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CAT 2019: My scores have plateaued, how do I push them north

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We have about 40 days left for the CAT and the queries I am getting are reflecting the same. Aspirants have written to me saying that they have fixed the selection problem using the A-B-C approach and set selection approach for DI-LR and VA-RC and right now they have a different problem — scores have hit a plateau at their respective levels — 120, 135, 150. And most are facing the same dilemma —  I don’t want to increase my speed and go below the current scores and get demotivated, but if I don’t increase my speed my scores will not go up, what do I do.Well this post a more or less a summation of a long chat answering the same question that I had with an old student of mine today morning.

Are you squeezing every drop out of your brain cells

One of the things I know about test-taking is that your best scores will take everything out of you, you will not be doing it comfortably. All of us, including me, have two modes of solving, one is solving comfortably knowing that we will do well enough, this is the autopilot mode — you are driving the car at 60 and you can do it without having to concentrate very hard — the second is when you are fully on and are smashing your best times — you are driving the car at 80, you are aware of every turn, every bit of pressure you are applying on the accelerator and the on the brake.

When I solve a Sudoku puzzle in the autopilot mode, I do it comfortably in 5 minutes, I am okay wasting a few seconds here and there, my eyes are not wide open to figuring out the missing numbers, when I am on, I shave off a minute at the least and in the odd case even 2.

So to cut a long story short, you need to up the intensity during the 60 minutes of a section. But intensity is only half the battle, how and what do you direct the intensity towards?

Taking your VA-RC scores to the limit

The first question to ask is how many marks are you scoring from the VA question. Can you push it to a consistent 21 for every test from now on and how do you get there?

  • Does your intensity and focus to absolutely get the question right stop at RC?
  • Do you get complacent and mark answers in VA knowing that you haven’t locked them in the way you are doing on RC?
  • Are you happy finding a couple of links and quickly marking a combination for Parajumbles?
  • On a summary question, do you always stop to summarise the three things about the paragraph, after reading the paragraph and before proceeding to the options?

You will find that sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t. The intensity with which you approach RC might be missing. So tighten that bit and focus on getting a 21.

On RC questions, you are getting all the direct/specific questions right but the moment it comes to inferences or indirect questions such as which if the following will add least depth to the author’s argument, you either make a mistake or are okay leaving it since you are getting the other questions right.

If you need to squeeze out more from the RC questions, you have to thread the needle on the tougher application questions. You have reached that stage of the match where you need to make the big shots, you can’t be comfortable taking a single, so ask yourself,

  • Do you pause at the end of the passage to paraphrase the main idea?
  • Do you pause at the end of a question and before going to the options to frame the function that the right answer should perform in other words the shadow answer

If you are not doing these things then you will always be stuck at these scores in VA-RC.
If you are already doing these things and have good accuracy, there is only way up, read faster, do not be scared, all you have to do while reading faster is concentrate deeper. Remember, it will not be comfortable, if you want comfort make peace with your current scores.

The best revision for VA-RC, go to the Channel tab on the new myIMS link that is there on the current myIMS, you will find the recordings of the all the Masterclasses, if you haven’t, watch RC the Masterclass 2. You can also solve SimCAT 10 and watch the solutions to the VA-Rc section the same that I have recorded.

Can you teach your brain new approaches to get hold of a slippery DI-LR sets

With DI-LR, aspirants say that they seem to have got hang of the selection to reach scores above 40 but then something like SimCAT 11 puts them back in the 20s.

A student had reached out to me about SimCAT 11 and did what I always do — solve the damn paper! I absolutely loved the paper, every set seemed do-able and there was that easy time-zone set right at the end that will elude even the classification that I have proposed. Ask yourself,

  • were you able to solve the first set on weighted averages, mathematical reasoning, in under 10 minutes?
  • Did you solve the super-easy DI-Calculation set, the spider graph, that only looked tough but was nothing but plain numbers (the set can be solved with one less a condition)
  • Were you able to crack the exquisite analytical reasoning sets that were the grocery sets and the conference set — one went into pure Sudoku space and another into a really good P&C and LR logic.

So much did I like the section that I walked over to my colleague who made it and told him that it was one of the best DI-LR sections I have taken since it was so slippery.

Like SimCAT 11 there will be other SimCAT DI-LR sections that have some awesome logic going on.

In the next 40 days, resolve the 16 SimCATs and 4 sets from CAT 2017 and CAT 2018 again. Select the right sets at the beginning, spending 10 minutes and then try to knock off 4-5 sets in 50 minutes.

