With a mere ten days left, the importance of Quantitative Aptitude Preparation 2023 becomes evident for CAT aspirants. it's obvious that the aspirants may have stopped experimenting with their approaches and have cemented their techniques and time management skills.Among the three sections, the QA section stands utterly crucial because of two reasons. Primarily, it is the last section (at least until the previous year). After two hours of grilling and tormenting your brain, Quant requires twice the effort (according to me). Secondly, the engineers! They will score in this particular set, no matter what happens. While some may view it as biased. However, they do hold a significant advantage in Quant. So, one directly needs to put significant effort into the paper to land himself/herself in a position of a better score and percentile.The following checkpoints would provide you with a clearer and more precise idea about the Quantitative Aptitude Preparation 2023 section-
Panicky Situation- It is highly recommended that the aspirants should consider this section as a separate paper. Please! Forget that you had a Verbal or LRDI section just a minute back. The final day is always like a boiling cooker. Some of you will make mistakes in the initial two sections that will be jeopardized. Make sure you do not carry that baggage and render a cascading effect on the final section. It will be disastrous, especially because the tension and mistakes pile up, either linearly, or to be worse exponentially. Stay calm and composed for the final one hour.
Elimination – The aspirants need to accept the truth that the CAT is a process of elimination, not selection. Remember that! The GD and PI rounds that come later are the processes of selection. So, deploy the same formula. Skip questions that too readily. Do not waste time even on a second look if you do not understand the question on the first go.
Mocks - Embrace them! They are the only alternatives that will help you in gaining speed. Practice at least 2-3 sets every day from now to get an idea as to how many questions you can touch in an hour. You need not attempt every question, but yes, a significant number is always better. It is highly important to develop the speed of going through the whole of the question paper in under 40 minutes as it would save valuable time for answering the questions.
Three rounds - The first round should result in getting the correct answer in the first go. It should come automatically, or through intuition. The second round should be focussed on the ones that are long questions, require multiple calculations, or the usage of calculators. The final round (if you have time) should be dealt with getting the bonus. If you can solve them, well and good; if not, those questions were never from your safe basket. Smile and accept!
Accuracy - Whatever levels of accuracy you have presently, it will be entirely different in the final paper. The responsibility is on you whether you render it a positive growth or a negative downturn. It is recommended that the aspirants should not go for blind guesses in this section as it would impact their overall score.
Calculators - Do not use it unless the options are very close to 5-10% difference. If the options are far enough, CAT does not want you to use the calculator. Mental calculations and approximation techniques are a must. The ones that have very close answers, leave them for the last.
Please instill in your mind that CAT is not a war. It is just an exam that is highly unpredictable. So, keep the pressure off. During the paper, lock the negative thoughts back at home as to what will happen if things do not work out. You will still be alive. Appreciate that!As they say, it's easier said than done. However, the real challenge for CAT aspirants begins after completing the exam, when the PI shortlists start rolling in with a minimalistic percentile gap, expectations might see a dip. The focus now should be performing equally well as you do in the mocks.Relax and good luck!