Disclaimer : Please take the suggestions mentioned below at your own risks; they are tried and tested

but so is the online CAT. Considering that in the next 10 days, I would be leaving for IIM L, it would be tough to answer individual queries as I want to enjoy the limited days of freedom before hel(L) takes me over. I am writing a global post which might help some. Let me set a benchmark first Any score below 29 Correct and 0 wrong, won't get a 100%ile in sec-1. Ideally, only a 30 correct will bring a 100%ile. 29 correct and 1 wrong will get a %ile of around 99.93. So, know your target and realize that it isn't a cakewalk and be prepared to work hard. Let us look into Quants Know your enemy :21-22 questions. Around 10 very easy, 5 moderate, 4-5 tricky, 2-3 tricky and tough. By tough, I don't mean olympiad level. Except for 1 to 3 questions from PnC and Probabilty, all the questions are from the mathematics syllabus upto class-10. Time: It is enough if one does not get stuck in a tricky question. If no lead in 1 min then skip the question. Stage-1 Symptom : 1)Do not recall the theorems from geometry, mensuration, algebra etc. 2) Have to use pen to calculate tables upto 20, squares upto 30, cubes upto 20, square roots upto 20 and cube roots upto 10. Cure: 1) Learn the tables upto 20, squares upto 30, cubes upto 20, square roots upto 20 and cube roots upto 10. It is shameful if the answer to 17*7 does not come instantly to your mind. 2) Solve the basic QA material - Arun Sharma or Time material. Don't waste a lot of time, try to finish in 2-3 weeks. Skip questions which seems solvable. 3) Maintain a notebook of all the formulas. Stage-2 Symptom : 1) Basics are clear. 2) Speed is slow. Cure: 1) Solve questions mentally, without using pen. It will take time for the effect to be visible but is the single most effective way of improving speed. 2) Never get into the trap of vedic maths. Waste of time and low ROI. Moreover, it takes time to become a habit and under stress situation read CAT, old habits aka normal calculation methodology resurfaces. Stage-3 Symptom :

1) 2) 3) 4)

Basics are clear. Speed is decent. Low accuracy. No clue in 5-6 questions, even after dedicating time to them

Cure: 1) Practice a lot. 2) Do not have any weakness. I repeat, do not have any weakness. Be prepared to solve a seater from any topic. 3) Solve last 10 year CAT papers. 4) Solve previous year mocks and analyze your performance. Stage-4 Symptom : 1) Things are perfect in mocks. Cure: 1) Pray day and night . So that you are not normalized. Generic suggestions:1) Data Sufficiency questions are tricky, time taking and have a high chances of getting wrong, so be careful and attempt them after attempting easy questions. 2) QA questions are heavy with Number System, Geometry and Algebra. Be really good at these three topics. 3) Do not prepare at random. Analyze your performance. If you get a question wrong then look for the mistake and never repeat it again. Just appearing in mocks won't help. 4) Don't get into the trap of too many shortcuts and complex formulas. Keep it simple and stupid. The questions are very basic. Let us look into DI Know your enemy :8-9 questions spread over 3 sets One of the sets will check calculation acumen and will involve operations on big numbers One of the sets will check visual acumen and will have charts and graphs. Last set may be from Set theory/Venn diagram or anything generic. One of the set will be very easy, other two will be moderate. At times, one set can be very tough. Stage-1 Symptom : 1) Have no idea of basic charts eg: pie charts and graphs eg: line graph, bar graph etc. 2) Calculation speed sucks. Cure: 1)Solve basic DI material of any coaching institute. Stage-2 Symptom : 1) Basics are clear. 2) Speed sucks.

Cure: 1) Learn the art of approximation and mental calculation. The ratio and proportion chapter of Arun Sharma QA will help a lot in this. Google some article to know more. Stage-3 Symptom : 1) Basics are clear. 2) Unable to solve all questions. 3) Low accuracy. Cure: 1) Solve last 10 years CAT papers. They have all possible DI sets and have good questions. 2) Then practice mocks and sectionals. Stage-4 Symptom : 1) Things are perfect in mocks. Cure: 1) Pray day and night . So that you are not normalized. Generic suggestions:1) Have a look at all the sets first. Decide on your comfort level and then solve in the order of easy to hard. 2) Skip a set as soon as you realize that it was actually tough. 3) Not necessary to solve all the questions of the three sets. One of the questions in some sets is quite tough. Skip it. 4) Expertise at judging a set or a question as tough will come with practice.

My experience in sec-1 of CAT'11 1st question, could not solve. 2nd question could not solve(read it wrong.) 5 mins passed with zero attempts. Felt the pressure. Asked myself to be calm. Took deep breath. Solved 3rd question then 4th. Attempted all QA questions except 3-4 questions. Attempted all DI questions. Had 17 mins remaining. Attempted rest of the QA questions except for one. 11 minutes remaining with 29 attempts. Revised all the questions. Last 2 mins. 1 question remaining. This question was from Probability. It was my weak area and I hadn't worked a lot on it, but I always used to analyze the questions from mocks, suddenly I recalled a method and the answer was one of the options and the method made sense. Marked the last question. I never had awesome speed and my average attempts in mocks used to be around 22-24 questions. Mocks like every good thing has some flaws. They are unrealistic . Sec-1 of mocks is tougher than that of actual CAT. People will kill previous year mocks and lot of questions get repeated in mocks from previous year and hence score unrealistic percentiles, when actually the basics and question selection skills are not developed very well. Focus on having your basics clear. Being pro at solving tough questions never helps and it is proved by the fact that people who own the Quant thread on PG and nail those tough questions, are unable to own the QA section of CAT, because CAT checks basic and demands speed and accuracy. So my final suggestions are:-

1) Never panic. CAT is all about nerves. 2) Do not have any weakness. 3) Don't waste too much time on solving tough questions. Specially on threads where the competition is - who posts tougher questions and who solves it faster. 4) Keep your basics clear. 5) Not learning from mistakes is suicide. 6) Read the question very carefully. Half of the mistakes are because of not understanding the question properly. ATB, Abhishek Sharma IIM Lucknow 2012-2014 CAT'11 : 99.87 (sec-1: 99.93 sec-2: 95.15) Member : Pagalguy Dream Team 2011. P.S. Few more things to add, which I will update after sometime. P.P.S. Don't ask me to mail the materials. I don't have the time and net speed at present. Moreover, everything is easily available. So stop being a freerider and put some effort by using Google.