I was a non-engineer, i.e. I was pursuing B.Com Honors. When it was time to start preparing for CAT, I had a fear that engineers are really good at math. So how will I compete with them in this exam? Isn’t this very unfair?
But I have not only cracked the CAT exam. My percentile in Quant was 95, and my overall percentile was 99. I went to IIM Ahmedabad after that. If you are afraid of math or from a non-math background, don’t worry!
I’ve seen so many students whose math was weak at first. Then they prepared themselves so well for this exam. Eventually, they cracked it and went to the top IIMs.
Contents
Quant Strategy
Let’s start with the strategy for Quant. First, let me dispel a misconception that many non-math students have. We think that it’s been many years since we studied math. By now, we probably won’t remember anything. So how do we tackle this exam?
The first thing you need to understand is that only math up to a 10th-grade level is included in this exam. To give an example, I’ll show you the syllabus. This includes the quant section. I’ll also add it in the description of the PDF.
The syllabus of all sections is mentioned here. If you look at the Quant, there are only 5 major topics: Arithmetic, Algebra, Number System, Geometry, and Modern Math. Below them, these chapters are given. Most of the chapters you may have done in your school. But at least you will definitely remember that you have done Arithmetic and Geometry chapters.
Starting Your Preparation
When anyone starts their preparation, they are recommended to start with Arithmetic because they are more familiar with it. Let me tell you one thing, when I started my preparation, I used a book in which the first chapter was Number System. And it’s such a vast chapter. I would feel demotivated thinking it would be so tough. That’s why I recommend starting with Arithmetic.
The order I suggest is Arithmetic, Algebra, Number System, Geometry, and Modern Math. This way, you can complete it. I had taken coaching from TIME Institute, and they followed the same order. If you are taking coaching from any other institute, you can use their order. Most coaching institutes start with Arithmetic.
Tackling the Syllabus
There are 2 major challenges in the quant section. The first challenge is that the syllabus of Quant is very vast, and the second challenge is that the questions in Quant that come in the CAT exam are very tough.
Mapping Out Your Syllabus
This first challenge, that Quant’s syllabus is very vast, is absolutely true. If you pick up any book or your study material, you’ll see there are so many chapters, and within them, there are so many questions. For a moment, a person starts feeling demotivated on the journey. A good way to avoid this is to map out your syllabus.
Now, what does this mean? For example, I was using a book plus I had my own coaching material from TIME. The first thing I did was set a deadline. Let’s say by the end of July, and I noted down how many questions are there in each chapter. Set a target for yourself on how many questions you can solve in a day. For example, when I started solving questions, I realized that I can easily do 30-50 questions in a day.
Then, note down the questions for each chapter. Like, okay! There are 100 questions in this chapter, 200 questions in that chapter, which will help you estimate how many days you’ll take to cover that chapter. You can make a timetable like, I need to finish this chapter first, I’ll give it 5 days. Then, the next chapter will be after that, and I’ll give it 5 days. By doing this, you can create a proper timetable for yourself by the end of July. This is what we call mapping out your syllabus.
When you realize that there are so many chapters, you’ll feel stressed. But if you have in front of you which chapters to cover each week or each month, then it won’t seem as difficult.
Creating a Formula Book
I’ll give you another very simple rough estimate that I remember from my journey. If you pick up any chapter from Arithmetic, Algebra, or Modern Math, you can comfortably finish it within 5 days. This includes attending its lectures, watching YouTube videos, and solving its questions. Please note that when I say solving questions here, that only means easy-level questions, meaning just the first exercise of any material.
Now, another problem with having such a vast syllabus is that you’ll have to solve it. There are so many formulas and concepts that by the time July ends, you’ll feel like you’ve forgotten everything from the past. You only remember what you’ve just studied.
There’s a technique even for solving this. When I realized that such a thing could happen, that’s when I started maintaining a formula book. What happens when you watch videos or attend lectures, whatever notes you’re taking, it’s better to take them in a rough notebook. Because when you’re doing examples, solving questions, and taking notes at the same time, you won’t be able to revise so many books. So consider it as a rough notebook.
