Tuesday 29 January 2013

My experiences with CAT and learning points

Attempting exams like CAT is always a tense experience. To keep our nerves under control is the mantra here. I have attempted CAT two times, first time in 2008 and next time in 2012. First one is traditional paper-based type and next one is computer-based test. See my learning points from this experience...



Saturday 12 January 2013

Puzzle-35 (XAT-2013)

Sara has just joined Facebook. She has 5 friends. Each of her five friends has twenty five friends. It is found that at least two of Sara’s friends are connected with each other. On her birthday, Sara decides to invite her friends and the friends of her friends. How many people did she invite for her birthday party?
(A)  ≥ 105  (B) ≤ 123        (C) < 125        (D) ≥ 100 and ≤ 125 (E) ≥ 105 and ≤ 123
For solution click on 'Read more' below..

Wednesday 9 January 2013

XAT-2013 Detailed Solutions (Quantitative Ability)

Along with solutions, here I would like to give 'Notes' especially on some problems where I went in a wrong way or spent a little more time than usual while actually solving in the exam. And also for some problems, I summarized crucial clues and tagged those clues under 'Points'. I thought this approach is quite useful to solve the problems and get to know about the nitty-gritties.

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Indian Economy, a CR point

I was reading through a write-up on Indian Economy-2012. I wanted to relate one point from here to the critical reasoning stuff.
The following are the facts found in a recent survey:
Fact-1: Indian economy may be broadly divided in to three sectors- Industry, Agriculture and Services. The contributions of these sectors to the GDP are as follows:
Agriculture-15%, Industry-28%, Services-57%
Fact-2: For over a considerable period, there is exodus observed in a significant extent. People are moving from rural to urban areas. Most of the people who are moving out of rural areas are not finding agriculture as a lucrative sector and trying to find jobs in industries in urban areas.

Monday 7 January 2013

XAT-2013 :My Experience

D'day - 6th Jan'2013
Centre: St.Patricks High School, Sebastian Road, Sec'bad

Parts:
Two parts.
Part-I: 140 min. VA,DM and QA sections
Part-II: 40 min. General Awareness and Essay. Surprise this time is introduction of GA section here.

Part-I:
A total of 91 Q's. All are multiple choice Q's having 5 options each.
This part is divided like this:
Sec-A: Verbal Ability
Total Q's: 30

Sec-B: Decision Making
Total Q's: 25

Sec-C: Quantitative Ability
Total Q's: 36

-ve Marking:
It's a surprise this time. It's a straight forward formula. One fourth for each wrong Q.

Differential Marking:
It's again a surprise this time.No differential marking. All Q's carry equal marks.


Sunday 6 January 2013

XAT-2013 Answer key


Quantitative Ability:
                                               click here for detailed solutions
Q1)Prof. Mandal walks....
(A)  100 minutes  (B) 120 minutes        (C) 140 minutes        (D) 150 minutes (E)None of the above
Answer: D

Q2)At the centre of a city’s municipal park ....
(A)  62500π           (B) 125000π   (C) 250000π   (D) 500000π (E)Cannot be answered from the given data
Answer: A

Q3)Mr.Mehra is planning for higher education ....
(A)  5% and 7.5% respectively    (B) 8% and 12% respectively          
(C) 10% and 15% respectively   (D) 15% and 22.5% respectively
(E) 20% and 30% respectively
Answer: E

Q4)Albela, Bob and Chulbul ....
(A)  24        (B) 25 (C) 26 (D) 27  (E) 28
Answer: A

Q5)The taxis plying in Wasseypur....
(A)17         (B) 18 (C) 19 (D) 20  (E) 21
Answer: C

Q6)Consider the expression (a2+a+1)....
(A)3           (B) 1    (C) 10 (D) 100           (E) 243
Answer: E

Q7) The mean of six positive integers....
(A)26         (B) 28 (C) 30 (D) 32  (E) 34
Answer: D

Q8) Ramesh bought a total of 6 fruits....
(A)25%      (B) 33.3%        (C) 60%           (D) 66.6%       (E) None of the above
Answer: E