Sit for an hour or more to analyse this:

  • Are you good at making number combinations of totals based on ratios given?
  • Are you able to figure that an equation such as 31x + 2y = 1025 can have only one pair of values that satisfy them and if x and y have to be multiples of 25 then you can start by substituting multiples of 25 for y and quickly find the value of x?
  • Do you realise that if 5 cells have the possibilities P/Q/R, R/T/S, P/Q/T, P/T, and P/T then P and T can be eliminated from the first three?

You will find that you are currently limited to a few approaches. When faced with Mathematical Reasoning sets, your brain does not throw up such suggestions to make number combinations or write equations.

If you spend enough time with the solutions of the 20 DI-LR sections that I mentioned earlier then you will teach yourself newer mathematical reasoning pathways.

I will do a video later in the month on the best DI-LR sets in terms of learning specific kinds of reasoning.

Do you step out of the crease to QA questions

Then there is a lot of you who like QA and score a comfortable 55-60 in QA. Can you do better in terms of core QA ability, yes, but are you doing it no. May be right since the beginning of the SimCATs you are scoring in roughly the same range, 22-25 attempts with 18-22 right. Are you happy with QA, yes, but then you also see people with similar ability attempting 30-32 and getting 27-29 questions right and wonder what they are doing.

Increasing intensity on the QA section means that you are solving at a faster pace than you normally solve and that happens in two ways. The first, writing fewer steps, never writing whole equations, to put it simply if people look at the solution to a question on your sheet they should not be able to understand a thing — it should just be a few numbers written here and there.

The second is by using shortcuts such as substituting the answer options and backsolving, approximating and eliminating, using ratios instead of equations to solve Arithmetic.

You will not be able to solve many questions by these methods but you should be able to pull out at least 4 to 6 questions in a short time, this would mean about 15-18 marks in 6 to 8 minutes. It is these questions that will propel your attempts and score.

Isn’t this exactly what England did to India in the World Cup — four of their batsmen, Jason Roy, Bairstow, Root and Stokes, hit six unconventional hits to the fence, primarily reverse sweeps. This not only accelerated their score but also put a lot of pressure on the bowlers.

Now some of you might say — Sir but if Virat Kohli can’t do it, can we? The fact is that if a batsman as staid and traditional as Joe Root can do it then anyone can. Indians did not try not because they couldn’t but because they felt they needn’t. Our high scores were a function of a couple of batsmen going big and not a function of an entire team having the array of unconventional strokes that have become common in the modern game.

Some of you might ask — Sir, but are they not high risk? Some of the shots in T20 cricket such as the upper-cut or the scoop or the ramp shot were shots that were started by an individual player but now they have become commonplace with everyone mastering it. Ben Stokes hit a reverse sweep for six in the recent historic chase during the Ashes, it means that it is no longer a high-risk shot for him, he exactly knows which balls to do it on, just like good solvers know exactly the question on which to use answer options. So start stepping out of the crease and go big.

Another thing that might be stopping you is that there still are one or two areas that you do not like to solve questions from, you might end up spending more time on a tougher question from your favourite area than do an easy one from an area you do not fancy. Revise the QA section of the SimCATs to go through them to look at easy questions from areas that you do not like.

We have given alternative solutions wherever possible on the SimCATs, go through them. We will later do a video with the best of these questions.

Around this time last year, a student had called saying the was from IIT-D and was scoring around 99.5, he needed a percentile above 99.7 to get a call from C and he was scoring around 60 in QA. And he said he was doing everything I said above. The only thing left was for him to increase his reading speed, not by much but by 10%, he was reading well within himself since he was scared of losing accuracy, I just asked him to concentrate harder and drive faster. He hid and scored a 99.89.

What to do in the last 40 days

You have reached a particular level, the last jump will mean that it will take more out of you mentally, but there is no way out. 20 tests, one every alternate day, with full intensity and in the days in between the things that I listed above.

You need to get used to performing at your optimal level. Optimal does not mean a number in terms of score, it means that if the test is really easy you hit it out of the park and if it is tough to still manage to clear the cut-offs. And yeah, a Sudoku puzzle every day with the goal to lower your best time.

And if you drive on your way to work or college, drive at your normal speed :-).

How to fill the S.P.Jain profile-based form

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S.P Jain (SPJIMR in full or SP as it is usually referred to) is one of the most underrated business schools in the country. One of the highlights of the S.P.Jain admissions process is that applicants have to choose their specialization at the time of application. While this might be tough for freshers who do not have enough information and self-awareness to choose a specialization, it is a boon for applicants with work experience. Read More

Increasing Accuracy — RC Masterclass

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Hi All,

I am doing a webinar on how to increase your accuracy on RC questions. If this masterclass cannot help you move beyond getting stuck on two options (only if you practice the method diligently on at least 20-30 passages) then I am afraid nothing else can.

