© MBAprepguide.com

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© MBAprepguide.com

As we all know, most candidates

(especially engineers) are inherently

comfortable with number-oriented sections

of entrance exams, and tend to struggle

with language and ambiguity. Over time,

this bias creeps into preparation as well.

Candidates prefer to stay in their comfort

zone and prepare tirelessly for numeric

sections, while getting positively

intimidated by verbal. As a result, verbal is

looked at as a defensive section, with

candidates preferring to score in quant and

logic. Hence, at MBAprepguide we have

started “Five Words a Day” section which

you should follow religiously to improve

your verbal aptitude.

Mastering verbal ability is a long term

game. What makes it more difficult is that

there is no defined method or regime that

can assure success. Most of us don‟t even

know where to start from! I‟d like to argue

that brutally improving one‟s understanding

of words is a good starting point.

Conquering verbal ability becomes that

much easier, if one is comfortable by the

depth and breadth of the fare on offer.

Wordlists are an invaluable resource, and

act as a means to the ultimate goal of

mastering verbal ability. There is a school

of thought that wordlists come in handy for

GRE preparation, and not so much for

Indian MBA exams. Personally, I believe

that is myopic thinking.

© MBAprepguide.com

Thorough mastery of wordlists allows

MBA aspirants to:

1. Solve vocabulary based questions with

high level of comfort. These questions have

very high return on time investment.

2. Eliminate options with assurance

3. Gain competitive edge over students in

the reading comprehensions and tough

verbal sections

4. Confidently express themselves in

written and oral communication during and

post their degree

Now to answer the most dreaded question –

How does one master these wordlists?

Barons‟ wordlist has close to 4800 words.

Knowing all of them inside out is a

herculean task, and just the thought of

taking up this challenge is difficult for

some. Some of the most common methods

that candidates try are:

1. Brute-force (rote-learn till you know

them all)

2. Practicing with friends

3. Memorizing in front of the mirror

4. Subscription services

5. Combination of the above

Although fundamentally good, these

methods have limitations – they put very

high emphasis on recall, and might not help

candidate develop a liking for the language

per se.

© MBAprepguide.com

Association of words with images, colors or

people multiplies recall. So, in addition to

these traditional styles of learning, the trick is

to start making associations on a day to basis

to improve recall, and really start enjoying the

“process”. Let me try and showcase a simple

way in which one can start building these

associations.

Almost all of us relax to some sort of English

television. The next time you watch an

English television series or a movie, just

make two tiny changes:

Ensure you are watching with subtitles

Keep a pen and paper beside you.

This is exactly what I did when I watched

Castle S01E01 for this article. And guess

what, I found a good 11 words that are part of

Barons‟. Not bad for a 40 minute time

investment!

1. Macabre (36sec, 1m 12sec)

2. Caliber (2m 24sec)

3. Mogul (7m 25sec)

4. Deranged (8m 02sec)

5. Hazard (8m 21sec)

6. Psychosis / psychotic (11m 04sec)

7. Furrow (13m 45sec)

8 . Aggrandize (23m 18sec)

9. Felony (25m 40sec)

10. Unassailable (33m 12sec)

11. Exigent (35m 05sec)

When you know that the series opens with the

lines “murder, mystery, the macabre….” – an

association has been very vividly formed, and

you‟ve registered for life that “macabre”

would mean “gruesome; grisly; ghastly;

related to death“. While taking a test in near

future, your mind will rock back to this day

and tell you, “Oh yes, Castle uses macabre to

describe his novels. These guys at

MBAprepguide had mentioned” – trust me on

that.

© MBAprepguide.com

The next step is to possibly take snapshots of

the motion picture with subtitles where the

word was used, or possibly have mini 10

second clips for each word that you come

across. And you can do that methodically for

whichever series you want to pursue, right

from S01E01! You can even go one step

further and divide the workload among

friends, and create a centralized repository of

such associations.

These small clips or snapshots would help

you revise effortlessly. These words would

become part of your daily repertoire, and

stick with you for a really long time,

especially the ones used by your favorite

characters or during critical junctures.

Hopefully, they will enhance your movie

watching experience as well.

