Test Taking Strategy

Tips to raise your score:

1. How to do Smart Selection of Questions?

Read a question for few seconds, if it appears very familiar to you then only go ahead and attempt it. Remember marks allotted to each question are same. So there is no point in attempting a complex question by spending 5 mins while in the same time you could have had attempted 3 simple questions. Tips for smartly selecting the questions: 1. Try to skip questions which are more than 5 lines long. Reasons: Merely Reading such question will take a lot of time 2. Try to skip question from topics in which you are not too confident. 3. Avoid questions which you already know will consume a lot of time. 4. Avoid questions in which options go to two or three decimal points E.g. A question where options are: a.) 4,324.234 b.) 4,324.233 c.) 4,324.243 d. 4,324.235 Here you will waste a lot of time in finding the correct decimal point.

2. What Order of Sections should you attempt?

a. You should always start with a section you are most comfortable with, Reasons: The initial few minutes of test matters a lot and you should always try out with something which you are comfortable with which in turn will boost your confidence level for rest of the test. b. Don't leave a section in which you are least confident for the end. Reasons: Last few minutes of the test are generally nerve testing ones. So it wont be good idea to attempt something you are not that that confident with in the last few minutes. E.g.: Say Ram is very much confident in DI, Good in Quantz but Ok in English His order of attempts should be: DI English Quantz Also practice through mock test's to find out what order works best for you.

3. Dos & Donts in last 5 minutes....

Never start attempting a comprehension or Logical Reasoning question(with lots of inputs) in Last 5 minutes. In last 5 mins, try to attempt questions which are short in description.

4. Always Keep sectional Cut Off in mind.

While attempting a section avoid getting over enthusiastic and spend too much of time in it. Along with the time limit also set a limit on number of question you would be attempting in a section. Reasons: Many a times merely having a time limit doesnt helps. This is due to the fact that you never know how complex the other sections are. You may clear the cutoff of a particular section in 40 mins but other section may require 60 minutes depending on its complexity. E.g.: RAM decided to attempt 25 questions in DI, 20 in quantz and 20 in English. He also set a time limit of 55 mins in DI, 50 mins in Quantz and 45 minutes in English. He was able to solve 25 questions of DI in 50 mins only. Now instead of spending more time in DI Ram should stop here and move ahead to the next section. This will help Ram as he is not sure about the difficulty levels of other sections (and which may require more time to clear the cut-off).

Utilize mock tests to apply the above tips and find out where you need to work more.

How to start your CAT preparation?

You should always start your preparation by analysing your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you in planning your efforts efficiently. Following are some of the basic strengths which will enable a candidate to sail across CAT: 1.Has a decent reading speed 2.Good at solving puzzles 3.Has a decent grammatical aptitude 4.Ability to analyze, understand and adapt to a new situation very fast 5.Ability to take right decisions in lest amount of time 6.Ability to cope with the time pressure by proper time management 7.Most importantly ability to choose questions in a smart way, as per his strengths. You need to work on the skills mentioned above and try to develop them within yourself.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Success Mantra for MBA

The Right Attitude

Your attitude makes an impact on things you do. It is also the key factor that marks the difference between success and failures. All your preparation may go for a toss if you dont have the right attitude towards the things you do. Few of the things which will surely help you in your preparation are enlisted below:

Keep yourself motivated Motivation is the driving force for most of our achievements in life. We need to have zeal towards our target and must have a can do it attitude for the same. Never let negative thoughts come in your mind. Try to avoid people who are discouraging and de-motivating. Nothing in life is impossible to achieve. You can reach all your dreams if you are determined and have a positive approach. Be Focused If you are really serious about doing MBA from any of the top institutions then you should be focused and striving hard towards your goal. Keep yourself reminding about your goal and you are surely going to achieve it with your perseverance. Divide your preparation in smaller parts, check your preparation periodically by attempting questions from the prepared areas and then analyze your results to find if your preparation going in right direction or not. Mastering Time Management Time management would is the key factor to your success. You need to use your time as efficiently as possible. Attempting the questions blindly like you used to do in your school or college wont be helpful anymore. The key to getting ahead of others in such competitive exams is your ability to adapt yourself according to the situation. As soon as you get the question paper you can have the following approach: 1. Quickly Scan the Paper 2. Mark the questions you feel you are comfortable with. 3. Select and solve the questions from the ones marked above depending on their difficulty and the amount of time they will take. The easier ones which will take least amount of time must be solved first and only then you should move to difficult ones. Work on your Communication Skills Clearing the written test is not the end of your preparation. You need to focus on the big picture i.e. pursuing MBA from a top institution. You surely have to see beyond that and keep your self prepared for group discussion and personal interviews. Every one has ideas in their mind but the most important thing is how well you convey all your ideas efficiently to the group or the interviewer. Developing right Interests Right interests will surely aid your preparation and help you in getting ahead of others without stressing yourself much. Many a skills will get developed naturally in you if your interests are right. Say for e.g. Reading books or articles on diversified topics will surely improve your reading speed. Even your achievements in your college extra curricular activities or any achievement in the organization you are working for will add value to your profile. Work on your communication skills by directly talking with people and try to remove any hesitations within yourself. Other helpful interests could be doing mental calculations, thinking creatively, having a mature opinion about things happening in the world. Improve your Body Language Body language is an indicator of your personality. A body language depicting confidence and maturity is the desired quality of a future manager. An interviewer closely monitors and evaluates you on the basis of your body language. A negative body language can also ruin the chances of an otherwise intelligent person. Be Open to accept new ideas. Keep yourself open for new ideas. Talk with other people and try to understand and analyze there views. Dont have a vague and predetermined opinion in your mind about any thing. Try to understand the situation, analyze it and then conclude on it with the help of solid reasoning. Read Diversely Reading books or article on diverse topics surely helps in solving RC passages. This enriches your mind with awareness on diverse topic and also helps to improve your reading speed. Practice a lot Mock Tests should be utilized to develop skills such as time management, smart selection of questions and developing a flexible approach towards attempting the paper. Try to learn from mistakes in your Mock papers. Try to improve your approach towards solving the paper and you have to find out on your own what works best for you. Say for e.g. you should not attempt a RC passage in last 5 minutes of tour test. Also solving a lengthy Logical Reasoning question which requires lots of analysis in last 5 minutes is not suggested. Such things you need to find on your own as things work differently for different people depending on their strengths and weaknesses.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined."