If you are one of those people who are not super comfortable with maths, or someone who feels uneasy when surrounded by math geeks or merely by math questions, do not lose confidence! Do not think that the IPMAT exams are not for you. IPMAT can easily be cracked by following a few things religiously.
The first and foremost thing to remember about the exams is that they are not MATH exams, and they are not getting you admission to a degree in higher maths or engineering but they are an aptitude test giving you admission to BBA/MBA colleges. So the level of the questions asked will not be extremely difficult that you cannot crack it even after regular preparation.
To know about the IPMAT Syllabus in detail, click here.
Having said that, you cannot have a laidback approach to your preparation. You will have to put in the effort and give it all it takes to gear yourself up for the exam.
We at 2IIM can guide you through the tips and tricks that’ll help you prepare better for the IPMAT exams and bridge the gap if any between you and the students extremely comfortable with maths.
1. R.E.L.A.X.
Breathe! Get yourself out of this vicious loop of not liking maths or being unable to solve questions . Don’t get hyped up if you haven’t even touched Maths after Class 10th. All will fall into place once you start revisiting concepts and focussing on the fundamentals. With regular preparation you can easily ace the IPMAT Exams. So relax yourself and focus on what you can concentrate on to dive into serious IPMAT preparation.
2. Kill the Phobia
If you are scared of maths, and find yourself unable to solve questions, the foremost thing to do is to no let this fear get to your head. Kill the phobia you have for maths and just begin. Sometimes, the fear is just in your head. Push yourself to go through the very basics of a topic and then dive into solving questions starting from basics and amping it up to CAT level questions with time.
3. Bridge the gap with Preparation
The gap between you and a person who is super comfortable with maths or took up maths as a subject in Class 11 and 12, if at all, can be easily bridged with your consistent preparation for the exam. Remember, you still have around an year for the IPMAT exams and you can turn the tables within this time duration and have maths or quants work in your favour. All you need to do is to focus on your preparation and make sure that you put in regular effort in your preparation religiously.
4. Plan Well
Another important thing to do before diving straight into preparation is to plan your preparation. Make a schedule for yourself, taking into consideration the exams you are focussing on, your comfort with different sections tested in the exam, your strengths and weaknesses, and the daily time you can allocate for your preparation seriously. After making the plan, make sure you follow it through come what may. Also include time for your hobbies in your daily schedule so that it does not become monotonous and following your schedule becomes easier.
5. Start with basic topics
Since the IPMAT exams contain 60% Quants and 40% Verbal Ability, it is very important for you to focus on the quants section. Do not through yourself off the track by picking up something difficult to start with. This will only lower your morale instead of equipping you with tips and tricks that could have fetched you accuracy in your exam. The level of questions tested in IPMAT exams are not too tough like the engineering entrance exams. These test you more on the applicability of the concepts and focus on comparatively simpler topics. So start your preparation with simple and easy topics like Percentages, Profit and Loss, Simple and Compound Interest etc. This will act as a stepping stone for slightly tougher topic in the Quants section.
2IIM offers a fantastic repository of questions that help you prepare well for the exam. You can access the questions here.
6. Amp up your preparation game
As you steer through your preparation, sticking to your daily schedule, you will find it easier to cope up with the concepts. As you get comfortable with the easier topics of quantitative ability, start moving towards the tougher topics like Geometry and Algebra. The aim is to amp up your preparation as time goes by and to get comfortable with the different levels of the topics. This makes sure that you have a strong hold on the easier topics and you can expand your horizon to attempting questions from the tougher topics as well.
7. Choose your battles
Whatever topics that you are covering, especially the easier ones like percentages and profit and loss, should be prepared in a way that you are extremely comfortable and get all questions correct from that particular topic. This will let you have an advantage over others, especially the people preparing for tougher exams like JEE. This is so because they tend to forget about these simpler topics and focus more on the tougher ones.
Another important thing to note is that the IPMAT exams carry negative marks, with every wrong answer attracting a penalty of 1 mark. So you need to be very sure of the questions you are attempting. It is very crucial to pick and choose your battles. Know the topic that you are very comfortable in, and ace that particular topic. Additionally, make sure you do know the basics of the topics that you are not very comfortable with.
8. Take Mocks
Taking mocks is the most important part of your preparation. Mocks set you up for the exam, they give you a glimpse of what it would be like to take the final day IPMAT exam. It further helps you manage your time and understand your strengths and weaknesses in various topics. Make sure that when you are giving mocks, you replicate the exam environment such that you can focus on solving questions in the limited time, without any distractions.
After taking mocks, it is also very important to analyse those mocks. Look out for questions that were difficult and you spent too much time on and the questions that were easier that you got incorrect, could not read due to time or simply skipped. You can also try different strategies of giving the exam while taking mocks, to understand what works the best for you.
All in all, do not get bogged down by the fact that you do not enjoy maths/solving questions, or somebody is better at it than you. Focus on preparing well and learning from the very fundamentals and amping up your preparation process. There is a lot of time to the exam, enough to get you going in your preparation and acing the exam.
Cheers and Best Wishes!
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