CAT Performance

Today, after many days i thought to write a post about my performance on CAT. I have been writing this blog since almost 8-9 months and the same is my prep stint. So anyways, CAT this year was too good for me in two of the sections. However, DI screwed me up badly that none of the IIMs gonna call me.
I started with 30-30-30 and 20-20-20 min strategy that had given me good results in past. I kick started with QA section for a change and able to sovle mere 5 question in 35 mins. Then moved to DI section and did 6 question and man, i was damn sure that i have these 11 question correct. After more 30 mins and DI section, i moved to VA and apportioned 50 mins straight away. I found VA exteremly easy and was able to solve only 22 question. Yes, even after i said easy section. I then alloted 20 mins to DI section again and i landed up with only 9 attempts in DI. And then more 15 mins to QA and i did 6 question!! :). So overall my attempts were 11 in QA, 9 in DI and 22 in VA.
After checking the keys, following are my would be scores:
QA: 34 (9 R and 2 W) awesome accuracy man
DI: 16 (5 R and 4 W) My worste performance in DI ever
VA: 78 (20 R and 2 W) again awesome accuracy
Overall: 128 Marks
But looking at my DI scores, i know i have screwed up big time and the coveted bricked corridors are now out of the picture..Well, JMET is the next target..Hope i do well this time and do not disappoint myself and all you readers.

Regards,
Ameya

JMET 2009 to be held on 14th Dec; Major Pattern changes observed

The structure of the JMET exam will undergo changes this year, according to IIT Kanpur. This year this written management entrance exam will be conducted by IIT Kanpur.
According to IIT Kanpur, JMET 2009 will be of 3 hours duration. The test will consist of 120 questions including objective & multiple choice type in Verbal Communication, Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation areas.
Earlier the test was two hours long with 150 questions where the sections were same.
The test will be held in 37 test centres in 8 cities include Bangalore, Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Roorkee and Madras.

Last lap to the feline

CAT - the feline is just couple of days away. Lots of people are giving gyan like do this, dont do this and loads of stuff. Anyways, i am posting this post just for some quick updates. Took CL Mock 11 yesterday. DI section was lil tough. QA had some sitters and VA was doable. I am not posting the entire analysis now, as time is not suitable for it. Anyways, thanks to my preps and my god, i cleared the cutoffs again with flying colors.
QA: 34 (cut off being 28)
DI: 23 (lots of contoversies are there for this section. People are saying three sets were wrong so i sat with my facutly and indeed, almost 8 Qs were wrong. So i assume i have cleared this cut off. The offical cut off being 38 with erronious question.)

Va: 57 (cut off being 37)

OA: 109
%ile: 98 +

Ameya

AIMCATs Journey ends with the rocking mock!

Finally, yet another season of AIMCATs and the saga ends. Actually, i want to write a long post about my experience of this journey, ups, downs, and god knows what not. This season might have been very good for some and might be a path full of thorns. Anyways, i am not posting this crap now, as i am saving this for my aideu speach after the IIMs reaults.

I have been working on the strategy to solve the paper since quite a long. However, it is the recent times when i discovered the one that suits me perfectly, that makes me confortable while soving the mock. Thank you to Sinchan aka Rik_12 on Pagalguy, who guided me to go with the strategy and boy, it worked, it clicked, i found what i was searching for. I took 3 mocks with this strategy and i must say i have rocked them totally including AIMCAT901.
The strategy is, to apportion eualy time slot of 30 mins to each section in the first half of the paper. The means, i allocated 30 mins to QA, 30 to DI and 30 to VA. Now with this you have already gone through the entire paper once and must have solved at least 5-6 questions in this this 30 sprint. So when you see 5-6 Qs ovalled in each section, it boosts your confidence to hights. Now, in the second half of 20-20-20 mins, when you return to sections, your conversion rate the around 95%. So in 60 odd minutes you will end up scoring big time. This worled for me big time and still is working. If you guys are still struggling with the strategy, go try this one out.
AIMCAT901:
As i said, i started the paper with QA (i had never started with QA in last 18 mocks) and given around 40 mins instead of 30 and solved 4-5 Qs. As quant was inclined towards the tougher side, i was not stiated with my attempts in 30 mins, but i was sure that all these 4-5 Qs are correct. I left QA and moved to DI. Initially i was struggling to find a set to solve but then i got hold of the 1st set in the paper and solved 4/5 and got all correct. Moved to DS and solved all of them got 2/3 correct. By this time, the 30 mis sprint was over so i moved to VA so that i could get some good number questions there and increase my score. I decided to alloted the 20 more mins to VA section after 30 mins. I returned to QA and solved 3-4 questions there and then to DI and solved 3-4 questions. With this, the time was up and i was done with the last AIMCAT of the series.
I stepped out of the exam hall and started to check the answers and found that i have solved 2 Qs wrongly in QA. I said to myself, oh boy i again messed it up. I didnt bother to check the scores, however, when i checked the scores, i ended up with the following score:

QA: 8 R 2 W -->30
DI: 8 R 1 W --> 31
VA: oh boy, i am back to my best 16 R 2 W --> 62

Over All: 123 !!! I never imagined myself scoring this much, but man..i am there..i am there in the game..it feels great to score after you worked so hard. Anyways, enough og gyan..let me conclude the post here..

