rohit: sir i got above 99 percentile in di in cat08 and it was my strongest section but with the new online fomat the left- right ,top-down scrolling has affected my performance in di a lot..can you tell me some online material for practicing di as doing it on paper is useless for me as i still do well in paper n pencil format...
kranthi: take the time online di practice tests.the monster is more in ur mind .

amulya: Sir what should be the strategy to be followed this last one month??
bala: In case you have covered the basic study material by now, your preparation could be a mix of 1. writing as many as you can (maybe at the rate of 1 every 2-3 days) of the of MCs/CRTs put up on the student home page 2. reworking the AIMCAT papers all over again. This time you could be area-specific. That means, for example, working out all questions of a particular type you want to revise across all AIMCATs. 3. and if time permits, redoing the test paper booklets, once again being area-specific Just do as much of revisiting as you can, especially of the AIMCATs and other comprehensive tests.

ghj: Sir, i have completed the basic sm for quant , and 900 series aimcats and some other aimcats of previous years, i have been doing the previous years aimcats for the past 25 days but the scores of last two aimcats have dropped drastically. Sir is it better to stop doing new things and start revising the SM material and all the aimcat papers because now only 35 days left.
bala: In a way, yes. Doing more tests is in any case not a complete answer. You would not have "used" any test fully unless you have done a thorough anaylsis including reworking it. Revisiting AIMCATs and taking tests at a moderate intensity is what would be good for you. And on the lighter side, sleep well the night before you write an AIMCAT.

mydream: Sir, I used to start my AIMCAT's with quants as it was my strength but then realised that's not yielding me good results. So I have changed to starting with DI's and now my scores have improved. Now, is it a good idea to change my strategy again- start with DI, then move to verbal( currently I do quants next to DI) and finally quants. Will that work? Please help. My strength is Quants and weakness is verbal.
bala: Actually, the sequence is something each person has to decide by experimenting. So, far, your approach of starting with DI seems to have helped. At this stage, experimenting with AIMCATs alone may not help you decide if the experiment is working out. So, you may need to try it out a couple of times in MCs or CRTs and then try it out in an AIMCAT. In any case, experimenting at this stage should be done cautiously because the last few AIMCATs is when you should ideally have frozen your approach. Still, if you are feeling jittery, you could try it out once or twice before reverting to your current strategy (if the experiment does not work out).

qwe: Sir, I finished basic quant a month ago , and after that i have been doing only papers . I read somewhere that we should revise the basic concepts from SM again, at this stage if i revise SM will it be useful in any way, or do i need to just stick to previous year papers. Please suggest what should i do for the last 35 days for DI and quant.
bala: A good mix of SM is advisable at this stage if you have not done a good revision already. Firstly, becoming very good at basics is essential to handle tougher situations. Secondly, do not underestimate the SMs. There could be a fair number of questions of the SM type in the actual CAT (it has happened in the past including in CAT 2008).

cxv: Sir, With about a month to go for the exam, how much emphasis should be there on REVISION of what we have done till now and learning new things.
kranthi: stop learning new concepts or doing new chapters 20 days before the exam give more importance to consolidating what u have learnt.

vij: sir i m scoring 12 to 20 in in my rc section without touching any other part of eng in aimcats any suggestion for improving my score in rc and other section of eng.
bala: Firstly, not doing VA at all is dicey. You should ideally divide your time between the two (like, say, 20-20 or 15-25). Secondly, your approach in VA should be to read all the questions (as primary objective) and answer only the ones you are most comfortable handling. On RC, I presume that you would have difficulty reading all passages in 20-25 minutes. In that case, before reading a passage properly, skim by reading the first 2 lines in each paragraph to try to figure out if it is your cup of tea. Select the 2 (out of 3) that you can handle and focus on those two alone.

ravikant405: I have been going thru all previous year mocks and current mocks..i am looking to cover as diff types of di types as possible.wud it suffice as far as di?.My qa and va scores ealiy cross the cut off but somehow that is not the case even with maximum tym to di..what approach would you suggest
bala: What you are doing seems appropriate for DI. Since you haven't mentioned it, I would add working out MCs and CRTs (the latter being especially important because they are replicas of previous CAT papers). While you have mentioned that you are looking at different types, I would suggest that you structure your revision area-wise. For instance, in one sitting, do all questions from all AIMCATs (past and present) on Venn diagrams. In another sitting, cover all games. This way, you will learn a lot more nuances as you observe similarities across questions and peculiarities in specific types. That apart, I hope you are giving a good amount of time to DI as compared to QA and VA.

