‘Quant shortcuts for CAT 2007 : Thave wrten on this theme before ais. Eut before CAT 2007 happens; 1 ould ike to remind alte Tete about hese mesiods once : fgsin. What's 2 shattul? shorteuts, do not tear a sudden inspiration or am erTatie method Which exh be apeled to arly ane af 5 {We proslems. By shartcurT mean a set methad, a pater hie cat be repeated agcih atd sua. Thave shartaus ean be leaned and [Dplled under preceurs alo. tre reavon te apply ieee mortout sone. geting to ansmers ast and an excier way than by actually ESlirg tre problem 1 have dscussed ve aie methods here uch pracominarty use Le boarnne the opens 2iStr smal Examine the Op! Enough stress cannot be Iaid on this procedure. Those who do nat understand that even the options given in an MCQ are tools provided to help them, miss a big part of test-taking. The shortcoming of a multiple choice question is that ithad to provide you with 4 or 5 options. and you can make use of it. Even if you know how to solve 2 particular question, examine the options; you might be able to solve it faster. Somatimes, you can easily obcain 2- 3 marks Guickly f you work through the options when the original pracedure to solve the problem might be lengthy ar complex. The sum of four consecutive two-digit odd numbers, when divided by 10, becomes a perfect square. Which of the fallowing can possibly be one of these four numbers? (CAT- 2006- 4 marks) a2 2 % 3.41 4.07 8.73 If the sum of four consecutive odd numbers is ending in 0 (the sum is 2 multiple of 10) then the odd numbers must be ending in 7, 9, 1 and 3, Also, the sum would be nothing but 4 times the middle even number that is a multiple of 10. Looking at’the options, the numbers can be Option 1:17, 29, 21 and 23 Sum = 420 = 60 = 80/10 ~ 6, not = perfect aquare. option 2: not possible option 3: 37, 39, 41 and 43> sum = 160 160/10, 6, a perfact square, 3 is the answer. ‘A punching machine is used to punch a circular hole of diameter two units from a square sheet of aluminium of width 2 Units, as shown below. The hole is punched such that the circular hole touches one corner P of the square sheet and the diamater of the hole originating at P isin line with a diagonal of the square. (CAT 2006- 4 marks each) Peer ‘The proportion of the shect area that remains after punching is a) ae ae ae OG Find the area of the part ofthe circle (round punch) falling outside the square sheet ‘These two questions ware tailor-made to give 8 marks to any student in 1 minute. The first question asked for the fraction of the square left after the punch. Therefore, if you multiplied the correct answer of the question 1 with 4 (Grea of the square), you got the area left after the punch. Therefore, f you subtracted this area from the area of the Square, you got the area of the punch, And i you added this area of the punch to the correct answer of question 2 you should get che area of the circle, ie. x. Therefore, let the answer to question 2 be x and to question 2 be y. 4a tyne y tana e an 4, 2-2, respectively. respectively, Hence, option 2 and option 4 are the answers for questions 1 and 2, respectively. Ram and Shyam run a race between points A and B, 5 km apart. Ram starts at 9 a.m. from A at a speed of § km/hr, reaches B, and returns to A atthe same speed. Shyam starts at 9:45 a.m, from A at a speed of 10 km/hr, reaches B ‘ane comes back to A at the same speed. (CAT 2005) [At what time do Ram and Shyam first mest each ether? 1.10 34m. 2. 10:10 a.m, 3. 10:20 a.m, 4. 10:30 a.m. Do you nead to solve this question? Work with options and logic. At 10:00 am Ram would be at B and Shyam would be Midway. Now Rem will return and Shyam would be moving towards 8. Since Shyam reaches Bat 10:15, theyWould mast between 10:00 am and 10:25 am. Answer 8. No need to calculate. At what time does Shyam overtake Ram? 3. 10:20 a.m, 2. 10:30 a.m. 3. 10:40 am 4. 10:50 a.m. Again, work with options. When Shyam overtakes Ram, both would have travelad the same distance. Shyam will reach’s at 10:15 and return. By 10:30 he will be hafway. Ram will reach B at 10:00 and return. By 10:30 he would also be halfway. Curtains, Wa, = tend e,,,~ 3a, + 2= 4 for every pesitive intecer o, then 2... eauals (CAT 2005-2 marks) a. 2” — 200 3” + 200 3. 