Frequently Asked Questions IN Personal Interviews ....

Self Awareness

1. How would you describe yourself ?
2. Tell me about yourself ?
3. How do you think a friend or professor who knows you would describe you?
4. What motivates you to put forth your best effort ?
5. How do you determine or evaluate success ?
6. What academic subjects did you like best ? Least ?
7. What led you to choose the career for which you are preparing ?
8. What personal characteristics are necessary for succeeding in the career that you are interested in ?
9. What is your philosophy of life ?
10. Why have you switched career fields ?

Weaknesses / Negatives

1. What major problems have you encountered and how have you dealt with them ?
2. What have you learnt form your mistakes ?
3. What do you consider to be your greatest weakness ?
4. Did you ever have problems with your supervisor ?

Skills / Abilities / Qualifications

1. What do you consider to be your greatest strength ?
2. Are you creative ? Give an example.
3. What qualifications do you have that makes you think you will be successful ?
4. In what way do you think you can make a contribution to society?
5. Why should we take you ?
6. What are your own special abilities ?
7. Why should we take you over another candidate ?
8. What is your managing style ?
9. Why do you want to join this institute ?
10. What do you know about our institute ?

Values

1. What is your attitude towards working hard ?
2. What part does your family play in your life ?
3. What are the most important rewards you expect in your career ?
4. What is more important to you : money offered, or the type of job ?
5. Do you enjoy independent research ?
6. In what kind of a work environment are you most comfortable ?
7. How would you describe the ideal job for you ?
8. What two or three things are most important to you in your job ?
9. Do you prefer working with others or all by yourself ?
10. How do you like to work ?
11. Under what conditions do you work best ?
12. What is the highest form of praise ?

Experience

1. In what part-time or summer job have you been most interested ?
2. Tell me about your experience.
3. What jobs have you held ?
4. How did your previous employer treat you ?
5. What have you learnt from some of the jobs that you have held ?
6. What jobs have you enjoyed most ? Least ? Why ?
7. What have you done that shows initiative and willingness to work ?
8. Describe your current job.
9. What did you like least about your last job ?
10. What did you like most about your last job ?

Goals / Objectives

1. What are your short-term and long-term goals and objectives ?
2. What specific goals other than those related to your occupation have you chosen for yourself for the next 10 years ?
3. What do you see yourself doing 5 years from now ?
4. What do you really want to do in life ?
5. How do you plan to achieve your career goals ?

Education

1. How has your education prepared you for a career ?
2. Describe your most rewarding college experience.
3. Why did you select your college or university ?
4. If you could, would you plan your academic study differently ?
5. Do you think grades are a good indication of your academic achievement ?
6. What have you learnt from participation in extracurricular activities ?
7. Do you have plans for continuing your studies ?
8. Why did you pick your programme ?
9. What courses did you like best and why ?
10. What courses did you like least and why ?
11. How has your college experience prepared you for this job ?
12. How did you pick your dissertation ?
13. Describe your dissertation process.

Salary

1. What do you expect to earn in 5 years ?
2. What did you earn in your last job ?

Interests

1. What are your outside interests ?
2. What do you do with your free time ?
3. What are your hobbies ?
4. What types of books do you read ?
5. How interested are you in sports ?
6. How did you spend your vacations in school ?

General

1. What qualities should a successful manager possess ?
2. Describe the relationship that should exist between a supervisor and a subordinate.
3. What 3 accomplishments have given you the greatest satisfaction ?
4. If you were taking a graduate for this institute, what qualities would you look for ?
5. What can I do for you ?
6. Tell me a story.
7. Define cooperation.

Stress Questions

1. What causes you to lose your temper ?
2. How often have you been absent from school, work or training ?
3. Have you ever had trouble with other people on the job ?
4. Can you take instructions without getting upset ?
5. Don't you feel you are a little to old/young for this job ?
6. How does your family like you being away on business trips ?
7. With your background, we believe that you are overqualified to join this institute.
8. You haven't had sufficient experience in this field.
9. Our experience with women on this job has not been good.
10. What would irritate you most if I as a manager did it ?

Influencing Others

1. Tell me about the time you were most persuasive in overcoming resistance to your ideas or point of view.
2. Tell me about the last time someone made an unreasonable request of you.
3. Describe the most disappointing and frustrating experience in gaining the support of others for an idea or proposal.

Interpersonal Skills

1. Describe a situation where it was most important for you to display tact and diplomacy.
2. Tell me about the last time you had a clash or disagreement with someone at school/college/workplace.
3. Tell me about a time when you felt most frustrated and disappointed at a person with whom you had worked.

Personal Adaptability

1. Tell me about the last time you were criticized by a supervisor or a professor.
2. Tell me about the time when you felt most pressured or stressed at work/ school/internship.
3. Tell me about the time when you felt most frustrated at your school/workplace.
4. In what aspects of your work/internship do you have the most confidence in your abilities.

Communication Skills

1. Tell me about the time when you felt best about your ability to draw out or solicit information from another person.
2. Tell me about the time when you had to work your hardest in order to fully understand what another person was saying to you.
3. Describe the last time when someone at school/work misunderstood what you were trying to communicate.

Motivation

1. Tell me about the most long term, sustained extra hours of effort that you put into your work/college/internship.
2. Describe a time when you felt most frustrated or discouraged in reaching your goals or objectives.
3. What do you feel has been your most significant work/school/internship related achievement within the past year or so ?
4. Describe the last time you did something well which went beyond the expectations in your work/internship.


Administrative Skills

1. Tell me how you go about organizing your work and scheduling your own time.
2. What do you do to ensure that your goals and objectives are met in a timely way ?
3. Describe the most extensive planning that you have ever done.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

1.Tell me about the most difficult problem that you faced in your work/school/internship ?
2.Tell me about the last time you made a decision that backfired.
3.Tell me about the time when you regretted most not getting advice before you went ahead ?

Conflict Management Skills

1. Tell me about the last significant crisis situation that you faced in your work.
2. Tell me about a time when you were most persuasive in overcoming resistance to your ideas.
3. Tell me about the time when you had a disagreement with someone at work.

Note 1 : The credit for this post goes to manduks an alumni of ICFAI who has read on this on some website ( !!! ) and to Nagaraj* for digging it out 7 years after it was first published.

Note 2 : This post is a little modification of the original post, the original post can be found here or here.

* Nagaraj, better known as naga25french or naga is one of the most trusted, well known and friendly guys on pg. He has been and is an inspiration for a lot of guys including but not limited to people from DT,UDT,SBT and Regional Dream teams on pg and consisting of quite a few people who have already been there and done that.

FAQs regarding Personal Interview ...

For general tips regarding Interview Preparation by the same author click here

Is it better to have a longer selection interview or a shorter one?

The length of an interview in no way is an indicator of how well an interview went. This is especially so when there are a number of candidates to be interviewed, like in the Civil Services interview or the MBA entrance interview. In the past, a number of candidates have reported varying lengths of interviews. Nothing positive or negative should be read into this. An interview is only a device whereby the panel seeks information about the candidate. Information that will help the panel decide whether or not the candidate should be selected. If the panel feels that it has gathered enough information about the candidate in 15 minutes of the interview commencing and that it has no further questions to ask the interview will be terminated in 15 minutes. If on the other hand the panel takes an hour to gather the information required to take a decision the interview will last for an hour. In either case the decision could be positive or negative. It is a fallacy to believe that interview panels take longer interviews of candidates whom they are more interested in. No panel likes to waste its time. If an interview is lasting longer than usual then it only means that the panel is seeking more information about the candidate in order to take a decision.

What to Expect in a PI?

In general, B-school interviews are not formulaic. The focus can range from specific questions about your job responsibilities to broad discussions of life. Approach the interview as a conversation to be enjoyed, not as a question-and-answer ordeal to get through. You may talk more about your hobbies or recent cross-country trip. This doesn't mean that it won't feel like a job interview. It just means you're being sized up as a person and future professional in all your dimensions. Try to be your witty, charming, natural self. Interviews are conducted by students, faculty, admissions personnel and alumni. Don't dismiss students as the lightweights; they follow a tight script and report back to the committee. However, because they're inexperienced beyond the script, their interviews are most likely to be duds. You may have to work harder to get your points across.

How to Prepare ?

Prepare for the interview in several ways: Expect to discuss many things about yourself. Be ready to go into greater depth than you did in your essays (but don't assume the interviewer has read them). Put together two or three points about yourself that you want the interviewer to remember you by. Go in with examples, or even a portfolio of your work, to showcase your achievements. Practice speaking about your accomplishments without a lot of "I did this, I did that." Finally, be prepared to give a strong and convincing answer to the interviewer's inevitable question: "Why here?"