Ameya

Last 14 days to CAT 2008

The timer is running out of time..The fire has been fuled up. The clashes of desires and reality must have removed the veil of mirage from everyone's heart. Last 14 days for CAT. The last leap. I am not going to post something very serious or something that makes you serious because it is of no use now. The time has passed and one should concentrate upon consolidating the strategies, ideas and tricks.

Many of you who are preparing for CAT will solve around 5-6 mocks more..But, i am not talking about the mocks either. It is gonna be about the state of mind one should have while attempting the CAT. Enough of preparation phase, i am going to try to consolidate myself, my state of mind and concentration level now. I remember one of my friend from IIMs told me, if you have control on your senses, the D-day is yours..But this is often easier said than done. I am facing this big time now. Although many people continually suggests me to keep faith, keep your cool, keep the spirits up..Sometime this does not happens. I think this is what exactly IIMs wanna test. Are you able to handle the situation calmly? Are you able to make decisions properly when time is running off? Are you the one who drops the guntlet at the tough and tensed momemts? If my answer to all these question is big "YES" then you are made for IIMs. No matter what my mock scores are, no matter how many people are there in the race, no matter what people think about me.. say it to yourself - I AM GONNA WIN !!!

Isn't it charge up your attitute? isn't it runs through your blood? come on..

Take some time out and talk to yourself. Have i prepared properly? Am i ready for the fight?

However, these words are not meant to make you a charged unstable particle, but to let you think, to let you consolidate the thought process. Forget the mock scores, forget the peopel..Be it yourself..Relax..This is what i have been telling to myself since many days. Yes, this 16th November 2008 is gonna be my day..I am gonna win..Let anything happens, let anything comes in bet..i am gonna make it this time...Are you saying the same to yourself?

BTW, i am gonna watch all part of Rocky (silvestor wala)..

Ameya

SAP Professional Journal Contract

I am glad today to post about my recent contract note with SAP Professional Journal for writing an article under "work-for-hire" agreement. I initially developed an article proposal way back in June-July. After having done the evaluation and feedback from Wellesley Information Services team, I started to preapre the first draft. After developing an article that took almost a months time, i forwarded the draft to SAP PRO team for the evaluation.
Today, i got the mail form the SAPPRO team that my article is going to get published after multiple iteration between me and the design engineer. I am glad that i got a chance to write in such a repected internation journal that is going to be read by at least 10000 people worldwide. So it is the time to cheer. I am moreover happy that my profile is going to get tremendous weightage because of this achievement. So i think i am preparing myself for a post CAT selection process. :) This will gonna add certain weightage.
Cheers people...

Ameya

Fact, Inference and Judgements For CAT

FACTS:

Deal with pieces of information that one has heard, seen or read, and which are open to discovery or verification. The key word here is “verification”. A fact is a statement that can be ‘verified’, i.e. a fact is either true or false. Facts are statements that may involve numbers, natural phenomena, dates etc.

The characteristics of the statements classified as facts are:

-->Made after observation or experience. An event cannot become a fact unless it has occurred.
-->Confined to what one observes; cannot be made about the future.
-->Limited number possible.
-->Not perception dependent. A fact will be agreed to by every person. It does not change from person to person.
-->Tends to bring people together in agreement.


Examples:

1)Nearly 2 lac students took CAT last year.

2)Life exists on other planets (although physically not possible to verify, this statement will be either true or false).

3)I like Pink Floyd more than Metallica (It may not seem so, but this statement is either true or false. Either I like Pink Floyd more than Metallica or I don’t).

4)The legislature is advocating vigorously against intrusion of judiciary in parliamentary affairs.

5)A football field is 100 yards long.

NOTE: Notice the difference when a sentence contains subjective or abstract expressions-

6)The music was very loud (NOT a fact as the loudness might vary from person to person).

Poverty is a curse on mankind (NOT a fact…’curse on mankind’ is too abstract).
7)20% of the population live below poverty line (Fact).

