Rahul is a current student at FMS Delhi. He has cracked CAT16 with 100%ile in the quant section. He completed his engineering in 2017 then worked for two years in the education industry. In this article, Rahul will tell us how to master the quant section.
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Rahul, can you tell us how many times you have attempted CAT?
I have attempted CAT multiple times, and every time I have scored more than 99+%ile overall and 99.6+%ile quant section, and in CAT'18, I have scored 99.74%ile overall and joined FMS Delhi. I have also given CAT’19 and got 99.54%ile.
Since you are a current student of FMS Delhi then why did you attempt CAT’19?
I am passionate about teaching and mentoring students. After my graduation, I started a Facebook group to help students for CAT and mentor ten students out of which six students made to the top 5 B-schools of the country. Now, even after such a busy schedule at B-school, I have a team of 4-odd persons, one from each IIM ABC and FMS Delhi. They are personally mentoring ten students not only for CAT but also for GD-PI and have planned to help students even after admission into B-schools so that students can get the best out of MBA at B-Schools.
So, I attempted CAT’19 because I wanted to understand the exam better, and hence I can guide students more appropriately. Also, I love to solve the quants question and to develop new techniques for difficult questions.
I am curious to know why some of your friends call you a QA wizard?
This may be a little exaggeration. I am just a hard-working person. I had practised more questions than an average aspirant does. That helps me to solve questions in less time than others, and it amazes people. But all this is just only because of sheer hard work and dedication and anyone and can do it with hard work and perseverance.
How are you so good at it?
I will credit this to my curiosity to find the best possible approach for questions in the QA section. And also, as I have been in this profession of training students for CAT, so I always want to teach my students in the simplest way and approaches that save their time in the exam. And one thing that makes you good in anything that if you never stop learning new things and keep practising them.
I had learned a lot from various sources, like friends and faculties. Apart from that, I had designed my multiple approaches, shortcuts myself that save time in exams. One important thing, I focus on these approaches and shortcuts in such a way that these should be derived from the basic concepts and should not be limited to a few questions. Approach and shortcut must be universal, not conditional as most of the faculties teach tricks that are for specific type questions, and those doesn’t work in the exam and such learning moves you toward rote learning, not conceptual understanding. I am fond of solving difficult questions and designing simple approaches to complex problems. To give the benefit of my knowledge to students, I have created a Facebook group
CAt RAce, here I keep posting new techniques and shortcuts. And in my free time, I also make videos for the best approaches and keep uploading on my
YouTube Channel.
What do you suggest to people who are preparing for CAT, what tips would you like to give them for QA section?
It is a very simple stick with basic concepts, do one good book two-three times, and after that multiple revision and lot of practice. I have seen nowadays students are too busy collecting too much material on the internet, they try to do 2-3 books and lots of previous year’s mock and eventually they end up learning nothing substantial. So, don’t commit this mistake. Let me explain why this is important; when we do any book once, you will not get complete clarity unless you are exceptional and when you will do the same book the second time you will feel yourself that now you can understand the logic and concept behind every question clearly.
The most important thing, invest your time in topics that are relevant to CAT and not invest too much time in topics that are not important for the exam. I have seen people wasting time on learning speed maths, Vedic maths, and fast calculation, etc. these have little relevance to CAT; these topics might be helpful in banking and other exams, not in CAT.
Here are the stepwise details to ace this section, and most of the points are also true for other sections too.
1) List of Do’s and Don’t
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Do Need
|
Don't Need |
| The content of one reputed institute or author |
Content of multiple Coaching institutions |
| A good Mentor |
Videos on the drive from various institutes
|
| Strong basics |
Purchasing multiple courses in a group discount
|
|
Past 4-year CAT paper
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Collection of 5+ year mocks
|
|
Two national level test series
|
Solving 2-3 books |
| Regular mocks & 2-3 Revisions before the CAT exam |
Watching random videos on YouTube
|
2) LPR Strategy
So, this is the strategy, I developed and followed religiously when I was preparing for CAT. I also have shared the same strategy with many of my friends and students. They find it very helpful.
L – Learn, P – Practice, R – Revise
These three things are the pillar of CAT preparation. Learn a concept then do enough practice so that you learned that concept clearly. Then, keep regularly revising so that you don’t forget it. The problem with most students I have seen is that they are very keen to learn new concepts, but they don’t revise properly. Revision is the most crucial part of CAT preparation. I would suggest doing at least two revisions before the CAT exam.
Thank you, Rahul, for disclosing your secret to score a good percentile in the QA section. Thank you very much.
Sure, Dilsad. I find great pleasure in helping others. I hope this interview would be useful for students who are preparing for CAT and I wish them all the luck for the exam.
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