CAT 2010 test takers Experiences part(ii)

1)By Nikhil Sinha
Hi Guys,

Here goes my experience!

CAT Centre, Date and Slot:22 nov ISBR, Bangalore 3:30 pm slot.

1) How many attempts you have made?va-20,qa-17,di-16..oa-53
2) Your last mock score? ....betwn 60-90 (the best being the AIM NMAT lately, got 197 rank overall in India ,the 1st rank in VA in bglore, 4th all over India ).

3) How was your experience of the test? One of those rare times that I can say I am "satisfied" with my performance in any exam.

4) What was the surprise element for you? Level of difficulty of paper, I found it too easy.. before you make any assumptions/conclusions, let me tell you friends that I am a very "normal" guy as far as my mock %iles are concerned. They have fluctuated heavily, many a times putting me under pressure, but I kept telling myself - "Rise to the occasion dude."
5) Any tips to handle the computer based exam better? Actually this online hullaboo has caused the test takers to take 100s of mocks, read journals, gyaans et al- in the end I feel it is not much of a difference, in fact its only better to jump to "marked" questions, weigh your status in diff sections towards the end of the exam etc etc... Specially this year, the exams could be said as to "glitch free" .

6) Your overall analysis of the exam. Toughness, sections etc.

qa-I was surprised, I ( you won't believe, even though I am an engg, my quants is (or was?) pathetic, still managed to attempt 17 questions (in 2 rounds though).

di- Deep inside my heart, I was praying that the ongoing trend of tough & calculation intensive DI should stop and it did! Pretty manageable in 45 mins, you dont need to know "vedic maths" or master Trachtenberg system of speed maths to conquer DI in this paper (being very specific to THIS paper).

va- My forte(Again, would take the liberty of quoting that I don't believe in marks as I got 95 in 10th and 46 in 12th!) This cannot be said as an easy one, but anyone with a decent (literally, not even good) command on English could attempt 15 q's easily. I knew that I had to make the most of it in this section!


7) Any other query or something you would like to share with us.
Yes, few things for the last 2 day takers (ideally you should not be reading this now )

1. you can do well if you leave your emotions behind while solving QA, see the questions with your eyes wide open in DI and look a little beyond the obvious in english.

2. It really does NOT matter what was ur last or any mock score- (i even got negative marks in some of them). Use answer options well, please know the basics completely (in quants specially).

3. For english, there is no substitute to reading as much as you can- but watching movies with subtitles can help too (as you understand the context, best in movies- hope you agree ).

4.In general, start small(this is just one of the things I learnt and "applied" from TG Sir, be simple in your approach (not every question that might be given, will be a fireball thrown at you!).

Don't know about the results, but this being my last attempt at CAT, I really pray for myself (being a bit selfish) and all other test takers to get a little help from lady luck- we all can do with a little bit of her help, won't we?


Good night and as I said- "RISE TO THE OCCASION"!.

The season, has just begun........and miles to go before I sleep!!


2)By himanshu porwal
Hi ppl,  

Appeared : 20th Nov 3:30 AM, bangalore
Overall the organization of the exam was at least a hundred times better than last year. I probably got the best position I could have asked for with two girls sitting on either side,beauties to admire for atleast two hours.
Started with my usual strategy of DI-QA-VA.

Thought of scanning and skimming through each section and decide which one to attempt and which not,worked for DI.But it takes around 3-4 mins to do that. Did same for QA ,VA i m not that good to decide so went with the intution and logic. :-p

Although this is my strongest section but off late it is proving to be the difference. And whoa !! what do we have?? 8-10 LR questions with mostly single question per huge chunk of crap but very easy data. 1 DI set was too tough to crack with 3 question, up there to leave it and rest were easy of moderate level. Be prepared ,calculate evrything at the end will give u speed and accuracy. Two question in DI was wrong correct option not provided. LR to easy to crack in 2 mins. Avg attempt expected here 13-15 in around 40 mins. My attempt 17, 1 question i am not sure.

As inputs from earlier takers, QA had fair no of sitters (min 8, and 11 if u know the direct formulas mostly in functions and sets,progression) mixed with moderate to tough questions which shouldn't be attempted at all(i mean tough ones ;3 of them). Fell prey to one of the wrong question on quadratic eqn cross checked twice and lost valuable time. Avg attempt expected here : 13-15 in around 45 mins .My attempts 17- 2 wrong as i know the answer once i finished the test. I think its the distraction sitting beside me ;).