You can register for the Masterclass here —https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1364706537378004739

Best,

Tony

 

 

 

 

One of the many ways

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A few mornings ago, at the end of holding a particularly strenuous Yoga pose, my brother let out a gasp and his back slumped back on to the mat, but it was one of those days when my mind was sharp and still like the tip of an archer’s arrow, and I went back to ground with an even breath and a straight spine, it was the first time it happened in a long time. Straight away in my ears, I heard the voice of Shaji, shouting at me from one end of a really large room – I only said relax, back straight!

The yelling was from a warm morning in the year 2013. I had just moved to Chennai after taking up the IMS franchise for the city. I had taken a place very close to the miniature beach in Besant Nagar (or Bessie as the locals call it). On one of the very first evenings there I took a stroll around the beach and came upon this structure or building or rather what I think is the best word for it – space.

As soon as I saw it and took in it for a few seconds, I thought this has to be it — a year before, while in Mumbai, I had read a few articles about the groundbreaking classical dancer Chandralekha and had also seen video of a piece choreographed by her and that had made a strong impression on me, and on reading more about her I had discovered that her studio is in Chennai and when I saw this space I was certain that this was it.

Chandralekha is considered groundbreaking because she re-invented or reinterpreted what Bharatanatyam can mean through the lens of an even older art form, one that is considered a precursor to all the South East Asian martial arts — kalarippayattu. Shaji, a young practitioner and teacher of kalarippayattu, was one of the two people in the piece choreographed by Chandralekha that I had watched, the other was the writer Tishani Doshi.

So when I saw the place, I made up my mind to go in and find out if they teach the laity, it turned out that they did and before long I was inside.

Spaces 1

Shaji was as old-school a perfectionist as one could get for a teacher. He would spend a long time arranging and re-arranging students in what seemed to be a random asymmetrical order. Looking back I am guessing it was to ensure that he could sight each one of the 30-odd students who turned up at 6 A.M. from places that were as far as two hours away. He rarely uttered a word apart from the instructions for the movement in Malayalam (like it is in the Japanese way there is very little active teaching, you are expected to watch, follow, and execute, till you get a hang)

The session opened with a 30 minute non-stop movement and kicks-based warm up by the end of which my lungs were ready to explode, and it was on one of those initial days when he had said relax at the end of warm-up, that I slumped against the wall, breathing audibly (to myself) — that was when he shouted at me.

After about 15-odd sessions I gave up because I realised that very few of the students who came there were amateurs like me. Many of the students were dancers who did this for strength and flexibility, while others were full-time students of Kalari who stayed at there for a better part of the day. I felt that unless I was serious about pursuing it as an art form, which would take more than the 90 minutes of everyday class that I was putting in, I would be disrespecting it, and it was obvious that they were not teaching the classes for the money (else they wouldn’t have been charging a meagre 500 per month). And given that I had just invested money to get into a business, there was no way I could give any more than 90 minutes a day, which in itself seemed difficult on some days.

But what I learnt from those few sessions was immense. Firstly, commitment to something is not limited to being strong-willed enough to turn up for the mandated session. True commitment means managing one’s energies during the rest of the time in such a way that you are fully switched on during the time you are present (people rarely understand this, we think as long as we are turning up for something regularly despite our super busy schedules, we are committed). So whenever you are late for something, somehow managed to reach in time, it is very clear that your commitment to the same is only that much, 18-carat not 24-carat. If you are fully committed you will always be slightly early, you would have collected your thoughts and absolutely ready to dive in.

The second learning is completely related to making the commitment happen. I first started reading about, becoming more aware of my breath and practising pranayama, in the year 2007. I had read a few really good books and practised intensely for close to three years. But I never really made it a part of the rest of my workout routines be it weight-training or yoga.

Over the years, I have realised that as far as managing our mental and physical energies is concerned, breath is everything. When I was getting into a series of strenuous poses today, I was constantly aware of my breath, or rather my focus was both on the pose and on my breath, the focus was to ensure that I did not take shallow breaths, which for me personally, during a pose, has always meant exhaling fully rather than inhaling very deeply (unless the pose itself demands otherwise). This ensures that when I have to respond to the instructor’s call to hold a pose for 30 seconds I measure it in breaths — I know that 10 seconds more is just two breaths more and my focus goes back to my breathing. It also ensures that the core is tight since you are emptying your abdomen out fully, this results in the spine being straight and this results in the most important thing — you do not slump and hit the floor at the end.