How do I answer questions as :

Tell us about yourself? : An often asked opening question. Perhaps the most frequently asked question across interviews. Your opening statement needs to be a summary of your goals, overall professional capabilities, achievements, background (educational and family), strengths, professional objectives and anything about your personality that is relevant and interesting. This question represents an opportunity to lead the interviewer in the direction you want him to go e.g., your speciality or whatever else you may wish to highlight.

Your intention should be to try subtly convincing the interviewers that you are a good candidate, you have proved that in the past and have a personality that fits the requirement.

Remember that the first impression you create will go a long way in the ultimate selection. Keep in mind, most candidates who are asked this question just blurt out their schooling, college, marks and qualifications. All this is already there in the CV. Why tell the interviewer something he already knows?

A final word on approaching this question. Once you have said what you have to say - shut up. Don't drone on for the sake of speaking for you just might say something foolish. Sometimes interviewers don't interrupt in order to give the candidate the impression that he has not spoken enough. This is just a stress/error-inducing tactic. Don't fall for it, especially if you feel you have spoken enough. In case the pause gets too awkward for your liking, just add something like, "Is there something specific that you wish to know about me?"

Why MBA? : When you are asked this for God's sake don't tell the panel that you are looking for a"challenging job in a good firm with lots of money, status and glamour". That is the first answer that most candidates think of. Unfortunately, it is the last answer that will get you admission. In the answer to a direct question on this subject you must convey to the interview panel that you have made a rational and informed decision about your career choice and your intended course of higher study. There are broadly four areas which your answer could touch upon:

Career Objectives : You could talk about your career objectives and how the two year MBA programme will help you achieve them. This implies that you have a clear idea of what your career objectives are and how you wish to achieve them. For example, you may want to be an entrepreneur and wish to set up your independent enterprise after doing your MBA and then working for a few years in a professionally managed company. You could explain to the panel that the MBA programme will provide you with the necessary inputs to help you run your business enterprise better. But then you must be clear about what the inputs you will receive in the MBA programme are.

Value Addition : That brings us to the second area that your answer should touch upon. What is the value you will add to yourself during your two year study of management. Value addition will essentially be in two forms knowledge and skills. Knowledge of the various areas of management e.g. marketing, finance, systems, HRD etc. and skills of analysis and communication. You will find it useful to talk to a few people who are either doing their MBA or have already done it. They will be able to give you a more detailed idea of what they gained from their MBA.

Background : Remember, there must be no inconsistency between your proposed study of management and your past subject of study or your past work experience. If you have studied commerce in college then management is a natural course of higher studies. If you are an engineer this is a tricky area. You must never say that by pursuing a career in management you will be wasting your engineering degree. Try and say that the MBA course and your engineering degree will help you do your job better in the company that you will join. But then you should be able to justify how your engineering qualification will help.

Opportunities and Rewards : You could also at this stage mention the opportunities that are opening up in organizations for management graduates. Highlight with examples. At the end you may mention that while monetary rewards are not everything they are also important and MBAs do get paid well. You must not mention these reasons as your primary motivators even if that may be the case.


Note 1 : The credit for this post goes to manduks an alumni of ICFAI who has read on this on some website ( !!! ) and to Nagaraj* for digging it out 7 years after it was first published.

Note 2 : This post is a little modification of the original post, the original post can be found here or here.

* Nagaraj, better known as naga25french or naga is one of the most trusted, well known and friendly guys on pg. He has been and is an inspiration for a lot of guys including but not limited to people from DT,UDT,SBT and Regional Dream teams on pg and consisting of quite a few people who have already been there and done that.

Interview Preparation ....

Personal Interview is one of the most widely used methodology for selection across all fields and positions. Here the interviewer(s) tries to find out whether you will be able to do justice to the position he is trying to offer you, though less emphasized and mentioned you also get a chance to find out more about the institute or organization you are applying, and about the responsibilities that come with the position being offered. This is true both for admission in coveted Institutes or recruitment in organizations.

To help you prepare for the same, here are some tips and suggestions, but these should be taken with caution; there is no one size fits all policy and you are not supposed to follow every advice given here blindly but to think on it and modify it according to your personal needs etc.

1.) General tips :

# Be open and honest.
# Ask questions, since the interview is as much an opportunity for you to learn about the school as for the school to learn about you.
# Follow proper business decorum.
# Watch your nonverbal clues, such as eye contact, posture, and fidgeting.
# Be courteous to the administrative staff, since how you treat them can have an impact (positive or negative).

2.) Application / Resume / CV :

# Review and re-review your application; the interviewer is likely to ask specific questions about it.
# Be ready to provide examples and specifics and to elaborate on info on your resume and application.
# Write all and only relevant info.
# Don't exaggerate; people have tendency to exaggerate skills and achievements, but try not to write something that can not be proved or justified.

3.)Gearing Up for the Interview :

# That nobody is perfect is the maxim that sounds even more pertinent in the context of an interview. Interview is without a doubt a trepidation for everyone, and the novices and the old hands alike find themselves on pins and needles at the prospect of being interviewed. What makes people lose sleep over the interviews is essentially an apprehension of the unforeseen, a dread of being confronted with something they don't know; and no matter how many interviews has one faced and sailed through, every new interview brings a new pain in the neck. Jitteriness hangs over everyone; only the intensity may differ. And though there are no alternatives to awareness and conviction, there are certain guidelines which when followed will put off some seemingly trifling slip-ups, which could turn your interview into a dismal affair at the end of the day. These are the gimmicks that must be exercised if the interview is to be saved from some apparently petty blunders.

4.) Before Taking the Bull by the Horns :

# The homework starts right from the word go- immediately after you receive the interview call. Apart from brushing up your technical know-how, which is undoubtedly pivotal to your success, you need to pay heed to some aspects that will pump up your confidence level and help keep off nerves at the interview table.
# Reaching for the interview late may put the interviewer off, as it can also dampen your spirit. So to have an idea as to when you should leave for the interview, just go by the venue at least one day prior to the interview as a rehearsal.
# Envisage the likely questions and picture yourself answering them with confidence. Keep telling yourself that you are good enough to sail through. This will infuse just enough confidence in you, and that'll make all he difference in the interview.
# Consider the dress you'll be wearing. 'Formal dress' is often a deceptive phrase as it may mean different clothing for different companies. Sometimes, it's indispensable to put on a three-piece, while the other day it may seem too much of affectation; only a tie with formal shirt and trousers may do. Make out what dress could be apposite for a particular company.
# If the company is too far-off and your dress is likely to get rumpled in the bus, better travel in a taxi. Carry a comb in your pocket. There is no excuse for a clumsy appearance in the interview.
# Reach the venue at least half an hour in advance so that you have enough time for having a breather and bracing up for the interview. Arriving at the last minute and entering the interview room panting will reveal you in a poor light and you won't be in the right kind of frame to take on the interview.
# In case the interview does not commence on the scheduled time, don't lose you focus. Don't be distracted and maintain your composure. Read some magazine or talk to the people about the company. Go out for a breath of air but don't go too far away. And don't ever let it show that you disliked being made to wait. You have got some time on hand, so use it discreetly

5.) Inside the Interview Chamber :

# Pull yourself up the moment you are summoned inside the interview chamber, and enter the room with an air of confidence. And while you are taking on the real deal, practice the following:
# Maintain a body language suggesting confidence and cheerfulness. Don't look uneasy or dispirited. Smile at appropriate moments.
# Maintain eye contact while answering the questions. This will suggest that you are confident enough.
# If there is more than one interviewer, address to all of them. Remember names if you can and address by the names. Sound confident but avoid being brash.
# Saying 'sorry' or 'pardon' when you couldn't quite get the interviewer is civility, but making the interviewer repeat something for you too often could really make you sorry at the end of the day. You say 'sorry; once, and the interviewer willingly repeats, you say again, and he takes notice, you say thrice, and his exasperation shows, you go on to say yet again, and you just lose it all. What puts the interviewer off is the revelation that you are not all ears during the interview. So better listen attentively and minimize 'being sorry' or 'begging pardon'.
# Don't speak too loudly or too faintly. Maintain a pitch that is audible as well within the perimeter of courtesy.
# Don't delve too much on a topic. Neither keep the answers too short. Just speak enough on every topic(now defining enough is a mundane task in itself :P).
# Use wit and make the interviewer smile. But again, discern the faint edge between humour and discourtesy. Also, whatever you speak to bring smiles on the interviewers' face should sound germane to the topic. However, use this trick sparingly- making the interviewer chuckle twice in an interview is just sufficient.
# Some questions may be devised to judge your self-restraint and tolerance as a professional. So if a question sounds provoking, don't fall for the trick. Avoid acting feverishly and maintain your cool. Handle such questions discreetly and with shrewdness.
# Try to make out what is going through the interviewer's mind while you are answering to the questions. His body language may well give you a clue if he's listening to you attentively or you are just pushing on an off-putting gab. Put on the brakes the moment you discern that you have deviated off the point.
# The interviewer might ask you towards the close of the interview if you have any questions. Don't think it impolite to ask a question or two. Rather, not asking a question could revel that you just want the interview to be over, so go ahead. However, exercise caution regarding the question you pose. Never inquire about the salary. Preferably, show inquisitiveness about your role or the organisation. In the end when all is said and done and you make an exit from the interview cell, you might well be knowing in your heart that you've just made it. After all, it's all about being confident and acting astutely.