Then comes my Achilles heel as you can clearly see in my post . Although I am not qualified enough to judge it, but overall of moderate level with few easy questions in between, mostly grammar based. Consisted of PJ's,FIB,homonyms,SC and PC's as usual. 3 RC's : were of moderate to tough level with one easy read but all had close options.
Avg attempt expected here 14-16 in around 35 mins. Attempted 15 Question.

Just a word of precaution to future test takers.

Test is For 2 :15 min and not 2 :30 as I assumed. My mistake as CAT is not about assumption.
Do not expect to match up with the attempts across different slots. Each paper has its own difficulty level and diff difficult sections. Just give ample time to DI because until now most slots had same pattern for DI, which includes lengthy or too calculation intensive caselets.

ATB to future test takers. Just relax and give it your best shot be cool and divide ur time.

3)By himanshu arora
Appeared : 18th Nov  
HI ,

1) How many attempts you have made?
DI - 14, Quant - 15, Verbal - 17 Overall - 46/60

A FOUR LETTER WORD FOR DI ..... AND DEN I PRESSED ANOTHER FOR LETTER WORD ----- >>> NEXT for such caselets

2) Your last mock score?
63-98%tile


3) How was your experience of the test?
full 10/10 experience .... except the attitude of the invigilators.....

4) What was the surprise element for you?
DI was tough , DI supposed to be mine strong section but WTH was that ...too much calculation ... still managed to pull out 14 ...

5) Any tips to handle the computer based exam better?
nothing i suppose..... just be careful about the wires beneath the table ...

6) Your overall analysis of the exam. Toughness, sections etc.
Quant Easy-Moderate - I think u just need to set ur priorities correct , pick the sitters first that will boost ur confidence .

DI Moderate-Difficult - 3-4 Caselets.... AND A FOUR LETTER WORD FROM ME ...... it wasn't difficult in terms of understanding , but the calculation part was pathetic ....

Verbal Moderate :Close options i must say same as u have in Aimcats ..
Simple vocab and easy fill in the blanks

7) Any other query or something you would like to share with us.
Nothing as such , i would say don't discuss about cat with ur frnds means don't go with any preconceived notions .....

ROCK THE CAT ,,,,, and remember ACHE LOGO KE SAATH ACHA HI HOTA HAI >>>>>>> ....

 4)By kripa singh
 Appeared : 18th Nov,morning session
very interesting post.......i hd mine in d morning slot, d only difference was your distraction being my motivation ;-p ..........d sexy gal nearby me made b too comfortable n light......we chatted for 2 hrs lol ........examiners came to us evry 2 min...........

on a serious note nw.......my paper was reasonable , easy quant ( i hvnt touched books since last cat whn i screwed myself to a dismal 91.8), di was a mix bad wid few very easy ones n few calculative bt nt tough, VA was kind of okay, few easy n few moderate......not tough by any means.............i was completely underprepared bt managed to attempt 54 wid good accuracy i think (3 were tukkas of a frustrated soul as i wasted time trying to solve them n ended up wasting max time in them)

tip from me ( nt of grt value though) -- english can easily b done in 25 mins n give them all to d calculative, lenthy n rather absurd DI. quant wil use ur brain nt knowledge ( i dint require a single formula )

conclusion-- m nt a gud student to dont follow my advice :-p n yeh i took tht gals number.

 5)By Kamal Lohia
Date - 3rd Nov, evening slot (3.30 - 6.00pm)
Center - Asia Pacific Institute of Management Studies, Delhi

Reached the center at 3:25pm due to many unwanted hiccups and fortunately made it to examination hall after so-called biometric-testings just-in-time.

Started the exam - to my surprise first section was DI so didn't need to go to review sheet and select my section, so started immediately.
Timer was showing 2:14, so fixed up time for DI upto 1:30 but then let it go for 5 more minutes and finished up at 1:25. (50 minutes - 17 attempts).
Again luck favored-next section was QA so didn't waste time to go to review sheet and jump to my favored one. Again fixed up time upto 00:40 and this time finished it in time. (45 minutes - 16 attempts).
Last section VA- 40 minutes available - started with attacking mood and got some easier parajumbles which I am damn sure to be correct, that boosted the confidence and finished the whole section in just 25 minutes. (25 minutes - 16 attempts).
Remaining 15 minutes - wasted - couldn't solve even a single question - just wandered from one question to another from the skipped ones.

Overall - 49/60 attempts.

One suggestion to all candidates who are to still write their CAT: Each section requires its designated time of 45 minutes. So don't go by the review's of earlier CAT-takers. I've heard from the students that they were not able to attempt VA completely to their satisfaction in 45 minutes. Just give each section equal time and let the number of attempts be what it be.

12-15 correct attempt in each section must be more than sufficient to get IIM calls, as I feel.

 Best of luck to all of you.