Just remember to follow this with your

regular wordlist practice. This is for the long

run. Results achieved by relating words to

everyday events, television, and sport

commentary are long lasting and stick with

you. But more importantly, this will create a

natural and healthy curiosity for the language,

wherein verbal sections will cease to be a

chore and more of a goldmine for easy points

on vocabulary based questions.

© MBAprepguide.com

The Fact, Inference and Judgement

section came as a bolt from the blue in the

2006 CAT paper catching many students

by surprise. Of course, those were the

days when the CAT paper was

unpredictable and the mystery element

made solving the exam all the more fun.

OK, enough of the nostalgia. Let‟s move

on the definitions, shall we?

Definitions:

Fact: This deals with information which

can be easily verified. Usually these are

present in the form of figures, statistics,

etc. without any opinion attached. Thus, if

a statement is easily verifiable, it can be

easily identified as a fact.

Inference: This is a logical conclusion

usually based on facts. They are

conclusions drawn about the unknown, on

the basis of the known.

Inference = Fact + Conclusion drawn on

the basis of the fact

Judgement: A judgement, as the name

suggests, is an expression of opinion. The

opinions usually imply approval or

disapproval of persons, situations, etc.

A judgement closely resembles an

inferences and this is where a CAT

candidate usually makes an error

mistaking one for the other.

© MBAprepguide.com

The main difference between both is that

in an inference, the conclusion is usually

easily and logically derivable from the

fact. This is not the case in a judgement

which is more of an opinion on the fact.

Examples:

To make things clearer let‟s move on to

some examples. Here‟s one from CAT

2006:

Question:

1. According to all statistical indications,

the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has managed

to keep pace with its ambitious goals.

2. The Mid-day Meal Scheme has been a

significant incentive for the poor to send

their little ones to school thus establishing

the vital link between healthy bodies and

healthy minds.

3. Only about 13 million children in the

age group of 6 to 14 years out of school.

4. The goal of universalization of

elementary education has to be a pre-

requisite for the evolution and

development of our country.

(1) IIFJ (2) JIIJ (3) IJFJ (4) IJFI (5) JIFI

Solution:

Let‟s go through each statement

The first statement is as blatant an

inference as there can be. The first part of

the sentence i.e. ‟According to all

statistical indications‟ is the fact on which

the second part of the sentence is

inferred. This statement says that on the

basis of a fact, the conclusion can be

drawn that the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

has managed to keep pace with its

ambitious goals. Thus, this can easily be

marked as an inference.

© MBAprepguide.com

The second statement is a judgement as

the statement clearly indicates an

approval of the Mid-day meal scheme.

Also, this doesn‟t seem to be based on

any fact in the statement. Hence, this can

be marked as a judgement

The third statement is again obviously a

fact as this is a statistic which can easily

be verified.

The fourth statement is a judgement as

the words „has to be a pre-requisite‟

indicate an opinion about something.

Let‟s look at another question from CAT

2006:

Question:

1. We should not be hopelessly addicted

to an erroneous belief that corruption in

India is caused by the crookedness of

Indians

2. The truth is that we have more red tape

– we take eighty-nine days to start a small

business, Australians take two.

3. Red tape leads to corruption and

distorts a people‟s character.

4. Every red tape procedure is a point of

contact with an official, and such contacts

have the potential to become

opportunities for money to change hands.

(1) JFIF (2) JFJJ (3) JIJF (4) IFJF (5) JFJI

Solution:

The first statement is a judgement. The

words „we should not‟ clearly indicates an

opinion of the person.

The second statement is a fact as the

entire statement can be verified easily.

© MBAprepguide.com

The third statement is again a judgement.

Red tape leads to corruption indicates an

opinion and is not based on any fact in

the statement.

The fourth statement is an inference. The

first part of the statement is the verifiable

part and the second part of the statement

is derived/inferred from the first part.

Strategy:

An easy strategy for dealing with FIJ

questions is as follows:

1) Identify the facts among the

statements. These are the easiest to find.

Ensure that the entire statement should be

verifiable

2) Eliminate the answer options where

the statement found is not a fact

3) Identify the easy inferences or

judgements among the remaining

sentences

4) Eliminate the answer options again

based on the ones which don‟t fit

This is the easiest and the fastest way of

solving the questions.

