The XAT is closer now and it seems that it is the VA-RC section of the XAT that is causing the most trouble for test-takers. DM seems to be a beast that is now manageable and QA is fairly manageable as well, it is VA-RC that seems insurmountable.
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I never thought I will be doing a timing strategy post since the CAT has gone with fixed sectional time-limits for a long time now. But a reader asked for one for the XAT and thought it might not be a bad idea to do a short post on the same.
I have always preferred a test without sectional time-limits since it tests a crucial quality required for management — optimizing resources to achieve maximum return on investment. In this case, the resources are your own skills and the investment is your time.
So how does one go about using the 165 minutes on the XAT?
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In the previous post ,we discussed how Decision Making can be the undoing of XAT aspirants and tried to understand the nature of questions that come up on the section.
We took up two sets from the Decision Making section of a past XAT and discussed a structure to answer DM questions. In this post, we shall look at the remaining questions from that paper.
One of the most tedious and inscrutable sections that you will find across all management entrance tests, Decision Making has been the nemesis of many a XAT aspirant. A lot of factors contribute towards DM possibly being the biggest stumbling block on the XAT. But none is bigger than the fact the amount of time any test-taker would have spent preparing for DM when compared to any other section is minuscule. This coupled with the dislike and unease most aspirants have towards reading, and the extremely subjective nature of questions ensures that DM ends up becoming the deal-breaker as far as the XAT is concerned. Read More
A curious phenomenon repeats itself year after year when the results of the CAT and the XAT come out – there is little overlap between the students who crack CAT and those who crack XAT. In other words, a largely different set of test-takers ends up cracking each test.
Why is this so? It is almost like one of the GMAT CR question types – which of the following provides the best explanation for the phenomenon described above?
The answer(s) to this question will also hold the key to know how to prepare to ace the XAT! Read More
I hope the last week served its purpose, which was for you to process all the emotional side-effects of the CAT. Going by the response to the previous post, there seems to have been enough and more trauma that this year’s edition of the CAT has caused.
The aim of the CAT is to eliminate applicants and not benchmark applicants, so given this you should understand that the CAT exam serves the needs of the IIM admissions teams more than the test-takers.
So, in effect what is tells you is this — it puts really heavy weights in front of you especially the DI-LR section, if you can lift great if you cannot, hard luck.
Until 2018, the other two sections were easy, I assumed it was by design to ensure a more equal playing field to applicants from diverse educational backgrounds (you cannot say you want educational diversity and shaft the non-Math students in the QA section). Last year, the VA-RC level went up appreciably and this year, they did the same with the QA as well. It goes without saying that they still just play it by the ear, every year a different IIM just sets the paper, what ever happens, happens.
So, more or less across sections all you know is that you cannot lift a certain weight but you still do not know what you can actually lift.
With the GMAT for example this is not the case. The test is adaptive, it starts at medium and moves up only if you consistently get questions in the medium range right. This is the reason why the first few questions can seem really, really easy. And each of the questions are tested as experimental questions before they are made scored questions.
So, if you take the GMAT and you get an 85 percentile, it means that you can only solve questions at that level. And as an instructor I would know what your capabilities are precisely, since the $250 is to benchmark your capability with the test being one of the parameters and not the first eliminator. This is also the reasons why the GMAT score card claims that the score has a reliability of 87 percent — which exams that if you took the test again with no change in your level there is an 87 percent guarantee that you will get the same score. So, if I were a recruiter I will always use the GMAT since I will know what you can do as opposed to what you cannot do.
Why this lengthy paean to the GMAT?
So that you stop emotionally telling yourself that you are no good and start making a logical assessment of your level on the other tests.
Please do not go an take a mock GMAT on the rebound to see if you will feel good because nothing you did for CAT is technically useful for the GMAT — 57.33 percent of the test has question types that are not tested on the CAT.
Each one of you will be taking a different number of other tests. Go through or solve a mock each of the other tests and measure your chances on each of the area of the other tests, make yourself a TABLE like the one below (it is only partially filled)
At PAR denotes that your ability is equivalent to the level of questions asked on test and some light practice will suffice; BELOW PAR indicates that test is tougher than your current capabilities and you need to prep specifically; ABOVE PAR indicates that you do not any prep or practice just the mocks will do.
