Common Mistakes to avoid in Quants section of CAT

For most of the candidates wanting to appear for CAT, the quantitative ability section is considered to be a tough nut to crack. Not to mention, but it is the most dreaded section by CAT aspirants. It is the last section to be attempted, after a tiresome two hours-long battle with the Verbal and DI-LR section. The candidates, even after having a good fundamental knowledge of the concepts, are not able to perform well in Quants due to exhaustion and less speed. There are some candidates who do not know how to manage time during the exam or those who panic during the exam. Many candidates from a non-engineering background would have lost touch with Quants for quite a long time. This is also one of the reasons for most of the candidates being not able to perform well in the quants section. Several common CAT Quant mistakes exist, which must be recognized and stopped right from the early stages of preparation. Therefore, we bring this blog stating the common mistakes to avoid in the Quants section of CAT. Candidates are advised not to commit these mistakes while preparing or appearing for the CAT exam. You may commit these mistakes during your preparation phase and probably take note of them so that you don’t make these mistakes again. 

Common Mistakes to avoid in Quants Section of CAT

Here are the following common mistakes which you need to avoid in Quants section of CAT- 

1. Not selecting the right questions

The makers of CAT have mastered the art of creating a good mix of easy and difficult questions. When you go through some past year CAT question papers, you will observe that there will be some easier questions that will take a few seconds to solve! On the other hand, there will be some questions which will be quite tough to crack, at least in the given time constraints. The reason for having such a mix of questions is to test the time management and selection capabilities of the candidates. As a good manager, you will want first to target the low hanging fruits in the exam. 

In order to perform well in the exam, you need to master the art of selecting the right set of questions to attempt. You should first attempt the easier ones and then go on attempting the medium to difficult ones depending upon the time left with you. The reason for such an approach is to maximize your attempts. CAT will not reward you for solving difficult questions. You should aim at solving as many questions as you can. Getting stuck on the difficult questions initially will result in a wastage of time and an increase in pressure on you. 

There will be times when you will select a difficult question initially. And you need to be aware that if the question is taking too much time, say eight to minutes, then it is always better to leave it and move on to other questions. Always keep in mind not to panic if you get stuck in such a situation. 

2. Not being thorough with the concepts

Most of the time, you will observe that you were not able to solve some questions even after you knew the concept. This is an indicator of the fact that either you do not know the concept well or that you are not well versed in the concept application skills. Therefore, it is always advisable to be thorough with the concepts. Never rely on rote-learning. Always ensure that you know the concepts to the core. Spend an adequate amount of time on understanding the concepts during the initial phase of your preparation. And once you have understood the concept well, practice questions related to it. Practicing questions will help in solidifying your concepts further. 

3. Bad time management

Bad time management is one of the most common mistakes which candidates make in the CAT quants section. Sometimes, attempting a single question brings a huge difference in the CAT percentiles of candidates. Therefore, good time management is necessary for cracking the quants section in CAT. 

Always manage your time in such a way that you can see or go through all the questions in the quants section. The time management skill will improve by taking full-length practice tests and mocks. Moreover, always ensure that you do not leave too many easy questions for the end time. This will result in unnecessary panic and nervous situations for you, and you may lose out on some easier questions. 

4. Not reading questions carefully

Consider the following scenario- You solve quite a lengthy yet easy quants question. Once you have entirely solved it, you see that some values seem to be wrong as you cannot get a definite answer. You again go through the question and find out that you have read it incorrectly. Now, you again solve the question with the right values. But this resulted in a wastage of time. You took ten minutes to solve a question, which you could have solved in say five minutes or maybe less than that.

As you know, time is a constraint in the CAT exam. Candidates are always in a rush to solve as many questions as they can in the quants sections. But always try to read the questions properly along with carefully noting down the details from the question. You do not want to lose out your precious time on silly mistakes made by you. Moreover, pay good attention while solving questions involving complex calculations.  

The CAT Quants section contains 34 questions with difficulty levels ranging from easy to difficult. Most of the questions are of moderate difficulty level. If a candidate keeps calm, manages the time efficiently, and does not makes the mistakes as mentioned earlier, then he or she can score quite well in Quants.