Thursday, June 26, 2008

How average guys can crack CAT?

Are you an average guy? Do you dream of cracking CAT and zoom on the highway to success? Do you think you can do it? Well, let me show you how you can do it. CAT is after all an exam that turns all the tigers into pussycats!!

The biggest fear about taking CAT is just that …. A fear of the unknown! If you can tackle this fear half your battle is won. What are you so fearful about? It is just another exam? Or is it? It has been over-hyped just because a whole lot of people seem to be out there competing with you for those paltry seats. If you remove this fear of competing against the very best, and concentrate on bringing out the very best in you, you are almost there. Yes, almost but not quite.

To really get there you need to do an honest check of your strengths and your weaknesses. I am not speaking of your physical strength here. I am more concerned about your strengths in verbal and quantitative skills, and if you are serious about cracking CAT, you should pay serious attention to them.

There are no set formulas for cracking CAT. You speak to fifty successful candidates and each one will tell you a different story. What does this mean to you? It means that you should follow your own path to success. Listen to everyone. Learn from all, but make your own strategies and follow them to a T.

Students often ask me when is the right time to start preparing for CAT. My answer invariably is: the right time is right now. If you have decided to take CAT, what stops you from preparing for it? There is no right time like the present time. The verbal ability section demands a good grasp of grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension. The Quant section wants you to understand numbers, their play and its application. The GD looks for your interpersonal, communication, and team skills. The PI is concerned about your knowledge of your self. It is as simple as that. Put in this manner it does not seem like the Herculean task it is made out to be. It actually isn’t.

So, if you have been diligent about your grammar exercises, have been reading books, understanding the basic math formulae, discussing your point of view with your friends and family, taking interest in the national and international affairs, and knowing exactly what you want from life….. Nothing can stop you from cracking the CAT.

The problem is that you have not been doing these things. Perhaps you have not been doing most of these things or all of these things. In that case, you need to start right now. There is not a moment to lose. You can not put your dreams on hold, just because you did not wake up in time. Now is as good a time as ever.

First of all start reading. You may ask, ‘reading what?’ My answer is, reading anything that interests you. When we are interested in something, we do it to the best of our capability, and that is always a good point to start from. Later as you become comfortable with the idea of reading, you should start reading newspapers (The Hindu is the best paper in India today. No other paper can match the quality of its language. Even their news perspective is very unbiased.), magazines (The Economist is the best magazine to read. You can read most of its articles online as well.), and books (by Richard Bach, Ayn Rand, Paulo Coelho, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Emile Zola, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Orwell Hermann Hesse, Salman Rushdie, Daphne Du Maurier, Nietzsche, J. Krishnamurthy etc). Taking a membership of a library really helps. E- Version of many books can be downloaded from the internet as well. I am told that many such books are exchanged on the Orkut communities.

All this reading will help you in improving your vocabulary, and comprehending implied meanings. For grammar, there is no book that can beat good old Wren and Martin. If you go through this book a couple of times, the grammar section of CAT will not haunt you anymore.

Start re-visiting your school math books. NCERT books for class VIII, IX, and X are invaluable in understanding Geometry. It is a fact that the CAT questions in Geometry are at NCERT level. IMS quant material is very good for the number system. A wonderful book for Algebra is Hall and Knight Higher Algebra. Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Pradeep Pandey is also a very good book for quant preparation. Once you are comfortable with the basics, start practicing CAT questions. Take help of Vedic Math. It may seem daunting at first but it is a fun way of learning math. Give it a try. Many successful people swear by its efficacy.

If you are still a student, start improving your academic performance. It is becoming increasingly important to be able to boast of a consistent performance. As you know every bit eventually counts on the D-day. Remember, it is never too late to start performing well.

The other question that is invariably asked is how much time to devote for preparation of each section. Again there is no one answer to this question because a lot depends upon your comfort level with each section. Generally, if you study for four hours everyday, devote two hours to quant, one hour to verbal, and one hour to DI. Your general reading and discussion time is not included in these four hours. It is best to study all three sections everyday so that your preparation is more balanced. In any case your real study time is only till August. After that SIMCATS would start and your preparation planning would change as per your performance analysis.

And finally, have confidence in your dreams. If you are given these dreams, you are also given the where withal to achieve them. So carry on……….Expect SUCCESS.


