'Be focused and concentrate'

New Delhi: ”You will need to do a finetune. Do not go overboard on speed, as your objective is to maximise score and not maximise attempts. Work on questions at a speed where your accuracy is at least 80 per cent,” says director of Career Launcher, Arindam Lahiri, as he tells you how to Bell the CAT.

How far is a M.B.A programme useful to a software professional in his career? (Premkumar, Kochi.)

Answer: An MBA is useful for people of all backgrounds for a successful career in a business organisation. You will have a faster career growth with an additional degree of MBA in the field of software development. You also have the option of exploring other industry employment as well.

I have this problem of committing a lot of silly mistakes when i tend to speed up. I find it very hard to strike a balance between speed and accuracy because of which I sometimes lose more than half of the marks I earned. Could you please advise as to how should my strategy be? (Ravikant, Hyderabad.)

Answer: You will need to do a finetune. Do not go overboard on speed as your objective is to maximise score and not maximise attempts. Work on questions at a speed where your accuracy is at least 80 per cent.

I am an 18-year-old first year psychology student, I wish to pursue my MBA after my B Sc degree is complete in another two years. My aim is, as many others is a place in the IIMs. Could you please tell me the best time to begin my preparations, the best time to give the CAT exam and what extra measures of preparation I may need as I am not an engineering student and I have heard that engineering students have an edge over the rest. I am also pursuing an advanced diploma in HR simultaneously so I will have a diploma and a degree in two years. Is that of any advantage to me? (Pauline, Chennai.)

Answer: You can start preparation up to about 12 to 15 months ahead of the year when you will be taking your exam. The HR diploma (or a degree) will be helpful only in case you are pursuing a career in HR after your MBA. Anyways, an additional qualification from a decent institute is always helpful.

Last year I got 90 percentile in CAT, but this year my scores are fluctuating very much and only one time I did manage to touch 90 percentile score in one of the mock cats. Please suggest me how to keep myself motivated just before the D-day. Do I have a chance of cracking CAT this year? (R Vishwanathan, Chennai.)

Answer: You have touched 90 percentile, even if it is for one test. So you can do it and do better. Be focused and concentrate. Your score fluctuation this year is probably more due to the fact that is working at the back of your mind that last year you scored 90 percentile. Past is past, forget it! You can even do better than 90 percentile this year. Do not pressurise yourself.

I am facing problem in Data Interpretation, what should I do? Please also give some tips regarding quantitative and english section. (Ashish Ranjan, Delhi.)

Answer: It is a little late now to work miracles in any section now. Revise what you have done and look at maximising your total score from your attempts in English and Quant. Focus on being able to do what you already know.