Preparation Guide for

MBA Entrance Exams

Quantitative Aptitude

[ Traditionally, management aptitude tests evaluate aspirants on

Quantitative Aptitude has been occupying 1/3rd of the test

papers, year after year. We have tried to suggest a preparation
plan keeping all these factors in mind.
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]
four basic aptitude skills: Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpre-
tation, Logical Reasoning and Verbal Aptitude. Generally,

1
 Index

Understanding Quantitative Aptitude (QA)……………………………….. Pg 3

Quantitative Aptitude – Preparation Plan…………………………………. Pg 4

Success Mantras to crack Quant Section………………………………….... Pg 6

Tricks to maximise your score in Quant section………………………….... Pg 7

Quant Trends in CAT over a period of 5 years ………………….….……… Pg 8

• CAT 2016
• CAT 2015
• CAT 2014
• CAT 2013
• CAT 2012

Quantitative Aptitude solved questions……………………………………. Pgs 9 -16

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Introduction to QA:
Let’s start with the understanding of this subject. Quantitative Aptitude section can be divided in
4 parts.

Major Areas Chapters Expected No. of

Questions (for a
Quant section hav-
ing 34 questions)

Arithmetic Numbers, Percentage, Profit & Loss, 13 to 15

Simple and Compound Interest, Ratio,
Proportionality, Time-Distance, Time-Work,
Mixtures, Averages, Partnership

Algebra Linear Equations, Quadratic Equations, 6 to 8

Inequalities, Logarithm, Surd- Indices,
Functions

Advance Permutation and Combinations, Proba- 4 to 6

Mathematics bility, Set Theory, Progression and Se-
ries
Geometry Line, Angles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, 6 to 9
Polygon, Circles, Areas, Volume, Height
and Distance, Co-ordinate Geometry, Basic
Trigonometry

Many of the chapters comprise a good amount of theory portion. But most of the times, theory is
used to solve application problems, only. A question directly asking a property is a rarity.

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Quantitative Aptitude — Preparation Plan
As the dates for management entrance exams gets closer, the value of every single day and every
single hour being invested goes up drastically. Having a clear plan of action will certainly enable
you to make better use of time, and also increase the chances of deriving far better returns on this
invested time.

Let’s assume that you intend to invest around 100 hours (this number could differ for different stu-
dents and the rest of the things will proportionately alter) in your preparation for the QA section.
This excludes the hours spent in your classroom coaching, mock tests and their analysis. This sim-
ply is the time you spend by yourself on improving the various topics in the specific section – QA.

QA section can be seen as a combination of Arithmetic (excluding Number Systems, which can
also be seen as a separate entity), Algebra and Geometry. An indicative breakup among the 4 areas
could be as follows:

Area Hours

Number Systems 12

Arithmetic 28

Algebra 30

Geometry 30

But the above breakup assumes an equal proficiency across all 4 areas, which is unlikely to be
true for most of you. Hence, you can possibly take away around 10 hours from 2 of your strongest
areas and invest them in one/two of your weakest area(s) among the four. So, if you are weak in
Arithmetic, just about average in Number Systems, strong in Geometry, and very strong in Alge-
bra, the break-up could be tweaked to look something like:

Area Hours

Number Systems 15

Arithmetic 35

Algebra 24

Geometry 26

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 This is just an example of how best to plan your time investment. It is also advisable not to use up
the entire quota for any specific area in one go and use the same in tranches. For example, you
could break the total time into roughly 3 phases, using around one-third of the allotted hours in
each while moving across areas in sequence and then return to the first one again and so on. This
will ensure that you stay in touch with all the areas through to the end. A smart way also would be
to keep the last iteration for revision. Alternatively, you could account for that in your overall time
and keep around 15% of total hours blocked for revision at the end. In that case, you can plan for
only 85% of the time in that section in the manner suggested above.

The general tendency is to do more in areas that you are already comfortable in. If you are more
interested in Arithmetic, for example, chances are you will spend more time on it, despite being
relatively better placed in it. On the other hand, you will keep avoiding areas/topics that you are
relatively weaker in (and they are also likely to be the ones you are less interested in). Proceeding
that way, you will never improve in areas that you really need to improve in.

It is also argued by some that you should invest more in your strengths to make them stronger.
But the point is that if you are already at say 90 (on a scale of 100) in a given area/topic, there is
no point in investing more time. You simply need to do more questions that are in the top 10%.
Practicing more questions at levels lower than 90 in that area/topic will be a waste of time.

Within each of the 4 areas also, you should spend more time on topics you are weaker in, and less
time on topics you are stronger in – doing questions only at levels higher than your current lev-
els. This approach will enable you to derive maximum output from your time/efforts invested in
the preparation. Having a clear plan of the time you need to invest in each topic in QA will also
ensure urgency apart from pushing you to be more consistent in your efforts.

How to identify and be able to spend that time according to your needs, is where your coaching/
mentors/guidance needs to adapt to your needs! Increasingly, across all levels of education, one-
size-fits-all approach is being abandoned for its inefficiency and ineffectiveness.

