CAT 2021 preparation strategy, at this point, should be pivoted around how much and how well a CAT aspirant has covered and is covering their Quant syllabus. And when it comes to Quant, there is a perception that scoring well in this section could be a Himalayan task. Here in this article, we are demystifying that and giving you some ideas that will make it easy for you to be assured of a 90th percentile at the least. (Caveat: only certainties in life are death and taxes). Non-engineers, engineers afraid of Math, Math prodigies who have somehow flunked the Quant section previously, and all you CAT-o-sapiens, this one’s for you!
It is ok to have a Shaky start!
Let me start with my own math journey. During my schooling, the math teachers were increasingly focused on finishing the syllabus and making sure the students were exam ready rather than getting conceptual knowledge. This led to me not understanding the beauty of math and did not allow me to develop a liking of the subject. I am an engineer, and during my under-graduation and even the first two jobs that I worked in, I found niche areas that are not explicitly linked to math and made it my forte.
However, I had always wanted to do an MBA (this thought was sowed in my head by my friend when we were in 3rd year of engineering). And that is a problem since my math was not great, and most coaching institutes started with number theory as it was touted to be the most important thing to learn in Quant for CAT.
Shortcuts? Understanding?
After several years I did figure out that Arithmetic was nice and interesting to solve, and understanding arithmetic became better with every additional iteration of solving topics in arithmetic. Once I became comfortable with arithmetic, the floodgates opened. I crossed 90th percentile in Quant for the first time in my life, with a handful of attempts under my kitty.
Also I happen to know many who rely extensively on shortcuts for topics like Time speed distance or Profit and Loss. However, what helped me immensely was the understanding that I had in the subject rather than shortcuts. CAT has slowly shied away from helping candidates who remember loads of forumlae & shortcuts. CAT has started awarding candidates who are good at understanding the underlying principles of the topic. There are CAT Aspirants who will claim that shortcuts worked fantastically well for them, no doubts. To each their own. However, if you analyse intently, those who claim shortcuts to have worked well, will naturally have better underlying understanding of the subject/questions to begin with. If you do not have that advantage, then shortcuts could become a double edged sword that sacrifices you in the altar of CAT.
CAT 2021 preparation strategy – The Quant game
There is only one statement, for anybody who gets jitters when the word, ‘Quant’ is mentioned – “Start with Arithmetic“.
How is Arithmetic pivotal to your cat 2021 preparation strategy?
To give a brief one-liner, Arithmetic is the backbone of Quant. To be a bit more elaborate, Arithmetic comprises topics such as Percentages, Profit and Loss, Simple Interest and Compound Interest, Averages, Ratios and Proportions, Mixtures and Alligations, Pipes and Cisterns, Time Speed and Distance, Races, and Progressions, etc. I would even go on to the extent of adding Linear and Quadratic Equations to this bucket.
The following video gives an overview of sorts on how you can go about preparing for Arithmetic.
90th percentile? Really?
If we think about it, these topics are relatable to our real-life experiences, and when we read these questions, these scenarios can be imagined in real-life circumstances. For instance, a tank overflowing in half an hour, or a milkman cheating you by adding water to milk. There can be multiple variants of the questions, but all of these are more or less relatable to real-life situations. These are the topics that you can bundle under arithmetic and once you diligently work on them, you will be able to solve about 13-15 questions in the CAT paper. In the scenario that you get all 15 right, you can easily cross the 90th percentile.
Especially if you are someone who has an overall 95th percentile but your math score is 72 or lower, you can up your game in math by focusing on the arithmetic section. You can eventually top it up with geometry, logarithms or functions and inequalities.
Why 90th percentile in Quant could be a gamechanger?
Many CAT Aspirants miss out on one of two things. Not so great overall percentile due to one bad sectional percentile or one bad sectional percentile pulling them down in reference with sectional cutoffs that institutes have.
Either way, to make things go in your favor, getting a 90th percentile would help a lot. Most schools have sectional cutoffs less than 90th percentile (NITIE has 92, but it is an exception). So if you are looking at a 80th percentile in a bad day and compare it with a 90, the 90 can and will take you places that 80 could never have.
Exploring more on the exam standpoint
The first and foremost idea is that if you can get these 15 questions right, without any mistakes, you can cross the 90th percentile conveniently. This will especially come in handy for those whose overall percentile has been touching the 95+ horizon, but Quant has always been pulling them down with a 72 percentile or a 66 percentile.
Optimise for Maximum Value
Candidates often struggle trying to solve 30 questions in the exam, when they don’t want to miss anything. Especially someone who has learnt almost all topics struggles with less time to solve lots of questions. There is one crucial suggestion here (applicable only if you are scoring less than 80 percentile in Quant). If you can figure out a way to skip all questions other than arithmetic and attempt all arithmetic questions in the allotted sectional time frame, you can get thereabouts of 4 minutes per question instead of 1.5. This also improves the clarity with which you can attempt this 15 questions.
Lesser the Pressure, Better the Results!
Don’t forget this limiting the amount of pressure on yourself during a super tough exam. With the four minutes that you allocate to solve each question, you can easily walk away with the 90th percentile in this exam. All in all, this is a win win scenario, especially if you have been struggling to cross 80-85th percentile in CAT Quant.
This has been the trend consistently in the past 4-5 years of our test-taking experience. If you are worried about math and have a phobia of numbers, you should give arithmetic the importance that it deserves and improve your score substantially.
Is this enough as my CAT 2021 preparation strategy for Quant?
Not really. And not always. Start off with a good course/structure for Quant. If you are looking to find a decently well made schedule, head out here. If you can finish off your Arithmetic, and top it off with Geometry, Log, Set theory, Functions and Inequalities, you are conveniently looking to go beyond the 90th percentile without breaking a sweat. There is about 6 months to prepare and this is enough time to get your basics in place, and practice loads of questions across topics and nail this section, and thereby CAT 2021.
Stay safe and best wishes for CAT 2021 preparation.
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