You should be able to do this based on your evaluation of your performance on the SimCATs and the actual CAT. For example, the RCs on this test are a lot easier than those on the CAT I can easily handle it.
| EXAM / TEST | VA | RC | QA | DI | LR |
| NMAT | At PAR, One new Q-type | Above PAR | Above PAR | NA | Above PAR |
| SNAP | At PAR, Three new Q-types | Above PAR | Above PAR | NA | Above PAR |
| XAT | Below PAR, Three new Q-types | Below PAR | Above PAR | at PAR | At PAR |
| IIFT | Above PAR, One new Q-type | At PAR | Below PAR | ||
| TISSNET | |||||
| MICAT |
I have not included sections such as GK and DM that were not there on the CAT — there is no way you can evaluate your level since you have not even prepared.
I do not endorse two-timing your prep — each of these tests is very different from the other and it is best that your prepare one test at a time.
The big temptation can be to prepare a bit for each test all at the same time but think of it — you have 100x hours from now to the end of Jan, and for each test you would need to allocate a certain hours of prep — are you better off spreading those hours or bunching them closer to the test? I think the latter.
You have to work on specific areas, question types and take mocks as well, I for one would not think about XAT even a whit until SNAP is over and IIFT until XAT is over.
Yes, there is the case of TISSNET and XAT being together but the former will end up becoming a subset of the latter in terms of level (with GK being the exception, since the it is an easy test.
Within your preparation for each test, plan your prep area by area.
For example, you know you need to prep for CR, Modern Math, and DM, if I were you, I would spend three days to master CR fully and then move to Modern Math spend a week and so on (the duration is just a random number). I would not do a bit of CR, a bit of Modern Math, a bit of DM everyday.
If you feel your head will burst with a full day of Modern Math, may be it is best that it burst first before it can tackle QA in an exam situation. The only leeway I will grant is that you can go topic by topic Logs, followed by CR followed by P&C.
If you feel you will forget the CR you have learnt when you start to solving Logs, then I am afraid you have not learnt CR at all, one does not forget to reason, the reverse can be possible if you are learning Logs for the first time (so doing five to ten log problems after you move on to CR should suffice.
Once you finish mastering all the areas, using dedicated stretches of time, you can move on to taking the section tests and then the full-length tests.
Now that the emotions will have died down, write down where and how you messed up on CAT — the worst thing you can do is not correct the execution issues that you faced on the CAT.
The usual questions I get for the other exams are how to prepare for Vocab, Grammar, GK, and DM.
Firstly, I am last person you should ask stuff like where do I mug up something from. So as far as vocabulary goes, I do not think there is a well-defined list the way there is for GRE, I do not know how many words you know and do not know, so there is no way I can tell you to go mug up this list or that; Barrons Word List, Word Power Made Easy, All About Words — these are some generic books that are around but there is no guarantee that mugging up these words is going to specifically help you out with the questions on these tests.
For Grammar all the videos on the LEARN Module of myIMS should suffice.
The words General and Test do not ever go down well in an Indian context. The GK section on these tests are sometimes just that General, so IIFT can have questions ranging from
What is right combination of the movie and the vest endorsed?
(A) XYZ-Lux Cozy (B) ABC-Macho (C).. (D)…
to
What is latest reduction in the Prime Lending Rate by the RBI?
(A) .25 Basis Points (B) .50 Points (C) (D)
May be this is their way of selecting a candidate who can be a judge on Jhalak Dikhla Jaa as well as a panelist on CNBC TV-18 with equal ease.
My two bits of advice on GK — use the IMS GK Zone, and just read the newspaper end-to-end for Current Affairs (if you are really desperate, mug up the Manorama Year Book, that is how general, the general in GK is)
For DM, I will do a Masterclass like I did last year.
I will soon put up posts only for the XAT since I have not never prepared and taken the other tests at least once. My skill sets are limited to CAT, XAT, GMAT and GRE.