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Success Mantras to crack Quant Section
Management entrance exams are not about how much an aspirant knows, but about how much
knowledge can he/she apply in the given time limit with the given constraints of sectional parti-
tions. Some of the points to be taken care of are:

Practice chapter by chapter: There is a difference between being able to solve a problem and
solving the same problem effortlessly. Depending on the difficulty level of the test paper, 15 to
25 questions should be of easy to moderate level. Practice of easy to medium questions of all the
chapters would enable an aspirant to sail through the questions easily.

Our Advice: Know basic theories and varieties of problems of all chapters.

Short methods and Group Studies: Nothing boosts confidence of an aspirant more than a ques-
tion which he/she can solve without lifting the pen in an ongoing test. More such questions, better
the score. This can be achieved by improving mental calculation and by discussing unconvention-
al methods with a focused study group. Many times it involves use of options to get the correct
answer.

Our Advice: Two is more than one. Three is even better. Do a regular discussion of short methods
among your focused study group.

Building Stamina: Quant should be the last section of the test paper. An aspirant who hasn’t de-
veloped stamina for the last hour would be challenged to deliver his/her regular performance.

Our Advice: Study for 3-4 hours at a stretch while doing practice.

Testing Skills Development: Having 10% to 30% of the problems as speed-breakers is an expect-
ed situation in a Quant section in management entrance exams. Being able to find them without
wasting time in solving them is the key. It’s a skill which can be achieved by sufficient practice of
huge number of problems and by going through sufficient number of mock papers.

Our Advice: Plan to write approximately 20-25 Mock papers.

Mental Calculation: Few management entrance exams offer Basic Calculator to all the test takers.
This will still not reduce the importance of mental calculation. Since it’s an on-screen calculator,
mental calculation will win against the calculator in time consumption in most of the cases.

Our Advice: Do enough practice of basic summation, subtraction, tables and fractions.

Remember, solving the chapters for the first time teaches you Mathematics. Second time, it brings
speed in solving. Aspirants are advised to solve all the chapters twice to get the advantage of speed
in the exam.

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Tricks to maximise your score in Quant section
Building strong fundamentals in various topics
It’s suggested that you do not leave any topic and prepare for all topics, since easy questions may get asked
from any topic. It is ok if you have different levels of comfort and confidence in different topics but not total
ignorance.

Practicing regularly under time pressure

While it is important to know how to solve the questions, it is equally important that you learn to solve them
in the least possible time. Practicing under time pressure will help you to simulate exam conditions and result
in improved time management. Take timed, online topic-wise and sectional tests to build comfort in taking
online tests.

Scanning and selection of questions

It is critical that you read all the questions to identify the ones you feel you can solve in the least amount of
time – you may fix a time limit of about 2-2.5 minutes per question. If it appears to you that the question
may take longer than this time limit, you should move on and tackle the next question(s) that appears doable
within this time limit.

Leaving out questions

Some students become nervous if the first 2-3 questions appear difficult. Please remember that only a handful
of students will be able to successfully attempt almost all the questions in this section. So, even if you attempt
about 20 questions, it may fetch you a good score and percentile. So, don’t worry if some questions are left
without attempting after you have read them.

Time management
Since you need to attempt more questions in less time, it is suggested that you fix an ‘exit time’ depending
upon your competence level. For example, an exit time of two minutes will mean that if a question is nowhere
close to getting solved after spending two minutes on it, you will leave it and move on.
Most students make the mistake of continuing with the question with the hope that ‘I know I can solve it’ but
end up spending as much as 10 or more minutes trying to solve it. Even when the question is solved in 10
minutes, you have wasted time that could have been better utilized in solving more and easier questions.

Sub-sectional cut-off
There is no sub-sectional cut-off and you do not have to score some minimum marks in Quantitative Apti-
tude and Data Interpretation areas separately. It is the total score that will count.

No guessing
In this section, there is no need for you to guess just because it can result in more attempts. Higher attempts
through guessing will result in lower marks!

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Quant Trends in CAT over a period of 5 years
CAT 2016
• Moderate to High Difficult Level
• Well-designed section
• Surprise was higher weightage of geometry questions
• Challenge was to go through all questions as there were a lot of speed breakers
• Attempting 18-20 questions would have been optimum. However the sectional cut-off could be
cleared with about 15 attempts

CAT 2015
• Standard & clinical
• The overall section was easy and had questions from almost every topic mentioned in CAT 2015 syllabus
• Such a paper has advantages as well as disadvantages – you should have been prepared with every-
thing and just in case you would have left just a chapter or two, the damage isn’t astounding. Hence, a
cheer-worthy paper for a prepared test taker
• 27 attempts with 90% accuracy could be classified as a good score in this section

