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"Oh my GOD! CAT did not test me even on a single Mathematics question that I had prepared throughout the year... Most of the questions were weird statements."

These are the words of Nitesh Bhargav, a CAT aspirant, immediately after the CAT was over last year. This statement can be an indicator of insufficient preparation or stress or lack of confidence or... But an in-depth analysis will make it clear that the only mistake Nitesh committed was that he confused his Mathematics preparation with CAT Quantitative preparation. So what is the difference and why is it that CAT pundits say that "CAT has no Mathematics, only Quantitative Techniques". Let us try to understand the difference between Mathematics and Quantitative techniques.

Mathematics is the science that deals with numbers, quantities, shapes, patterns, measurements, concepts related to them and their numerous relationships. It includes arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc., where as quantitative techniques section in CAT is more of an application of the fundamental rules of mathematics in real life situations. The following illustration can help us understand the real facet of Quantitative techniques.

Suppose you watch a light flashing every 2 seconds, and another light flashing every 3 seconds, how would you calculate when the two lights would flash together? For someone devoid of the basic weapons of mathematics, this would be a labyrinth. But is it really? To unravel this enigma all we need to do is use simple logic. Let's see how - the first light flashes after an interval of every 2 seconds, this implies that it would flash at the intervals of 2, i.e., after 2 seconds, 4 seconds, 6 seconds, 8 seconds, and so on... Likewise, the second light will flash after 3 seconds, 6 seconds, 9 seconds, and so on... We, thus, observe that the two flash together after every 6 seconds. Now this is a direct application of a very simple concept the LCM, i.e., Least Common Multiple (LCM of 2 & 3 is 6), a concept which all of us have studied in our junior school. Obviously, as a CAT aspirant you won't be asked a direct question to calculate the LCM of 2 & 3. The questions would be application based, and therefore. be asked in a disguised manner. The real test is of one's analytical skills to fathom what is being asked. There are similar illustrations of most basic concepts, which we have studied till our Xth grade and these questions check our ability to apply the concepts, which we have learnt to real life situations.

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* Contributed by -
Jatinder Vohra is Quantitative Assessment Expert at Top Careers & You (www.tcyonline.com), the leaders in MBA, MCA, GRE & GMAT preparation in Punjab.