Play to Win

One walks into an exam with a sense of aptitude. You build skills and not merely gather knowledge
skills help under exam conditions, they survive pressure knowledge gropes in dark and crumbles
under pressure. By nature of the configuration, the paper setters are seeking skill and aptitude, not
slow reacting knowledge.

Math and Data Crunching type of questions evaluate your skills of the following kind:

- an aptitude to visualise the problem statement

- an ability to build a model in solving the question by assuming so and so is x or y

- nobody is looking for mathematicians, so fear not

Within these, they seek:

- careful observant reading ability

- caution in answering the question asked, not your x or y eg. In a problem of Amys and Pauls
age, he may ask the difference between the two, and not what Pauls age is

- careful calculation ability, remembering plus and minus, not wreaking havoc via so called silly
mistakes

These chapters build these skills majorly:

Probability, Permutations, Time and Work, Time and Speed, Word problems in one or two variables,
ratio proportion partnership alligation, percentage profit loss, puzzles and common sense logic
problems. Begin with these excel at these first.

Tool related/ formulae based technical chapters are algebra, functions, graphs, Venn diagram,
geometry, coordinate, simple/ compound interest, numbers, exponents. Do these later.

List of skills:

- rhythm in reading the question, comprehending its nuts and bolts as you read

- awareness of choices, eliminating illogical choices

- solving via choices and not top down method alone (there are NO marks for steps here)

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- managing ego while handling questions and thus not being a poor time management test taker; not
to be fixated on a question beyond 3 minutes, nor trying to leave a question without giving its due 1
minute

- ability to size up a problem, whether within ability set to solve or not, guessing the traps it may
hold

Computational 100% accuracy needed even if youve to do 20 such questions in 3 minutes:

- doubling a number, trebling, quadrupling, multiplying by 5

- halving, one-thirding, fractionalising a number (2/3rd, 3/4th, 2/7th, 1/9th etc)

- division of any number by any number with eye on quotient and remainder

- addition, subtraction, multiplication of integers and decimals

- knowing when LCM HCF needed, and when not

- solving 1 variable equation

- solving 2 variable simultaneous equations

- solving quadratic/ cubic equations

- knowing when algebraic formulae offer way out rather than raw muscle bulldozing

- remembering basic geometry theorems and mensuration formulae

- extracting percentage change, remembering percentage table

- by heart squares 1 to 36, cubes 1 to 26, squareroots 1 to 10, primes 1 to 120, tables 12 to 19 upto
10 times, standard formulae on algebra, nPr nCr factorials.

- comfortable in counting instances, esp. in series and cycle questions

Depending on your current expertise (or shakiness), you have to go through numerous drills and
revisions to master further. One can score almost full in these sections, with time left to daydream
and hum a song and munch a chocolate. This simply needs facing up truth, ample contact time with
problems, not avoiding vivas, trying to do more in less time, with a positive mindset, Im going to
win this over.

The Verbal/ Reading sections seek these skills:

- comfort in reading the language (an equivalent of having gone through 30 odd novels, or finishing a
200 page novel in maximum 2 days, alongwith other things in life being attended to)
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- familiarity with different themes like Economics- Commerce-Management, Psychology, Philosophy,
Science-Technology-Geology-Computers, Sociology-Anthropology, Music-Culture-Architecture-
Painting-Sculpture, Literature-Linguistics-Dramatics-Biographical, Political, Historical-Geographical,
et al

- Instead of picking 20-30 odd passages per theme, and rereading them 5-8 times each and thus
mastering the material, people just complain and grovel

- Through such contextual reading, building a reasonable vocabulary so that if a passage uses words
like these, you know ALL of them:

musing, extravaganza, rhetoric, irony, simulacrum, verisimilitude, brashness, abrasion, alpine, adage,
beatific, calumny, cauterize, dastard, debilitating, ennui, ensemble, fracas, guillotine, ghastly, hiatus,
hoary, impetus, inkling, joust, jeremiad, jocund, knavery, lipid, lambent, lambast, onerous, pithy,
preponderant, pulchritudinous, penchant, proclivity, quotidian, quietus, rambling, sepulchral, sow as
a noun, soggy, trepidation, trenchant wit, umbrage, ululation, verve, vivacity, welkin, xerophytes,
xiphoid, yokel, yeoman, zephyr etc

else you are doomed therein

- memory retention of a passage for the 5-10 minutes it needs to answer the questions appended
therein

- critical reading ability of passage, observingANDenjoying choice of words, syntax, literary tools;
grasping nuances of thought, figuring out an idea map in your head as to flow of thought in writers
mind; reading with anticipation of what shall come further in the passage

- logic based grammar understanding, with fine idiomatic grasp (hard rules based questions are just
20% of overall grammar)

Finally, overall test needs stamina to read endlessly or do math questions and not commit mistakes
because you were tired and felt like running away. This needs immense full and short tests sittings
NOT looking at a test as a way to know where you stand, but as a source of new questions, a way of
measuring NOT your knowledge, but skill and emotional maturity. Analysis of tests is very very
important, so much so that, if you encounter a similar question elsewhere, you would crack it
pronto. Always writing an essay before the test to simulate true fatigue. Always doing a warm-up 5-
10 questions before actual test. Watching bio rhythm, diet, sleep, bathing, logistics, managing
application process smartly are assumed.

The day of the test is damn important, but you should be relaxed, and knowing that youd excel the
score you set in mocks, not go down 10-20%. Play to win try to beat the top 1 percentile barrier.
Have a strategic plan and work it ably, with reviews and periodic course corrections. Think Vast.
Humans have infinite potential if they so believe. I believe in you do you?

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