Each time you slump with a gasp, you expend more energy and more importantly, you release your focus. Each time you go down with an even breath and straight spine, you are ready for the next pose without releasing your focus, you do not give up before the end of the count.

Do you slump at the end of a section or a DI-LR set?

Is your focus sharp and as still as the tip of Karna’s arrow, Achilles’ spear, for the entire duration of the CAT?

If you have seen the eyes of sportsmen, especially swimmers when they step out, during the period before they bend down to get on to their marks, you will know that their gaze is always elsewhere, they are not looking at anyone or anything, as if their body and mind are fused into one.

This has to be the case with all sports that require sustained unbroken energy and concentration from start to end, say sprinting, swimming or archery, unlike longer-format sports like say cricket or football where you can afford to take breathers and recoup but even in those sports, teams and players, are most likely to falter after a scoring a century or a goal, a tennis player is most susceptible in the game after he or she breaks, because they let the focus drop, the breath go, the spine slacken.

Have you seen the video of Maradona’s gaze before the start of the 86 Final (or SF or QF) as he makes the sign of the cross? Did you see how Stokes went about his innings, how he cut everything out and did not celebrate after the century? Have you seen Djokovic go into monk-mode? All of these point to the same thing – focus – even breath, tight core, and straight spine, and that is why in all martial arts, they tie a cloth around the waist.

Some of you might have trouble concentrating for the entire duration of the test. Some of you might be able to easily concentrate for but are leaking energy during the process. Some of you might be hitting your desired scores. I feel that no matter where you are, developing an awareness of your breath through breathing exercises (which will mean that your spine will have to be straight), learning to manage your mental and physical energies through that awareness, will always give you a jump in scores, if the paper gets tough, you will have enough fuel left in the tank and a few more gears.

I found that while I learnt this years ago, I have not always applied this diligently, I did it for some years at a stretch and for some, I let go, and unfortunately, I let go when my schedule was the most hectic, which was when I needed it most. All of us can work out, do yoga, and eat right when our schedules are light, it is when we manage to do the right things in the middle of a storm that the storm itself becomes manageable.

So my advice going into the last few months of the CAT Prep is that you need to focus on making your energies one-pointed; you need to add breathing exercises to the beginning and the end of your day; you need to get some form of physical exercise to get your lungs pumping at a rate higher than normal, even if it is a brisk walk, at least a couple of times a week; you need to learn to relax by taking in the right things, say reading Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse; you need to remove a few things as well such as social media apps (including the YouTUBE App), there is nothing happening on them that is more important to your life than getting into an IIM (essentially you need to get rid of all forms of sugary and fried food that you are feeding to your brain).

If you do all of these things and are conscious of the way you expend your breath and your time over the next three months, you will not slump with a gasp, the spine will be straight, the breath will be even regardless of the depth, you always be ready for the next ball, and like Arjuna you will not see the sky, or the trees, or the bird, but see only blackness,

the blackness

in the centre

of the eye of the bird.

How to improve your DI-LR Percentile – I

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Just like I keep getting queries on how to increase RC accuracy, despite the Masterclasses and the Last Mile To CAT sessions, I keep getting queries around the DI-LR section as well.

In this series of series of posts  I’ll dive really deep down into actual CAT DI-LR sets and see if I can come up with some kernel of truth beyond just the solving of the set that can help aspirants approach the solving of the sets better. Read More

How to improve your DI-LR percentile – Part I

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After the previous posts, a few of you had commented saying that you are eagerly awaiting the post on the DI-LR section. The earnestness is understandable since most of you who are facing the SimCATs will know that the DI-LR section is one that will make or break your CAT.If it goes well, you will take that confidence into the QA section finish strong. If your performance on the DI-LR section goes south then you will start feeling the fatigue of 120 minutes of testing and will fade away in the last section. The latter was the case with most test-takers last year. Read More

CAT 2019: How to improve your QA percentile – Part II

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In the first part of this post we covered the first building block to achieve higher scores and percentiles on CAT QA — accuracy. In this post, we will take up the next one — selection.

QA is the section that gets the maximum attention of test-takers of all stripes and there is always a litany of frustrations and queries that plagues aspirants —

  • I am good at Math and like Math but my score just does not seem to go up!
  • Should one attempt the long Arithmetic questions?
  • I feel every problem is do-able!
  • I get stuck for long with one problem without realising it
  • I realise there were many problems I could have solved when I analyse the test

The answer to all of these questions lies in the way you select questions and the way you navigate between them. Read More