palla: hello sir i wanna know ,that how should we devote time to all sections as very less time is there
kranthi: revise allthe aimcats crts tpbs.this in itself is going to take alot of time.

harshal: sir can u tell me about what to do about language in this last month, my scores flcutates a lot in language,
bala: Revising grammar basics cannot hurt, especially if you have not done it thoroughly till now. Reworking the AIMCAT/MC/CRT VA section, VA exercise based SMs, class handouts, exercises and tests and doing so area-wise would be a good strategy to become better at one question type at a time. For instance, do all para-jumbling from various papers in one sitting. Take FIJ questions in another sitting and so on.

aim: sir i lose a lot of marks as negative thus my overall score drops.how should i avoid making errors?
kranthi: do the rough work neatly read the questions carefully check the calculations .find out the reasons for ur errors after u take a test.

rahul2july: sir my aimcat %ile are 87,87,91,95,96 87 in last 6 aimcats with cutoff's cleared in 2 sections(different in each aimcats).kindly suggest to clear cutoff's in all sections as well as aggegrate cutoff's.which institute should i aim for under cat nd xat(i m aiming only witin top 30).
bala: Firstly, stop worrying too much. Your scores are looking quite alright. You have a good chance of doing well in the actual CAT if you can sustain this. Secondly, better performances in AIMCATs often come when you stop bothering yourself with specific goals and instead focus on reading all the questions and doing only those that come across as possible to you. That's all you can actually do. Finally, revise all areas by redoing as many of the AIMCATs, MCs, CRTs, TPBs and maybe even SM exercises.

suny080489: how to prepare for QUANT SEC i am very weak in that>>> please help meeee
kranthi: with around 40 days left for the test try to have a clear grasp of basics and revise aimcats and the material uhave already covered.consolidate what u have learnt.

macho: How do you think should we act for problems related to DI? should we look at the questions first or the chart first?
bala: That depends on how complex the chart is and how complete it is. Take a good look at the chart to understand the interlinkages between the different parameters represented and then quickly go to the questions.

ss: the cut offs for crt 101004 are wrong.i wanted to ask if the crts are worth doing because they contain extremely straight forward questions unlike aimcats.
bala: They are replicas of past CAT papers. What can we do if the CAT has been like this in the past. Based on this, you can, I am sure, decide if they are worth doing :)

palla: sir how can we work on vocab at this point of time
kranthi: give more importance to revising words u already know.do not try to stuff urself with too many new words.retention will be the issue.

winner: hello sir, what shd i do to incrase my score in qa and di.should i solve the previous yr question papers of cat and also the aimcats
kranthi: since u do not have a lot of time in hand revise basic study material aimcats crt s and tpbs.

tune_yourself: sir, is there any relaxation for obc candidate for IIM cut-off
kranthi: yes the overall cutoff will be marginally lower for obcs.around 2to 3 percentile less than normal.

winner: Sir i am getting percentile in range of 40-65.I belong to SC category Do i have a Change in CAT and JMET.
kranthi: yes but give ur best.

bell the cat: what abt the topics functions,trignometry, operator based questions and statistics.... can they be left out or should we prepare on these
kranthi: at least solve the basic study material given on that.

sid: DO THEY HAVE SECTIONAL CUT-OFFS FOR IIFT? THERE WASN'T ANY MENTION OF CUT-OFFS ON THE QUESTION PAPER. BUT T.I.M.E. HAS GIVEN SECTIONAL CUT-OFFS...??
kranthi: there will be sectional cutoffs.

rahul: hi sir can u tell me the order how to prepare at tis time as i have completed reading SMs n some aimcats plz
kranthi: give priority to revising aim cats test paper booklets cat replica tests and of course revision of basic concepts formula.

aim: what is SM?
kranthi: study material.

vinay: sir, can you please say me top institutes which accept XAT score other than xavier's.
kranthi: ximb gim liba ifmr spjain.

arushi: sir can u please suggest me a detailed plan how to study and prepare for the last month.. in all the three sections ? pls sir
kranthi: focus on revisig aimcats test paper booklets.give more importance to consolidation of what u have rather than learning new things.

raju: what is the percentile for vignana jyothi institute of management? whether they r taking only experienced candidates?
kranthi: try to score 70 percentile and above in mat.they take freshers also.

bhaveer: i got 91 percentile in aim iift.....what are my chances??
kranthi: decent.but u have to consistenly aim for better scores.one good performance is no assurance.