© MBAprepguide.com

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© MBAprepguide.com

The key to getting a good percentile in CAT

or any other competitive exam quant for that

matter is to solve the question in the quickest

way possible. Using shortcuts is one such

method of getting the question done and

dusted easily.

Today, we will talk about using the answer

options to your advantage. This may be a

method familiar to many aspirants. However,

for the benefit of everyone, let‟s have a look

at the technique.

Take this question from CAT 2006:

Question:

The sum of 4 consecutive 2-digit odd

numbers, when divided by 10, becomes a

perfect square. Which of the following can

possibly be one of these 4 numbers?

(1) 21 (2) 25 (3) 41 (4) 67 (5) 73

Solution:

Since, the sum of the 4 consecutive odd

numbers should be divisible by 10, the last

digit of the sum should be 0. Since, the

numbers are all consecutive odd numbers,

the last digit should be 1,3,5,7 or 3,5,7,9 – so

on.

Out of these combinations, the only one

which gives the sum of the digits as 0 is

7,9,1,3. Hence the 4 consecutive numbers

should end with these digits.

Look at the answer options now.

© MBAprepguide.com

Option (2) can be eliminated upfront as

the last digit cannot be 5.

Option (1): In this case, the numbers are

17, 19, 21 and 23. Adding up the numbers

gives us 80. Division by 10 is 8 which is

not a perfect square. Hence, this is

eliminated

Option (3): In this case, the numbers are

37, 39, 41 and 43. Adding up the numbers

gives us 160. Division by 10 is 16 which

is a perfect square. Hence, this is the right

answer.

The question can easily be solved within

a minute by this method.

Lets take another example – this time

from CAT 2008:

Question:

Find the sum

√(1 + 1/12 + 1/22) + √(1 + 1/22 + 1/32) +

…. + √(1 + 1/20072 + 1/20082)

(1) 2008 – 1/2008 (2) 2007 – 1/2007 (3)

2007 – 1/2008 (4) 2008 – 1/2007 (5) 2008

– 1/2009

Solution:

The answer options contain almost the

same numbers as the numbers in the last

term. The trick here is to frame another

question out of the one given and then

use the substitution method to solve it.

Let n=2008. In this case, the question

becomes

find the sum √(1 + 1/12 + 1/22) + √(1 +

1/22 + 1/32) + …. + √(1 + 1/(n-1)2 +

1/n2)

and the answer options now are

© MBAprepguide.com

(1) n- 1/n (2) (n-1) – 1/(n-1) (3) (n-1) -

1/n (4) n- 1/(n-1) (5) n- 1/(n+1)

By doing this, we have reduced the

complexity of the question enormously.

Now we can substitute a simple number

instead of n and then check the option.

Let n=2

Therefore, the sum now is √(1 + 1/12 +

1/22) which is 3/2 = 1.5.

Check the answer options now with the

value n=2

Option (1): 2 – 1/2 = 3 /2 = 1.5 which is

correct

Option (2): 1- 1/1 = 0 which is incorrect

Option (3): 1 – 1/2 = 1/2 which is

incorrect

Option (4): 2 – 1/1 = 1 which is incorrect

Option (5): 2- 1/3 = 5/3 which is incorrect

Again, a question which looked difficult

to solve has been cracked within a

minute. Being clever by using the options

in the question can help you save

precious time during the exam.

Hope this post has helped. Till next time!

© MBAprepguide.com

A lot of aspirants find Data Sufficiency

problems difficult. DS questions are tricky

because they try to check how quickly one

can get out of „solving‟ mindset and enter

„finding sufficiency‟ mindset. At times,

students leave these questions because when

they solve these for the very first time, they

don‟t pay attention to „How‟ DS questions

are solved. In addition to this, there are two

main reasons why students are afraid of DS.

1. Lack of practice

2. Actually solving the question even though

one is supposed to find only the sufficiency

of the given statements to arrive at the

answer

The instructions for DS questions are

generally standard. I am taking four

questions from CAT 2007 to explain the

instructions as well as approach.

