I happen to remember one of my school Alumni meets where I met a lot of my old school chaps. By that time we were on the verge of completing our graduation courses. This event strikes me the most because it was a turning point in the life of many of my friends. We had a discussion about our career plans wherein a majority were intending to pursue MBA. One of the points that were raised by my friend was that CAT exam was a piece of cake for Engineers which wasn’t well received by many. We have a stereotypical way of thinking, but I have my bibliographical evidence which clearly indicated that its converse is true.
We are writing this article to break the cliché among non-engineering students that quantitative section is something they need to fear. Tom Krause, a motivational speaker, quotes it very rightly “Life isn’t about living with problems. Life is about solving problems.”
PRAQTISE FACT FILE: IN CAT 2015, 67590 CANDIDATES WERE FROM OTHER ACADEMIC STREAMS LIKE COMMERCE, SCIENCE, ARTS, HUMANITIES WHO TOOK THE TEST
It is observed that the students who have taken up humanities or commerce after grade 10 have less affinity for mathematics. They develop a fear of mathematics which hinders them from attempting the quantitative section. This fear is just because of a lack of practice and being out of touch with the subject. There are tools and techniques devised to go about this section. We empathise when we see “Quantitative Aptitude” as a mental block amongst non-engineering fellows. If we view Quantitative Ability from a positive outlook, it is just 34% of the whole pool of questions. Let’s work to tackle this part of CAT Exam Syllabus
How to Study quants for CAT Exam?
To begin with, it is very necessary to have some good authors on your shelf such as Mr Arun Sharma, Shakuntala Devi or Savesh Kumar. Books are a source of adequate knowledge and help to penetrate deeper into fundamentals and concepts. Further, we live in a digital era where everything is available on the click.
PRAQTISE provides access to a huge database of e-books, cat study material, CAT mock test series and previous years’ materials. It acts as a virtual tutor and trains students for the CAT Exam. PRAQTISE’s adaptive e-learning modules are a great resource available at students’ disposal.
Simplification of Quantitative section
Well, one can’t escape the quantitative section, but one can tackle it with proper planning and organising to study the quantitative modules. It is not rocket science, just stay calm and exercise a few tips such as:
- Keep a note of important formulae, equations, roots or cubes.
- Make notes for yourself and break chapters into modules.
- To break the monotony keeps rotating modules of quants.
- Practice is the thumb rule for success
- Develop a rhythm of solving numerical problems and maintain this flow
Areas of Focus for CAT Exam Syllabus
After solving questions regularly, one can clearly identify their strengths and weaknesses. Once identified, one shouldn’t be afraid of their weak areas, in fact, one should try to vex those areas by getting involved in group discussions, meeting your coach regularly for doubts, reading more in those areas. On the other hand, one should also enhance their strengths rather than bargaining for their weaknesses.
A Praqtical Look: “It is all about logic and the solution to any problem is embedded within the problem. It is up to the student to recognise it,” said Mr Sharma in his recent interview with The Hindu. It doesn’t take you to be a mathematical genius to crack quants. Rather, if you are good in verbal, you can make a good aggregate there so there is nothing to worry about.
How do you tackle quantitative section in CAT Exam? Do you have some useful tips/suggestions that you would like to share? Let us know in the comments.
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