Publishedonwww.PaGaLGuY.

com|August17,2009

NewQuantDI,NewStrategy
ByTCYonline.com

There is no need to panic, guys; CAT 2009 is no different from any past CAT as regards Quant & DI.
AsaseriousCAT09aspirant,doyoucompletelyagreetoit? Although there is no need to panic, CAT 2009 is certainly different from the past CAT as regards the right ways to approachit.WehavebeenassuredmanytimesthroughofficialnotificationsaboutCAT2009thatIIMsaretryingtokeep the test as close to the oldpaperpencilbased pattern as possible. The freedom offered in a LinearComputerBased formatsupportstheirclaim.However,thefactthatitwillbeheldonacomputerscreenisstrongenoughtomakeusre visitourtesttakingstrategies.Theneedtoreduceorcounterbalancethetimewastageperquestion,whichseemsto be a certain outcome of reading the data from computer screen, cannot be over emphasized. This, together with the fact that CAT Quant & DI are getting more reasoning oriented, would prove our excessive dependence on the quick calculationfacultiesamere illusion. This mirage, ifnotdealtwithcarefullytoday,willanyhowdisappearinNovember end.Nevertheless,todaysmistakeswouldbetomorrowsblunders.

THELOGICPREVAILS
PastfewyearshaveproventoeachseriousMBAaspirantthata99.99PercentileinCATisbeyondquickcalculationsand VedicMath.Thoughtheseskillsareessentialtosetthemood,theyhardlyhavehelpedaCATtakerwhodoesnotknow howtologicallyapproachaQuantorDIproblem.Probably,thatsthereasonwhytestmakersareturningtowardsmore logicalproblemsandlesscalculationthirstysitters.YourMOCKOnlineCATscoresstandwitnesstothehardfactthatas the Quant and DI problems turn more logical the time per question is bound to increase. This is because a logical problemneedsalogicalsolutionandtobreakthecodeyoumustspendtimeanalyzingthegivendata.Hence,thereisa needtocurbthistimeflubeforeitcausesmajordamage.

AHOLISTICAPPROACH
Ifweanalyticallyassessthechallengesacomputercanpose, wecanreachthesocalledHolygrailstrategyforCAT09 QuantandDI.TheanalysisbyTCYonlineexpertsbroadlyexposes5majorchallengesaCAT09QuantorDIproblemcan pose.Theyare: 1. Concentration Challenge which is the root cause of having to RERERERead a question statement / answerchoices/achart/anequationinordertounlocktherelevantinformationinit. 2. OpticalIllusionChallengewhichleadsustoassumetheNototherwisegivenstherebydeviatingfromthe logicandfallingintothesettrap. 3. ChallengeofRelevancewhich,ifignored,maypushusintothedatawarehouseofthechartorgraph. 4. Challenge of Consistency which although a byproduct of poor concentration on computer screen, can challengeourcapabilitytostayconsistentwithasingleunitofthedataespeciallytheoneusedintheanswer choices. 5. Challenge of Interpretation which is caused by many statements which are difficult to retain in mind (becauseyoucannothighlightanyofthem). And there is only one way to meet these challenges Commonsense. However, it can be easily translated into specificsasfollows:

NO.
1

CHALLENGE
Concentration

EXAMPLES
Thinkofaquestionbasedonlogicalarrangement.Youreadthequestionanddraw aframeworkontheroughpaper;movetoanswerChoice1doesntfit;Choice 2 seems closer; Choice 3 is weird; Choice 4 can also be the answer and Choice5canneverbetheanswer.Allchoicesscanned.Now,youdecidetolook attheframework(fromyournotes)again.Nowbythetimeyoucomebacktothe choices, you have forgotten which were closer and which could be skipped now. Actually,nowyoumusthavelookedat2ndand4thonlyandsavedalotoftimebut youcouldnotstrikeoff1st,3rd&5thastheyareonthecomputerscreen. Thenhow shouldyousavetime? Simplybywritingtheimportantonesonthescratchpaper.E.g. 24inthiscase. So,themomentyoucomeback,youdconsideronly2nd&4th. Sometimes the question statements are either very lengthy or involve a lot of ambiguousdatawhichotherwisecanbesimplifiedonthescratchpapersimplyby