Note 1: The credit for this post goes to manduks an alumni of ICFAI who has read on this on some website ( !!! ) and to Nagaraj* for digging it out 7 years after it was first published

Note 2: This post is a little modification of the original post, the original post can be found here or here.

* Nagaraj, better known as naga25french or naga is one of the most trusted, well known and friendly guys on pg. He has been and is an inspiration for a lot of guys including but not limited to people from DT,UDT,SBT and Regional Dream teams on pg and consisting of quite a few people who have already been there and done that.

Introduction Post : GD, PI and beyond ....

After the CAT fiasco, we all have been feeling low, but let me quote one of my posts from PG.

" Suna hai janta bahut pareshan hai ......

Koi CAT acchha nahi hua isliye pareshan to koi Re-test nahi ho rhaa isliye pareshan.

Koi IIFT se call nahi aayi isliye pareshan, to koi convert ke liye preps kaise kare isliye pareshan.

Koi JMET ki key se agree nahi karta isliye pareshan to koi CAT ka result normalize hoga yaa nahi isliye pareshan.

but guys let me tell you one thing (no preaching here, just a friendly suggestion). What is it exactly that makes u worried ??? kahin suna tha maine : jab chot lagti hai to dard sabko hota hai, khoon sabka nikalta haii, thokar lagti hai to girta har koi hai, baat sirf itni si hai ki girne ke baad kaun kitni jaldi uthta hai, chot lagne ke baad bhi kitni der tak khada rahta hai...... Remember this :staying alive is as important in a war as is winning [if not more ]

Its all about 2 things 1.)perseverance 2.) Prioritize.

If some-thing goes wrong we feel bad and there is nothing wrong about it, but then the best we can do about it is to move ahead and make sure that some-day when we sit in solace we can look back and say, there was a time when nothing seemed to be right, all the odds were against me but I fought and here I am winning against the wind and irrespective of what happened or what destiny tried to do to me, I got what I wanted .....

Our priority is achieving what we dream, getting what we desire and IIMs or for that matter MBA is not ThE dream, its just a means to achieve them, very important indeed but still its just a means, so if loosing the means implies getting closer to the dream so be it....

And for the IIMs and the other Authorities : We people trust in you, its we who have made your campuses "god's own campus" or "wimwi", its we who make your institutes the Coveted dreams, the worshiped colleges.

Now the least you need is to copy what others are doing or to show cowardice from accepting some glitches or failures or to give some lame reasons and explanations.

Its never too late for a good cause, please realize that IIMs are not the IIMs because of some ranking system (national or international) or for the high-end technology that you use for something or the other or some foreign client that is doing something for you or even tie-ups with international B-Schools an the likes, it is because of us, the faculty and the students.

And even if you take it from the business perspective the most important aspect of a business is clients, not the product and not the services and not any-thing else, as long as your clients are happy and satisfied its okay, everything else is just a means to that end, and with that I sincerely hope and believe that you will try everything you can to maintain the trust that we have always shown in you, and I assure you that no matter what, as long as you are transparent, honest and helpful to us we will be there to back you up, no matter what technical glitch or wrong decision comes your way. "

SO, lets keep the talks and thoughts about things over which we have no control aside, and do what we can.

From today onwards, I will be posting a few GD topics, Interview questions et al and I hope and request you all to post your views on them in the comment section, lets make it an interactive platform so that we can learn in the process, and hopefully we shall be able to successfully use the knowledge we will gain here in the 2'nd round of the Institutes we want to get into .......

Few suggestions .

1.) Be regular.
2.) Don't get personal, and remember its not a debate rather a discussion.
3.) Avoid redundancy, try to find out new dimensions to the topic, if it means getting unconventional then be it.
4.) Don't be adamant, if some-one posts a good point, appreciate it; and if some-one gives good logic for some point accept it.
5.) Have fun.

IIM is where I belong to . (really ???)

Never in my life I've felt more cheated, except for may be when the BCCI announced that its a private body and not actually INDIAN and from that very day, I never had same interest in watching Cricket.

IIM, 3 characters which when pronounced together make a lot of eyes glitter. Cracking "CAT" has been considered as a proof of intelligence, perseverance and common-sense. So much so that the people who couldn't get a call from an IIM, were able to secure admission into the world's best Management Institutes like Insead, wharton, LBS etc. They attracted the best minds of the country (and arguably some of best of the world).

Lesser mortals like us, who had not been to these coveted Institutes always thought the people who would be teaching these extra-ordinarily intelligent people must be oozing with talent, common-sense, innovation and confidence. These institutes named as "Indian Institute(s) of Management" were thought of as proud possessions of a emotional country much like IITs , Sachin Tendulkar and Lata mangeshkar.

But then, very unlike the later three, IIMs probably didn't think the same way, with the passage of time they realized that " They are getting the best in India anyways" so its time to do some-thing else. They further realized that they don't feature in the top global B-Schools ranking, and the only reason for this is they don't have a campus outside India(how intelligent of them), and they thought about opening a new campus out-side India and that with-out Government help and these are the same IIMs which lack faculties and funds and have to increase their fees beyond reasonable limits to compensate for it, and I am not sure where else one can find an example where a government (or so we believe) institute takes more fees than its private counter-parts.

And this isn't enough, since the IIMs wanted to be 'like' their international counterparts, they decided to go for profile based selection, and that in such a way that even if one scores a 100 percentile in CAT, one may not have a call from the IIM(s) of one's choice, it doesn't even matter if he/she is a district topper from a state board(like bihar or UP). Some-one who is rank 10 in his/her school in a ICSE board school in a metro(say Mumbai) will have added advantage over some-one who is from a village (in say U.P), who was the district topper and that while he helped his old father in fields and earning bread, justice !!! Right.....

And as if this was not all, they decided to take another step towards getting global, they decided to conduct CAT online, citing rising number of students as the major reason. Whereas IIT-JEE which has higher number of applicants and AIEEE which has much more higher number of applicants continue to be paper based examinations, and this in a country where more than 60 % population lives in villages.

The infamy that has been in store for the IIMs regarding tender distribution for Computer Based Test and then the organization of the entrance exam itself is some-thing about which saying something will be like showing a knife to the devil.

The questions which haunt me now are

* What is more important ? Global recognition and a position in Top B-schools rankings, or imparting management education to the most deserving candidates in a fair and un-biased way.

* Does IIMs even consider themselves as "Indian Institutes of Management", or do they consider themselves as just another B-School for which name, fame and money are more important than anything else ?

* Are the following points justified.
==> "even a 100 percentiler not getting a call from an IIM". (and please don't give the reason that its same in GMAT)
==> The same IIMs which justify increasing fees, because of lack of funds and not mentoring new IIMs because of lack of faculty have enough money and faculty to open new IIM campuses abroad and that with-out government funds.
==> CAT going online, even though it anyways favored the tech-savvy English speaking population over others, and justifying it for increasing number of aspirants when more than 3 times students sit for AIEEE which is a paper based test.
==> Denying details of how and why the tender was given to one particular company, and if it was really because that company has vast experience than how come this fiasco.
==> How can the director of an IIM say something like " this is part of the game" when some students who have toiled hard for these 135 minutes don't get a level-field to play the game ?
==> 14 % students have been directly affected by this fiasco and director of another IIM declares that first administration of CAT has been successful.5


and this is when we are not even talking about all the funny details about Hardware incompatibility / virus attack / extra load etc as if they were not even expected and came out of blue, when they had prepared themselves with the best possible security....