Answer each question using the following

instructions:

Mark (1) if the question can be answered by

using the statement A alone but not by using

the statement B alone.

Mark (2) if the question can be answered by

using the statement B alone but not by using

the statement A alone.

Mark (3) if the question can be answered by

using either of the statements alone.

Mark (4) if the question can be answered by

using both the statements together but not by

either of the statements alone.

Mark (5) if the question cannot be answered

on the basis of the two statements.

© MBAprepguide.com

Let us simplify this:

Pause here for some time, read the

instructions again, go through the table

and proceed.

Q.1 In a particular school, sixty students

were athletes. Ten among them were also

among the top academic performers. How

many top academic performers were in

the school?

A. Sixty per cent of the top academic

performers were not athletes.

B. All the top academic performers were

not necessarily athletes.

Approach

Before starting, You can probably draw a

circle for athletes, and intersect it with

other circle for top academic performers

if you can‟t simply visualize what‟s

happening. The intersection area is 10.

Now, if we go to statement A, we can

easily figure out that 40% of top

academic performers were athletes. This

gives you 40%=10, hence 100%=25

(number of top academic performers).

Statement B alone doesn‟t tell you

anything that will help you answer the

question. We will mark (1) and move on.

© MBAprepguide.com

Q.2 Five students Atul, Bala, Chetan,

Dev and Ernesto were the only ones who

participated in a quiz contest. They were

ranked based on their scores in the

contest. Dev got a higher rank as

compared to Ernesto, while Bala got a

higher rank as compared to Chetan.

Chetan‟s rank was lower than the median.

Who among the five got the highest rank?

A. Atul was the last rank holder.

B. Bala was not among the top two rank

holders.

Approach

Based on the information given in the

question, we can create a mental image.

D > E, B > C and C is either 4 or 5 (3

median). Look at statement A, This tells

us that A was last which means C was

4th. But we can‟t conclude who got the

highest. Look at statement B, This again

doesn‟t tell us who got the highest.

Combine information in A and B. This

puts B at third place. And giving us

following positions: D > E > B > C > A

The answer is option (4)

Q.3 Thirty per cent of the employees of a

call center are males. Ten per cent of the

female employees have an engineering

background. What is the percentage of

male employees with engineering

background?

A. Twenty five per cent of the employees

have engineering background.

B. Number of male employees having an

engineering background is 20% more

than the number of female employees

having an engineering background.

© MBAprepguide.com

Approach

When the question is in percentage and

answer is also expected in percentage, life

is easier! Assume total employees are

100. This gives you following

distribution: Employees (100)

Going to statement A, 25% of the

employees (meaning 25 in total) have

engineering background. That makes x =

25 – 7 = 18

Going to statement B, x = 1.2 * 7 = 8.4

But why solve it? In both statement A and

statement B, we have some information

given related to percentage of Eng-Male.

We already know Eng-Female number

which is the comparison base. And as

these numbers mentioned are different,

the answers are going to be different.

Hence, I will not solve the question to get

values of x but just mark (3) as my

answer.

Q.4 In a football match, at the half-time,

Mahindra and Mahindra Club was trailing

by three goals. Did it win the match?

A. In the second-half Mahindra and

Mahindra Club scored four goals.

B. The opponent scored four goals in the

match.

Approach

Information: At half-time, M&M = X,

Opponent = X + 3

If we look at statement A, At the end of

the match, M&M = 4 – but no idea of

what opponent finished at

If we look at statement B, At the end of

the match, Opponent = 4 – but no idea of

what M&M finished at.

© MBAprepguide.com

Combine the two:

Possibility 1: By half time, M&M was at

0, opponent had 3. In the second half,

M&M scored 4 and opponent scored 1.

End score 4-4

Possibility 2: By half time, M&M was at

1, opponent had 4. In the second half,

M&M scored 4 and opponent scored 0.

End score 5-4

As even after combining, we can‟t

conclusively answer the question „Did

M&M win the match?‟, the answer option

will be (5)

To summarize, DS questions are not

difficult. Just change your mindset,

follow instructions, be logical, and mark

the correct answer!

