Bell the CAT in 2014!

While most of the aspirants who have prepared for months for the CAT exam and even those who have not, the most-awaited day has come. CAT 2014 is scheduled for 16^th and 22^nd November, 2014.

This time around there will be two slots of test on each day. The pattern of CAT has changed and this time around we would have two sections comprising of 50 questions each. One noticeable feature of the test is that this time around the test-takers will be allowed move across the sections, unlike the previous year’s test. The test duration has also been increased to 170 minutes.

Here we try to answer a few questions which each aspirant may think of, especially before the actual CAT exam.

Difficult or Easy?

Let us keep it easy. The reason is simple. Most of us like it that way. We believe that if one has prepared well for the exam, he/she will find the exam easy. Moreover, we need to understand that the scores in the CAT exam are relative. That means if the exam turns out to be actually difficult, it will be difficult for most of the students. Accordingly the cut-offs required to get admission-call from various premier institutes will also go down. And vice-versa is also true.

In all aspects, one should stay positive and the exam will definitely seem to be easy.

Which section should be attempted first?

We would suggest that one should go by his/her strengths. We believe that one should attempt those questions first in which he/she is good at. For an example, if I am good at English, I would attempt questions of English first. The reason is simple; one would most probably get a ‘feel good factor’ or a much desired ‘push’. This will create a positive impact on the student and result in positive results too.

What should be the minimum number of attempts?

While there is no minimum standard, going by the history, a score of anything more than 50% of the total score would be good enough to get a call from a reasonably good institute. Considering the fact that we have 100 questions in the exam, an attempt of around 60-70 questions will be considered to be good. If we maintain an accuracy of around 80% then it would result into a considerably good score.

How much time should be allotted to each section?

The answer to this question depends on the competency of the student. If in the Mock CATs a student has been amongst the toppers and has been doing well in both the sections, it is quite obvious, he/she should go by the same strategy which he/she has used in the Mock CATs.

Secondly, we have to keep in the mind the fact that only the topmost MBA institutes of India have a preference for sectional cut-offs. If a student is an average student and has been an average in the Mock CATs too, he/she can prefer investing more time in which he/she is comfortable, just to ensure an overall better score. One should also try to ensure that one does not have a negative score/ considerably low score in any of the sections.

General Tips:

Carry your admit card and take all the required documents to the exam centre. Reach well before the scheduled time. Stay emotionally and mentally balanced.

Bell the CAT in 2014.

We wish you all the best.

Paridhi Trivedi Parikh | Hardik K. Parikh

Building Careers, Shaping Lives!

(Click on "Join this site" tab on the right-hand side of the page and get instant updates)

Disclaimer: The views mentioned above are based on the authors' opinion and experiences. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on these views/ information.

Deendayal Antodaya Yojana - Explained!

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY)

An Introduction

12 Million. Put it in numbers, it is 1,20,00,000. Huge isn’t it? Now take this, statistics say that approximately 12 million Indians join workforce but out of them ONLY 10% are SKILLED. Let’s have some comparisons. In EU the skilled workforce is approximately 70% of the total workforce and in China it is approximately 50%. India has a long way to go.

With an aim to uplift the poor by enhancing livelihood opportunities through SKILL development the Governement announced a Rs 500 crore "Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana".

Government has also sought the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model to make this scheme more effective. According to estimates, by 2020, the developed nations will have a shortage of 57 million workers and there will be an acute need then to outsource the work. This is where, India, with its skilled workforce can pitch in and it will be a huge potential for the Indians.

Rs 500 crore will be spent on skill development of over five lakh urban poor under the DAY scheme and according to Government sources, to make the dream of “Make in India” come true, development of the required “skills” among the youth will be essential.

The basics of DAY:

Targeted at/ Managed by:

-          Urban People – Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) to take care

-          Rural People – Ministry of Rural Development to take care

Implementation:

-          Urban People – Will start in 2016

-          Rural People – With immediate effect i.e. from Sept 2014.

Task:

Make people industry-ready with help of development of required skills. Hence under this scheme, a major skill development initiative has been started.

