, Arun, I LOVE the way you use your words!!! Truly great! 
For most people, cracking CAT become an ego issue... For some others, CAT seems to be the only way to get onto the next step of the ladder.... For whatever reason u give CAT repeatedly, u'll find that u live your life in a cycle... March to Nov: Study for CAT.
Dec to Jan: Wait for the results
Feb to April: Attend interviews 9if you got calls) or spend time being depressed about the whole thing....
Then repeat the whole thing again..But during this time, u'll lose out on so many other opportunities in life...
About whether or not CAT selects the right people, well when 1.5 lakh graduates (most of them the top performers) are attempting a test.. whatever criteria you choose for elimination, u'll definitely end up with some very smart people... Even if u miss out on some other equally smart or smarter people, u're not too bad off. I think this is the biggest advantage the IIMs have.
So if u didn't get thru' don't start thinking u're lacking in any way... u just have a different skill set.. use it the best way u can!
Hi
Wonderfuly writen.
Not essentialy. I would say maybe its not the right time.And one more try may help you.
"when things go wrong as they sometimes will
rest if you must but dont you quit."
Wonderfuly writen.
So if u didn't get thru' don't start thinking u're lacking in any way... u just have a different skill set.. use it the best way u can!
Not essentialy. I would say maybe its not the right time.And one more try may help you.
"when things go wrong as they sometimes will
rest if you must but dont you quit."
Hi
Wonderfuly writen.
Not essentialy. I would say maybe its not the right time.And one more try may help you.
"when things go wrong as they sometimes will
rest if you must but dont you quit."
After a point in time/life, it ceases to be a question of your "ability" to do it, and more a question of your "want" to do it. I think I got my time and my shots at CAT. Whatever the reason be, I think I rather utilize my time, energy, money and focus on something that would pay me richer dividends than preping for an exam.
Arun
hi guys
i saw the cnbc exclusive,,& hav ever since been drawn 2 pagal guy
this is a humble contribution
leaders dont create followers..
they create more leaders
tom peters
remeber we all stumble
everyone of us
thats why it makes sense to go hand in hand
the only disablity in life is a bad attitiude
-scott hamilton
well first a great article Arun. And also ther had been nice comments from Pooza and Primma doona. Well i will like add just a small bit more.
i was reading Paulo Coelho's Alchemist and there he says that it just not the end that counts but also when yu are trying to reach out for something the whole path of your journey is as equally important as destination. if yu do that then even if yu fail yu will find that yu gained a lot in this process and it will definitely help yu someday.
I found this so true and to just give an example there is a friend of mine who passed from IIT. when he was preparing he put up sthg extra which was not required as per syllabus and failed once but he didnt lose heart and next time he did qualify and that extra bit he had done earlier gave him a big edge over others while in college.
so i will say while yu preparing for cat dont just mug up words but instead try to see the difference it makes when yu use these new words and how well yu can use them yu will sure love the change and the process will slowly be les difficult.
thats from my side
bye
Very well put physcode..err rapheal?