Q9) p and q are positive numbers....
(A)9         (B) (9)1/6          (C) (9)1/9          (D) (9)1/8         (E) (9)1/3  
Answer: D

Q10)A number is interesting if....
(A)0.1        (B) 0.11           (C) 0.16           (D) 0.22          (E) None of the above  
Answer: A

Q11)Consider the expression: (xxx)b = x3....
(A)5           (B) 6    (C) 7    (D) 8    (E) None of the above
Answer: E

Q12)The figure below show the graph of a function f(x)....
(A)5           (B) 6    (C) 7    (D) 8    (E) None of the above
Answer: C

Q13)How many whole numbers between 100 and 800 contain the digit 2?
(A)200      (B) 214            (C) 220            (D) 240           (E) 248
Answer: B

Q14)Ram,Shyam and hari..
   (A)8           (B) 7                (C) 6    (D) 5    (E) 4
Answer: A

Q15)Consider a function f(x) = x4+x3+x2+x+1, where x is a ...

(A)1           (B) 4                (C) 5    (D) a monomial in x  (E) a polynomial in x
Answer: C

Q16)Six playing cards are lying ...
(A) ≥ 0.25 and < 0.5      (B) ≥ 0.5 and < 0.75    (C) ≥ 0.75 and < 1.0     (D) ≥ 1.0 and < 1.25  
(E) ≥ 1.25 
Answer: C

Q17)Please read the following sentences carefully ...

(A)All the statements are correct         (B) Only statement II is correct

 (C) Only statement III is correct           (D) Both statements I and II are correct

(E) Both statements I and III are correct
Answer: C

Q18)In the country of Four ...
(A)26.64   (B) 27.32        (C) 28.30        (D) 30  (E) 36
Answer: C

Q19)Which is the fastest train between HHH and NNN?

(A)1111    (B) 2222         (C) 4444         (D) 7777         (E) 9999

Answer: D

Q20) Which is the fastest train between AAA and NNN?

(A)8800    (B) 8888         (C) 6666         (D) 4444         (E) 3333

Answer: A

Q21) If you have to travel from AAA...

(A)1111 and 8800           (B) 1111 and 9900    (C) 8888 and 7777

(D) 8888 and 8800          (E) 8888 and 9900

Answer: E
My observation: It appears that 8800 is not stopping at HHH

Q22) Considering away matches only, which of the following team is the second ranking team?
(A)AS         (B) CH             (C) WG            (D) SW            (E) WB
Answer: D

Q23) Arun has to go the country....?
(A)T1 and T2        (B) T1,T2 and T5        (C) T1,T4 and T5        (D) T1,T2 and T4
 (E) T1,T3 and T4
Answer: B

Q24) However, Arun’s manager....?
(A)T1, T2 and T3  (B) T1,T2 and T5        (C) T1,T2 and T4        (D) T1,T3 and T4
 (E) T1,T4 and T5
Answer: B

Q25) in a square PQRS, A and B are...?
(A)6           (B) 8    (C) 10  (D) 12  (E) 14
Answer: C

Q26) p,q and r are three non-negative...?
(A)    40 and < 50           (B) 50 and < 60      (C) 60 and < 70      (D) 70 and < 80 (E) 80 and < 90
Answer: D

Q27) The central park...?
(A)      10 meters    (B) 12.5 meters         (C) 14 meters (D) 15 meters (E) 16 meters
Answer: A

Q28) What is the ratio of current account balance in 2010 to the current account balance in 2005?
(A)      0.35  (B) 4.56           (C) 5.01           (D) 2.57 (E) 5.30
Answer: E

Q29) Read the statements given below:
1.      Exports were more than imports in 2006
2.      Imports were more than exports in 2009
3.      Exports increased at faster rate than imports during the period 2005 to 2010
Which of the above statements is necessarily true?
(A)      1 and 2         (B) 1,2, and 3 (C) 3 only        (D) 2 only (E) 1 only
Answer: C

Q30) What was the approximate number of unemployed persons in 2006?
(A)100 million     (B) 102 million           (C) 98 million
(D) 105 million    (E) 104 million
Answer: A

Q31) Sara has just joined Facebook...?
(A)      ≥ 105            (B) ≤ 123        (C) < 125        (D) ≥ 100 and ≤ 125 (E) ≥ 105 and ≤ 123
Answer: E
                        

Q32) 70% of the students who joined XLRI last year play football,..?
(A)   5%      (B) 10%           (C) 15%           (D) 20% (E) None of the above
Answer: B

                      click here for detailed solutions
More Questions are in line.....

