CAT 2009: Master Quant Aptitude, Logical Reasoning

Typically, the B-school admission process comprises a written test comprising questions from school-level mathematics, logical reasoning, general awareness and general language, followed by a personal interview. All these tests assess the candidates on their employability skills.

One of them is Analytical Skill, which includes Quantitative Aptitude and Logical Reasoning. These demonstrate your ability to apply analytical and logical thinking while gathering and analysing information, designing and testing solutions to problems, and formulating plans.

Need for analytical aptitudet
Employees have to demonstrate the ability to recognise patterns in complex sets of data and develop practical models. Applications of analytical skills come into play at various levels in the functioning of an organisation. Therefore, every recruiter who wants the best would like to ensure that the candidates have adequate level of analytical aptitude (general intelligence or IQ).

Almost every competitive exam for recruitment includes sections on Quantitative Aptitude and Logical Reasoning. In Bank PO and Bank Clerk exams, these sections have about 66 percent weightage. In SSC exams, the weightage for these sections is about 50 percent. CDS and NDA exams also have a separate paper on maths and numerical ability. In MBA entrance exams (CAT/XAT/MAT & GMAT), major portions of questions are from them.

Problem-solving skills
Quantitative Aptitude is not mathematics in the true sense. But it is problem-solving skills where mathematical questions are poised as problems and one needs to demonstrate competence to solve those questions. These questions are not textbook questions, which normally test understanding of some formulae or theorem. They are real-life situations where application of mathematical knowledge is required to find the solution. For example, in festival seasons, there are many discount offers and schemes to attract buyers. These are perfect situations to demonstrate quantitative skills to identify the most profitable scheme. This also offers an opportunity for test-makers to create some quant questions.

Applying common sense
Logical Reasoning is application of common sense in a structured manner in problem solving. Logical Reasoning questions may involve arrangement of data or analysis of some pattern to find desired output or result. It may require finding some missing data in a sequence or table or some application of day-to-day observations to solve a question.

Some students feel that there are some tricks to crack aptitude questions. A few students crib that they are not very good in maths or they do not have maths after class 10th and they find these sections very difficult. The truth is that Analytical Aptitude is skill which can be developed only by regular practice and through simulations and this is not  such a difficult task.

Solving aptitude problems
One should make it very clear that these skill sets cannot be grown overnight. It requires around 2-3 months to develop adequate competency. Secondly, irrespective of one&rsquos educational background, anyone can master these sections, provided one honestly practises them regularly over a period of time.

One very important thing is the approach to handling aptitude problems. Since analytical aptitude is ability to solve real-life practical problems, there is no formulae or short cuts which are applicable, neither are these based on topics or chapters. Therefore, the understanding of a problem in totality is important. Once you understand the problem, you can easily find the solution by First Principle. It is a method to solve any problem by its definitions. Most of the students have learned this in class 11th &ndash 12th maths (calculus). Therefore, one should try to analyse the questions rather than just solve them.

The right approach
The second important thing is the nature of aptitude questions. Each of the aptitude questions is a mix of three or four simpler questions from different chapters or topics. Nobody faces textbook problems in life. Here, Rene Descartes&rsquo Cartesian Theory of Knowledge is relevant to quote. He says that a complex problem is nothing but a mixture of four-five simpler problems. To solve this complex problem, one should break them into their constituent simpler problems, solve these simpler problems and then synthesize their solutions to find the answer of the complex problem. This should be the right approach in handling aptitude questions.

Action plan for beginners
 

Most of the candidates who prepare for these exams are already familiar with the topics of Quantitative Aptitude and Logical Reasoning. They might have done a lot of practice and developed some comfort level in these areas. Some of them may be finding some trouble in mastering these sections. Remember, learning is a continuous process which follows the cycle-Learn-Unlearn-Relearn. They need to unlearn few things to relearn them again. But there&rsquos no need to worry. Here are some quick tips to master them.

Number crunching
In the beginning, one should start with number crunching. It means a lot of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squaring, cubing etc. without using paper and pencil, i.e. lot of mental calculations. You need to be fast as all these tests are timed tests where you are required to solve 40-50 questionsn 40-45 minutes. You are required to device some quick methods for addition, multiplication, etc. You should also mug up tables upto 30, square upto 30, and cubes upto 15. There are many books available in market, which will guide you on this. You should devote about 15 days (3-4 hours per day) for this.

School-level mathematics
The second step should be developing and reinforcing your concept in school-level mathematics. Start with percentage, ratio-proportion, averages, profit-loss and such basic topics and analyse different types of questions. Try to solve each question using 3-4 different approaches. After that, you can take the topics like time-speed-distance, geometry, number system, etc. Do as much variety of questions, as much as possible. For this section, you can devote 20- 30 days (3-4 hours per day).

Non-verbal reasoning
You should start preparation of Logical Reasoning along with quantitative part. Here, you should start with non-verbal reasoning. Solve around 15-20 questions daily for 15-20 days. Analyse the changes in figures, their rotations, and changes in pattern. You can also solve 15-20 questions from series completion, coding-decoding, analogies, etc.

Sectional tests
In the third step, start taking sectional tests. Your target should be to solve one complete chapter consisting of 40 questions in 30 minutes. Take these tests very sincerely, they are very important. Take sectional tests for both sections, quantitative as well as Logical Reasoning. You can also build your concept in other areas of logic like syllogism, critical reasoning etc. You should follow this step for about 15 days.

Practice tests
If you have sufficient practice in individual sections and topics of quantitative and Logical Reasoning, start taking full-length practice tests. You should also start analysing previous years&rsquo exams papers. You should go for 15-20 full-length practice tests. After every test, analyse your performance and find out your weaker areas and work on them for improvement.

There are a few words of caution. Always follow standard books from good, reputed publishing houses for the preparation and for practice tests. Do some researches before buying study material and magazines.

Assuring success
Since more than 50 percent questions are from quant and Logical Reasoning in most of the competitive exams, these sections are very important. These examinations have negative marking and are time-bound exams, so, your accuracy needs to be very high. Solve about 70 percent questions from these sections with more than 90 percent accuracy. So bear in mind, accuracy is the key to achieving your goal. Ensure your success with intelligent hard work, true commitment and perseverance.