formulatingtheprobleminstepsasyoureadit. ThishasbeenexplainedinanexamplefromCAT2007below. 2 OpticalIllusion Remember that diagrams in the questions are NEVER drawn to scale (unless specified otherwise). Hence, a triangle may look exactly like a Right Angled Triangleanditwouldnotbeclearlymentionedinthequestionstatement.Youmay very easily fall into the trap if you do not redraw it as a scalene / isosceles (whateverthegivendatasuggests)onyourscratchpaper.Suchkindofillusionsare verycommoninGRE,anothertestadministeredbPrometric. Weknowthatthefiguresinthe Geometryproblems haveangles.Sometimes,we just estimate the answer based on an angle that looks bigger (or smaller) as per thefigure.Manytimes,smalleranglesaredeliberatelyshownbiggerinsizemaking usfellintothetrap. Anexamplebelow(frompastCATs)explainsopticalillusion. 3 Relevance Many a time, it has been seen that a graph or a chart in DI contain a lot of informationorsometimesstudentwillhavetorefertwochartstoanswerasetof questions.Here,whatwegenerallydoisthatwestartunderstandingthecomplete stuff and the relation of all the parameters with respect to one another E.g. ProductionofRice,Wheat,PulsesinMaharashtra,Punjab,U.P,MPetc..Wetryto understandeverypiecewhereasinsomequestionssomeitemsarenotcoveredor stated. To add to the confusion, doing this on computer screen consume even moretimebecauseoflowconcentrationproblem.Hence,approachinDIshould be Question centric and NOT data centric especially in the Round 1 of your attempt. ThishasbeenexplainedinanexamplefromCAT2003below. 4 Consistency Sometimes there are 2 graphs to be referred to in one Questionset. Here we should specifically notice units (cm, m, km) of measurement in both the graphs. Sometimes theseunitsare keptdifferent inboth graphs.That is,inone graphall distancesaregivenin m whileinother theyaregivenin km. And wefellintothe trap. Additionally, it has been seen that a consistentformulation of a problem on the roughpapercanunlockallthevariablesandconstantsinordertoreachmultiple answers. This is especially through in case of problems involving logical arrangementofthedataorthoseinvolvingVennDiagrams. ThishasbeenexplainedinanexamplefrompastCATsbelow.

Interpretation

In many DI questions involving logical arrangement of data, the proper interpretation of the data in the form of tables and flowcharts helps a lot in reachingthecorrectanswer. ThishasbeenexplainedinanexamplefrompastCATsbelow

HereareafewexamplesfrompastCATs:

Concentration
Question1 Inatournament,therearenteamsT1,T2,...,Tn,withn>5.Eachteamconsistsofkplayers,k>3.The Solution1: followingpairsofteamshaveoneplayerincommon: T1&T2,T2&T3,.,Tn1&TnandTn&T1 Nootherpairofteamshasanyplayerincommon.Howmanyplayersareparticipatinginthe tournament,consideringallthenteamstogether? (1)n(k1) (4)k(n2) (2)k(n1) (3)n(k2) (CAT2007)

(5)(n1)(k1)

Suchquestionstatementsdemandgoodconcentration.Here,thegivenpairsconfuseus.However,ifwe startformulatingtheproblemonthescratchpaperasweread,lifegetseasier. Forinstance,Ournotesgosomethinglikethis: Therearenteams kplayersineachteam npairs(theconfusingpartwasthissimple)ofteamshave1playerincommon. So,theanswerisnkn=n(k1). Answer(1)

OpticalIllusion
Question2 Inthefigure,AB=BC=CD=DE=EF=FG=GA.Then DAEisapproximately: Solution2: ItisgiventhatAB=BC=CD=DE=EF=FG=GA;However,inthefigure,thesesidesdonotseemtobe equal.Hence,inordertoaccuratelyreachthesolution,wehavetoproceedwiththegivendataandNOT accordingtothegivenfigure. Workfromthechoices. IfweputA=15,thenC=15(isosceles)andthenkeepcalculatingtheanglesfurtherwecanreachthe solutionfast(forthisyoumusthavedrawnthefigureontothescratchpaper). Makeadjustmentsinyourassumptionsbykeepinginmindthatthesumofanglesofthebigtriangle mustbe180o Youwillfindthatonly25ocomesastheresult. Answer(4) (1)15
o

(2)20
o

(3)30

(4)25

(CAT2000)

Relevance
Question3 Solution3
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Per Capita Availability of Tea (gms) in Chaidesh

600 500 400 300 200 100 0 487 464 510 544 566

1995

1996

1997
Year

1998

1999

(Note:Availabilityisdefinedasproductionlessexport.)
Production and export of Tea (Chaidesh)
207 189 209 215 220 0 200 400 600 421 561 587 645 660 800 Export (million kg) Production (million kg)

Inwhichyearduringtheperiod199699wasChaideshsexportoftea,asaproportionofteaproduced, thehighest? (1) 1996 Alotofdata,isntit? Butifyoureally refertothequestionfirstyouwillfindthatinordertoanswerit,wedont atallrequire thefirstchart.Justconcentrateontherequireddatatosolvethisquestion. Fromsecondchartwecansaythatitishighestin1997. Hence,rememberthemoreyoureadwithoutreferringtothequestion,themoreyoullgetconfused (andthereforewastetime). (2)1997 (3)1998 (4)1999 (CAT2003)

