What should be my strategy from here ?? I am attaching my SWOT analysis of VA for IPMAT Indore
QA looks good but the score is a little bit inflated due to some repeated questions in my sectional tests, still clearly good though , clearly VA is the chokepoint, but how do i improve ?? Any advice , Bhavesh Bhaiya ?
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Comments (27)
You should post your last 3 mock attempts at least,!
Indore Mock 3
Indore Mock 2
Ipmat 2025
Seems like, you can completely keep qa aside for months and you need to focus on va
Genuinely I would recommend is just write a va sectional every other day
It helped me alot, I was in 80s around 4-5 pehle and I am scoring around 110-140 rn
I didn't do anything else
I was already good at va from very beginning, I just ought to understand the pattern!
What worked for me might or might not work for you!
All the best!
Thank you , and I actually completely agree on that , what worked for you may or may not work for me because I think everyone is different and there cannot be any one size fits all answer
I do attempt VA sectional tests and score mostly around 120 , rarely going 130+ , I think attempting them more frequently might definitely help, thanks for the advice
your mock scores are really impressive . can u pls tell the resources you followed?
I am enrolled at a TIME Institute, I attended the classes and solved the handouts but I think the primary reason for my good QA scores is high conceptual clarity (it means a good understanding of the framework in which concepts connect together) , and then I did a lot of practice, mostly from the sectional tests , I attempted around 60 QAMCQ sectional tests and 15-20 QASA tests , it helped me optimize my time and strategy especially in QaMCQ section which I find harder than QASA due to more questions in the same time ,
To sum up , I would say solid understanding clarity of concepts was the most important part of this equation and I wouldn't have made this much progress without it even if I took 100+ sectional tests
okayy thank you
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Here's what I realised during my prep: for anything lingustic: ChatGPT >>> any coaching material (plus its free)
Prompt: "Generate 20 hard level tricky usage based Vocab/Sentence correction mcqs, CAT Level."
Solve these, write your answers in the prompt box: ABDBAC... it'll do the checking for you, store all your mistakes in the Afterboards Vocab flashcards and run a flashcard test every day. For every mistake in sentence completion, ask it to explain logically why the correct answer is what it is - clarify any doubt on the spot 'so what if... will it be true everytime there is....'
This is not a stage of preparation where reading a lot will give large returns but you can try dense materials- Afterboards RCs (good range of difficulty for both speed and comprehension testing, also extremely engaging), realistically you may not have RCs that pull you in as much as these do, hence you should practice Medium-Hard Level CAT RCs PYQs (2IIM & Cracku), SAT RCs (Khan Academy) too. Solve these untimed if you are facing comprehension issues (I sometimes used to read the whole RC realizing I understood nothing only in the end requiring me to read it again and waste time), practice untimed and read slowly registering each line. After a while you will be fast enough for timed practice.
As for parajumbles, this is really the hardest part - try practicing from ChatGPT since CAT RCs are way too tough.
Prompt: "Generate a medium level 4 line parajumble, wait for me to solve it, assess whether correct or not and explain if wrong, proceed to a slightly higher level of difficulty if correct"
PJs are the difference between 140s and 160s. If you are not hitting 140s, there are easier ways to reach it than cram PJs with minimal returns (its frustrating too). Realistically, there is very little you can do about parajumbles, its mostly dependent on your luck during D-DAY and how well you managed your time for the rest of the paper (always try to keep 7-8mins for the parajumbles, if you mess up and have less than 5mins remaining, solve the 4 lines parajumbles only, there will be 1 or 2 or at max 3 of them if you are lucky).
Thank you very much, that was actually really helpful , i have usually get 10/12 correct in RCs ,i read a lot of editorials from The Hindu in the past few months and that helped probably , its not that bad but i can definitely improve with Chatgpt specially sentence completion, the good thing is i have pretty much maxed out my QA so i can just keep touch and solely focus on VA, and thanks for clarifying the parajumbles i just thought i was abysmally bad at it , but i usually do get 1-2 correct and mess up most by just misplacing 1 sentence , in last 50 parajumbles i got, i attempted 42 and got 20 correct, but i should focus on maximizing other areas first now that i know this is low RoI , i usually get 120 approx in my VA sectional tests just hovering around the thumb rule cutoff , but in QA i can clear with twice the cutoffs too (in mocks and PYQs) , if i could get some margin here in VA too (140+ consistently), i will be prepared,will use Chatgpt to boost my prep,
I know it might be too soon to ask but it would be really helpful if you could tell me about the PI and how to be prepared for it , i mean for the cutoffs i can be sure of clearing but PI, i don't even have an idea , what works , what do i need to do, how do i get in top 50-60 candidates from among 300-400 general candidates ?? Do i need to prepare from now or is it something i can manage later , how can i be prepared ??
Aim to maximize score for now, PIs are extremely unpredictable.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IPMATtards/comments/1li8gvn/comment/mzc1udz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
This was my interview. Tested zero acads, atleast those I had prepped for (had read IIM Indore's term 1 Microeconomics textbook just for the interview lmao) no HR, only on the spot thinking and calculation. They will ask you a ridiculous question, you will be flabbergasted, and then they ask you an easy question which you totally fumble, then comes a judgemental comment and a yet easier question which if you mess up you r done for.
