The direction questions are one of the most repeated questions in the CAT Exam. Apart from CAT, direction and distance reasoning questions are also frequently asked in most of the MBA exams and other competitive exams. The test-takers are suggested to attempt these questions effectively as they are scoring and easily-solvable. The direction and distance reasoning questions, as the name implies, includes two types of questions i.e.: Direction Sense Test Distance Related questions Direction Sense Reasoning: The questions based on directions require the candidates to identifyin

Read More...

Data Interpretation questions typically have large amount of data given in the form of tables, pie charts, line graphs or some non-conventional format. The questions are calculation heavy and typically test your approximation abilities. A very large number of these questions check your ability to compare or calculate fractions and percentages. If you sit down to actually calculate the answer, you would end up spending more time than required and most of us can't afford to lose precious time during competitive exams like CAT, XAT, IIFT etc.  Here are few ideas that you can use for approxim

Read More...

Data Sufficiency questions often involve very simple calculations. This does not mean that the questions are simple. It just means that the chances to make conceptual mistakes and / or silly mistakes are a little higher than usual. You will need to pay attention to detail in such questions. In Data Sufficiency, you need to figure out whether or not the data given in the question / statements is good enough to find out a unique answer. Once again – is the data enough to find out a unique answer?  Please note that in Data Sufficiency: You do not need to find out the answer Yo

Read More...

Ratio and Proportions is one of the easiest concepts in CAT. It is just an extension of high school mathematics. Questions from this concept are mostly asked in conjunction with other concepts like similar triangles, mixtures and allegations. Hence fundamentals of this concept are important not just from a stand-alone perspective, but also to answer questions from other concepts 1.  Ratio (Concepts and Properties) Many a times we compare two data values of the same type. One way to do this is to find out the difference (a-b). Other method of comparison could be by division or finding ou

Read More...

What are the chances that it will rain today? Which team has odds in favor in today’s cricket match? What is the probability that Sensex will close above 30K today? All these questions pointed towards the chance, the likelihood of happening the uncertain event. And to determine this chance there’s a technique, a special mathematical and statistical subject entirely related to this known as Probability. Probability is nothing else but a chance that some event might occur. More formally, it calculates a numerical value between 0 and 1 that represents the likelihood that an event might occu

Read More...

Profit and Loss is the one concept that we have been studying since class 6th or 7th. It is present in our day-to-day simple transactions from buying vegetables to purchasing expensive jewelry. Everything we purchase today includes profit and loss. Our whole economy from big MNC’s to small retail outlets has been running with the same single intention to make profit. Whatever is being traded in the market has same motive to earn profit. Every seller aims to earn some profit over the product he is willing to sell and from the buyers’ perspective he is earning profit in terms of utility

Read More...

We all know what factorials (n!) are. They look friendly and helpful but looks can be deceiving, as many quant problems have taught us. Probably it is because that Factorials are simple looking creatures, most students prefer attempting questions based on them rather than on Permutation & Combination or Probability. I will cover P&C and Probability at a later date but in today’s post I would like to discuss some fundas related to factorials, which as a matter of fact form the basis of a large number of P&C and Probability problems.   Some of the factorials that mig

Read More...

We usually deal with a lot of equations in the Quant Section equating RHS and LHS. In inequalities, we do have LHS and RHS but these are not equal, any of the following case is possible: LHS >= RHS ; LHS > RHS ; LHS < RHS ; LHS <= RHS  Basic rules of operations on inequality: We can add or subtract same number from both sides with no change in the truth of the inequality. If a > b, then a+k > b+k e.g. If 8 > 6 then 8 + 2 > 6 + 2 and if 9 < 5 then 9 - 3 < 5 - 3 We can multiply or divide both sides with the same number, however the sign will depend

Read More...

In this post, we will learn how to solve Logical Reasoning Problems based on coins and matchsticks picking puzzles. To understand how exactly these kinds of puzzles look like, let’s start the post with a very simple example. The method to solve the example will give better insight so as to how to approach these puzzles. Two smart players A and B are playing a coin game in which they can pick up 1, 2, 3 or 4 coins. They have 78 coins and the player who picks the last coin will lose the game. A and B play alternately and A plays the first move. How many coins should A pick at first so h

Read More...

Geometry is an integral part of mathematics and mathematicians have been studying and formulating important results to simplify for years. Since, it is immensely significant it has been part of our curriculum as soon as we join middle school, though the concept taught in early years of middle school are much simpler and basic than what is taught at high and secondary years of our schooling. Because of the inevitability of deep rooted of Geometric concepts, it forms a significant part in the course structure of various competitive exams such as CAT, XAT, SSC, BANK PO, etc. Nearly 4-5 questi

Read More...