Saturday 5 January 2013

Patterns observed from Leap year concept

Consider years from 2001 to 2017. Out of these 17 years, the following 4 are leap years: 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016

Let us consider a property “Equidistant” here. If any day of a year is equidistant from the corresponding day of the previous and next years, then that year is called to exhibit the property ‘Equidistant’. But here, before considering a date, it should be taken care of two scenarios. One scenario is for the dates from Jan’1st to Feb’28th and the other scenario is for the dates from Mar’1st to Dec’31st. These two scenarios result in two different patterns. In brief, scenario-I set of dates is (Jan’1st to Feb’28th) and scenario-II set of dates is (Mar’1st to Dec’31st).
For example, let us consider a year 2007. How many days are there from Jan’1st of 2006 to Jan’1st of 2007? It is 365. Reason is simple.  Being a non-leap year, '2006' has 365 days. Similarly, there are 365 days from Jan’1st of 2007 to Jan’1st of 2008 (here again, being a non-leap year '2007' consists of 365 days). So here, any day (taken from scenario-I set of dates) of 2007 is equidistant from the corresponding days of 2006 and 2008. And hence, we can say that year 2007 possesses the property “Equidistant” if scenario-I set of dates are considered.

Pattern-I
Here we consider a date from Jan’1st to Feb’28th and the pattern looks like this:
To have some fun, fill out the tables on your own...
From here onwards, 'E' stands for the property 'Equidistant' and 'N' for 'Non-Equidistant'.
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
N
E
E
N
N
E
E
N
N
E
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017




E
N
N
E
E
N
N




*Years in bold are leap years

Pattern-II
Here we consider a date from scenario-II set of dates ie., from Mar’1st to Dec’31st and the pattern looks like this:
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
E
E
N
N
E
E
N
N
E
E
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017




N
N
E
E
N
N
E




*Years in bold are leap years
The point in common for the two patterns is, for every four consecutive years, there exist two E’s and two N’s.

Exceptions:

If it is to be defined mathematically, Leap year is a number which
-must be a multiple of 4 and 
-must not be a multiple of 100 but 
-can be a multiple of 400 
Sequence of Leap years is not in a perfect pattern. For example, If I start writing down the list of leap years for a period starting from 1895, it goes like this:   
1896,1904,1908,1912,1916.....
There is an exception for it to be a perfect 'Arithmetic Progression with a common difference of 4'. The break is between 1896 and 1904. Had 1900 been existing between these two, it would have been so.
As there exist exceptions in the leap year sequence (I mean, it’s not a perfect Arithmetic Progression. Every year which is a multiple of 4 is not a leap year. The exception is due to a year which is being a multiple of 100 (but not a multiple of 400) (and obviously it’s a multiple of 4) is not a leap year), there exist exceptions too in our two patterns. There exist breaches in the pattern at any year which is a multiple of 100 (but not a multiple of 400) and also at one of it’s two adjacent years. To explain this I take an example set of the years from 1895 to 1911:

Pattern-I for this set is:
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
E
N
N
E
E
E
E
E
E
N
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911




N
E
E
N
N
E
E




*Years in bold are leap years

Pattern-II for this set is:
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
N
N
E
E
E
E
E
E
N
N
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
1911




E
E
N
N
E
E
N




*Red marked ones are exceptions
*Years in bold are leap years
Had 1900 been a leap year, then 1900 and 1901 of Pattern-I would have been N and N respectively and it would have been in a perfect pattern like two N's followed by two E's. Similarly, for Pattern-II, 1899 and 1900 would have been N and N respectively and also it would have been in a perfect pattern.