© MBAprepguide.com

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© MBAprepguide.com

Today, we are going to talk about goals,

importance of having goals, and S.M.A.R.T.

goal setting. While preparing for competitive

examinations, setting the right goals is very

crucial. So let us go through anatomy of goals

and understand S.M.A.R.T. goal setting.

What is a Goal?

A Goal is a desired result that one envisions,

plans and commits to achieve. A goal is

roughly similar to a purpose or an aim; the

anticipated result that guides actions.

Why should one have a Goal?

Considering the football fever is on right now,

let‟s take Football as an example. For a

second, imagine a football match without

goalposts! Players are running on the field,

dribbling the ball aimlessly. As there are no

goalposts, there is no winner. And if that‟s the

case, the set of rules that govern the sport are

also useless. Can you enjoy a match like that?

If you remove the goal from the equation, it

takes all other variables along and the whole

structure collapses.

A goal gives you a target, a purpose, an

objective to fulfill

In Football, scoring a goal is an objective.

Goal post becomes a target, and the desire to

win the match by scoring goals gives a

purpose to all the players. Similarly, in life,

you have to decide what your goals are. They

can be short-term or long-term.

© MBAprepguide.com

But these goals will give you an

objective, guide your path, and give a

purpose to your life.

It helps you decide your priorities

In Football, one might enjoy dribbling a

lot and can spend the whole time doing

just that. However, the priority is scoring

a goal! That‟s how real life goals work

too. A goal can be really important in the

long-term, but there will always be short-

term goals and they require your

immediate attention and action. It

becomes important to prioritize and

choose which goal is priority.

Helps you become a better person

It is not easy to score a goal. It requires

hard work, efforts, dedication, and focus.

Players from the opposite team are

always there to make it more difficult.

But good players observe, understand,

and concentrate on the process behind

scoring a goal. And that teaches them not

only football but critical life skills.

Over a period of time, these skills turn

good players into winners and legends.

Having goals and striving to achieve

them has the same effect on all of us. The

difficulties, the obstacles, the setbacks

that you face in the process of achieving

your goals, make you a better person.

At the same time, you need to understand

how goals should be:

Goals should be S.M.A.R.T.

© MBAprepguide.com

S: Specific – Specific is the what, why,

when, where and how?

M: Measurable – Measurable means you

know very clearly that the goal has been

achieved or not

A: Achievable – Goals should stretch your

abilities but it should be within your reach.

You mush have the required skills, abilities

and knowledge to achieve it.

R: Result Oriented – Though the process

of achieving a goal is a thrill in itself, a

goal should be result oriented and not

focused on the activity.

T: Time bound – A goal should have a

time frame within which it should be

achieved. Else, it would likely not produce

an outcome.

If you set goals that fit these criteria, you

have a better chance of achieving them.

Having a goal makes you much more

focused, and accountable for achieving that

goal.

However a goal should have the

S.M.A.R.T. characteristics in it. Without

that, a goal is often incomplete. So your

goal can be getting into an IIM, or in one

of the top 25 institutes in the country.

Whatever your goal may be, define it in

S.M.A.R.T. way! For example:

1. Specific – To get into one of the top 25

institutes in the country

2. Measurable – Need 99 + percentile to

get calls from these institutes

3. Achievable – Current score is 95

percentile and was 85 percentile a month

back. I can achieve this!

4.Result oriented – Must track percentile

score after every mock.

5. Time bound – Should achieve this in

next 5 months.

Hope you found this article useful, and the

next time you decide to take up a goal, you

will make it S.M.A.R.T.

© MBAprepguide.com

Are you half-asleep, tired, irritated, drained,

and low on motivation? If you are reading

this in the first half of the day, chances are

high that these words describe your condition

well. It‟s Monday and who likes Mondays

(apart from people who have Mondays off)?

But we believe in kicking Monday morning

blues with motivation!

Harsha Bhogle is an inspiration for our

generation, and for those of you aren‟t aware

of Harsha‟s non-cricket life, he studied at IIM

Ahmedabad (dream institute for all serious

aspirants), and runs a sports-based

communication consultancy, Prosearch.