For the sake of ease of understanding, let us divide the scheme into two parts viz Rural and Urban.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (for the development of Rural People).

•  Eligibility:

15 years and above – for the Rural Youth

• Target:

To train 10 lakh rural youth and make them industry-ready by 2017. Special attention will be paid to the disabled persons to make them industry-ready.

• How?

Government will set up training centres in the rural areas. Outreach programmes will help the Government spread the word and make people aware about such scheme and help the rural people take the benefit out of it.

Deendayal Upadhyay Antyodaya Yojana (DAY) (for the development of Urban Poor)

•  Eligibility:

Urban Poor

• Target:

To train 5 lakh Urban Poors every year and make them industry-ready.

• How?

Government will set up training centres in the rural areas. Outreach programmes will help the Government spread the word and make people aware about such scheme and help the rural people take the benefit out of it.

Government to set up “City Livelihood Centres” with Rs.10 lakh grant to train the Urban Poor. It will spend Rs. 15000-18000 on training each of the Urban Poor.

Formation of Urban Self Help Groups (SHGs) has also been envisaged.

On the other side, Govt. has also planned to set up “Vendor Markets”, and give skill training to vendors as well.

Govt. plans the construction of permanent shelters for urban homeless and has also provision to provide essential services to these people.

And Govt. will also help the Urban Poor set up enterprises. For this they will be given a loan at a subsidized rate of 7%.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC):

HUPA has tied up with NSDC, which will essentially provide training to the poor through its training centres.

NSDC will also provide certification and will also determine the syllabus for such skill development programmes.

Conclusion:

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY) scheme aims to fill the gap that currently exists between what industry demands and what people have, in terms of skills. The planning has been effectively divided into rural and urban for the better execution of the scheme. Skill development, which is the need of the hour, will help generate employment for a lot of underprivileged people through DAY.

Paridhi Trivedi Parikh | Hardik K. Parikh

Building Careers, Shaping Lives!

(Click on "Join this site" tab on the right-hand side of the page and get instant updates)

Disclaimer: The views mentioned above are based on the authors' opinion and experiences. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on these views/ information.

CAT 2014: 14 days plan

CAT 2014: 14 days plan

With 14 days to CAT 2014, the B-school aspirants are on tenterhooks. To hear words like Strategy, Mock CAT, Time Management, et al is very common to them. However, each of those words has its own importance when it comes to making your CAT attempt meaningful.

If you are taking the exam, try and stay calm. Keep working for the final showdown. The next two weeks may hold the key to consolidating all you have studied so far. It is easy, at this stage, to become nervous or lose concentration, and both the mistakes can prove costly. Do not shy away from practice. It is as essential as it was when you probably started your preparation for the CAT.

We have to remember that CAT is taken every year by lakhs of students. One cannot afford to sit back and relax at this moment. You need to keep yourself focussed and continue preparations until the last day.

Here we try to answer a few questions/ notions that trouble most of the CAT aspirants and we present our views on the same.

Mock Tests – Should I take them every day?

Yes. If not until the day of the exam, then atleast for the coming 10 days. Two reasons for that:

1. Get into the groove  – Taking a Mock test regularly will help you get into the groove. Also try and take the test at the time when your actual test is scheduled. This again will help you familiarize with conditions during those hours and make you more comfortable on the actual day.
2. Practice – Mock exams generally tend to provide real good practice and questions are often close to actual exam. A practice of those will help a student be in touch and have a constant practice of commonly asked/ expected questions. Though nothing can be predicted about such competitive exams, a practice of the most probable questions will definitely come handy.

One thing that most of the students tend to forget is to solve each question after taking the exam. This is so because as specified in point 2 above, the questions are important ones, and hence you need to know how to tackle them. So it is very important to solve each and every mock test completely, judge your suitability and move ahead!

New concepts – how many should I learn?

Possibly ZERO. The point is not to focus on what one does not know, but to focus on what one knows!

