How to prepare for CAT Quant??

General Pattern: Management entrance tests traditionally have four areas:
Maths, English, Comprehension and Reasoning.

Some institutes add an additional section on general knowledge or business judgment. The number of sections in which these skill areas are divided, could vary. While earlier there used to be four sections in CAT, today there are three, each containing 30 questions. In one instance, CAT had only two sections with time limits for each section. To avoid being taken by surprise, it is important to do a number of tests on different patterns, within the given time frame. The test is of two hours duration. As nobody can do all the questions in the given time, the candidate must have the ability to pick and choose the questions that must be done.

Start with your preparation as early as possible. The advantage to start early is that one gets attuned to the kind of questions that are asked. Also, the time should be spent in developing extra reading habits and increasing vocabulary.

The test pattern in CAT 2005 was as follows: there were 3 sections consisting of Maths, Verbal and Data Interpretation/Reasoning. Each section had the following pattern:

Section No of questions Marks per question Total marks
Sub-section A 10 1 10
Sub section B 20 2 40
Total 30 50

The total marks of the paper were thus 50 * 3 = 150, with 90 questions. Each section had 10 relatively easy questions which carried one mark each and another 20 questions with 2 marks each.

Now, take a look at the chapter wise break up of the questions asked:
S.No Chapter/ No of questions/ No of marks
1. Numbers and number systems/ 11/ 19
2. Geometry/ 6/ 10
3. Co ordinate geometry/ 2/ 4
4. Mensuration/ 2/ 4
5. Time and distance/ 3/ 3
6. Functions/ 1/ 2
7. Logs/ 1/ 2
8. Quadratic/ 1/ 1
9. Venn diagrams/ 1/ 1

(Note: The above pattern is not an indication of the CAT paper. The pattern may change year to year so it is important to get practice of all topics to be prepared for all eventualities)

The above table shows that doing the basics thoroughly does pay, since a majority of the questions are from basic areas. Had one just done the basics or arithmetic and geometry, one could easily have been able to attempt at least 10 questions in this section. Even non-engineers could have made a respectable attempt in the paper, if only one had kept a cool mind. The cut-off for clearing this section was 10+, which most people could have achieved.

How to Prepare???

The preparation for CAT must necessarily consist of three parts. First, the student should start with doing the basics. Go ever each chapter and revise what you did in Class 10. Get a feel for the figures. Do the tricky questions given in question banks. Revision of the basics and doing exercises on each topic normally takes about three months.

After this, one should start doing sectional tests. These are tests of 30-40 sums each, containing varied sums from all chapters. The trick is to time yourself and do one section test in 40 minutes, and checking your score. Initially one may get less score but gradually one should target a score (after deducting 1/3rd marks for each wrong answer) of above 20.

It is important to do CAT-type questions at this stage. These are not available in normal textbooks or guidebooks, but must be collected from different sources. Question banks of these are available and one may also subscribe to the notes of any of the specialized institutes that prepare for CAT.

Once one is confident in section tests, start doing mock-CATs. These are very similar papers modelled on CAT. Give yourself two hours for the entire paper and check out both sectional and full-test scores. This will give you a good idea about your preparation and where you stand.

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