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funda...it's a combination of few of my old posts...

factorial based questions asking no. of zeroes and max power of suminteger.

Find the no. of zeroes at the right end of 300!

for every zero, we require 10..n every 10 is made up of 5x2.in the expression 1x2x3...300, multiples of 2 wud obviously be more than themultiples of 5...so v need to find the maximum power of 5 in 300!

300/5 = 60 (because every fifth no. is a multiple of 5)

300/25 = 12(because every mutiple of 25 has two 5s in it) or, 60/5=12

300/125 = 3 (because multiples of 125 have three 5s in it) or,

12/5 = 2

now 2 cannot be further divided by 5 so add all the quotients...60 + 12 + 2 = 74.

we might also get the same type of questions in a different form,

500! is divisible by 1000^n...what is the max. integral value of n?

now every 1000 is made up of 3 5s and 3 2s....2s are redundant...we need to countno. of 5s....so find total no. of 5s and divide by 3

500/5 = 100

100/5 = 2020/5 = 4

100 + 20 + 4 =124

124/3 = 41.33

max integral value is 41.

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 decidingfactor. so count no. of 11s for the answer

500/11 = 4545/11 = 4

ans will be 49.

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so in such questions, just check which prime no. will be the deciding factor andcount the no. of times it occurs. but please understand that highest prime no. is notnecessarily 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 5does. so we'll count the no. of 2s and divide by 5.

100/2 = 5050/2 = 2525/2 =1212/2 = 66 /2 = 33/2 = 1

add 'em all...97.

97/5 = 19.

so the answer wud be 19

had v 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...

when in dilemma as to which prime no. wud be the deciding factor (e.g. a divisorlike 144...its not possible to decide whether 3 or 2 will give the right answer) ....takeout answer using both the prime nos...the one thats less is the right answer.

50! is divisible by 144^n...what is the max. integral value of n?

144 = 2^4 * 3^2...difficult to decide whether 3 or 2 will be the deciding factor...

count 2s

50/2=2525/2=1212/2=66/2=33/2=1

sum=47

answer = 47/4 = 11.

count 3s

50/3=1717/3=5

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5/3=1

sum = 23

23/2 = 11

a tie...else the smaller value wud have been the answer.

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! willdecide 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 amclear...else, feel free to revert.

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

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

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

total 2s in 256! = 255

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

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

ans-42

Questions based on this concept

400! is divisible by x^n. what is the max. possible integral value of n if the value of 

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x is:

Q1. 300Q2. 99Q3. 500Q4. 320

Q5. 770Q6. 5200Q7. 270Q8. 686Q9. 338Q10. 13000

Answers... 49, 39, 33, 66, 39, 32, 65, 22, 16, 32 (the answer is not 33, this one isactually tricky! )

200! is divisible by (x!)^n...whats the max. possible value of n when x =

Q11. 2512. 3513. 5014. 10015. 7016. 30017.15

answers... 8, 6, 4, 2, 3, 0, 16

300! is expanded and expressed in base x. find the no. of zeroes at the right end of this expression when x=

18. 2519. 1520. 3521. 3922. 98

answers...37, 74, 48, 23, 24

do lemme know if there's any problem at all.

cheers!

Fact Inference & Judgment .... 

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

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

FACTS:

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• 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 opinionattached becomes an inference).INFERENCES:• A logical conclusion based on a set of facts. (Logical conclusion meaning, anyone seeing thoseset 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 aninference 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 thata 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

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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 / settheory. I will definitely try to write about the same in my future posts.

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Monday, November 9, 2009

Tournament Based Sets in DI . 

There are 16 teams and they are divided into 2 pools of 8 each. Each team in a group playsagainst one another on a round-robin basis. Draws in the competition are not allowed. The topfour teams from each group will qualify for the next round i.e round 2. In case of teams havingthe 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 inadvance that this should take only 30 seconds to solve1.1 group is consisting of 8 teams. So each team will play 7 match each. Suppose each of the 8teams 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 teamwinning all and lowest seeded team losing all.For minimum number of wins we allow 3 teams to win maximum number of matches. Of theremaining 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=5So it may be the case that 5 teams can end up having 5 wins each. And hence 1 team will missthe 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 hasscored 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 

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Sunday, November 8, 2009

How To Identify Incorrect Sentences . 