‘FACTS’ STATEMENTS IN CAT 2006 PAPER:

1)The government has been supplying free drugs since 2004, and 35 000 have benefited up to now- though the size of the affected population is 150 times this number.

2)Only about 13 million children in the age group of 6 to 14 years are out of school.

3)The truth is that we have more red tape- we take eighty- nine days to start a small business, Australians take two.

4)The economies of the industrialized western world derive 20% of their income from the sale of all kinds of arms.

INFERENCES:

are conclusions drawn about the unknown, on the basis of the known. Notice the three words ‘conclusions’, ‘known’ and ‘unknown’ very carefully. They will give you complete description of what an inference consists of-

Known- A fact. The first thing an inference should consist of is a fact. This fact is required to prove another proposition.
Unknown- Something which can be logically proven by the given fact or the ‘known’. Therefore, in an inference an unknown proposition is present which is to be proven with the help of the fact. Remember that this proposition has to be proven with the help of another fact.
Conclusion- Once the unknown has been proved with the help of the known (fact) it is called a conclusion.
Notice the meaning of the word ‘Infer’. To infer mean to conclude from evidence; to deduce to have a logical consequence. (an inference = a conclusion)
Therefore, the process of inference can be summarized by the figure given below:


Examples:

1)Because the old man stayed indoors all the time and did not receive any visitors, no one discovered his dead body for days.

(the green part is the fact and the brown part is the conclusion. Notice that without the explanation given by the fact, you cannot convincingly prove the conclusion.)

2)The footprint warned Robinson Crusoe that there was someone else on the island.



‘INFERENCE’ STATEMENTS IN CAT 2006 PAPER:

(the facts are in green and the conclusions are in brown)

1)The recent initiatives of networks and companies like AIDScare Network, Emcure, Reliance-Cipla-CII, would lead to availability of much-needed drugs to a larger number of affected people.

2)According to all statistical indications, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has managed to keep pace with its ambitious goals.

3)Every red tape procedure is a point of contact with an official, and such contacts have the potential to become opportunities for money to change hands.

4)Even without war, we know that conflicts continue to trouble us- they only change in color.



JUDGEMENTS:

are opinions that imply approval or disapproval of persons, objects, situations, and occurrences in the past, the present or the future. There is a fine line of distinction between inferences and judgments. Most of the times judgments are also based on facts and therefore they seem like inferences. But there are some ways to differentiate a judgment and an inference-

Judgments are arguable and contestable. Inferences are rock solid. Although both judgments and inferences are based on facts, in the latter the conclusion is so unquestionable that it becomes fact itself.
Judgments are opinions, suggestions and recommendations whereas inferences are proven conditions.
Judgment statements include a lot of quantities that cannot be measured, such as happiness, beauty, joy etc.
Many a times, judgments are not accompanied by facts at all but are only opinion statements. When there is no fact involved, the statement can only be a judgment statement.
A judgment is an honest attempt to make reasonable observations about the given facts but they do not conclusively prove anything.
Examples:

1)It is estimated that that 30% of Indians live below poverty line. (judgment: if it is an estimate, it cannot be a fact).

2)Every mother has only the best interests of her children at her heart. (Is there a way to look inside a mother’s heart?).

3)Because we had three wars with our neighboring country, we should keep our armed forced ready for the fourth one.

‘JUDGMENT’ STATEMENTS IN CAT 2006 PAPER:
1)So much of our day-to-day focus seems to be on getting thins done, trudging our way through the tasks of living- it can feel like a treadmill that gets you nowhere; where is the childlike joy?

2)We are not doing things that make us happy; that which brings us joy; the things that we cannot wait to do because we enjoy them so much.

3)This is the stuff that joyful living is made of- identifying your calling and committing yourself wholeheartedly to it.

4)When this happens, each moment becomes a celebration of you; there is a rush of energy that comes with feeling completely immersed in doing what you love most.

5)Given the poor quality of service in the public service, the HIV/AIDS affected should be switching to private initiatives that supply anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) at a low cost.

6)But how ironic it is that we should face a perennial shortage of drugs when India is one of the world’s largest suppliers of generic drugs to the developing world.

7)The Mid-day Meal scheme has been a significant incentive for the poor to send their little ones to school, thus establishing the vital link between healthy bodies and healthy minds.
8)I found the music very loud (A fact as it is either a truth or a lie. I must have found the music very loud or not very loud).

9)We should not be hopelessly addicted to an erroneous belief that corruption in India is caused by the crookedness of Indians.

10)Red tape leads to corruption and distorts people’s character.

11)Inequitable distribution of all kinds of resources is certainly one of the strongest and most sinister sources of conflict.

12)Extensive disarmament is the only insurance for our future; imagine the amount of resources that can be released and redeployed.