CAT 2014
• QA was easier in comparison to last couple of years’ CAT papers
• This could be equated to the paper which was conducted 5 years back in 2009 when the first online ver-
sion of CAT was conducted
• 34 questions were distributed into 15 easy, 15 moderate and 4 difficult questions
• By 15 easy, it’s meant that the ones which are direct applications of concepts from classical chapters like
number systems, geometry, time and distance, time and work etc
• Quite a balanced paper with a good representation of all the chapters of quantitative aptitude
• Just one question of trigonometry which meant it wouldn’t have an impact per se
• Identifying the speed breakers and leaving them – that would be the key as far as Quantitative Aptitude is
concerned

CAT 2013
• This section could be termed as Moderate to Difficult on difficulty level
• The Quantitative Aptitude had around 6-7 questions of Geometry & Mensuration, around 6-7 questions
were spread across Algebra, 6-7 questions spread across Arithmetic
• Out of these, around 9 to 10 could be termed as easy and 5 to 6 as moderate and the remaining time con-
suming
• To do justice to this subsection, an allocation of 50 mins could be termed appropriate and an above aver-
age test taker would end up attempting 13-15 in the 50 mins with 90% accuracy
• The whole game was of question selection and prompt navigation through the paper
• A student with high ego or a high stickiness factor to a particular question or a particular genre of ques-
tions would find it difficult to reach the end of the paper
• The one who plays on good accuracy would be the eventual winner

CAT 2012
• There were 21 questions of QA
• The difficulty level was high and the questions were designed to test a candidate’s grasp of fundamentals
• There were questions from regular topics like Number System, Algebra, Geometry, Modern Math and
Geometry

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Few Quantitative Aptitude solved questions
Question 1. A dishonest shopkeeper sells sugar at cost price but makes 25% profit by using faulty weights.
He decides to give a discount to attract more customers. What percent of discount should he
offer to make 12% profit?

1] 15.2% 2] 12.5% 3] 10.4% 4] 13%

Answer:

Question 2. N is a natural number having the sum of its digits as 3. If 101314, then how many values can
‘N’ assume?

1] 93 2] 91 3] 78 4] 105

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Few Quantitative Aptitude solved questions

Answer:

Question 3. Two barrels A and C contain alcohol and water in the ratio 1:a and 1:c, respectively. Equal
quantity of mixtures from barrels A and C are mixed to get a mixture with alcohol and water
in the ratio 1:b, where b is the arithmetic mean of a and c. What can be the value of a + b + c,
if a, b and c are integers?

1] 14 2] 10 3] 15 4] 8

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Few Quantitative Aptitude solved questions

Answer:

Question 4. Given 2 positive integers, ‘x’ and ‘y’ with x

1] 10 and 1990 2] 900 and 1880 3] 1 and 1890 4] 1 and 900

Answer:

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Few Quantitative Aptitude solved questions

Question 5. Ajay plans to host a lunch for his friends at a restaurant. He decides to keep 1 starter and 2
main courses for the lunch. From the menu, he realizes that there are only 15 ways to fulfill his
requirement. What can be the total number of dishes available on the menu?

1] 4 2] 5 3] 6 4] 7
Answer:

Question 6. If ‘a’ is positive and a4 - 62a2 + 1 = 0, find the value of a3 + 1/a3

1] 648 2] 392 3] 488 4] 512

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Few Quantitative Aptitude solved questions

Answer:

Question 7. A six-faced unbiased die is thrown ten times. The results of these ten throws are written side
by side, from left to right so as to form a ten-digit number, such that the first four digits form
a four digit number which is the greatest four-digit square possible. Similarly, the next three
digits, next two digits and the last digit form the greatest possible three-digit, two-digit and
one-digit perfect squares respectively. Find the sum of digits of that ten-digit number.

1] 45 2] 46 3] 42 4] Cannot be determined

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Few Quantitative Aptitude solved questions

Answer:

Question 8. On a 120 kms racing track, if P and Q start driving in the same direction from the same point
and at the same time, then P wins the race by 25 minutes. If they drive towards each other
from the opposite ends on the same track starting at the same time, the distances that P and Q
cover when they meet are in the ratio 3:2. Find the speed of P’s car.

1] 96 kmph 2] 48 kmph 3] 144 kmph 4] 72 kmph

Answer:

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Few Quantitative Aptitude solved questions

Question 9. PQR is an isosceles right angled triangle with ?QPR = 90°. Semicircles are drawn with PQ and
PR as diameters. Find the ratio of the area of the shaded region to the area of the triangle PQR.

Answer:

Question 10: If the nth term of a series is Tn = n3 – (n – 1)2, then find the sum of the first n terms of the
series.

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Few Quantitative Aptitude solved questions

Answer:

Question 11: A task was given to a manager who had 14 members in his team. At any moment of time
exactly 10 members worked simultaneously on the task. Since, the manager had to be fair
in his work allocation, he allocated the task among the workers in such a way that each mem
ber worked on the task for exactly ‘t’ minutes. If the task was completed in 210 minutes, then
find the value of ‘t’. (Assume the efficiency of each of the members of the team is the same)

1] 15 2] 150 3] 21 4] 60

Answer:

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 Few Quantitative Aptitude solved questions
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