But some of my colleagues are real champs on the SNAP, NMAT, and other tests, so here are their how to prep videos (the IIFT one will be out soon, abhi Dilli door hai)
Your goal is to do an MBA from a school that will advance your career and set you up for the future. For this you are taking 3 to 5 different tests based on your profile.
This is no different from playing a 3 to 5 test series against different teams at different levels. You just got mauled in the first test by the strongest team, does that mean that the series is lost? There is still everything to play for, losing to the best team does not change your chances against the others.
I do not think there are any more cricketing analogies I can come up with!
I think our unique talent as human beings is to confuse categories, in this case converting a matter of the mind into a matter of the heart, and I am sure we do the reverse as well and pay dearly.
Smile, incase you have forgotten how to 🙂
Be it the day of the CAT or be it when the final admits results come out it is not easy to be a mentor — on one hand you are happy for students who crack the exam and get an admit and on the other hand you are also tinged with sadness for those who have a bad test day or fail to convert. The toughest thing was always to meet a student who is happy, knowing that the one waiting outside is sad. So with the years one develops a certain equanimity since one cannot be so happy that one is not able to empathise with the ones who are having a hard time and one also cannot get so bogged down by sadness that one cannot partake in the joy of the successful.
In some cases students just disappear, somehow they take it very personally, that they have failed, they have failed even after reading all the blogs and all attending all the sessions, they feel almost as if they have let me down. And I am left wondering, whatever happened to that guy. The others thankfully come down to meet me or reach to me through the blog comments even if it is just to feel lighter instead of heavy and burdened.
There are two things about cliches — they are dead boring since they have been repeated so often but at the same time, they are also true, so are all the cliches about failure, I won’t repeat them but I will attest that they are true.
In one of the recent posts, I spoke about how every one has to face a test and how heroes in myths are defined by overcoming obstacles. The thing about myths is that they rarely show heroes failing at a task spectacularly — they only show heroes’ failings or weaknesses (Rama in the way he treated Sita post his rescuing of her).
But if we look at real life successes, almost every spectacular success has had a a big failure or inability as well. I am not linking failure to success or calling it a pre-requisite.
All I am saying is, everyone fails, so do not go beating yourself about it.
The first reaction understandably is to hit oneself with an emotional sledgehammer and of these the worst one is — I am useless, I am not smart enough, I suck, I do not have the skills to crack this exam, no matter what I do it will not change a thing.
Firstly, I will be happy if you are telling yourself all of these in anger rather than through a bucket of tears since anger with oneself can be a very good motivator.
But whether you are telling yourself these things through anger or through tears you need to quickly move from “I suck” to I suck at this particular aspect of CAT, from being emotional to being strategic.
My favourite story when it comes to dealing with doubts about one’s ability is Brian Lara’s answer when questioned about being McGrath’s bunny (he has got him quite a few times), Lara did not talk about the number of centuries he scored against Australia or the single-handed manhandling of a peak Australian team over an entire series, all he said was — someone from the opposition has to get me out some time, right?
The right lens to view things should not be through your success or failure at CAT 2020 but in terms of your prospects of doing an MBA from a premier b-school.
Just like the extent of damage in a war varies across the various battlefronts, the damage, if any, to your MBA dreams, varies across different profiles.
Who are the aspirants who are worst hit?
Those who already have 4 years of work-experience and had a horrible CAT 2020 are the worst hit since another shot at the CAT and the 2-year MBA is effectively ruled out; they only have the rest of the exams in this season to make it count.
Those who have three years of work-ex will still have a marginal shot at the CAT next year but to stay close to the average profile in a b-school (having 4 or more years of work-ex will make the profile a bit of an outlier) they should crack one of the remaining exams in this season.
Those who have 2 years of work-ex might have seen this as the perfect time to do an MBA and in way it is. But given the economic situation (a lot of people are predicting a crash, the crazy stock market notwithstanding) what is the best year to graduate, 2023 or 2024? I would definitely vote for 2024.
Those who have less 2 years have work-ex have nothing to worry about as far their MBA dreams go, they are well and truly alive, you can still get there, not when you wanted to and in the way you wanted to but you can still get there.
Some of you might wonder whether you have it in you to take another shot. We you do not have another option.
