Tune-in to the 'CAT network' for improving your verbal ability

Tune-in to the 'CAT network' for improving your verbal ability





An often asked question is, "What is the difference between the
average CAT student in Verbal Ability and a 99 percentiler in Verbal
Ability?"


(You will notice that I do not yet say 'an IIM convert' because for
every six '99 percentilers' who are interviewed, only one makes it.
But that is a different story to be discussed on another day.)


So one day in the class where I teach, I decided to illustrate the difference.


Q1: How many of you have heard of Facebook ?

Class: 101% (Which is roughly what SRCC's cutoff will be next year! So
don't say that's impossible!).


Q2: How many of you are on Facebook?

Class: 85%.


Q3: How many use it once in a while?

Class: 65%.


Q4: How many have heard of the movie 'The Social Network' based on the
story behind Facebook?

Class: 55%.


Q5: How many have seen the movie 'The Social Network'?

Class: 35%.


Q6: How many have heard of the book 'The Accidental Billionaires', the
book from which 'The Social Network' is inspired?

Class: 10%.


Q7: How many of you have read the book 'The Accidental Billionaires'?

Class: 1%.


Elementary, My Dear Watson!


Moral of the Story: If you are doing pretty much what everybody else
is doing to prepare for the CAT, then you are not doing much. You have
to do something different!


Which brings me to today's topic 'How to Build your CAT Network'.


There was a time when a serious student who wanted to acquire
additional knowledge and do more research had to visit a library and
pore over heavy tomes in the quest for that fountain of wisdom. Lots
of drudgery was involved, not to mention facing the occasional
occupational hazard of hallucinating (reference: Lage Raho Munnabhai).
But today, that knowledge is easily accessible to you at your finger
tips through your mobile phones.


What do you need to build your 'CAT network'?


1. A mobile phone that allows you to access the Internet. With the
mobile phone, you can be online 24x7 at any location, allowing you to
use 'dead time zones' for productive purposes. An example of a 'DTZ'
is the commute time spent by you to and fro from office.


2. An Internet connection for your computer. The fact that you're
reading this article must mean that you already have access to one.


Plan of action


1. Create an email account specifically for CAT preparation purpose.
Use this account solely for CAT-related emails. As a generic rule:
whenever you come across a website that you find useful, just sign up
for updates.


2. Open a Facebook account for CAT purpose. Don't use your current
personal account (too many distractions when you log in). Sign up for
all Facebook pages and communities offering CAT-related knowledge.


3. Open a Twitter account if you don't have one. Follow any Twitter
users who regularly post MBA-related updates.


How can 'The CAT Network' help you with improving your English?


English is not a subject that you can gulp down in one go. Language
skills cannot be built overnight, nor can the nuances of a language be
downloaded into your mind inside packed classroom sessions. Here is a
better way to progressively get better at English,


1. Vocabulary


a) Join http://www.thefreedictionary.com/


(i) Check out their Homepage everyday. It is bound to add new words to
your vocabulary.


(ii) Enroll for the Word of the Day newsletter. This will push words
into your email Inbox everyday and force you to learn one new word and
its usage everyday.


(iii) Whenever you come across a new word, punch it into the site.
Look at all the meanings of the word. Their collection of phrasal
verbs is among the best. The CAT expects you to know multiple meanings
of words. For example, if I punch in 'home', this is what I get:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/home. You now know the different ways
the word 'home' could be used and you thought you knew the meaning of
the word perfectly well.


(iv) Follow the website's accounts on Twitter and Facebook for more updates.


b) http://dictionary.reference.com/: This gives you both a dictionary
and a thesaurus to build your vocabulary with.


(i) Enroll for their 'word of the day'.


(ii) Test yourself using some of the fun tests which are also useful
at the same time. For example the day I wrote this article, the
homepage had a test on the types of 'Phobias' --- something that
appears regularly in the FMS test.


(iii) Use the thesaurus feature to learn new words. Say, you come
across the word 'bedlam'. When you check out the thesaurus it shows
that the word 'bedlam' is close in meaning to: 'chaos', 'clamor',
'commotion', 'confusion', 'din', 'disquiet', 'disquietude', 'furor',
'hubbub', 'madhouse', 'maelstrom', 'noise', 'pandemonium', 'racket',
'shambles', 'tumult', 'turmoil' and 'uproar '. Our brains are so
structured that we visualize words in groups. Now if you come across
the word 'racket' somewhere, you will immediately relate it to
'bedlam'!