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In this post I will be writing about some of the common mistakes in sentences (as in selecting thecorrect/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 establishedsomewhere 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 allof them are in fact comparable + there must not be any ambiguity as to the validity of thecomparison.

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.

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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.

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Saturday, November 7, 2009Finding out smallest number which leaves specific remainders when divided withspecific 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 beenc*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 whendivided 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.

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Friday, November 6, 2009

How to attempt DI : part 1 

Please read Introduction post first.

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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 aboutall the sets asked in exam. In that case, the paper is really testing or u should be prepared to givethe 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 alwaysmore than cracking an obscure LR set. Again if a set based on tournament is asked and u hv theconfidence 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 allof you is to start working on speed maths a little bit. The time u save while doing DI can beallotted 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 beatleast 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 bynature a bundle of nerves and allow even small occasions to get to u, chances are tht u'll findgoing 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 4-5questions 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'mnot able to crack the set, then those 15-20 mins tht i'hv invested in the set would become aliability. This pressure does not help ur cause really. The best way to avoid this mental trap is tostart 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 thesedemons 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 hasscored 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.

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Introduction Post to A Funda a day .... 

Less than a month away from the most awaited management entrance exam of this season, Ithought its time to revise our concepts, to learn a few new concepts, to see what the best do to bewhat 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.

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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 spareis increasing, let us be a little more regular, from now onwards, every day (or almost every day) Iwill be writing a new post on this blog, that will be having some new concepts, some approachesto 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 comeacross on internet, but I will try my level best to ensure that they are in public domain and thatthe authors have personally allowed me to use them in this blog. More often than not the originalauthors will be given due credit, but even if I fail to do so, you must realize that I am thankful toyou all, and we all (every-one who contributes to this blog, by either writing or reading it) willtry our best to gain from your insights.

In the end let me rephrase the standard disclaimer : Even though I am trying my best to writedown only those things which can be applied by almost every CAT aspirant, but I make no claimof 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 noresponsibility 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 timeon internet, gaining from various sources freely available on net and it becomes my socialresponsibility to do my bit, this blog is in no way a source for any monetary gain.

Cheers.

Let us bell the CAT this time.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

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.

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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 beenavoided.

The basic gyan.

Every day starting from today, make sure to give 3 hours to CAT, and plus do remember that youhave 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 wedidn'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 aboutearlier 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, inall 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 dayswhere 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.

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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 thatIf 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 inunder 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, andensure 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 nottry 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 areal 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".)

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Introduction post : ThE final 30 days. 

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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 youwant 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 gettingyour 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.

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Monday, October 26, 2009

Mistakes I won't Repeat 

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

1.) Going on a speed spree, while accuracy goes for a toss. Its good to have great speed but noton 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

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times we don't mark a question even after solving it, since we think that the answer can't be sosimple.

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 extraminutes to a question or a section.

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

5.) Wasting too much time on a particular section thinking its too easy / too difficult andspending a few more minutes will ensure clearing cut-off / getting good score. Remember if it isactually 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 looksgood and more so if its actually a +3 / -1. Though its a good method if you are able to reject afew 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 enoughand 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 chancethat 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 Ihave talked, say things like I am extremely good in one/two section while I am extremely bad insome other, so they don't work for improving their so called extremely good section, but pleaserealize that there are a lot of smart guys over there and no-one (I repeat no-one is perfect) so youcan 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 canalways clear the cut-off in ur weakest section, remember CAT prefers smart work over hardwork, 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 .....

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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

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Those 135 mintues .... 

