The CHANGE had begun. Nope, I am not saying there was some revolution or something. I guess I already new those tricks which I learnt, but seemed to have forgotten them completely. It happened like this- I was called for special TIME counseling session along with Sidscope. We were in separate sessions in batches of 4. The TIME guy, Satya, told us to show our TIME Mock CAT scores till that week. As I told you, my performance was inconsistency personified and Satya asked me the reason for it. I simply didn’t know it. So we went ahead with the session. Most of the points he told us were a repetition of in my IMS sessions last year, till he really get into the grooves. He asked each of us for the paper we read. 2 were TOI reader, 1 ET and myself HT. Satya told us that TOI is one of THE ….. worst news papers in Mumbai. So what’s new? Well, he added that even HT and DNA are not worth it. He advised us to read The Hindu or Indian Express. Today, I agree that HT certainly doesn't have the kind of editorials which are required for opinion building. In fact, at that moment I decided to add The Hindu to my Google Reader feed list.
Next was about how to approach each section during exam. He asked us to first go through the complete section first, in case of Math and DI. Reason – Identify the “known” types and attempt (or avoid in case you are uncomfortable) them first. But wait.. hang on.. Wasn’t I doing the same past year? or even year before that? Oh yea. At that time I realized what I was missing in DI. I wasn’t scanning through the sets. Same was true with Math. I had to change my strategy. So next change was first going through the entire section first, knowing which can be solved first and then start attempting the questions. But how to decide what’s easy and what is not? I got that answer also in the same session. Solve the “known” types first. Then the unknown ones.
To build a big repository of “known” types, I altered the way I analyzed the paper. My usual way was, when paper gets over, I would again solve the paper with infinite time limit with actual answers with me. If I feel I can solve it, I would try to solve it and then check for answer in the solution set or directly look for answers especially in case of VA. This time around, I gathered all the AIMCAT papers first and started solving questions of a particular type or topic. That means solving all “functions” related problems or “FIJ” questions in a single flow. This helps in determining the strategy to tackle each of the types. In fact, many times in math I realized that the problem was repeated with just change in values and I still had not solved it during my AIMCAT before I started using this new method.
Then came the question of time distribution during the CAT. My initial policy of 50-50-50 was a dud if the paper pattern changes and with two back to back CATs with 25-25-25 distribution, it was bound to be a different pattern. I decided to go for the flexible policy of 30-30-30-20-20-20. Here, the last 20-20-20 can be easily modified to take into account the difficult/easy sections. Since, one has already started each of the sections, he has an idea about the difficulty level of each sections. So suppose English is tough and is your weak point, then give it more time as compared to other sections, but 30 min per each section has to be given to decide this.
Let me make it clear, my performance did not increase suddenly or drastically. It took time. Also, it didn’t increase in a way to make this as an ultimate strategy for CAT success. Honestly speaking even after this I wasn't able to hit a balance during my AIMCATs. But I had decided I will fight the Naruto way- I wont quit, I wont go back on my words, that’s my Ninja way. In this positive frame of mind, I went for CAT….
Next was about how to approach each section during exam. He asked us to first go through the complete section first, in case of Math and DI. Reason – Identify the “known” types and attempt (or avoid in case you are uncomfortable) them first. But wait.. hang on.. Wasn’t I doing the same past year? or even year before that? Oh yea. At that time I realized what I was missing in DI. I wasn’t scanning through the sets. Same was true with Math. I had to change my strategy. So next change was first going through the entire section first, knowing which can be solved first and then start attempting the questions. But how to decide what’s easy and what is not? I got that answer also in the same session. Solve the “known” types first. Then the unknown ones.
To build a big repository of “known” types, I altered the way I analyzed the paper. My usual way was, when paper gets over, I would again solve the paper with infinite time limit with actual answers with me. If I feel I can solve it, I would try to solve it and then check for answer in the solution set or directly look for answers especially in case of VA. This time around, I gathered all the AIMCAT papers first and started solving questions of a particular type or topic. That means solving all “functions” related problems or “FIJ” questions in a single flow. This helps in determining the strategy to tackle each of the types. In fact, many times in math I realized that the problem was repeated with just change in values and I still had not solved it during my AIMCAT before I started using this new method.
Then came the question of time distribution during the CAT. My initial policy of 50-50-50 was a dud if the paper pattern changes and with two back to back CATs with 25-25-25 distribution, it was bound to be a different pattern. I decided to go for the flexible policy of 30-30-30-20-20-20. Here, the last 20-20-20 can be easily modified to take into account the difficult/easy sections. Since, one has already started each of the sections, he has an idea about the difficulty level of each sections. So suppose English is tough and is your weak point, then give it more time as compared to other sections, but 30 min per each section has to be given to decide this.
Let me make it clear, my performance did not increase suddenly or drastically. It took time. Also, it didn’t increase in a way to make this as an ultimate strategy for CAT success. Honestly speaking even after this I wasn't able to hit a balance during my AIMCATs. But I had decided I will fight the Naruto way- I wont quit, I wont go back on my words, that’s my Ninja way. In this positive frame of mind, I went for CAT….
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