In 2009, I got an opportunity to see him live

in action and I was super-charged at the end

of those two hours! The way he talks about

cricket, attitude, motivation, talent, success,

failure, and everything in general is

mellifluous, and straight from heart.

How beautifully he shows the importance of

attitude in achieving success and excellence

in this video:

“Excellence is not about talent at all. In fact,

a major part of excellence has nothing to do

with talent. And in course of time, once you

go beyond a certain level, ability or talent is

the most useless virtue to possess. It‟s what

you do with that talent that matters.

© MBAprepguide.com

Beyond a point, it is attitude that counts

for far more than talent. Because talent

breeds an ego. And talent never solves

problems beyond a point.”

We also recommend two books by

Harsha:

1) The Winning Way – Paperback | eBook

2) Out of the Box – Paperback

Have a super-awesome day!

© MBAprepguide.com

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© MBAprepguide.com

Procrastination is the worst, isn‟t it? As Leo

Babauta says, “It lurks behind us constantly,

insinuating itself into the crevices of our mind,

intimating its will through malevolent hints

and obscure looks and barely audible whispers

and glancing allusions”. Here is a time-tested

method to alleviate it.

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The Pomodoro Technique is one of the more

popular time management hacks in use today.

Developed in the late 1980‟s by Francesco

Cirillo, the technique works by splitting time

into 30 minute chunks. Each 30 minute period

has a 25 minute working period and a 5 minute

break. The 25 minute interval is known as a

pomodoro, Italian for tomato.

Additionally, after 4 such „pomodoros‟, there

is a 15 minute break. The objective is to

complete the task in short bursts with

maximum focus. This is based on the idea that

frequent breaks can help improve mental

agility.

What are the steps in implementing the

technique?

There are 5 basic steps in implementing the

technique:

1. Decide on what task you want to do

2. Set the timer to 25 minutes

3. Work on the task at a stretch for the entire

25 minutes

4. Take the mandatory break of 5 minutes

5. After 4 such pomodoros, take a break of 15

minutes

© MBAprepguide.com

How to Pomodoro?

There are 2 ways to do this. One is simply

use a stopwatch or a countdown timer and

time it up to 25 minutes and so on.

However, the easier way would be to

download the apps related to this. This

would provide you with better

functionality and control over various

settings. The ones recommended are

„Clockwork Tomato„ and „Pomodoro

Timer„. Similarly, there are a lot of apps in

the Apple App Store as well (Pomodoro

Timer).

Recording the Tasks

As per the technique, the tasks to be

performed have to be planned and

prioritized by using a „to-do‟ list. The

estimated time for completion of the task is

marked alongside. As the individual

pomodoros are completed, the task is

ticked off, thus, recording the effort spent.

A general review of the pomodoros done in

a given day would help in tracking the

productivity.

Conclusion

This technique has its fair share of critics

who argue that the system is too

regimented and inflexible. However, if one

needs a systematic way of ticking off the

„to-do‟ list, then this technique may be the

perfect one for you!

© MBAprepguide.com

© MBAprepguide.com

MBAprepguide is a knowledge portal. We provide MBA test preparation consulting for B-

school applicants. The website was founded by three JBIMS graduates with strong interest

in MBA test preparation, education, online content, and entrepreneurship.

MBAprepguide helps MBA aspirants by providing relevant quality content and offers

expert personal guidance. The easiest way to keep yourself updated with our content is

through subscription. Once you join our mailing list, you automatically get all our articles

delivered in your inbox. We suggest you to go through our previous articles and check our

services section to know how we can help you better.

© MBAprepguide.com

Prasad Sawant

Co-founder, Chief Mentor. JBIMS, Batch of 2011. Over 5 years of teaching experience.

99.99 percentile in CET 2009, 99.9 in CAT 2008 QA section, and 800/800 twice in

MAT.

Sriram Krishnan

Co-founder, Chief Knowledge Officer. JBIMS, Batch of 2013. Enviable CAT record

with two 99+ percentile scores. 5th in the state with 99.99 percentile in CET 2011

Ajay Pai

Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer. JBIMS, Batch of 2013. 99.95 percentile in CET

2011.

© MBAprepguide.com

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