THIS POST IS REPLICA OF MY POST IN THE PG THREAD "The most important 135minutes), I am posting it here for those of you who are not on pg (though its a great place to befor 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 provemyself, its the pay-back time to all people who have believed in me, even when I failed, and Ifailed 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 isthe 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 rangingfrom 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, tosolve arun sharma and I don't know how many other books. To solve tougher questions(whicheither take more than 5 minutes time to solve, or which need some particular methodologywithout which they are un-solvable) because they will make me ready to face comparativelyeasier 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 andweaknesses and I do know what I want from life and what I can do for it. I knew that I can't do alot of things, unless I can't convince myself that I will do myself some good by rememberingBarren'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 makeit. So kept things simple, kept things in control so that they seem fun, when I appeared in my firstAIMCAT(actually aimtest), the only thing in my mind was to have fun (and may be to prove thatTHIS IS THE RIGHT APPROACH), I thought nothing about strategy, I thought nothing aboutcut-offs, just a simple n basic guideline was there " GO THERE AND DO YOUR BEST IN ALLTHE 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 simplestrategy 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 mostimportant thing that can help you is " KEEP THINGS SIMPLE AND LOVE THE JOB YOU  DO".

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At 22'nd jan, I may feel shattered, and every-one reading this post after that date may feel, that'swhy he is not there.But those 135 minutes are mine, I am gonna do what I love and what I have believed in those135 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 mydiscussions 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 sameas just being alive ~~~~

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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 thecommon 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 repeatedlyfound as the major areas tested in CAT, so the reader must have gained some proficiency in themtill now.ii.) CAT is a paper of 2:15 hours, is online and provides facility to bookmark a question / skipthe question / come back to previous question. _____________________________________________________________________ 

QA : Start from the very first question, if it is from a topic you r good at, read it, see if you cansolve 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 thatyou 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 awayor go to the next section and come back if you have time left.

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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 feelthat u will be able to crack it . DONT BELIEVE ON UR FEEL book-mark it and leave it, u canalways come back if time permits.

Always look for the individual questions like Data Sufficiency etc. which are usually (but notalways) easier.

Even if u aren't able to crack a set, have a look at the questions, at times there are some questionsin a set which are pretty doable and some which are time-taking, this isn't that significant inAimcats 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 twosuggestion 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 needmore 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 institutessay 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.

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

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 fewweeks away from the D-day (or the D-week or what-ever) but still I thought its never late for agood 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 thethings which I am going to write are just my views and predictions, and they may or may not betrue, I am not going to write things like the number of questions one can expect in CAT but thetype 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 thesame 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

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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 sectionis 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 younever know questions from which section would be easier, the paper may have easier questionsfrom the section you have left while difficult ones from your areas of comfort, now here is atrade-off : you either work on all the topics, so that you can do the sitters from all the areas wellor you may decide to be so good in your favorite topics that you can solve the questions, comewhat 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 makesets less worthy and hence you will need to do more sets in the same amount of time for havingour 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 adata.

 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 oncomprehension/analysis of the read text, don’t depend too much on techniques like reading thequestion first and then trying to find out the key-word in the passage but try to actuallyunderstand 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 afew 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.

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==>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 andother 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-correctlyor 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 andrealize whether you should try it.

 Now usually there would be at-least 2-3 questions, which would be from the topics you dread, sothese questions you will leave even without wasting reading them and wasting much time, letssay 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 besitters which can be easily solved in about 90 seconds each. Attempting 4such questions wouldmean you have 24 minutes for rest 6 questions that means whopping 4 minutes per question, andthese 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

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Sunday, September 6, 2009

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 whichconcentrate on the role of question selection in Computer based test.

Question Selection always plays a big part in competitions like CAT, and though it largelydepends upon a no. of factors like the paper format, relative difficulty of questions and all, butthe 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 areconfident 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 somethingyou 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 mighthelp you, please understand that these are my personal opinions and hence try them in mocks to

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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 havesolved/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 putvarious 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 isleading to, or you have no better question to solve (LR puzzles are kind of addictive particularlyfor 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 youhave 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 lookingfor 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 10questions and then you keep searching the questions which you have bookmarked, plus if youguys have appeared in online mock-cats, it takes some time for the questions to load, so in myopinion 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 questionsonly if you know they are easy but you are missing some key point OR if the question is easy butinvolves lot of calculations avoid using excessive bookmarking. Go to the other sections, dothem and then try to analyze your sectional performance and accordingly decide to go again intowhich section, go and solve the bookmarked questions in the section.