This one of the most common errors observed among the students. And it is quite understandable too. However, dear friends, please focus on the areas that you are already good at. Try to score maximum out of it. Learning some new concepts may help, but you cannot be sure. A good strategy would be to work upon your strengths and make them stronger. Remember, this is the phase of consolidation.

Math (Quants) – Darr lagta hai! What should I do?

If you are among the ones who are troubled by Math (Quants) and are not able to get to the sectionals, it can possibly mean two things viz.

•  (a) You have not given the required inputs
•  (b) You have worked but are not able identify the correct questions to attempt in the examination

In case (a), we need to practice to whatever extent we can.

In case (b), we need to identify our strengths and work accordingly. What happens with most of the students in the examination is that by the time they solve 15-20 questions, they have already consumed up the time devoted to the Quants section AND they are yet to see the remaining questions in the Quants. Now that can be horrible! We all know that Math is clubbed with Data Interpretation (DI). So if you are not so confident at Math and fancy your chance with DI, then go ahead – attempt DI. Chances of you being successful will be much more.

It is also advisable that you take Sectional test, everyday for the next 10 days in the Quant area. This will help you to develop the ability to select the “made for you” questions from the section.

To put it simply, there is nothing to panic. Analyse the question-pattern carefully, work on your strengths, do not forget we can have DI too and last but not the least, practice. Quants will be managed!

“Grammar” has my hands shivering!

If you are not through with the concepts of Grammar then it is possibly a herculean task right now with just 14 days left. However, if you are aware with the basics of grammar, we would advise that you take tests based on grammar every day. That should help you familiarize. Typically, such tests consist of 20-25 questions each and that would mean you will solve close to 300 questions and that should be good enough a practice. Same goes with solving the mock tests, analyse grammar questions carefully.

Reading Comprehension (RC) – I plan to leave it in any case!

Most of the serious aspirants of CAT must be aware that RC forms a major component of the verbal portion of CAT. We recommend not to leave ALL the RCs.

One can be weak at attempting RC if one has not practised as much. However, a good practice, even in the remaining 14 days can be of really good help. Please note that RCs can be based out of a variety of topics such as philosophical, business, economical, etc. and it is very much possible that we might be comfortable with two or more RCs asked in the examination.

Solve atleast 2-3 RCs every day!

Critical Reasoning (CR) – Any strategy?

CR questions are most commonly seen questions in CAT and other competitive exams. Most of the experts of MBA entrance preparation advise to exercise caution while attempting CR questions, so do we. Questions based on classifying the argument as strong or weak, true or false of questions asking to find out statements that strengthen or weaken the argument, are common. However, a scope of subjectivity is always there in most of the questions. Hence caution should be exercised while attempting such questions.

If you have practised such questions earlier, you can definitely attempt such questions with reasonable ease during the exams.

We hope that the above questions/ notions and the answer to them will help in clarifying doubts of thousands of aspirants of CAT 2014.

A few words without which this post will be incomplete:

• Trust your mentors

With all due respect to your knowledge and competence, we would still advise that trust your mentors. They have been with you all the way through, they know the exam and more importantly they know YOU. Trust them and be successful. It is important to emphasize this as it is very easy for a student to get distracted at the last moment, obviously because of tremendous pressure. In this age of information, it is quite possible to get distracted, but stay focused and be confident about your preparation.

• Stay Positive

Sounds cliché? May be so, but still it is quite important. As cited earlier, in a barrage of information, it is quite important remember and use the positive ones only. You have done quite well till now, you will be successful.

• Stay Healthy

It goes without saying that one has to maintain a good health. Avoid road-side food, junkfood, et al. Sleep well, sleep sufficiently. No need to stay awake for long hours.

What should be the correct strategy of taking CAT? Well, stay tuned to this blog!

All the best for your preparation for CAT 2014!

Paridhi Trivedi Parikh | Hardik K. Parikh

Building Careers, Shaping Lives!

(Click on "Join this site" tab on the right-hand side of the page and get instant updates)

Disclaimer: The views mentioned above are based on the authors' opinion and experiences. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on these views/ information.