To sum it all in a few words I would like to quote Munira Lokhandwala an IIM alumni.

"If I would have known this in 1996 when I applied to the IIMs I would have thought twice before learning any management from them."

P.S -> If even an ardent IIM-fan like me is thinking in this direction, I am not sure that IIMs will continue to attract the best in the country any-more as a friends tag on my g-talk list says "XAT authorities are happy, they will have a better batch than IIMs this time".

Continuation Post....

First of all, I want to say sorry, to all of you to whom I've promised about writing about the requested topics, I had my end-sems going on, and though this is no excuse but it REALLY kept me away from giving write to think and write about anything new.
More-ever the g-talk gadget I added doesn't seem to work very well, and at-least on a dozen occasions I've got a message that some-one wants to chat with you, but never even once I've been able to reply, it might be due to the bad internet connectivity, but anyways in case of any doubt you might just post a comment and most probably I will get back to you with-in a few hours.

And a big thank you to all of you, this blog has had over 1,500 visitors in the past 30 days, and I have got quite a few compliments and thank you messages from you all, I am really grateful to all of you for the enormous support, and this indeed is the only reason that I am writing this post.

So, now that my end-sems are over and the final lap of preparation for getting admission into ThE coveted institutes has started, let me take this opportunity to wish you all for a successful end to this journey.... And considering that even after CAT, there will be quite a few entrance exams for entry into some of the greatest management colleges of the country so I shall be continuing writing some-thing which might help us all in giving final touch to our preparations....

And god-willing we shall be join the institutes we belong to .....

Highest Power in a Factorial ...

This post is a just a saved .doc file which I had, and I am merely reproducing it in its original form, I am not sure of its original author/source but I am grateful to him/her/them for the same.


256! is expanded and expressed in base 576 . how many zeroes will this expression have on its right end?


Such questions are same as finding maximum power of 576 in 256!

576 = 2^6 x 3^2
to get six 2s i have to travel eight places...1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8 has seven 2s. but to two 3s i have to travel only six places...1x2x3...6 has two 3s...hence 2 will be the constrain.

total 2s in 256! = 255

hence, no. of zeroes = 256/6 = 42.

just to check...3s = 126, 126/2 = 63>42

ans-42


300! is divisible by (24!)^n. what is the max. possible integral value of n?


such questions are tricky...when u expand 24!...u get 1x2x3...24.

in this range the highest prime no. is 23...so maximum power of 23 in 300! will decide the max value of x...

when v expand 300!...v get a 23 in 23, 46,69,92....

total no of multiples of 23 in 300! will be 300/23 = 13,

forget the fractional part. so the maximum possible answer is 13. hope am clear...else, feel free to revert.
500! is divisible by 99^n...what is the max. integral value of n?

now every 99 is made of two 3s and one 11. obviously 11 will be the deciding factor. so count no. of 11s for the answer

500/11 = 45
45/11 = 4

ans will be 49.

so in such questions, just check which prime no. will be the deciding factor and count the no. of times it occurs. but please understand that highest prime no. is not necessarily always the deciding factor. see this example:

100! is divisible by 160^n...what is the max. integral value of n?

now 160 = 2^5 * 5^1. now although 5 is the biggest prime no. that 160 is made of, the deciding factor wud be 2. because five 2s occur less often than one 5 does. so we'll count the no. of 2s and divide by 5.

100/2 = 50
50/2 = 25
25/2 =12
12/2 = 6
6 /2 = 3
3/2 = 1

add 'em all...97.

97/5 = 19.

so the answer wud be 19

had we taken 5 as the deciding factor, the answer wud have been 100/5 + 100/25 = 24 which is more than 19...hence a wrong answer...

Fact Inference & Judgment ....

One of the most dreaded question type in Management Entrance Exam, this section has questions which compel even the best of minds to ponder.

Here is a little help in how to identify them and differentiate among them.

FACTS:
• They can be verified or discovered
• Applicable to all – Universal truths.
• Anything that is seen, heard or read is a fact.
• Anyone else’s opinion stated by the author is a fact. (The personal opinion will become a judgement)
• Figures, Statistics or other data without an opinion attached to it is a fact. ( with an opinion attached becomes an inference).
INFERENCES:
• A logical conclusion based on a set of facts. (Logical conclusion meaning, anyone seeing those set of facts should be able to arrive at that.)
• Change the facts and the conclusion will no longer be valid.
• Inferences are self-explanatory. It tells you “why”. (If you have a statement which looks like an inference and you form a “why” question on it, you should be able to get an answer. If you don’t, it will become a Judgement.)
• An inference is an opinion that doesn’t change according to perspective.
• If the set of sentences given to you are connected, you can only do UPLINKING to decide that a statement as an inference. Meaning – You should have the facts preceeding this statement. If the facts are provided as the next statements it cannot be an inference. It will be a judgement.
Ex:
•
o X is a good student when it comes to attendance.
o X attends college regularly.
In this example, statement A is a judgement, statement B is a fact.
If you change the order like below –
•
o X attends college regularly.
o X is a good student when it comes to attendance.
In this case A is a fact and B is an inference.
• One fact can lead to multiple inferences.
• Inference will have verbal bridges with facts ( words like leads to, points to, indicates, shows, explains, expresses)
• A cause and effect relation ship can be termed as an inference.
• A statement backed up by an example in the same sentence will be an inference.

JUDGMENT:

1.Any statement that could lead to an approval or disapproval.

2.It is the author’s personal opinion.

3.It is open to challenge.

4.It doesn’t tell you why. ( see point 3 of inference for clarity)

5.It changes according to perspective.


P.S. -> because of my project work, industrial training, aimcat and above all my laziness, I haven't been posting for past 2 days, but let me assure you that it will be taken care of.

P.P.S -> I have got quite a few suggestions to discuss the smart methods (aka option rejection, value putting etc) and some others regarding maximization/minimization using venn dig / set theory. I will definitely try to write about the same in my future posts.

Tournament Based Sets in DI .

There are 16 teams and they are divided into 2 pools of 8 each. Each team in a group plays against one another on a round-robin basis. Draws in the competition are not allowed. The top four teams from each group will qualify for the next round i.e round 2. In case of teams having the same number of wins, the team with better run-rate would be ranked ahead.
1. Minimum number of wins required to qualify for the next round _____?
2. Minimum number of wins required to guarantee qualification in the next round _____?

Now, I don't know how many of you are aware of the following method. But 1 thing I mention in advance that this should take only 30 seconds to solve
1.
1 group is consisting of 8 teams. So each team will play 7 match each. Suppose each of the 8 teams were seeded and we consider the case where a higher seeded team will always win.
So the number of wins for the 8 teams would be 7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0 with highest seeded team winning all and lowest seeded team losing all.
For minimum number of wins we allow 3 teams to win maximum number of matches. Of the remaining 5 teams just find out the mean of their number of wins.
In this case it would be (4+3+2+1+0)/5=2.
So 5 teams can end up with 2 wins each and a team with better run rate will qualify with 2 wins.

2.
In this case consider the mean of first 5 higher seeded teams
(7+6+5+4+3)/5=5
So it may be the case that 5 teams can end up having 5 wins each. And hence 1 team will miss the second round birth. So minimum number of wins to guarantee a place would be 6.

Note 1: The author Vipul Tyagi is a CAT '09 aspirant, member of Pagal Guy Dream team '09 has scored 16/20 times a percentile greater than 99.49 in AIMCATs with AIRs of 1,7,8,9,10 ... From past three aimcats he has achieved AIR 1 with a comfortable margin in DI.

Note 2: Visit : The original post on pg

How To Identify Incorrect Sentences .

In this post I will be writing about some of the common mistakes in sentences (as in selecting the correct/wrong/most-appropriate/least-appropriate sentence from the given options.)

Mistake 1.) Using misplaced modifiers.

Funda : When a word modifies another word, the two should be next to each other.


Mistake 2.) Using improper pronouns.

funda : Each pronoun must agree with the pronoun it replaces.

Each pronoun must refer directly and unambiguously to the noun it replaces.


Mistake 3.) Changing the verb tense unnecessarily.

funda : The verb tense of a sentence should remain consistent. If the tense is established somewhere in the sentence, there is rarely a need to change it. // I don't have any example of when this ' rarely ' happens.


Mistake 4.) Constructing sentences that lack parallelism.

funda : Just as in previous funda, the structure of the sentence must remain consistent.


Mistke 5.) Comparing Apples and Oranges . // How catchy isn't it ???

funda : When-ever you compare two or more things in a sentence, you have to make sure that all of them are in fact comparable + there must not be any ambiguity as to the validity of the comparison.