Another thing, they are really moving away from HR questions, because of the kind of cringe they have to hear from 18 year olds each time they ask such questions. They easily understand what a coaching fed you and whats authentic - remember each time a coaching/mentor tells you to say something particular there r 500 ppl saying the same, and its the rest of the 300ppl who benefit even if their answers are unrefined and not the wisest just by being genuine. From my experience, in my centre I heard HR questions only being asked to people with interesting profiles (to satiate the interviewer's curiosity) or to help a nerved up candidate settle down and break ice (from my personal anecdotal memory they go a little longer at this, like asking about family, background etc with candidates who seem initially unsettled).
Keep reading editorials and in general be exposed to different opinions - it helps in extempores too. All the best!
Thanks for your help and advice
I read some interviews on the given link and that just scares me more , i should definitely aim to maximize my score because that's much more predictable , i will aim for top ranks and maybe that can help me convert , i thought of the interview because i thought i was doing good in Sectionals and mocks (mostly QA),scoring 230+ consistently(mostly around 48+ in qasa ,around 80-85 in qamcq and approx 120 in VA) , any important advice or tips for me regarding anything!?( i am attaching my last few mock performances and QA Swot also ,if needed ,just in case)
That's a great list of scores! You are a top 20 dude with a decent interview. Just ensure you carry this forward in the real exam, during my time I had seen arround 30% of well-known mock toppers (240s-270s) fumble it and get sub-220 scores. Just maintain the temperament, perhaps give mocks is heat, limited paper, without calculator etc to prepare for worst case external disturbances. You will make it through even with a sub-par interview if you carry this performance forward. Also don't be scared of a stress interview, if they decide to stress you it means they have established the fact you are smart and want to test if that persists under pressure too.
I'll give you an interesting example: After my interview (one where they asked about PAN card), one of my friends did a detailed study on PAN Card numbers and intentionally brought it to the same panel 3 days later. They got baited and asked the exact same questions and he answered all - but they persisted in asking more ridiculous questions, they hid the PAN card from him and told 'write down your PAN number, you are old enough and should have memorized it by now' (dude actually wrote it down lmao). Once he answered 26^6 * 10^4 possibilities (of PAN numbers), they asked him to calculate this number, persisted with the question after repeated 'I don't think I can calculate that'. They don't expect you to answer correctly in stress interviews (I answered almost everything wrong), they just want to see how you bounce back when asked an easy question immediately.
I scored 96.8% in class 10th and I was very good at maths (I still am) and science, all my teachers and peers had already known that I will take PCM and prepare for JEE, not even guessed or anticipated, they knew but engineering was not my area of interest and business was, my parents supported me with whatever decision I took, I took a bold step and decided to take Commerce+applied maths and prepare for IPMAT, my teachers and peers did criticize my choice because I was really good at maths and science and they felt I was wasting my potential but I stuck with it anyway due to my interest in business and because I wanted to be a businessman, and this is probably why I feel a lot of pressure to perform, to clear IPMAT Indore in first attempt but I always have self doubt(what if I don’t make it, what if I mess up on exam day, what if I completely blunder the personal interview, what if I fail the VA section, what if I don’t get in) and this messes with my motivation and studies and sometimes maybe performance, deep down I know I am good enough , I know I am capable enough to make it but no matter how good I score , no matter how well I perform , I always have the self doubt and fear of not making it through .
Thanks a lot.
Hearing that I can be top 20 with a decent interview means a lot to me, especially coming from someone who has been through the very process
Welcome and all the very best, don't overthink you'll be here soon!
Thanks , that really helped , hope to see you there!
MAN WHAT HOW DID U MAKE YOUR QA BASICS STRONG AND HOW DO U ACTUALLY MAKE THE OPTIMUM USE OF EDITORIALS
PLS I REALLY WANT THIS ANS
Sorry for the late reply but for QA I think what worked for me is genuine curiosity and interest in the subject .
Usually teachers first explain the concept , and then the formula and then question practice starts.
But if I have a basic idea of the concept , like profit and loss , percentage , and permutation combination, i prefer to try questions first without theory or formulas at all, then I may or may not be able to solve the questions but it does get me invested in the topic , and when you spend 5-10 minutes on a question trying to work your way from scratch without any foundation, for example a simple question in how many ways can 6 different persons be seated in a row , now if you know the formulas and all you will go 6! But when you don't know any of that it forces critical thinking and working from scratch even if you don't get the answer , that fueled learning atleast for me, and it happens a lot of times with me that I solve a question and I don't even know what formula I used ,
Another thing is not to wait for whole syllabus completion to start sectionals and mocks , I didn't , even if you haven't covered some topics , i would still suggest giving the sectionals and tests ,
One of the main reasons why my SWOT looks good is because I attempted a lot of QAMCQ sectional tests, like 60-70 in past 3-4 months ,sometimes even multiple times in a day , and it helped me reduce silly mistakes drastically and made my time management much more efficient ,
I read The Hindu editorials because it was adviced by the coaching faculty but VA is not really my strong suit , I am just average at VA and I don't think I am suitable to give meaningful advice there