Best of luck !!!

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Friday, August 28, 2009

Preperation Strategy : 60 days to CAT . 

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

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i.) Those who think, they haven’t been able to do full justice to their intellectual and would liketo do so.ii.) Those who aren’t too bothered about the TIME/CL/IMS cut-offs rather who are willing to getinto an IIM and preferably an A/B/C.iii.) Those who are adaptable and flexible, what this effectively means is, those who are willingto 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 anassignment 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 topicscovered in CAT, as you read a topic try to solve some questions on that (remember its not thequantity but the quality of questions that you solve) Never ever waste your precious time onquestions 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 arequestions related to that topic, and solve them. Once the questions are solved, take them againand 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’tthat important as they are emphasized, in my little experience I’ve realized that one doesn’t savemore 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 whileusing them. If you keep re-checking all calculations which you have done by using these tricksthere 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 seconda cool head. And these things come from practice. But then its very unlike Quant, here you don’thave a well defined course / topics. So what is important is to do quality work on DI. Take a setof DI everyday, or if you are lazy enough to not being able to do that take at-least one DI setevery 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 tosolve 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 youcan’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 tosolve this kind of questions, he/she may be your friend or a teacher else you can ask the question

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at forums like pg (www.pagalguy.com) for those of you who don’t know what pg is, or else youcan ask the question at this blog itself.This is important because this way you would improve your question selection ability, in caseyou get a set which is similar to one you have solved you will feel confident and it would beeasier 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 giveyou 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 thanfinding 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 gainedgood insight into it.In para-jumbles, don’t try to find the complete order, rather try to find two sentences which needto be in certain order, and then use it to reject options.

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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, thesecond one is a very appropriate question considering that as of now I am just another CATaspirant, 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 youactually 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 aboutCAT 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 completelyand if you still don’t agree, you can very well call this blog and the author “CRAP” and moveon.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 thereactually is life beyond the IITs, and there is a place called IIMs where even the gold-medalistsfrom 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-nightoil 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 astudent with pretty ordinary record, in 10’Th (83), 12’Th (82), B.Tech (8.0/10 till now) and Ihave 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 CATdemands its really difficult to make any significant progress, and trust me you won’t need muchhard-word or a IQ of 160 to crack it, take my example, by my previous academic record you

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must have seen that I am an outright ordinary student and still some-how I’ve always managed toget 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 thenhe 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 thefirst 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 belearning 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 ahell lot of effort more than me and more than what is required (in my humble opinion) gettingway less marks and in turn percentiles than what they deserve. People who score 99.xx in 1mock 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 willdefinitely try my level best to answer them.

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Ranjeet Pratap Singh No dream unseen , No stone unturned, No height unscaled, No place too far , No task tootough , Nothing is impossible........... its just about the thinking.

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Blog Archive• ► 2010 (3)

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Journey of a boy !!!

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CAT '09 and Beyond .... 

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the best of pg ... 

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Frequently Asked Questions IN Personal Interviews ... 

FAQs regarding Personal Interview ... 

Interview Preparation .... 

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

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Continuation Post.... 

Highest Power in a Factorial ... 

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Fact Inference & Judgment .... 

Tournament Based Sets in DI . 

How To Identify Incorrect Sentences . 

Finding out smallest number which leaves specific ... 

How to attempt DI : part 1 Introduction Post to A Funda a day .... 

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ThE final 30 days ... 

Introduction post : ThE final 30 days. 

Mistakes I won't Repeat

Those 135 mintues .... 

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

Strategy For attempting mock-CATs and CAT . ○ ► September (2)

My take on CAT '09

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