Mistake 6.) Improper subject-verb agreement.

funda : The subject and the verb of a sentence must be in agreement.


Mistake 7.) Using incorrect idioms.

Funda : Idioms are idioms and whether or not they sound correct to you, they can't be changed or modified.


Courtesy : GMAT preparatory resources.

P.S. -> I am not very good in verbal, and probably not the right person to give insights into it, kindly ensure that the mentioned rules are correct before applying them in any entrance exam.

Finding out smallest number which leaves specific remainders when divided with specific divisors.

Type 1: Find smallest number other than k, that leaves remainder k when divided by x, y, z.
How to Solve: take L.C.M of x, y, z and add k to it.

Type 2: Find smallest number which leaves the remainders x-r, y-r, z-r when divided by x, y, z.
How to Solve: take L.C.M of x, y, z and subtract r from it.

Type 3: Find the smallest number which when successively divided by x, y, z leaves remainders a, b, c respectively.
How to Solve: Start from the last divisor, here the last divisor is z which leaves remainder c, smallest number satisfying this condition will be ‘c’.
Now this ‘c’ must have came after the number was divided by y, so the number must have been c*y + b.
Continue in the same manner.

Variations Of The Basic Types Discussed.

(1) Smallest number that leaves remainders x, y, z when divided by a, b, c and leaves remainder X when divided by Y.

This and similar variations are based upon a simple fact.
To a number if we add the l.c.m. of its divisors, the corresponding remainders don’t change.
What this effectively means is we will first find out a no. which leaves remainders x, y, z when divided by a, b, c respectively and then keep adding the L.C.M of a, b, c to it until the other condition(s) are not satisfied.


Courtesy : Varied sources on Internet.

P.S-> For those of you, who haven't been using these methods, please try them on at-least 5 problems of each type before relying on them for the D-day.

How to attempt DI : part 1

Please read Introduction post first.

The first few minutes we spend on any section have a huge bearing on how we are going to perform in that section. So u should have complete familiarity with the set that u attempt first. Never venture into unknown waters initially. Now it can't be that u are not having any idea about all the sets asked in exam. In that case, the paper is really testing or u should be prepared to give the test next year ( sorry if this sounds harsh, but it's true).
So the best option would be select a DI set first. The chances of cracking a DI set are always more than cracking an obscure LR set. Again if a set based on tournament is asked and u hv the confidence to crack any tournament set, u may start with tht as well.

But to all those who are weak in DI, i'll suggest u to start with a DI set. So my suggestion to all of you is to start working on speed maths a little bit. The time u save while doing DI can be allotted to a tough LR set. Develop good calculation speed and try to attempt all DI sets, and may be 1 LR set and this should be enough to secure a 97-98%ile. ( I'm assuming tht there would be atleast 2 DI sets).

Now those who want 99.5+ in DI, start loving DI and LR. If u can't enjoy doing DI/LR it would be tough to get 99.5+. I know it's all about marks and we not giving CAT for fun, but i personally believe tht unnecessary pressure doesn't help in this section.
You see what kind of a person u are, also determines how u'll fare in this section. If u are by nature a bundle of nerves and allow even small occasions to get to u, chances are tht u'll find going tough in this section.
The reason is that compared to other sections the stakes are very high in this section. Other sections do have single questions but DI section generally has questions in sets. At a time 4-5 questions are at stake. That translates into around 15-20 marks which will be the difference between a 94%ile and a 99%ile. So at the back of the mind there is always this thought that if I'm not able to crack the set, then those 15-20 mins tht i'hv invested in the set would become a liability. This pressure does not help ur cause really. The best way to avoid this mental trap is to start loving those sets. Just don't think abt cut-off and %iles and other things while attempting DI and specially LR. I know what i'm saying is tough to follow but trust me the day u clear these demons from ur mind, u'll start doing exceedingly well.



Note : The author Vipul Tyagi is a CAT '09 aspirant, member of Pagal Guy Dream team '09 has scored 16/20 times a percentile greater than 99.49 in AIMCATs with AIRs of 1,7,8,9,10 ... From past three aimcats he has achieved AIR 1 with a comfortable margin in DI.

Introduction Post to A Funda a day ....

Less than a month away from the most awaited management entrance exam of this season, I thought its time to revise our concepts, to learn a few new concepts, to see what the best do to be what they are and to see how we can get help from all of these and utilize them to make our dream of studying in those coveted B-Schools a reality.

Till now, I have been using this blog for writing my personal opinions and I hope that they have been of some help to some of you, but now as the importance of each and every minute we spare is increasing, let us be a little more regular, from now onwards, every day (or almost every day) I will be writing a new post on this blog, that will be having some new concepts, some approaches to solve a particular question and strategies on how to attempt a particular section or the entire paper.

Unlike the earlier posts some of these posts will be borrowed from various sources that I come across on internet, but I will try my level best to ensure that they are in public domain and that the authors have personally allowed me to use them in this blog. More often than not the original authors will be given due credit, but even if I fail to do so, you must realize that I am thankful to you all, and we all (every-one who contributes to this blog, by either writing or reading it) will try our best to gain from your insights.

In the end let me rephrase the standard disclaimer : Even though I am trying my best to write down only those things which can be applied by almost every CAT aspirant, but I make no claim of it being applicable to all. Please read the posts and use the advices given below in mocks and only when you are satisfied that they DO work for you, use them in real CAT. I take no responsibility of any particular strategy not working for you.

This blog is meant only for helping the CAT aspirants keeping in mind that I spend a lot of time on internet, gaining from various sources freely available on net and it becomes my social responsibility to do my bit, this blog is in no way a source for any monetary gain.

Cheers.

Let us bell the CAT this time.

ThE final 30 days ...

Please read this post first : Introduction to ThE final 30 days

What We will be doing in these 100 hours spread over 30 days.

5 Sectional tests of QA / DI / VA each ( preferably from previous year mocks or other similar sources and with 20-25 questions in a section in QA/DI and 20-30 questions in VA)
5 Full length Mocks.
Revision of topics where we are comfortable.
Learning new concepts.

Notes we have to maintain

1.) DI sets we couldn't solve in the Mock CAT.
2.) New concepts learned.
3.) Words which came across us in the sectionals and Mocks.
4.) Mistakes that were committed in the mock-cat or the sectional and which could have been avoided.

The basic gyan.

Every day starting from today, make sure to give 3 hours to CAT, and plus do remember that you have to give 10 hours extra.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Every day, we have to do 3 things.

1.) Learn at-least one new concept, which may be from pg testfunda , totalgadha , some book, some friend, some blog or from anywhere else but we have to read at-least one thing which we didn't knew earlier and note it down + understand it.

2.) Solve at-least 1 DI set, if there is some unsolved DI set in the note 1 for DI we talked about earlier solve it, else get some DI set from any of the above mentioned sources and solve it.

3.) Read the three notes you have written (note 2, note 3 and note 4).

These 3 tasks will take about 60 minutes of your time everyday and sometimes a little more, in all making it an approx 35 hours.


Now we will divide the 30 days into 4 parts : 5 days before taking a full length mock, 5 days where you take a full length mock CAT, 5 days after taking a full length mock, and 15 other days.

For the sake of simplicity I am assuming that one will be taking a full length mock every 6'th day (though it might not be exact 6 days, but try to keep enough time in-between two mocks so as to make sure you can have proper analysis and not too much time to be out of touch of mocks.)

So lets suppose you will be taking full length mocks on 5'th, 11'th, 17'th, 23'nd, 29'th day.


On normal days ie. day 1,2,3,7,8,9,13,14,15,19,20,21,25,26,27.

1 sectional test : 40 minutes.
analysis of test : 80 minutes.
Total : 120 minutes.

What does analysis means // This is one point where my point of view differs from that of coaching institutes and others.

See that
If you wasted time on questions which were difficult to solve.
If you wasted too much time on a question.
If you quit a question just one the verge, and could later solve it in under 3 minutes ( a DI Set in under 15 minutes).
If there was some easy question you didn't/couldn't solve.
If you left a question even without reading it.
If all the questions are at-least familiar to you, if not go through the topic they belong to, and ensure that you can solve any similar question.
Check that if any of the questions could have been solved by some quicker method.

In 15 days : you will have done 15 sectional mock-cats ( 5 from each topic)

On days before full length mock CAT 4,10,16,22,28 .

Solve 3 sectional mocks (which you had already solved) and see if your score improved, if not try to modify your analysis part from next set of sectionals.

total : 3 * 40 =120 minutes.