Roger Federer played from 2012 Wimbledon to 2017 Australian Open, 17 Slams, without winning a single slam, being stuck at 17, losing to players who were not in the same league as him. At every single slam during those five years my friend and I would talk, just before the semis or finals, about how well Fed is playing, the new things that he is inventing — the SABR (Sneak Attack By Roger) — and as usual the crazy points in the matches until then, only for him to lose again.
There were articles asking why he was still playing. I was supporting him saying that it need not be #1 or nothing, as long as he is easily making finals and semis and believes he can win he should play since he is still ranked in the top 4 and since unlike in a team sport, he is not delaying a transition or eating into the prime years of a youngster. In effect, even I had ruled out the chance of him winning again, I was happy that he was competing well.
Federer is great not because he has won 20 Slams but because he believed in himself so much, believed in himself through four years of heart-breaking failures, four years of aging and his body breaking down in 2016, while others were catching up with him.
I am sure no victory tasted sweeter to him than the 2017 Australian Open when he finally won a Slam again. (I have never felt more elation at the end of a sports match than while watching him win the 2017 Australian Open)
All of you are so young, this exam season is still young, you have enough time to acquire the skills your skills to crack the CAT at another shot (if required).
Cut all the negative voices out of your head, your own voice, that of your parents as well, if necessary (since all most Indian parents seem to care about is the timing of your wedding and how another shot affects that).
They will release the paper with your response in a day or two and we will release a tool to calculate your score — this can cause another meltdown, it is never easy to actually see the marks, if you know you did not do well do not try to find out, let the results come out when they come out.
Some of you might be raring to go smash the other tests to smithereens, and some of you might be feeling out of gas and motivation to pick yourself up.
The latter, please give yourself a break, do the things you like to do, eat the things you like to eat, and relax for the rest of the week, restart on Monday.
There is little you can do right by pushing yourself without a break or good rest and being a bunch of ragged nerves.
It is not easy to crack the test on your first or second attempt unless you are on the top of your game for at least 10 to 15 mocks with additional reserves to handle a tougher paper. I cleared the test on my second attempt.
Even those of you who have set your sights firmly on the old IIMs will be taking a few more tests, at least the IIFT exam and the XAT. Now that you have the CAT monkey off your back go ahead full-throttle on these other tests.
Even if you have decided on another shot at the CAT and IIM-A, give the other tests you have registered for seriously, crack a final admit to IIFT, NMIMS, SIBM, or even XL and then reject it. — achieve something this season and set yourself higher goals for next year.
Some of the comments to this post are very good and some of you might find an echo of your performance, current state, and questions in them.
P.S: The picture with this post is not of Federer but of Marin Cilic (crying) after he lost the 2017 Final to Federer.
“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
You have about 3 days left and some of you might still be awaiting answers to some questions such as should you listen to what happened in the earlier slots, what should you do if you know you might not get sleep Saturday night etc.
Last year I made audio clip (initially shot as a video) that answered all of these queries, queries that deal specifically with the three days leading up to the test and all the pending questions.
As promised I am also taking a stress buster session — Anything But CAT — along with my colleagues at 8 PM today.
We will host five rooms where we will discuss specific non-CAT topics of interest: Cricket & Tennis, Football and other sports, Harry Potter & Fantasy Books, Music Room, Quizzing.
I’ll be handling the Cricket & Tennis room along with Amit Sir and Param sir (and all of our other stalwarts will also be there in each of the other rooms).
I am looking forward to evening sessions and interacting with all the cricket, tennis and sports fans among you. We will discuss the Tennis GOAT Debate, MSD, and sports heroes, and answer/discuss all non-CAT things in the Q&A!
Here is the link to join the same:
From very early on in our lives we are exposed (or subjected) to this word called TEST. As we enter the higher grades, the role that TESTS play or are supposed to play in our lives steadily increases. If we look back, for most of us, tests have always been part of a trinity, they have always been concomitant with two other things — fear and prayer.
At some point of time all of us, when faced with a test (including yours truly), have felt at the least a sliver of fear running through our bodies prior to a test and even the most unbelieving of us has muttered a tiny, little, prayer under our breaths. Read More
