31 May 2013

Why the Most Intelligent People almost always fail in CAT ?


It’s perfectly O.K. if you don’t know the answer.

Do you know why more than 80% Ivy League Guys/Girls lost their entire money in Stock Market despite being warned several times ?

Do you know why ?

There is exactly the same reason in both of these cases.

And the reason is “More the intelligent the person is, the more he/she thinks he/she being right.”

To illustrate the point, I would like to give you analogy.

This is a real story where some details are deliberately not declared in order to maintain privacy.

There was an Stock Market Investor in NYC who had this firm belief that “Intelligent people always think that they are right. “

So he selected a few candidates from Top 5 Ivy League Schools having IQ more than 160 and he gave each of them a quarter of Million dollars and told them whoever makes profit on this in the next year can keep all the money but all these guys/girls had no knowledge of Stock Market so he assigned a few people to teach them the basics of Stock Market.

After the basic learning, everybody started investing money but because all of them were intelligent they always thought they were right. So they did some basic research and started investing in stocks and after some time they realized that the stock prices were falling but because they were so intelligent they thought “It’s just a matter of time.It will increase soon.” so instead of selling stocks , they put more money into it and when stock again went down, they again thought the same way and again invested some money and then price again went down but because they were intelligent, they again invested some money, this happened till they lost almost all their money and the percentage was whooping 80% and the remaining 20 % people who were in profit started their own investing firm.

End of the story.


What’s the lesson from this ” No matter how intelligent you are , if you don’t follow the cues of failure, you are bound to fail.“

Same applies to CAT aspirants , what the most intelligent aspirants do ?

They waste their time on difficult problems and because they think they are too smart so when a difficult question appears, they think they can crack it ( because they want to brag in front of their friends) so they tend to waste too much of their valuable time in solving that one question, and in the end they realize that they have just solved a single question in 30 minutes…. Bingo…. one more year wasted.
Also these candidates don’t change their strategy when there is change in pattern, just because they have scored 99.999999999 in their last AIMCAT/SIMCAT/CL or whatever , they don’t change and they fail miserably.

One more disadvantage of being always right is you start turning a deaf ear to outside suggestions and you act as if you are at the top of the world.

And the result IS No IIM calls, One more year goes down the drain.

Why MBA is in demand?


Without doubt that whenever any company needs marketing force they prefer MBAs. Why?


Let us understand that marketing is a social behavioral science and all markets differ with different market dimensions. Company needs MBAs as they have been taught theory in the above context and have been prepared to adapt new dimensions of the markets.

Besides above, MBAs understand forecasting of sales and data interpretation which helps companies to understand the market share thereby either improving on present product mix or launch of new products.

On the above premise we can conclude that MBAs will be in great demand.

5 STEPS TO SUCCESS-

Five months to CAT 2013: ‘Must Take’ steps

1. Plan now for next 5-months

Besides Fresh graduates, it is also high time to begin CAT preparation for those MBA Aspirants who are taking CAT 2013 as their second attempt. As MBA Admission season is ending for 2013-15 academic year now, such candidates must have decided on re-taking CAT. If you also wish to appear once more, you should not waste your time any further and begin your CAT preparation as soon as possible.

For working executives also, five-six month of planned preparation is required for scoring a high percentile in CAT. As they get very little time after their work for CAT preparation, they need to allot their available time very judiciously for different sections of CAT.

2. Know the Pattern:
Before moving on the tricky path of CAT 2013 preparation, you necessarily need to know what and how to prepare. The best way is to analyse the previous year question pattern along with thePast CAT patterns. CAT 2013 exam pattern is, however, expected to be the same as the previous year CAT exam.

The CAT 2013 questions are broadly expected to be divided into two sections comprising areas like Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation, Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning.

Total No of Qs - 60
Verbal Ability – 30 (Logical Reasoning- 10)
Quant- 30 (Data Interpretation- 10)
Duration: 140 minute

The duration for these two sections will be 70 minutes each. Within the 70 minute provided for each section, candidates can revisit questions and review their answers. Once the time ends for the first section, they will move to the second section and will no longer be able to go back.

3. Strengthen your basics

The most competitive MBA Entrance Exam Common Admission Test (CAT) is also known for its difficulty level. Since most of the questions are application-based in CAT, you first need to strengthen your basics in each of the sections.

For CAT basics, you need to brush up your Mathematics and English concepts of high school and 10+2. Applying the basic concepts to solve the different twists in questions holds the key to your high percentile. These basic concepts are like building blocks as more often than not, multiple concepts are required to solve a CAT question. With the right blocks, you can construct a building of any shape. Similarly, you should be able to use the right concepts to solve any problem thrown at you.

So, first clear and shape your basics.

