Let us start by asking the most fundamental question.
Q: What is your objective?
A: Your objective is to maximize your score.
To maximize your score, you should, in the given time, score as much as possible. As much as possible essentially means that you have solved all the questions that you could have solved. For instance, in a paper you solved 50 out of the 75 questions and later you realized that you could have solved 10 more. Here, you did not solve as much as possible. The quest for a strategy is essentially to achieve the objective of solving as much as possible.
What we forget in the quest of best strategy is the fact that the best way to maximize your score is to increase your ability to answer more questions! Simply put, increase your knowledge. By knowledge I mean your ability to solve all the questions if you were not given any time limit. If in a paper you can solve correctly 60 out of the 100 with no time limit, your knowledge gap is 40pc. Strategy will simply create an illusion that you can solve a test with some magic!
Let me now take each of the possible strategies that students adopt and bring out the flaws in each of them.
1. Allocating time per section
There is a temptation to give more time to a section that you are relatively weak in. For instance, say the verbal section is your weakest section. Instead of addressing the issue as to why the section is weak, you decided to give an additional 10 minutes to the verbal section with the hope that the additional 10 minutes would negate the real problem. This would mean that you need to take out the 10 minutes from your relatively strong quant section. Now, your strategy for the CAT is the following:
Quant : 40 minutes
Verbal : 1 hour
DI : 50 minutes
The logic is that by giving those additional ten minutes, you can solve more questions in the verbal section and therefore probably clear the cut off. The only problem with this approach is that the extra 10 minutes is an ADDITIONAL 10 minutes. It is after you have spent 50 minutes in the section. How many questions, can you really solve in those 10 minutes? If the answer is 4, then you would have anyways solved 20 questions in the first 50 minutes. You did not need that extra 10 minutes. If on the other hand you solved only 1 question in the extra 10 minutes, you anyways did not need those 10 minutes! Either ways, the logic of additional 10 minutes is flawed.
The best strategy is common sense – spend equal time in each of the three sections of the CAT.
2. Sequence of section
If you are going to spend equal time in each of the three sections, does it really matter which section you start with and which one you end with? If you have a problem of concentrating for 2 ½ hour, then remember that the problem cannot be solved by simple sequencing of the sections. If you are in the habit of studying for about 2 hrs per day for the CAT, you will not have the problem of concentration. If you enjoy taking the test, you will not have any problem for concentration. We don’t have problem concentrating for 3 hours in a movie!
3. Selecting simple questions
Time and again, I see instances of advice that one should pick out the easy questions and solve.
Question 1: What is an easy question?
Question 2: How do you pick one?
Question 2 is the easier of the two and all the focus of our strategy is on Question 2. The most difficult is to answer Question 1.
Is it the question which looks simple?
Is it the question from the area that I am comfortable with?
Is it the question which has less data?
Is direct question actually easier than indirect questions?
Does the question setter deliberately create easy questions?
Is the easy question easy for all?
Finding out easy question, to me, is the most complex process! I wonder why people spend energy on the same.
To me, the process is very simple. First, you read a question. Then, you understand what the question requires and finally, you solve. If selection is your first objective, you will read the question a bit fast. If answering the question is your objective, you will read the question slowly. If you read slowly, you will comprehend better and you will solve faster! In any case, how can you select a question without reading a question? Does it really really really matter the order of answering question in a section? NO!
An additional advise that I can give is – Never get stuck on a problem! If you feel that you are heading nowhere move on to next question.
To summarize, the best strategy for the CAT is COMMON SENSE.
1. Give equal time for each sections
2. You cannot select a question without reading a question
3. Never get stuck
To really improve the score, here’s one mantra: It is not important whether you can solve fast, what is really important is whether you can solve!
The author Gejo Sreenivasan is Product Head, IMS Learning Resources Pvt Ltd.
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