Then when you come home, whether you’re in offline coaching or online coaching, after attending lectures, you’ll use another notebook where you’ll only write down important things from your rough notebook. These could be formulas, an important question with its type, how to solve such types of questions, or tricks. All these things, along with tricks, you can also write a shortcut or an example to easily understand that trick.
Sharing My Formula Book
I’ll show you a reference of my formula book, how I created it. What happens in this is that you keep noting down the formulas for each chapter as you go along, and then you also leave a little space after each chapter. So that if in the future you encounter a question for which you didn’t know the trick before, you can note it down here.
By the way, you know guys, I’m very happy to share that now this formula book will also be available to you in a digitized version because I’ve written my own book in partnership with Oswaal Books. Where all these formulas, tricks, and everything is compiled. Which will be released very soon. So I am very happy to share that.
But you can also maintain your own formula book. What we need to do is revise that formula book every weekend or when a chapter is completed. So if you pick up your formula book on the weekend, you’ll revise the entire formula book. Not just what you’ve done that week but also before that. By the time July arrives, just think how many times you would have revised your formula book.
That’s the benefit of revising a formula book or making one that you won’t forget your vast syllabus and you’ll be able to cover it well. This way we will tackle our first challenge: create a formula book and map out our vast syllabus.
Tackling Difficult Questions
Let’s move on to the second challenge, which is that the difficulty level of questions in the CAT exam is very high. The first thing is that this is a myth, it’s not true. If you ever pick up a CAT exam paper, you’ll find 3 types of questions for each chapter: Easy, Medium, and Difficult.
Focus on Easy and Medium Questions
Now, the difficult-level questions, of course, many people can’t solve them. In this exam, you don’t have to solve difficult questions. You have to skip them. You only need to attempt medium and easy-level questions. Just by solving those questions, you can score a 99 percentile. That is how the paper is designed.
Remember, CAT is a management entrance test. This is the exam that tests your decision-making skills, whether you can attempt easy questions and skip difficult ones. It is a test of your time management skills, how much time you devote to that difficult question, and how quickly you skip it. So, this is a management entrance exam. It tests your management skills. It’s not testing your math skills.
So, when you are preparing, during your practice, you will encounter many such tough questions that you won’t be able to solve. And you’ll feel like, ‘I can’t solve it.’ At that time, remember that if that question is of a difficult nature, then actually you can learn from it what you want to learn. But don’t worry about it because if it comes in the exam, it was actually to be skipped.
Utilizing Past Papers
I’ll give you another solution for this. A book from Oswaal Books called “CAT 25 Years’ Past Papers”. In it, all the questions from the past years of CAT are mentioned within different sections. But how are they mentioned? Chapter-wise.
For example, if I talk about Quant, there is a chapter called ‘Time, Speed, and Distance’ in it. In it, all the questions that have come in the last 25 years, every year whatever questions have come, they are mentioned in it year-wise. So what can you do? You attended lectures on ‘Time, Speed, and Distance’ first. Then you attempted to solve the questions. After doing them, you can check the ‘Time, Speed and Distance’ questions in this book that came in previous years.
What will happen by this? You will be able to see which questions were easy, which were medium, and which were difficult. If you had to do it, which questions would you attempt and which ones would you skip. I’ll add the link to this book in
the pinned comment and description, you can check it out comfortably.
Application-Based Questions
One more thing to remember is that the questions that come in the CAT exam are application-based, not formula-based. So, as you check the questions from this book, the important tricks that you are getting from it, which they have actually used in the application, you should keep noting them down in the blank pages of your formula book, simultaneously.
Conclusion
This is how you can handle the second challenge as well, which is that the difficulty level of the CAT exam is higher. If you have any other questions regarding the journey, Quant, or CAT exam, just put them down in the comments. I’m very excited to answer all your questions. Because I truly hope that in the end, no person gets scared of maths. It is definitely manageable, I can assure you. And if I can do it, then I am sure anyone can.
If you also want to know the strategy for DILR and VARC, then just write DILR or VARC once in the comments, so that I can then make that article. Thank you for reading this, guys. And all the very best.
