Tips for MBA aspirants by Prof. Neerja

I am sure preparations are well underway to ‘BELL THE CAT’. At this time of the year, students are feverishly preparing not only for CAT but for other competitive exams as well.  A few tips that will help:

1. Learn squares of numbers from 1 to 30 and cubes of numbers from 1 to 20, at least. This will help you not only in the quantitative section but also in recognizing ‘Series and Patterns’ and also in ‘Pick the odd one out’ sections.
2. You cannot undermine the importance of mathematical tables till 19. Especially for prime numbers 13, 17 and 19. For each table, you should learn till 16. So you should know 16*15, 16*19.
3. I am sure you are learning a lot of new words every day. The best way to memorize them is to put them down in a diary/notebook along with their synonyms. Take care of little differences in words like perpetrate & perpetuate.  For example,

Perpetrate – carry out, commit, perform, execute, accomplish, inflict, wreak, be guilty of

Perpetuate – keep alive, keep going, preserve, conserve, sustain, maintain, extend, prolong

Read the newspaper every day to see how and where these words are used and in which context. Try to internalize these words and use them in everyday speech.

Handling the quantitative section

To handle the quantitative section well, one should also be well versed with the properties of geometrical figures. These have normally been taught between class 9 -12. For example, the altitude of an equilateral triangle is √3a/2 and the area is √3 a²/4, where ‘a’ is the side of the triangle.

In an equilateral triangle, each altitude is also the median. The orthocenter, the incenter, and the circumcenter are at the same point.  The orthocenter is the meeting point of all altitudes. The circumcenter is the center of the circle which circumscribes the triangle. The incenter is the center of the circle inscribed in the triangle.

In an equilateral triangle, the circumradius = a/√3 and the inradius = a/2√3 where a is the side of the triangle. The area of the triangle can also be written in terms of Heron’s formula or using the semiperimeter (s) where s = half of the sum of the sides.

Learn these formulae by rote.