I think this deserves to go yo "all I wanted.." Btw, are u an IIM grad or will u be joining us for cat 2005? The quotes and laws were a great touch! Thanks, helped me get into the groove
well arun has given a consultant's approach towards cat. THat was a fine article indeed and woth praising. I have another view in this regard about cat and its a bit humorous. This approach is more for the cat entrance exam rather than the interviews and gd. But still i wud like to present this to all you ppl on pg forum.Here it goes
The more you use a book the more happy it becomes. That's the best way to win the heart of a book. The more close you get to a book the more knowledge you gain and the more knowledge you gain the better chances of taming the CAT. There are three types of personalities that one needs to befriend in order to get into the iims. The first one being Quant. He is one personality who is scary to many people. He wants to befriend people but god had presented him with an ugly personality with lots of formulae on his face which scares people away. Actually he's very good at heart and is one of the best persons who can be a very good friend once you get to know him. He's one person who can make you feel as if you have conquered the world once you get that intimacy. Now the second person is DI. This person has been trying to befriend as ever since our first class in primary school. But we've been tryin to shoo him away as he's one person who wants us to remember him in order to enjoy his company. He consumes a lot of memory space on your very minutely used brain. Once he's successful in eating up your memory he helps you in eating away other people's memory by solving any problem with lightining speed and making other people surprised. So if you want to get all the attention you need to give up some of your memory space. He's a person who's friend to few people and an enemy to the majority. But some people do fall in love with another personality that resides in him. That is the Logical ability and the sufficiency of data. This personlity of him helps your brain to run faster like a 64 bit mircoprocessor. All you need is to provide some 512 mb ram space on your brain and lo you are one of the finest brains in the competition scenario. Now the third type of personality. She's none other than Verbal. She's one person who has many followers owing to the beauty and charm that god has presented to her. She's one person who doesn't fall instantly but requires a lot of temperment, committment to get on with a steady relationship. Verbal is more like the cancerian on the Zodiac. You need to win her confidence to win her. Once you win her trust then everything is a cake walk. She cares for you like nobody else and you wudn't have seen such care, love. Its ironical that many people have won the trust of this pretty lady due to long term efforts but they have failed to get along with the other two types of personalities. This may be due to the fact that she's a woman and woman have a great following among her male counterparts. She's helped many people tame the cat by helping them get a very high score. So CAT is nothin but making frndz out of these personalities.
The more you use a book the more happy it becomes. That's the best way to win the heart of a book. The more close you get to a book the more knowledge you gain and the more knowledge you gain the better chances of taming the CAT. There are three types of personalities that one needs to befriend in order to get into the iims. The first one being Quant. He is one personality who is scary to many people. He wants to befriend people but god had presented him with an ugly personality with lots of formulae on his face which scares people away. Actually he's very good at heart and is one of the best persons who can be a very good friend once you get to know him. He's one person who can make you feel as if you have conquered the world once you get that intimacy. Now the second person is DI. This person has been trying to befriend as ever since our first class in primary school. But we've been tryin to shoo him away as he's one person who wants us to remember him in order to enjoy his company. He consumes a lot of memory space on your very minutely used brain. Once he's successful in eating up your memory he helps you in eating away other people's memory by solving any problem with lightining speed and making other people surprised. So if you want to get all the attention you need to give up some of your memory space. He's a person who's friend to few people and an enemy to the majority. But some people do fall in love with another personality that resides in him. That is the Logical ability and the sufficiency of data. This personlity of him helps your brain to run faster like a 64 bit mircoprocessor. All you need is to provide some 512 mb ram space on your brain and lo you are one of the finest brains in the competition scenario. Now the third type of personality. She's none other than Verbal. She's one person who has many followers owing to the beauty and charm that god has presented to her. She's one person who doesn't fall instantly but requires a lot of temperment, committment to get on with a steady relationship. Verbal is more like the cancerian on the Zodiac. You need to win her confidence to win her. Once you win her trust then everything is a cake walk. She cares for you like nobody else and you wudn't have seen such care, love. Its ironical that many people have won the trust of this pretty lady due to long term efforts but they have failed to get along with the other two types of personalities. This may be due to the fact that she's a woman and woman have a great following among her male counterparts. She's helped many people tame the cat by helping them get a very high score. So CAT is nothin but making frndz out of these personalities.
A Brilliant Thread.
Really opened up my mind to the chapters that life comes in. Keep up the good work.
I cant make any sense out of it !!!!!!!
gr8 article !!
arun,
karna to hai hi.
it takes 4 yrs of my life or 40
ur notes will just get accumulating until i m in a position of giving notes to someone else
anyways thanx for some good insight knowledge
great
was the word in my mind for this article just after i read it.
i registered here today itself and after reading this much
interesting article i m sure i will learn here a lot.
thanx a lot for such fabulous advices
arun,
karna to hai hi.
it takes 4 yrs of my life or 40
ur notes will just get accumulating until i m in a position of giving notes to someone else
anyways thanx for some good insight knowledge
PG bhai - this guy joined in jun 03??????
it appears so - sunnydua ji - where've u been? seems you just woke up after two *WHOLE* long long years? 😃 (unless ofcourse vbulletin messed things up!
)Welcome back to the pagal land!