3 Focus Areas For Quant

You don’t need to pick up textbooks replete with advanced engineering mathematics to solve Quantitative Aptitude in the computer-based CAT. The QA section in the CAT is nothing but the theory learnt in school up to Class XII. You need to focus on as many practice tests as you can. This is the most important focus area while preparing for QA in CBT-CAT. Every mock test should be taken as seriously as the actual CAT. Pace yourself and time yourself for every test that you take. For those who are in college, you can take tests immediately since you are familiar with concepts and theory. However, working professionals tend to fall out of touch with academics. So they need to brush up theorems and formulae to prepare for CBT-CAT.

You can begin with topic tests when you initially start to prepare yourself. Once you are confident, you can begin to attempt full-length QA tests. Make sure to analyse your performance after every test that you attempt. Mock tests are a great source of feedback mechanism. You can use practice tests to judiciously select questions. It is okay if you are particularly weak in one area but you will still be at a risk. Hence it makes sense to improvise your performance in every area so that you can answer every question effortlessly.

CBT-CAT Quantitative Aptitude can be classified into 3 categories:

Algebra and Number Theory- This section provides maximum questions in any CAT QA section- about 60%. You need to focus on Probability, Card problems, Permutations and Combinations, Progressions, Quadratic and Linear/Simultaneous equations, Logarithms, Functions, etc. The most important being Number Theory. These problems are simple in nature. You can master a few tricks from textbooks to solve them. You can refer to Higher Algebra by Hall and Knight for the same.

Geometry, coordinate geometry and mensuration- Every CAT paper has about 4 questions on mensuration, a few questions on coordinate geometry, but Geometry is given maximum weightage. The topics that you need to cover include basic theorems involving circles, triangles and parallel lines. A general question asked in CAT is to find the length of certain sides or the value of certain angles. So topics like similarity of triangles and congruency need to be covered. Refrain from solving IIT-JEE level questions in coordinate geometry. A school-level textbook is enough to prepare for mensuration.

Arithmetic and miscellaneous- For Arithmetic, you need to cover problems on Time, Speed and Distance and Set Theory. An NCERT textbook will serve the purpose. Miscellaneous problems don’t fall under any specific category. They basically test your mathematical aptitude.

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