CAT will be held on November 25, 2018. The history of the exam shows that engineers tend to perform better than any other group. IIMs in recent years have changed the pattern of the CAT exam and criteria for selection in order to give a fair chance to all students.
However, change in pattern or selection criteria is still not sufficient to ensure diversity in the population which eventually makes it to one of the IIMs. Those appearing for the exam this November will need to strategize their preparation according to their strengths and weaknesses.
We spoke to Pradeep Kumar Pandey, Academic Head at T.I.M.E. about preparation strategies for students who are from a non-engineering background.
How should non-engineers prepare for the CAT?
In general, there is no difference in the strategy and on the focus area between Engineers and Non-Engineers. There is a high number of non-engineering students every year who manage to crack CAT, in spite of not being from an engineering/statistics/maths/ mathematical science background. In 2017, three non-engineering students got 100 percentile score in CAT. From here, it is quite evident that if you prepare hard, you also have fair chance to fetch 99 plus percentile score in CAT.
So, such preconceived notions or sort of negativity among non- engineers are completely absurd. To succeed, kill such wrong notions first. How a student performs in the exam like CAT has less to do with his background and more to do with his/her perseverance and being open to new ideas.
In the recent "AVTAR' of CAT, the test takers to a large extent, relieved of a burden called 'time management' which played a key role in the earlier CATs. The students now need not worry about the time they spend on each area/section and can instead devote their attention to solving as many questions as they can. This reduced mental stress and should help in increasing the accuracy levels. A majority of the test-takers used to find it difficult to adhere to dividing their time equally between the sections. The test itself will now ensure that they divide their time equally.
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What are your tips for Quantitative Aptitude (QA) section?
One should draw a boundary between QA and Maths. CAT demands only basic mathematical skills that we have learnt till class 10. CAT does not focus on theoretical ideas but application of basic concepts. This essentially means that your knowledge of Basic Arithmetic and Proportionality tools, Numbers, Time Speed Distance, Elementary combinatorics, Algebra and Geometry is more than enough to help you crack the test.
Most of the problems present a level ground for everyone so there isn't much of an advantage that engineers or other 'maths people' have. Most students get carried away and focus on 'glamorous' concepts while neglecting simpler ones.
Basic mathematical skill is just one dimension of QA section and the other dimensions are more important. These are the ability to perform in a pressure situation, observation skill, decision making, adaptability/flexibility and finally an ability to comprehend the questions.
Solving a CAT quant problem is a step wise process and the basic algorithm is
Step-I: Comprehension of question,
Step-II: Interpretation i.e. what is given and what is required etc.
Step-III: Problem solving (if required). Before moving to step-III one should explore all the possibilities of answer option elimination through various approaches like observation or through finding out the range of guesstimate values after analysing the extreme cases.
To inculcate the above set of skills, one needs to practice well. Time bound practice will help the students to understand what concepts they require to revisit. Prepare a compendium of formulas topic-wise in a logical order. You need to also understand the restrictions, conditions etc under which these are valid.
What pointers will you give for Data Interpretation and Logical reasoning (DILR) Section?
DILR section is less knowledge-oriented and more skill-oriented. Recent pattern suggest that majority of the question sets are amalgamation of both DI and LR. There are no subsections in the name of DI and LR within the DILR section. These areas involve fewer concepts and require regular practice. Practicing under time pressure is important. Whether you are engineer or non-engineer this section is an equalizer in the true sense.
The three basic skill sets here are comprehension, interpretation and case analysis which are essentially required to crack any puzzles. Once you have read the given information, before starting to solve, take a look at the questions to be answered. They set a direction regarding how to use the given information. Start with a statement that gives a direct information and then pick a statement that is related to the element that is placed in the solution. If there is no direct link or there are no proper link between the statements, then pick up the statement that gives least number of possibilities and try by trial and error.
Non-engineering students need to focus more upon the evaluating factors in CAT i.e. optimization of speed and accuracy. Prepare for the exam by dividing your time equally for VA, LRDI and Quant sections.
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