4. Identify and Improve weak areas: Try to find out your strong and weak areas under each section. While beginning your preparation, devote more time to your weak areas in the first three months.

5. Keep yourself updated: Keep yourself updated with newspapers like The Hindu, Times of India, business dailies and magazines. It will not only enhance your general awareness, but also help you increase your hold over English section which carries questions on comprehensions. A high level of general awareness will also help you during your personal interviews at Top B-school admissions.

6. Time table: Maintain a consistent and routine time table to score high percentile. You need to schedule your days/weeks and devote your time to CAT preparation accordingly as this practice will keep you away from distraction. Ideally, an Aspirant should devote 4-5 hours of serious study on daily basis. Further your daily CAT preparation timing can be divided such as - 1 hour for reading, 2 hours for quantitative aptitude, & 1 hour for verbal ability.

7. Weekly quiz: After finalizing time table and study plan you should schedule at least one sectional quiz a week to judge yourself. Quiz and mocks are very important factor for CAT Preparation. Doing such self-analysis on regular basis will help you understand the effectiveness of your preparation. After you go through the quiz, spend some time to analyze your preparation level. The process will give you an opportunity to introspect on how you need to proceed further or whether you need any change in your preparation strategy. The key factors that you must analyze include

• Speed
• Concentration
• Time Management
• Accuracy
• Weak points

8. Keep yourself motivated: It is very important to keep yourself motivated during your CAT preparation journey. Reserve one-two hour every week for reading some Inspirational and motivational stuff like Stories of successful MBAs like PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, HCL VC & JMD Vineet Nayar, McCannWorldgroup South Asia President Prasoon Joshi and many others. Your dream of getting into a prestigious MBA programme like IIMs and your honest preparation will together help you get into your dream B-school.

CAT QA PREP TIPS

According to CAT Expert & Author Rajesh Balasubramanian, though the section has become tougher and more application based in last few years, strong basics is must to get into the twists of the questions in this section. He opines that a candidate doesn’t need to solve all 30 questions in the section to score 100 percentile. “In my view, 18-19 correct answers in Quant and 20-22 correct answers in verbal would have fetched a percentile in the 99.3 to 99.6 range,” he says.

What is CAT Quant section?

The CAT Quant section basically tests your numerical ability and mathematical skills and your approach towards problem solving through logic. The section covers areas like Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry and questions predominantly belong to what is taught to students up to the 10 + 12 standard.

The specific CAT quant section include questions from different areas like Number System, HCF, LCM, geometric progression, arithmetic progression, arithmetic mean, geometric mean, harmonic mean, median, mode, number base system BODMAS, Ratio and propos ion, Ratio’s, percentage, Average, partnership, time speed distance, work and time, Profit and loss, Installment and payments, partnership, clocks; Menstruation, work & time, pipe and cisterns, Geometry, lines, angles, triangles, sphere’s rectangles, cubes, cone.

Some of the questions can also be from advance mathematics like set theory, probability, venn diagrams etc. But top like Vectors, Binomial Expansion, Co-ordinate geometry, Logarithm, Calendar, Maxima & Minima Surds & Indices and Complex numbers are less likely to be there in CAT.

Tips for CAT 2013 Quant Preparation:

Build your Basics: Instead of memorizing long formulae, practice more with applying basic concepts on every CAT quant question. You should go back to basics for this section. NCERT arithmetic text books from classes 9 to 12 are the best in this regard. Pick up the guide books where the thought-processes are outlined well.

Focus on Application: Experts suggest that merely learning the theory and lengthy formulae will not help much in solving the question, but solving questions with application of basics in each question helps a lot. You need to be very cautious that CAT quant section does not check your memory power as most of the sums in CAT are not based on direct formulae. Read and learn concept of topic and try to keep yourself away from big and lengthy formulae.

Make your own Formula Sheet: Because learning is best done by doing, list of short cuts that you yourself develop is really helpful to speed up your problem solving technique. Use your short cuts and try solving the problems and find whether it helps save your time without compromising on accuracy. It will also help you easily revise what you have already learnt.

Take Regular Mocks: Keep practicing quizzes and mocks after finishing every topic. Also you should take fresh weekly and monthly mocks of all the finished topics on regular basis. It helps you to keep you on track and assess the level of your preparation as CAT comes closer. You must analyse your mock and assess the weak areas and continuously work on the same by allotting more time to the areas which trouble you during mock.

Practice is Key: Last but not the least; you should practice as much as you can. Once you build your basics, the practice will give you the edge and enable you to just scan the equation and give the answer. This will really help boost your confidence, as says Mr Balasubramanian, “The questions require more application. Importantly, there are no freebies. So, there is no place to hide. In many ways, this is more challenging and you need to practice a lot.”