Mock - Mock, Who's There?

Today we begin a series of something unique here on Lagom. People have come forward to guide you through the most important and testing period of your MBA journey, the Mocks. I will have people share their strategies,their journey and how not to let the mock mock you while you aspire for the golden egg. You will see their strategy through my lenses and must appreciate their effort to have come forward and be absolutely frank with us in order to help you have a smooth sailing.
First in the league of our Mock-Mock Team is Ankan Sengupta.


Profile details :

Current : 4th year B.E(Electronics and Telecommunication) , Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
CAT experience : CAT 2014 , QA : 99.82 , VA : 98.34 with an overall of 99.79
Hobbies : A math enthusiast with an interest in quizzing and football

                                                           

Exam format he faced : 180 minutes,100Q = 50(QADI) + 50(VALR) with a near 35-15 split up in each.

So, let's see what he had to say about his journey through the mocks and important keynotes he has for us.

• QA was his forte.
  "I always used to start with QA-DI. My target was always to attempt as many as possible in QA. But during the beginning, I realized that silly mistakes are taking a huge toll on my mock scores due to vigorous attempts. So, I decided to attempt 45-46 questions with a bit more accuracy."That's still a hell lot. But then that's when you have the right to call it your forte.
  
  
• QA seen in three parts.He used to give the QA-DI up to 95 minutes since it was his forte.
  "I skimmed and scanned the paper for my three parts :
  Easy : 20 second questions solved without pen/paper. First 15 minutes was that.
  Medium : 2 minute questions that involve doable calculations. 45 minutes for this.
  Toughies : Questions that involve cumbersome calculations. 30 minutes for the doable ones.
  5 minute buffer period."
  
  
• VA was never his strong point. Grammar and RCs troubled him. Left grammar in mocks.
  "I used to start with LRs. Generally they give you 1 easy,1 medium,1 tough and one mostly medium to occasionally tough. I used to attempt at least 3, mostly all 4 as it was my sweet spot in the VA-LR section. Furthermore, I didn't mind give this section 35-37 minutes for the same reason."
  
  
• Moved onto the verbal reasoning. Attempted PJs, PCs and Vocab. Time allotted : 17-18 min
  
  
• Followed it up by RCs. Again, had a skim,scan and choose approach to it.
  "In RCs, they generally give 1 easy,1 medium,1 tough while the 4th one is easy to medium. So you need to skim and choose your scoring ones. If your VA is not strong, this skim-scan approach would help a lot. If time permitted I went for a second go at remaining verbal reasoning questions. Ended up giving me 37-38 questions in 75-76 minutes"So you can see he always had a 5 minute buffer to his overall approach section wise. It's a good thing to have but you must work hard for it as it's not so easy to maintain. He then used this saved buffer to go back to his forte QA and do some of those not attempted. Was more often than not lucky with 1 or 2 more.
  
  Overall attempts : QA : 45-47 ; VA : 36-38. Overall attempts : 81-85. Pretty darn good :D
  
  
  
• How did he see it in scoring terms?
  "Your area of strength should get you a sail-through 105 marks at least(35 valid attempts). The main task remains scoring in your weaker areas. I used to get at least 40 marks from my LR and practicing, I believe you can master enough accuracy in verbal logic to get about 11 correct from an attempt of 13-14. These two together earned me 70 marks in my weaker section. So marks scored in RCs, picking the doable ones would hold key for those brownie points you need to leave your peers behind in such a strategy as mine. So if you can score a 180+ in mocks consistently, there's no way you end below 99.5 percentile in actual CAT unless you would be doing your R&D on D-day itself. "These figures are sometimes a bit subjective but it is how things were for him this year. You should be able to gain a lot of take-away notes from his thought-share with us today.
  
   
• He wished all aspirants all the best for their MBA journey ahead and specifically stressed to not let mocks mock you.
  "Analyze the mocks properly. That is very important. You need to be able to find your weakness and work on it as much as possible. Besides, if your mocks scores are splendid, don't get bloated and vice-versa. You never know what might happen on the D-day. Just stay cool,calm and confident. All the best to all aspirants."
  
  
  This was the first of the people in the Lagom Mock-Mock Team : Ankan Sengupta.
  
  
  Do leave a note of thanks for him in comments for his great efforts to share with us a very detailed view of his mock and beyond journey.
  
  
  Cheers!
  AS[Today that would be my dear friend Ankan Sengupta :D]