Stop Overthinking QA and Let Others Panic

Indore QA looks intimidating to almost everyone in the beginning because many questions look unfamiliar or complicated. But remember that the exam is not about solving every question you see. The real skill is learning to recognize what you can solve quickly and what you should leave.

Since you mentioned algebra, focus on getting comfortable with the basic structures first. Quadratics, factorisation patterns, inequalities, functions and substitutions appear repeatedly in different forms. While practicing, try to understand what idea the question is testing. Even if you cannot fully solve it, identifying the structure of the question is already progress.

Also keep in mind that in the actual paper you do not need to crack every tough question to do well. As I mentioned in the post, the first goal is always to secure the cutoff by picking the solvable questions early. Many students waste time fighting the hardest question (ego) while easier marks are sitting elsewhere in the paper.

So focus on two things during preparation: build familiarity through consistent practice and train yourself to quickly recognize the type of question in front of you. Over time those intimidating questions start looking much more manageable. And in the exam remember that you are not competing with the hardest questions in the paper, you are competing with the cutoff.

When the paper is genuienly hard, the biggest mistake kids make is assuming they are underperforming and then trying to compensate by overattempting. If you are already reaching around 12 to 13 in MCQ or about 7 to 8 in SA within 25 to 30 minutes, you are usually way above the cutoff score even in difficult papers (IPMAT 2023 SA cutoff was 12, given it was a hard section). The best thing you can do in that moment is slow down for a few seconds, reset, and continue picking questions instead of forcing solves. Hard papers are designed to make people panic and start solving mindlessly, and that is where most marks are lost. Trust your process and remember that if the paper feels hard to you, it is almost certainly hard for everyone else as well.

About the VA spillover, try to treat the sections as completely separate attempts. Once QA ends, the QA score is already locked and there is nothing you can change, so carrying that stress into VA only hurts your performance further. My VA was not my strongest area either. Early in my prep I used to score around the 160s in VA, but as the exam approached my scores dropped and I was barely touching 120, and in the actual exam I ended up with 116. What helped me was reminding myself that each section is a fresh start. Even if one section feels average, the next one is still a new opportunity to score.

don’t force ABC tagging if it’s taking 5 mins, that’s too expensive.

your issue is overclassification + wrong “A” judgement. if most questions feel like A but you can’t solve them, then your filter is broken. instead of full ABC, switch to a quick 10–15 sec rule: read → if clear approach comes immediately, do it; if not, skip. no labeling, just instinct + speed

also don’t do a full scan of the paper, that wastes time. go sequentially but be ruthless with skipping. your goal isn’t to classify the paper, it’s to maximise solved questions. think “solve or skip in 10–15 sec”, not “analyze then solve”

I may not be the best person to give a perfect VA strategy because it was never my strongest section. Early in my prep I used to score quite high mainly because I had a decent grammar base and reading habit, but as the exam got closer I made the mistake of assuming VA was sorted and left it as is. My scores slowly dropped and in the actual exam I ended up with 116 while the cutoff was 112, so I barely cleared it. The biggest lesson from that was that VA needs consistent practice even if your basics are strong. Try doing regular RC practice, focus on understanding why options are correct or wrong, and pay attention to the author’s argument and tone in RC instead of rushing.