3° ~ 200 4.3 + 200 ‘This would take some smart thinking. If you soe the options, 2 small formula for asgo is given. if formula for 2400 is ivan the formula for aq wuld be there and the formula for 2, according to the options will be Option 1:29 = 37420 Option 2: aq = 3874 + 2n Option 9: ay=3"=2n Option 2: ay = 3" + 20 Now 4 = 1, Now we just kegp n = 2 inal the formulas and check. Option 2 is corect. P,Q, 8, ain Rate puss un the heen ece Uf a ihe GF vats 6, sul Usek PQR is as eyuilaliral Lenighe al BS ta diameter of she cicia. What is the perimeter of the quadniateral PQSR? (CAT 2005-2 marks) 130-8) 2 2-8) 3. 8) 4 This question is so easy with the options that I was tempted to start this article with this question. Here is the Figure: You would agree that the perimeter of PQSR would be less than the perimeter of the circle? In other words, the perimeter would he less than 2nr = 2x 3.14r= 6.28. Option is Out. Also, PO = QS > PS = PQ + O5 > 2F, Similarly, PA+ RS > 21> PQ+OS+AS~PR> 4K, Therefers, the perimeter is greater than 4r. Only option 1 works, Let xo ges fear atorimy Then x equals (CAT 2005-2 marks) 13 > Gt 5 ia x= JEFSaRETING = X will be greater than J + fre RMEIE = x il be loss than rede ay taking FF = 2.6, only option C satisfies she criteria, Lety =, whats the value of y? (CAT 2004) Easiest of auestions! Semeesing: = Y Will be less than = 3/7 = 0.42. zs ly scanning the options, options A and © can ne countea out without solving them as they are grester than 1. Now option 8 = 0.6/2 ='0.3 and option © = 0.436. (Taking Vi5 = 3.87) Hence, option D is the correct answer A circia with radius 2 is placed against » right angle, Another smaller circie is alsa placed, as shovn in the figure What is the radius of the emaller ule? (CAT 2004- 2 marks) 1.3 ~2V2 4-22 3.7 = v2 4.6 -4v2 Looks technical isnt it? But it can be solved it by calculating the options and seeing the figure. The values of the ‘options ara 0.172, 1.172, 1.344, 0.344, By visual inspection of the figure we can see that rig lass than half of R, or ¢ ‘less than 1“js as 4 NOTE: The given figure may not be drawn to scale but as long as the two circles are drawn in this manner, the ratio Ryr will be same for all figures, If logox-leszg4¥=2l59, 10, then a possible value of x is given by (CAT 2003) 1.10 21/100 3. 1/2000 4, None of these Nothing to thie, Just put the values given in the eptions and solve. Option B satisfies the equation, ‘The infinite sum 1+ 4/7 + 9/77 + 16/7? + 25/7* + «. equals (CAT 2003) 4.27/14 1/33 3. 40/27 4, 256/147 [A student does not need knowledge of arithmstico-geometric series to solve this problem. 4/7 = 0.571, 9/49 = 0.183, 16/343 = 0.046 3145/7 £ 9/7" + 16/7*= 1,800 As furthor torms are negligible, the value wil ie closer to 1.8 Only 49/27 satisfies the given criterion ar 49/27 ~ 1.93. AA string, when wound on the extenor four walls of a cube of side n cms, starting at point C and ending at point D, can give exactly one turn (see figure, not drawn to scale), The length ef the string, in cms, is (CAT 2003) Levon 2170 Ba 4Vi30 ‘Answer: What's the mystery in this? The length of the string will be more than 4n as its taking 4 turns around the cube. ‘The only option satisfying the crterian is ®. AA square tin sheet of side 12 inches is converted into 2 box with open top in the following steps: The sheet is placed horizontally. Then, equal sized squares, each of side = inches, are cut from the four corners of the sheet, Finally, the four resulting sides are bant vertically upwards in the shape of box. IFvr is an integer, then what value of s maximizes the volume of the box? (CAT 2003) 13 24 aa 4.2 ‘This question takes more time to read than to solvel Can you make a mental picture of the construction of the box? Here ie ze wae fom Hence. the volume of the created box will be (12 ~ 2x) x (12 ~ 24) x x= x(12 ~ 200% Now ail that is needed is to keep the values from the options and check. By Keeping the values of x from options A, BB, Cand D, the volumes of the box will come cut to be 108, 64, 100 and 128. Hence, D is the answer. Instead of walking along two adjacent sides of a ractangular field, 2 boy took» short cut along the diagonal and 2 saved 2 sistance equal t half the longer side. Then the ratio of tha shorter side to the longer side is (CAT 2002) Le 13 3.4 4.3/4 AA stusent can take the sides of the rectangle equal to that given in the options and check. For example, in option &, the sides can be taken as 2m and 2m, The diagonal mill become V5 rm. By checking the answer this way, D will be found as the correct option