Strategies for Quant

Quant refers to quantitative aptitude, a very important part of any MBA examination. Often, this section proves to be bugbear of many students. To solve that problem, we need to look at few fundamental strategies carefully in order to tackle quant section successfully.

It begins with careful choice of questions. Ideally, we should choose question that will get us maximum marks in stipulated time. This means, aspirants should always pick those questions first, they are more comfortable with. One should always read question properly and then judge about its easiness or difficulty level.

The second step is prioritizing topics according to their weightage in CAT. One can not predict accurately about the orderly importance of questions but looking at past CAT papers helps a lot in this regard. In general, sections like; Data Sufficiency, Time, Circles, Number Theory, Functions, Permutations and Combinations, Sequences and Series, Speed and Distance are some of the important sections, students should focus upon.

Third step involves Intelligent guessing. It needs smartness as well as an alert mind. It helps in narrowing down the answer options to two and then ticking one of them. Chances are, this method has good chances to pay off.

Fourth step is Substitution to simplify. There are several ways one can solve questions using substitution. This helps in saving time.

The last and concluding step is Learning Formulae and tables. This is a great way to cut down on time by using formulas. Several methods including Vedic mathematics and new forms of creative tables prove quite beneficial in subjects like geometry.

Improving Vocab- Culmination

- Associating Method. This useful method implies that, we need to relate or attach a particular word with someone or something. That associating factor could be any relative or companion or company name or sports or similar thing. For example, the word; ‘impulsive’ can be associated with a friend who has an impulsive nature or who is always in hurry. Whenever we meet or see that friend, this word will automatically come to our mind and that way, we will remember that word for a much longer duration.

- Weaving interesting stories. This method is quite an interesting way to work up one’s vocab collection. Suppose, we take a word; panoramic or kaleidoscopic. Now think of a trip to a hill station and recall the natures’ view. From that story of our trip to a certain hill station we will immediately recall these two words which signify beauty of landscape or beauty of a particular view or object.

- Source citing method. Source citing technique refers to visiting online dictionary or encyclopedia or thesaurus sites. These sites are regularly updated and for every word they mention its source of origin. That way, we learn about background of the words and ultimately learning process gets much easier.

- Swapping. This system refers to using synonyms. We have the option of using synonyms in context as well as meaning method. For example, we can swap or replace ‘impulsive’ with impetuous, rash, hasty etc. this tremendously helps in increasing our words capabilities.

These are few methods which will help the MBA aspirants in a major way towards improving their vocab and consequently improving self-confidence. Keep practicing. The words will come to you and stick by you.

Improving Vocab- Process

Most potent way of improving vocab is reading quite a lot of stuff including newspaper, magazines, english speaking books, novels, journals etc. Most of the words which are currently in vogue and not included in dictionaries yet, can be found in above mentioned reading materials. The key is to realize, more you read, better are the chances of coming across new words. It also helps to keep taking vocab test every now and then. One should also realize that, trying to mug words doesn’t help much. One should develop genuine fondness for reading and that proves very crucial in grasping and retaining new words.

Few other methods apart from voluntarily reading are;

- Focusing on learning prefixes, suffixes and roots. Many people will vouch for this technique for its effectiveness. So how does this work? Knowing prefixes, suffixes and roots gives us a hint about the meaning of the words. Once we get a hang of these, anticipating meanings of even difficult words will not pose many problems. Let’s understand this with an example; ‘pathy’ means feeling. We must have heard many words with this suffix like, sympathy (similar sort of feelings), antipathy (negative feelings) or apathy (absence of feelings) or empathy. We can follow this pattern and try to find out other suffixes and can test ourselves.

- Flash cards method. What if we manage to incorporate a bit of fun while learning? Surely, it makes things more interesting and fun as well. Flash cards is one of those interesting way to build up your vocab. Writing words on one side of the cards and the meaning on the other side. This is convenient as well as amusing.

Improving Vocab

Currently, thousands of students across India are burning midnight oils to get into CAT exams in coming months. It’s a dream to get through those prestigious colleges because that will signify firmly embarking on a successful path which in most likelihood will lead to corporate success. CAT examination tests students on several fronts. Subjects like Math’s, Data Interpretations, Logical abilities, English and General Awareness combine together to form the tough barriers which the candidates need to cross in order to get into their dream college.

All the subjects mentioned above are important; however English poses the biggest challenge for majority of the students. We have already discussed about improving Reading Comprehension section. Its time to focus on Vocabulary, now. One of the most interesting aspects about English language is, it keeps evolving, modifying words, adding new words every day. One just can’t sit on the words learned before. Updating yourself is the key.

Language helps us in expressing our feelings and emotions. But sometimes, lack of exact words hinders us in expressing our actual thoughts. That makes it even more imperative to have a good vocabulary because during MBA and life after that we will constantly need to express ourselves in form of presentations, seminars, speech, discussions and similar things. It also helps in functioning in more effective ways. With changing times and enhanced technology, one tends to come across several new words which are tough to find even in a dictionary. Words like, glocalisation, marketing, burqini, cyborg etc are known as new fangled words.

PG admissions in TISS

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is one of the topmost Indian management schools. It offers various Post-Graduate Degree Programmes that includes;

Hospital Administration
Education (Elementary)
Development Studies
Social Work
Human Resources Management & Labour Relations
Health Administration
Public Health
Counseling
Women's Studies
Disaster Management
Globalisation and Labour
Social Entrepreneurship
Disability Studies and Action
Media and Cultural Studies

TISS has started the admission process by inviting applications for 2009-11 sessions. The eligibility criterion is a Bachelor's Degree of a minimum of 3 years duration or its equivalent (fulfilling the mandatory requirements of 15 years formal education) from a recognized university in any discipline with minimum aggregate marks of 50% (40% for SCs and STs).

Candidates can obtain The Application Form and Information Brochure online by downloading it from www.tiss.edu or through demand draft in favor of ‘Tata Institute of Social Sciences’, payable at Mumbai. The third option is collecting the from cash counter (Accounts Section) of TISS between 10 am and 3 pm through cash payment.

Test centres are; Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cochin, Delhi, Guwahati, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Nagpur, Pune, Ranchi, Patna, Port Blair, and Srinagar.

Last date of submission of Forms is October 24, 2008 whereas Entrance Test will be held on December 14, 2008.

For further details candidates can contact;

TISS
VN Purav Marg,
Deonar,
Mumbai-400088
Phone: (022) 25525264 / 65 / 62, 9223388898 / 9223214955.
Email: pgadmissions@tiss.edu
Website: www.tiss.edu