On the day of full length mock 5,11,17,23,29 .


before giving the mock, be relaxed as if it is the real CAT and do what-ever you would do in a real CAT (just do remember to not to repeat any of the mistakes that you have written in your notes).

total : 135 minutes.

On the day after the full length mock 6,12,18,24,30


Analysis of the mock CAT.

total : 120 minutes.

NET TOTAL : 96 hours 15 minutes ( rest 3 hours 45 minutes, munaafa ..... "Congratulations, you have earned this time and can enjoy this".)

Introduction post : ThE final 30 days.

A lot of people have been asking me to write something about " What to do in the last few days " and I've been telling them that I will be writing such a post soon, so finally today is the day, when I will be writing that post, but I thought lets make a few things clear before you read that post.

Please understand, that you are the best judge of your-self, its you who has to decide what do you want in life, to decide your priorities and to check if something is working for you.

What-ever the post contains are my personal views on how to make the best of the final 30 days, its not to be considered as the rule-book but as a guide book which might help you in getting your dreams come true but how to use this guide book in the best possible manner is all your call.


A few assumptions that I am making for a reader(so that he can get benefits from it)

1.) You are actually willing to bell the CAT and it ain't just a time-pass or an option for you(Though u might be showing this to others.")

2.) You can spend 100 hours in these 30 days. and preferably these are spread evenly.

3.) You are flexible and willing to change and to learn.


And finally a word of precaution ....

I am just another CAT aspirant, I haven't been there and done that, never appeared in CAT before and I do have a lot of short-comings, I do commit a lot of mistakes in the mocks, I am just a mediocre and lazy guy who is not particularly great in either of QA/DI/VA.

So if you are reading this post, be warned that what-ever I am going to tell you may not be the best for you.

p.s -> The actual post will follow in a little time.

Mistakes I won't Repeat

In this post, I am making a list of the mistakes which I have committed in previous mocks (and I am sure some of you must have made these or other) So lets make sure that none of us repeat any of these mistakes in future.

1.) Going on a speed spree, while accuracy goes for a toss. Its good to have great speed but not on the cost of accuracy, we have to have a proper balance among the two.

2.) Not marking a question even after solving it. We have to have confidence in ourselves. At times we don't mark a question even after solving it, since we think that the answer can't be so simple.

3.) Watching watch too many times, and taking un-necessary pressure about the time remaining, its good to have an eye on the watch, but don't get obsessed by it. Its okey if u gave a few extra minutes to a question or a section.

4.) Investing (actually wasting) too much time in a particular question (particularly DI set). We have to make sure that its not a matter of proud to solve a set while making the score bad. At times one feels that since I have already wasted some minutes on a particular question, so let me take a few more minutes and solve the question, we have to learn when to say no to a question and carry on with other questions.

5.) Wasting too much time on a particular section thinking its too easy / too difficult and spending a few more minutes will ensure clearing cut-off / getting good score. Remember if it is actually so, you can always come back to it after completing other sections don't ruin the entire paper in hope of doing good in one.

6.) Solving questions on feel, (particularly in QA/DI) don't mark an option just because it looks good and more so if its actually a +3 / -1. Though its a good method if you are able to reject a few options, and even then use it only when you are sure of clearing cut-offs in that particular section.

7.) Don't get complacent, at times after solving a few questions in a section, we feel its enough and I would be able to score good in this section so lets leave it and move on, just do remember if it seems easy to you, chances are that it will be easy for others also and there is a slight chance that you haven't actually that good as you think it is.

8.) And last but most important, a lot of guys feel always at extremes, a lot of guys to whom I have talked, say things like I am extremely good in one/two section while I am extremely bad in some other, so they don't work for improving their so called extremely good section, but please realize that there are a lot of smart guys over there and no-one (I repeat no-one is perfect) so you can always get better even in the section you feel god-like.

More-ever CAT always has a few sitters in every section, so with a bit of common-sense you can always clear the cut-off in ur weakest section, remember CAT prefers smart work over hard work, don't over-do yourself not in your weakest section not in any other, analyzing your-self and do that with-out taking any extra pressure of doing good in a particular section.


I hope we won't be repeating any of these and other similar mistakes......

Cheers .....

Those 135 mintues ....

THIS POST IS REPLICA OF MY POST IN THE PG THREAD "The most important 135 minutes), I am posting it here for those of you who are not on pg (though its a great place to be for all CAT aspirants), in hope that it might help you in some way




I am not a winner, I am not a loser, though there is one-thing sure

I AM A SURVIVOR ......


CAT isn't just an exam for me (I am sure it won't be just that for any of you) its a way to prove myself, its the pay-back time to all people who have believed in me, even when I failed, and I failed miserably (more about this in the "coveted" post.

I have too many bad habits, and honestly speaking I love having some of them. One of these is the strong urge to "prove my-self right, come what may".
In CAT perspective, people have been telling me to do this and to do that, because it is what his brother/sister/friend has done and he is in some premier college. There were suggestions ranging from to mug-up the word-lists, to learn squares, cubes of natural numbers and what not, to not bother much about speed but work on accuracy, to read norman lewis, wren n martin, barren, to solve arun sharma and I don't know how many other books. To solve tougher questions(which either take more than 5 minutes time to solve, or which need some particular methodology without which they are un-solvable) because they will make me ready to face comparatively easier questions in CAT, to solve the paper with this strategy and that and what not.

But with these bad habits, I have a good habit, I do know about my-self, my strengths and weaknesses and I do know what I want from life and what I can do for it. I knew that I can't do a lot of things, unless I can't convince myself that I will do myself some good by remembering Barren's 3000 (or so ..) words, I am not gonna do that.

I always believed in one thing, if I can keep myself interested in CAT till the D-Day I can make it. So kept things simple, kept things in control so that they seem fun, when I appeared in my first AIMCAT(actually aimtest), the only thing in my mind was to have fun (and may be to prove that THIS IS THE RIGHT APPROACH), I thought nothing about strategy, I thought nothing about cut-offs, just a simple n basic guideline was there " GO THERE AND DO YOUR BEST IN ALL THE SECTIONS". I scored 99.23 percentile with VA at 80.92 percentile and rest 2 at 99.xx .

From that time to this, nothing much has changed, I am planning to follow the same simple strategy in CAT ' 09." GO THERE AND DO YOUR BEST IN ALL THE SECTIONS".

At times, I am compelled to show others how important a particular strategy is in cracking CAT, or that a particular book will do wonders for your preparation but honestly speaking the most important thing that can help you is "KEEP THINGS SIMPLE AND LOVE THE JOB YOU DO".

At 22'nd jan, I may feel shattered, and every-one reading this post after that date may feel, that's why he is not there.
But those 135 minutes are mine, I am gonna do what I love and what I have believed in those 135 minutes.
That way, I might turn out into a failure by not being there, but I will survive coz I still loved my job, I loved my preparations (this is what people call it), I loved my mock-cats and my discussions with puys, with my KDT and PGDT team-mates and with my hostel friends.