Consistency
Directions Eighty five children went to an amusement park where they could ride on the merrygoround, roller coaster,andFerriswheel.Itwasknownthat20ofthemtookallthreerides,and55ofthemtookatleast

 Question4 Question5 Solution4 &5:

twoofthethreerides.EachridecostRe1,andthetotalreceiptoftheamusementparkwasRs145. Howmanychildrendidnottryanyoftherides? Howmanychildrentookexactlyoneride?. (1)5 Totalchildren =85 =20 =5520=35 =145(203+352)=15 =85(20+35+15)=15. (2)10 (3)15 (4)20 (1)5 (2)10 (3)15 (4)20

Childrenwhohavetaken3rides Childrenwhohavetaken2rides Childrenwhohavetaken1ride Childrenwhohavetaken0rides

Therefore,ifweputallthegiveninformationinaconsistentway,wecananswerboththequestions together.

Interpretation
Question6 Solution6 Whichtankgetsemptiedfirstandhowdoesittake(inminutes)togetemptiedafterpumpingstarts? (1)A,16.66 Wouldyoutakethechancetowriteallthedataonthepaperagain??? Hey!Youhavegottoworksmarthere! Justputthegiveninformationintherequiredformat. A 20 +90 10 B C D (2)C,20(3)D,20 (4)D,25 (CAT2005) Achemicalplanthasfourtanks(A,B,CandD),eachcontaining1000litersofachemical.Thechemicalis beingpumpedfromonetanktoanotherasfollows: FromAtoB@20liters/minute FromCtoA@90liters/minute FromAtoD@10liters/minute FromCtoD@50liters/minute FromBtoC@100liters/minute FromDtoB@110liters/minute

+20 90 +10 +50

50 +100

100 +110

110

50 liters is going away from tank D every minute. Hence it will get emptied first and in 1000/ 50 = 20 minutes. Answer(3)

AfewmorethingsonecanexerciseinhisMOCKsare: Keepinmindthesameoldplanofdoingthepaperin3rounds.Nowasthetestisoncomputeryoumustfollow a very logical approach to select the questions in Round 1 and 2. For instance, In DI you must attempt the questions that can be answered by read minimum information from the graphs / charts. In Quant, ones involvingminimumequationsshouldbepreferred.Also,sometimesthereare23questionsbasedononeset of data. They are also expected to consume less time once the problem is properly drawn on to the scratch paper. Here we are assuming that Prometric will allow you to move back and forth among the questions. However,ifitdidnotallow(highlyunlikely)youtomoveback,yourtimeperquestionwilldefinitelyincreaseas youwillhavetoskipaquestiononlyifyouknowyoucannotdoitatallgiventhefactthatyouwillnevercome backtoit. Also it is expected that as the test goes online the percentage of DataSufficiency question will increase. Moreover, it is also expected that the amount of data in the Graphs and charts will beless and with a logical approachesdescribedaboveyouwouldbeabletocomeupwinners! Allthebest!! www.PaGaLGuY.com is Indias biggest and most trusted source for MBA preparation, used by over 500,000 MBA aspirantseachmonth.UsePaGaLGuYshugelypopulardiscussionboardstointeractwiththousandsofMBAstudentsin top bschools, MBA aspirants, form study groups in your city and attend gyaan sessions, all for free. Get FREE SMS updatesonbschoolforms,lastdatesandresults.SmsBEGINMBAto56070tojoin.ReadbestinspiringCATprepstories of19successfulMBAstudentsinaFREEdownloadableebookat http://www.pagalguy.com/books

AboutTCYonline
TCYonlinefeaturesoneofthemostadvancedonlinetestingandbenchmarkingengineforCATpreparationandoffersa comprehensive online CAT course (www.TCYonline.com/cat2009/cat_preparation.php) with unlimitedaccess to 250+ chapterwise, sectional and MOCK CATs together withthe UNIQUE features like TCY Analytics that allows one to benchmarkhisperformancewiththeToppersfromacity,streamorgenderandgetfreshsetofrecommendedtestson the weak areas; Test Generator that gives ultraflexibility to the CAT aspirant for generating tests; Challenge Zone toChallenge, pace up and compete with your friends realtime on a test and Voice based Flash Lectures with faster downloads,optiontopause,forwardandrewindandtowatchitinfullscreen. FollowTCYonTwitter(www.twitter.com/TCYonlineCAT)&Facebook(www.facebook.com/Cat.Preparation). TakethefirstAllIndiaFREEMOCKeCATatwww.TCYonline.com/eCATs/eCATs.php