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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Strengthen your Strengths

Close your eyes and imagine yourself walking into a room. Here you meet the ‘you’ of ten years from now. How does this person look? What is he wearing? Where does he live? What kind of lifestyle does he lead? What car does he drive? What does he do? Is he an entrepreneur or a business executive? How successful is he? What is his net worth? Go ahead, ask him these questions and let your inner-self answer you.

If you were given only three choices about the ‘you of the future’, which one would you choose?

a) Someone worse than what you are now. Not doing well in life, depressed, and broke.
b) Exactly how you are now. Absolutely no change in your position and finances.
c) A far more successful, happier, wealthier version of the present you.

Anyone with an iota of confidence will choose the third option. Of course you can’t be worse off than you are today, nor can you remain static; so the only option left is to move forward. Now how much forward you move, depends entirely on how well you use your unique strengths.
The other day I was reading a forwarded mail, which contained Mr. Azim Premji’s famous speech on what he has learnt during the course of his stupendously successful life. I love this speech and never tire of quoting from it. According to Mr. Premji, we must always begin with our strengths. To illustrate his point he tells this story of an imaginary rabbit. This rabbit was enrolled in a rabbit school. Like all rabbits, it could hop very well but could not swim. At the end of the year, the rabbit got high marks in hopping but failed in swimming. The parents were concerned. They said, "Forget about hopping. You are anyway good at it. Concentrate on swimming." They sent the rabbit for tuitions in swimming. And guess what happened? The rabbit forgot how to hop! As for swimming, have you ever seen a rabbit swim?
This story sums up the thrust of our focus not only in preparing for MBA entrance exams, or while writing the exams, but also at every step in our lives. Because as Mr. Premji says, “While it is important for us to know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what is good in us. That is because it is only our strengths that can give us the energy to correct our weaknesses.”
So with this beautiful lesson in mind, ask yourself some more questions now:

What are my strengths?
How can I build them up further?
How can I use my strengths to correct my weaknesses?
Am I using my strengths on a daily basis?
If not, then how can I use my strengths for test preparation, at work, and in life for a bigger purpose?
What is my bigger purpose?

These questions will lead you to do some soul searching, and the answers that you get will lead you on the path to success. When you sincerely ask yourself, “Why is my life not the way I want it to be?” the only answer you will get is that you are not using your strengths to the fullest. We all have our strengths: strength of purpose, strength of conviction, strength of character, the ability to work hard, the ability to learn easily, the ability to apply what we learn and so on…. You need to identify your strengths. For the purpose of taking CAT, you can think of strength in terms of your subject matter. Are you good at vocabulary? Is grammar your strong point or is it the critical reasoning? What about comprehension? Do you enjoy reading? How good are your logical skills? What about data interpretation? Do you work better under pressure? How quick are you in solving quantitative problems? Are your basic fundas clear? Do you speak well and confidently? Are you clear about your aspirations? Do you carry yourself well? Are you in tune with the world affairs? Honest answers to these questions will give you a list of your strengths.

When do you feel most energized and happiest? These must be the times when you are doing what you love to do. Think of those times. What are the strengths that you bank upon or exhibit during these times? Be proud of those, and think of new ways to incorporate these abilities into other areas of your life. Using your strengths strengthen them. As they say, “Use it or lose it”. This applies to everything in our lives.

I believe that all of us carry strengths inside us that are waiting to be identified, revealed, and expressed. Your strengths have been given to you to contribute in your progress, to make an impact in your life. You are meant to use your strengths in a constructive way, in order to build your future. Once you realize this truth and take action you will not only energize your own self, but your entire environment.

You need to dream big, but just dreams are not enough; you need to develop the habits of a winner. By a ‘winner’ I mean someone who, by his own definition of winning and losing, is pulling ahead of the game and achieving what he set out to achieve. Wining is not about just working hard, it is about maintaining or losing motivation.

So, psyche yourself about achieving your goal. Know that you just have to do it this time. Get ready, follow your plan of working on your strengths, and stay determined. You already have a picture of where you want to be in about ten years time, so just take off! Don’t get distracted by life, make your life an ally. Don’t lose focus. Review your goal each day, several times a day. Concentrate on ‘what’ you need to be doing and ‘when’ you need to be doing it.

You deserve to achieve your goals, and once you optimize your strengths, your goals are as good as achieved!

As always, EXPECT success!!

Advanc’edge MBA, June 2008


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