Success or Failure,
for one thing I am sure...
No matter what comes out,
I am gonna survive.

~~~~ Live ur life, not to be a hero BUT to live your life and mind you, living your life ain't same as just being alive ~~~~

AIMCAT : 1007 : Analysis and how to maximize the score .

My perception before the AIMCAT : As CAT is close, TIME would refrain from doing too much experimentation or giving a paper of high difficulty, but as this paper is a pencil paper test so number of questions might increase a bit.

Overview: Paper was almost on the lines of expected, except for equal no. of questions in all the three sections.

Aimcat Analysis : The test consisted of 72 questions, with 24 questions in each of three sections QA,VA and DI. Total time available for the paper was 135 minutes, with no sectional time limits.

QA : The section can be marked as an easy to moderate section. It had a lot of sitters along with quite a few time taking questions. There were quite a few questions which could have been solved by proper observation and option rejection, with-out knowing about the concepts involved.
The paper was pretty easier in comparison to previous Aimcats and CAT 08, so the cut-off score is bound to be on the higher side. But to score very high marks in the section wasn't easy considering a few tricky and speed-breaking questions scattered here and there in the paper.

Expected cut-off : 28 for 85 percentile.
40 for 95 percentile.

DI : DI is often considered to be the most dreading section of Aimcats, and going by the recent Aimcats it usually has the lowest cut-offs, this time the condition is a bit different. DI was the easiest section of the paper (individual perceptions may vary) with as 15 out of 24 questions (4 out of 6 sets) were based on interpreting simple figures.
Remaining two sets were decent and required some thinking but one out of them was very similar to set already been asked in previous aimcats and hence can be considered as considerably easy.

Expected cut-off : 30 for 85 percentile.
40 for 95 percentile.

VA : VA was comparatively the most difficult section of this Aimcat, a lot of inferential questions in the RCs with quite a few arguable answers as provided in the answer booklet made life difficult for people who depend a lot on RCs. 5 vocab based questions were also very difficult, and I wonder whether more than 20 percent people would have got 2 or more correct.
In contrast, the other VA questions were pretty easy because the easy option rejection.

Expected cut-off : 20 for 85 percentile.
28 for 95 percentile.

OA :Though this paper was not even close to the standard of actual CAT papers, it was pretty good for the lessons it provided.

Expected cut-off : 80 for 85 percentile
100 for 95 percentile
115 for 99 percentile.
Lessons one needs to learn.

A lot of guys would have done better if they had idea about the difficulty level of the paper. Last few questions in QA and the last two sets in DI were among the easiest questions of the paper, while a lot of guys would have wasted quite a lot of time in doing the more time-taking (time taking isn't same as being difficult) questions and hence lost a chance to maximize their overall score. Therefore it is very important to ensure that no question remains unattended (read unread).

A lot of people, mostly engineers depend too much on RC for scoring in VA section, the paper was a kind of wake up call for them (including me:P). Quite a few answers are debatable, this should be used as an excuse.

Going into a paper with too many predetermined constraints like solving x number of questions isn't always a good idea, rather one should try to maximize his score by solving as many questions as he can in the allotted time.

Will be posting some questions which could have been solved even without knowing the underlying concepts + some questions which could have been done in less time than it usually takes while solving the questions using formal approach.

P.S. -> The lessons mentioned in this post apply on me as much (read much more) than they do on anybody else. I am scoring a total of 117 (courtesy to 14 wrong questions in such a simple paper).

Strategy For attempting mock-CATs and CAT .

Disclaimer : Every-one has different strengths and weaknesses, so the strategy and approach of one may not work that well for some-one else.
The author has tried to do post the strategies in the most generic way and they are based upon the common methodologies adopted by him, his friends who are scoring consistently in the higher 99s and those who have belled the CAT in previous years and are in the IIMs, FMS, XLRI.


Assumption : i.) As explained in the previous posts, there are some topics which are repeatedly found as the major areas tested in CAT, so the reader must have gained some proficiency in them till now.
ii.) CAT is a paper of 2:15 hours, is online and provides facility to bookmark a question / skip the question / come back to previous question.
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QA : Start from the very first question, if it is from a topic you r good at, read it, see if you can solve it under 3 minutes, if yes solve it, if no bookmark it. If it is from a topic you aren't good at, read it, if it looks too easy solve it, see if you can do some value putting etc, if you can't leave it.

Once you have seen all the questions and hopefully solved some of them, you can be sure that you haven't missed any sitter from the sections you are comfortable.

Depending on the time left with you, you can either solve the bookmarked questions right away or go to the next section and come back if you have time left.

DI : ever leave a set untouched. // work on a set for 3-4 minutes and see if u r heading some-where, if u feel u can crack it under 10 minutes, do it. If u feel u can crack it but it will take time, bookmark it, if u feel it can't be done in exam conditions forget about it.

If u have wasted 6-7 minutes on a question aren't able to get a definite direction but have a feel that u will be able to crack it . DONT BELIEVE ON UR FEEL book-mark it and leave it, u can always come back if time permits.

Always look for the individual questions like Data Sufficiency etc. which are usually (but not always) easier.

Even if u aren't able to crack a set, have a look at the questions, at times there are some questions in a set which are pretty doable and some which are time-taking, this isn't that significant in Aimcats but in actual CAT papers, u will almost always have some of these kind of sets.

VA : Okie, I am not really good in VA, so I won't say much , though I would like to make two suggestion to those who have good reading speed but aren't too sure of VA.
Trust on RC, reading comprehension are high-investment high return questions, though u need more time to do them w.r.t. VA questions, but u have higher accuracy in them.

Don't do RC questions with-out first reading the passage, I know that a lot of coaching institutes say that one should read the questions first before reading the passage, but I would suggest to at-least try reading passages first and then attempting the questions and see which one has higher accuracy.

My take on CAT '09

Yes I know that it has been pretty late since I last posted on this blog, and that its just a few weeks away from the D-day (or the D-week or what-ever) but still I thought its never late for a good thing, so lets try to have a look at what can we expect from the online format of the CAT.

A few things which I want to clearly state before going into the main body of the post, all the things which I am going to write are just my views and predictions, and they may or may not be true, I am not going to write things like the number of questions one can expect in CAT but the type of questions which have more probability of appearing in CAT.

QA :

CBT or PBT (paper based test) , this section should be consisting of similar questions, testing the same set of skills and so it shall need similar approach as theconventional CAT exams (as if there is something like conventional CAT :O).

The point to emphasize here is, even though the total number of questions may decrease (most probably it will) and almost all the coaching institutes are emphasizing that one has to be good in all topics in order to do good in the exam, it isn’t so.

According to observation of previous year CATs one thing is for sure, 40 % marks in any section is sure to get you 98+ percentile, this effectively means you need to do 8 out of 20 (or so) questions right. So why do coaching institutes emphasize on studying all topics, because you never know questions from which section would be easier, the paper may have easier questions from the section you have left while difficult ones from your areas of comfort, now here is a trade-off : you either work on all the topics, so that you can do the sitters from all the areas well or you may decide to be so good in your favorite topics that you can solve the questions, come what may.


DI/LR:

DI is the one section which will probably get affected most.

Reasons:
i.) Fewer number of questions means either there will be fewer sets or fewer questions per set, while the former will make question selection tougher and more important, the later will make sets less worthy and hence you will need to do more sets in the same amount of time for having our desired percentile.
ii.) Aspirants used to fill the tables and other figures with data while attempting DI/LR questions, this facility won’t be available now + It isn’t easy to look at the screen each time you need a data.

No matter how hard this problem seems but it can be solved by one remedy “PRACITCE”.

VA/RC :

More probably then not this time CAT will be emphasizing less on RC questions then on other questions, questions on usage/jumbled up sentences/sentence correction are likely to form major section of the paper, short passages with lesser number of questions than usual may be a surprise package for many.

Suggestions to improve in this section: emphasize less on reading speed and more on comprehension/analysis of the read text, don’t depend too much on techniques like reading the question first and then trying to find out the key-word in the passage but try to actually understand the passage and then answer the questions, if possible work on vocabulary, it might be of help, get acquainted with grammar rules etc.

Some more points to note.

==> Data sufficiency questions may be back in fashion, both in QA and in DI.
==> Less emphasis on lengthy table based DIs, more on crisp logical reasoning questions and a few pie-chart or other figure based DIs, which have many small and related figures per set.
==> Analytical reasoning questions will be in something to look for.
==>Be comfortable and confident, why ??? let me take an example of QA.

There would be somewhere around 20 questions of QA that you will have to do in 45 minutes.
Now lets say you need 4 minutes to look at your watch, adjust the mouse, scratch your neck and other such inevitable things.
Now lets take the following assumptions.
i.) you read all the questions.
ii.) you solve 10 questions, out of which you solve 8 correctly rest 2 you either solve in-correctly or you leave them in-between coz they seem to be lengthy.
iii.) You have an average reading speed, and you take close to 80 seconds to read a question and realize whether you should try it.

Now usually there would be at-least 2-3 questions, which would be from the topics you dread, so these questions you will leave even without wasting reading them and wasting much time, lets say taking 30 minutes per question. So you would have seen 3 questions in 90seconds (Wow, that’s quick !!!) + you will take close to 560 seconds in reading the questions you won’t attempt.