(c) http://www.alphadictionary.com/goodword/today: A good dictionary
for origins of words. Enroll for the 'What's the Good Word' emailer.
For example, this is what it has to say about the word 'Yankee': "A
British officer in 1789 suggested that Yankee comes from the Cherokee
word eankhe, which means 'slave', 'coward'. It might just as well come
from a Native American pronunciation of English, 'yengees', which
later became Yankees. Yankee could have been withdrawn from this word
by back derivation. Most probably, however, it comes from Dutch
nickname for Jan (John): Janke, where the Dutch 'J' is pronounced ."


d) Visit http://vocabmagik.com/. A good way to learn new words. I once
spotted cartoon of a drunk Mr Bacchhan used to explain the word
'bacchanalian' (a drunken person) on this site.



2. Reading and Comprehension


a) Go to www.wikipedia.org. Go to the 'featured content' section and
further tofeatured articles. You will find articles segregated by
topic. Pick any random topic which you have absolutely no clue about,
a different one each day (Architecture, Art, Chemistry, Economics),
especially subjects you have never heard of and read the articles
under that topic. This will increase the range of your vocabulary and
get you up to speed for rapidly scanning unfamiliar topics.


b) CAT reading passages have in the past been picked up from The
Guardiannewspaper. Browse it daily. That is the kind of vocabulary
level expected of you. Sign up for their free newsletters so that you
keep getting emails and links from them. I also recommend The New York
Times and The Times of India. For more sources, check out my thread.


c) Visit Google Scholar. Type in any keyword, say 'mortgage'. It will
throw up research papers and articles on the topic. One example
---http://www.jstor.org/pss/2118254. You will need aspirin to go
through the articles but your comprehension power will skyrocket if
you persevere!



3. Grammar


a) An excellent site for Phrasal Verbs is: http://www.phrasalverbdemon.com/.


b) Grammar Girl: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/


c) http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/


d) http://www.englishgrammar.org/


e) Check out the page on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_grammar



Interact with other CAT aspirants


Well you are already here! There is no better site in India for
clearing your verbal ability doubts than http://www.pagalguy.com/cat.



Testing


There are plenty of websites which allow you to test yourself in short
bursts under a timer. At least the two that I know of with a good
quality of tests which can be taken on the go are www.complore.com and
www.tenaday.co.in.



General knowledge


1. News


Enroll for for global and national newspapers (at least two each) and
sign-up for their daily updates. This will keep you informed and upto
date about current events.


2. Views


Subscribe to or browse through editorial content of newspapers for
analysis and opinion of news ---
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/


3. Business GK


Please follow http://www.businessworld.in/businessworld/businessworld/
andhttp://businesstoday.intoday.in/ and the business pages of your
daily newspaper.



The 'Lonely Planet' of helpful websites to surf


Visit these websites on a regular basis, preferably in a scheduled
manner. Set reminders on your mobile phone. Allot each website a day
and remember to scan it on that day.


Suggested Schedule,


Everyday: http://www.pagalguy.com/. Especially the weekend reading
digests :). I find so many students completely unaware of changes in
the MBA and business education world. And if you do not know anything
about the MBA world which you are supposedly so passionate about ---
what will you know about the world outside?


Monday: http://totalgadha.com/ (Excellent for CAT preparation oriented
articles).


Tuesday: http://www.mbauniverse.com/ (News and press releases related to MBA).


Wednesday: http://testfunda.com/ (Test Prep).


Thursday:www.quora.com


Friday: www.aldaily.com

MAke sure you are subscribed to CAT prep groups such as


Subscribe! Subscribe! Subscribe!


Follow! Follow! Follow!


Once you have put the above suggested regimen into place, your CAT
preparation for VA will be on autopilot. All you have to do is to open
your CAT-specific email inbox, the Facebook and Twitter accounts every
morning and go through all the updates religiously. Do not forget to
send a thank you note to Mark Zuckerberg!