cAt UnPLuGGed !!!!

Some common words and phrases often used to spring to my mind when i look at or talk to people CAT aspirants. They would appear to be delirious with news about pay packages from B school placements and the same ecstasy would drown in an abysmal, unfathomable sea of frustartion when the 3 sections of the CAT paper vexed them.

But now that I have decided to appear in the Common Admission Test(CAT) of 2008, I find there's more to it. I get flummoxed very often and my confidence on the concepts of my childhood sweetheart, maths, is thrown off balance. And due to repeated "requests" by our faculties I have to look up words from the dictionary while reading snap out of my reverie every now and then. And what I cant understand is why would people keep data as a jigsaw puzzle whereas they could just write them down as normal persons do. Anyways, I cant blame the exam because they need to test how well we can make sense out of a lot of data, cryptic data and jumbled up data that we need to sort out(incase we have eccentric employees in our lives)Nevertheless we have to put two and two together from raw data all our lives.

So the last six months I have been refining my problem solving, comprehension and interpretation skills. Many people argue that CAT is an aptitude test and hence it doesn't require preparation. Regarding this, I need to say that aptitude is intrinsic and they can be developed over time. If test takers want to test our dexterity,it is perfectly normal that we improve our skills before the test. To the skeptic fellows I would ask, "wouldn't you ever try to increase your reading speed all your life? Would you only increase it for an exam?" I'm sure the answer will be "no". So whats wrong with doing it now! Wouldnt my acquired prowess last me a life time? In any case, other people are preparing and as such I wouldnt wanna loose out just cause they could read a few words or sentences faster than me.

Another area that I would like to write about is preparing "Quants". I have seen people practice maths problems for hours and hours and yet they get abominable scores in mocks. Many people have a terror for maths and they remember the school days when maths was a dreaded subject. Havnt these folks preparing to be a manager or an enterpreneur. A business man is successful when he makes huge profits. A manager is the one who can use the resources in the best possible way. As such he has to devise the best possible way to get his job done. He needs to calculate risks. As such maths helps us in that we use it as a tool. It is something that helps us, its not a villian that will spoil the exam. Moreover CAT problems are such that they use common sense and logic. Thats why whenever my friends say that they are afraid of the sums, I tell them deal with the sums as if a child had asked you that problem, so that they understand that the question is just a real life problem that they need to solve it the way they often do in their everday life. What do the problems talk about? "In how many ways a boy can choose his shirt and trousers?" "How much interest will Harilal earn after 8 years?" "How much time will the driver take to reach the manager's office?" These are extensions of real life scenarios and if we deny or cant solve them, then there's no place for us in B schools. Because if we cant solve these problems that repeatedly occur in exams which are similar to every other sums, then how can we aspire to be the CEO or MD of a multinational company where our decisions will influence thousands of workers and affect turnovers of a hundred billion.

Next, moving on to the verbal ability part here also I have found many people seriously opening up grammar books and remembering the rules of grammar. Here,I would surely like to give them a piece of my mind.First of all English is a language where there are more exceptions than rules, secondly, you cant get your English right by reading that book unless you practice it in your communication and writing. When I was at school I scored well in grammar. The answers came through instincts. What I didnt know then was that the many lessons that I learnt where not through grammar books, it was through reading books and writing essays.The essence and knowledge of a language doesnt not exist in grammar books. Its for them who are new to the language and who are in the process of learning at school. The real thing is the usage. Speak in English. Listen to English orators. Write in English if you want to master it. If you didnt learn grammar in your school what good chnaces do you have now? My teacher used to remind us, practice makes one perfect.

Many of us have heard that we should read articles on different topics and even fictional books in order to have exposure and to be comfortable with any kind of Reading Comprehension passages. But often I have heard people say that even the banged their heads on the book(read, try a lot) they cant complete a passage, let alone a book. Most are bored of reading. Well buddy, if you were ever reading a case study or an annual report, what do u expect! The words and figures will jump out of the that file and dance and entertain you? Try not to derive pleasure out of all things you do. Some things are just meant to be done. In my case, I try to understand the passage. My only handicap is my unfamiliarity with a subject that makes it a Herculean task to understand certain words and their usages because if i dont know the subject i feel the words dont make sense. But I am improving at it. Now I try to familiarize myself with the subject first and treat it as if i knew it for centuries.

I discussed data interpretation, quantitative aptitude, verbal ability and reading comprehension. Yes I kept logic in the end. Not because there's nothing to say about. But its because we will have a whole book written on it or have discussions that last a month. A correct logical analysis is just like magic. We can have answers in multiple steps, many people solve in lesser steps and a few can even solve them in just one step. Such is the power of logic. Logic isnt something that can be taught, (thats why we have fewer classes in logical reasoning at coaching centres)it is something that's our signature, how we think and define problems and try to solve them. To brush up logic we need to solve a variety of problems and ask ourselves if that is the most simple and shortest way of answering the problem.

Another topic that we might blend with logic is reasoning. But most important is critical reasoning that tests our reasoning as well as verbal abilities. At first I didnt get my answers correct. It was because all arguments seemed right to me, the plan of actions were more or less correct. The conclusions and inferences got mixed up. It was because (i)I didnt stick to the definitions (ii)I accepted arguments just for the sake that it was one and (iii) I didnt put my head in the right direction of target and allowed it to wander about due to which I accepted even those options that were near to the periphery of the real plan of action. One of our faculties had said "Your mind is a powerful horse, it will run at maximum speed if u loosen the reins. Learn to control. Thats the key". And thats what I do now. Control and concentration helps a lot.

And relaxation and being cool also helps. Thats why I am writing this blog on 12th Nov 12:46 am even though CAT is on 16th Nov. CAT is about testing aptitude, about dedication, discipline, sincerity, hard work. But most importantly its about guts, about keeping ur ego in ur pockets when need be, about making the right choice, truly a test for the future managers.

CAT is just about testing pur aptitude. CAT is about nerves.

PS: The cat in the picture truly depicts how the CAT reflects our abilities.