Speed or Accuracy?

Some of my write-ups are essentially a repetition/minor improvisation of my mails in previous years. Simply because certain basic things do not change when it comes to how to prepare for CAT in the best possible way.

With most of you writing AIRCATs regularly now, the relative importance of Speed and Accuracy would be one of the top-most concerns in your mind.

In terms of order of aiming for, it should be accuracy first, followed by speed. Both need to be non-zero of course 

Think of it as driving a car – accuracy being your ability to manage the challenges on the path well, and speed being speed. Once you have more control over the car, it would be easier to manipulate the speed.

So, till what point do you aim for speed? The point till which you do not start losing control over the car.

A similar logic is generally true for your CAT Preparation and for the best approach for AIRCATs as well.

Incase of an AIRCAT, you should aim for speed that allows you a threshold accuracy of around 75-80% in MCQs. The accuracy in non-MCQs is likely to be lower for obvious reasons.

Take some numbers (assuming all MCQs with +3/-1 marking scheme):

60 attempts with 70% accuracy: Net Score = 42×3 – 18×1 = 108

50 attempts with 80% accuracy: Net Score = 40×3 – 10×1 = 110

So, getting more out of where you spend your time is more important than trying to do more with less control.

Ofcourse, nothing like 60 attempts with 80% accuracy: Net Score = 48×3 – 12×1 = 132

And how can you increase your speed, if that’s where you are stuck? Will take it up soon.

About the author: Deekshant has sleep-walked through several 100 and 99.9 %iles in practically every section of the CAT. That he is a cricket fan and he writes okay is evident from most of his posts. 1000s of our students swear that he can motivate almost anyone to double his/her percentile through very simple yet powerful inputs. And that’s why every MBAGuru student has direct access to him via mail and Telegram. Oddly, he somehow also finds the time to write songs professionally. And yes … almost missed this … he is an alumnus of IIT Delhi & IIM Cal