So in total you have more than 30 minutes to attempt the10 questions, out of which 4-5 will be sitters which can be easily solved in about 90 seconds each. Attempting 4such questions would mean you have 24 minutes for rest 6 questions that means whopping 4 minutes per question, and these are the easier questions from the topics you are comfortable in.

Now doesn’t it seem obvious that more than 98 percent of people should get a sectional of 98 percentile plus in QA :P

Role of Question Selection in CAT ...

Note : This post is the same as the reply given by by me at pg, except the last para which concentrate on the role of question selection in Computer based test.


Question Selection always plays a big part in competitions like CAT, and though it largely depends upon a no. of factors like the paper format, relative difficulty of questions and all, but the most important factor is YOU.

You have to realize that what are the questions that you are comfortable with, what are the questions that you can solve in less time, for some guys like RCs are the only thing they are confident about in VA, for some-other guys RCs may be dreading while Vocab a nemesis.

But then you have to understand, that at times you have to make a trade-off and leave something you are good at just in order to make sure actually get the thing that matters most, a decent(and balanced) percentile.

Now though it depends on person to person, but still I would give u some points which might help you, please understand that these are my personal opinions and hence try them in mocks to see whether they are actually suitable for you.

i.) Don't make any pre-assumption about the paper like I will solve 15 questions in quant, rather chill out n try to find questions which look familiar to you, in the sense that either you have solved/seen such question earlier or the concept involved looks easier.

ii.) If there is any question involving terms such as 'n' or 'x' give yourself 2 minutes to try to put various values of the variable and option check.

iii.) Don't give a LR puzzle more than 5 minutes unless you actually get an idea on where it is leading to, or you have no better question to solve (LR puzzles are kind of addictive particularly for engineers and guys who love puzzles, but then its a exam).

iv.) Make use of bookmark : if u realize that a question looks familiar but you aren't able to crack in a few minutes bookmark it and solve other questions, come back to it once you feel like you have solved all the easier questions.

v.) If you aren't a voracious reader chose passage in which the questions are of factual nature eg: which of the following is the reason cited by the author, or which of the following is the reason provided .....
These kind of questions can be solved by just skimming through the passage, and then looking for the keyword(of the question) in the passage.
Avoid philosophical RCs and questions like, what does author think OR what does author implies.

And now, lets see how question selection differs from a paper based CAT to a cbt CAT.

You must have seen people telling that you should do the questions in two go, one of x min and the other y min, In a cbt exam this could be pretty much time-taking, its not easy to bookmark 10 questions and then you keep searching the questions which you have bookmarked, plus if you guys have appeared in online mock-cats, it takes some time for the questions to load, so in my opinion the strategy needs to be changed a little bit.

Go for all the questions that you think, can be solved in under 2 minutes, bookmark questions only if you know they are easy but you are missing some key point OR if the question is easy but involves lot of calculations avoid using excessive bookmarking. Go to the other sections, do them and then try to analyze your sectional performance and accordingly decide to go again into which section, go and solve the bookmarked questions in the section.

Best of luck !!!

Preperation Strategy : 60 days to CAT .

This post isn’t intended to be for every-one, this has an intended set of users.

i.) Those who think, they haven’t been able to do full justice to their intellectual and would like to do so.
ii.) Those who aren’t too bothered about the TIME/CL/IMS cut-offs rather who are willing to get into an IIM and preferably an A/B/C.
iii.) Those who are adaptable and flexible, what this effectively means is, those who are willing to learn and to change themselves in order to achieve the greater good.


Let’s look into how to prepare for CAT with 60 days to go.
Considering that there are a few days when you don’t feel like studying, or you don’t get time for that, e.g. you have your end-sem exams, its date for a project submission, you have to do an assignment or any other such reason I am assuming that you have just 60 days to ace for the D-day (or days).

Quant:

This is the one section where the only thing that is more important than hard work is smart work. This is the section where learning actually helps, try to revise the concepts of all the topics covered in CAT, as you read a topic try to solve some questions on that (remember its not the quantity but the quality of questions that you solve) Never ever waste your precious time on questions which take more than 4 minutes, remember CAT isn’t a Math’s Olympiad it is CAT.
When this is done, take as many CAT/MOCK-CAT papers you can find and see if there are questions related to that topic, and solve them. Once the questions are solved, take them again and think of yourself in a situation where you haven’t read the topic then try to solve the question by using option rejection, option checking, or value putting.

Data Interpretation:

There are a lot of teachers and institutes which give a lot of emphasis on learning squares, cubes, percentage tables and what not. I am not saying that they aren’t helpful but perhaps they aren’t that important as they are emphasized, in my little experience I’ve realized that one doesn’t save more than a few minutes by using these tricks, and no doubt these few minutes are important in a paper like CAT but is it worth the effort that you put into, and whether you feel confident while using them. If you keep re-checking all calculations which you have done by using these tricks there is no use of learning them in the first place.
DI is one section where two things are really important, first good question selection and second a cool head. And these things come from practice. But then its very unlike Quant, here you don’t have a well defined course / topics. So what is important is to do quality work on DI. Take a set of DI everyday, or if you are lazy enough to not being able to do that take at-least one DI set every few days, the important thing here is : first try to solve the set in a fixed time frame, say that of 10 minutes, if you can solve it in less than that, then be happy and go to sleep, else try to solve it in 30 minutes, if you can’t solve it even in 30 minutes then there are two possibilities, either the set wasn’t worth attempting or there is something which is missing in your reasoning. Just do remember one thing, if you can’t solve a set at a particular time this doesn’t mean you can’t solve it. At times what you need in DI (particularly LR) is a click, so don’t get dis-heartened remember its just practice match the final is on the D-day.
Coming back to point if you can’t solve it, discuss with some-one who you know is good to solve this kind of questions, he/she may be your friend or a teacher else you can ask the question at forums like pg (www.pagalguy.com) for those of you who don’t know what pg is, or else you can ask the question at this blog itself.
This is important because this way you would improve your question selection ability, in case you get a set which is similar to one you have solved you will feel confident and it would be easier to solve it.

Verbal Ability:

I know that I am not a very good person to say how to prepare for Verbal ability, but I can give you some tips on how to score good in it.
Use option elimination; at times it is easier to find out which options can’t be the answer than finding out, which option is the answer.
In reading comprehension, avoid inferential RCs which have questions like, what does the author means, or what is the intention of the author unless you have read the topic well and have gained good insight into it.
In para-jumbles, don’t try to find the complete order, rather try to find two sentences which need to be in certain order, and then use it to reject options.

Introduction

So here is the first post in this blog.

First of let me clarify why I've created this blog in the first place and why one should read it, the second one is a very appropriate question considering that as of now I am just another CAT aspirant, without any exceptional under-graduate record.
But then, as far as CAT is concerned, do you really think it matters??? Or for that matter that you actually need a very high IQ or a lot of hard work to crack it.
The answer is a clear and emphatic no. All it takes to crack CAT (remember I am talking about CAT as of now and not getting into IIMs or other institutes) is common-sense and a basic (high-school) knowledge of mathematics and English, don’t believe me!!! Read this post completely and if you still don’t agree, you can very well call this blog and the author “CRAP” and move on.
When I was in my class 12’th I used to think there is no life beyond the IITs (and may be NDA, this story will be told some other time), but then as I moved on in life I realized that no there actually is life beyond the IITs, and there is a place called IIMs where even the gold-medalists from the IITs covet to enter. In my time (no I am not too old, my time means 2005-2006) IIT-JEE used to be an exam which demanded hard-work, even the best minds used to burn mid-night oil to get into the Mecca of Indian undergraduate studies. And as you all can see, being an out-right lazy fellow that I am, I failed to get into them and am here in KIIT. Add to that, I am a student with pretty ordinary record, in 10’Th (83), 12’Th (82), B.Tech (8.0/10 till now) and I have been unsuccessful in SSB for NDA for outright 4 times.
But then CAT is a different ball game, in other exams such as IIT-JEE you can see and feel your progress as you get further into your preparations, but unless you actually understand what CAT demands its really difficult to make any significant progress, and trust me you won’t need much hard-word or a IQ of 160 to crack it, take my example, by my previous academic record you must have seen that I am an outright ordinary student and still some-how I’ve always managed to get over 99 percentiles in all but one mocks I’ve ever appeared. And if some-one has 10 out of 11 percentiles of over 99.15 including quite a few of 99.9x and just one exception of 98.xx then he gotta know something which might be worthwhile to look into, ISN’T IT ???
Hoping that this would have solved (may be partially) the second question let’s move on to the first question, why am I interested in this???
==> No-one is perfect, and in no field period, it would be a mutual process where we would be learning from each-other, so I am just making a platform where exchange of knowledge will take place.
==> I’ve seen that a lot of my friends, who are more intelligent than me, and who are putting a hell lot of effort more than me and more than what is required (in my humble opinion) getting way less marks and in turn percentiles than what they deserve. People who score 99.xx in 1 mock and then suddenly fall to 8x.xx are really good, but what they lack is the right approach, and you all must have felt that your marks in mocks aren’t actually a true reflection of your ability; I want to see all of them getting their due.
==> In case I don’t make into some IIM, it would be good to have some of my friends into there. :D

So let the journey begin, please pour in your comments and or doubts, if you have, I will definitely try my level best to answer them.