Quant section in CAT is like a breakup: the sooner you move on, the better.
Hey everyone, I’m a three-time 99th percentile CAT taker and an IIM Calcutta alumnus who’s been a Quants 99.5th percentile scorer multiple times. After graduating, I joined one of the MBBs, but the corporate grind didn’t quite scratch my itch for purpose. What I’ve found truly fulfilling is helping people, and I’ve been fortunate to help many reach the 90th percentile in CAT, with more than a few hitting 95th percentile in Quants.
I want to use this platform to share my learnings—specifically for the Quants section. My insights are most valuable here. For the other two sections, well, I mostly just prayed to the test-taking gods!
I’ve seen IITians fail to crack the 90th percentile in Quants, while people who stopped studying math after 10th grade have reached the 99th percentile with just a couple of months of preparation. The reason for this isn’t magic; it’s strategy.
My observations are distilled into a Quants strategy that I’ve seen produce fantastic results. This isn’t a silver bullet—everyone has their own preferences—but it’s a solid framework.
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The 3-Pass Strategy
The core of your preparation should stem from your test-taking strategy. In both Quants and in life, the person who moves on wins. My strategy is designed to help you move on quickly.
For the CAT Quants section, the goal is simple: get a score of 30+ in 40 minutes. Here’s how you do it with the 3-Pass Strategy.
Pass 1: The “Aukaat ke bahar” phase
Ya toh question tumhari aukaat ke bahar ho, ya tum question ki aukaat ke bahar.
Quickly scan each of the 24 questions, spending no more than 10-15 seconds on each one.
Your mission is to identify questions you can solve in under 1.5 minutes. Don’t attempt anything that looks like it will take longer, even if you know how to solve it.
In this pass, you should also flag any questions that are a definite “no-go”—these are the ones you won’t touch at all, no matter what.
Time allocation: 24 questions x 15 seconds each = 6 minutes. In that time, aim to find and solve 4 questions.
Target: Solve 4 questions x 1.5 minutes each = 6 minutes.
Total time for Pass 1: 12 minutes.
Key to success: To solve questions this quickly, you need to have a few topics that are your absolute strengths. These are your sharpest weapons, and you should practice them relentlessly.
Pass 2: The ‘100% Sure’ Phase
After Pass 1, you have about 28 minutes left. In this phase, you’ll tackle questions you’re 100% sure you can get right, even if they take a little longer.
These are questions you identified in Pass 1 but skipped because they were slightly too long. They are typically based on straightforward formulas or simple logic.
Time allocation: Target 4 questions x 3 minutes each = 12 minutes.
Total time taken so far: 24 minutes.
Pass 3: The ‘Aaraam se’ Phase
With about 16 minutes remaining, you’ll take on 3-4 questions you have a decent idea how to solve but aren’t 100% certain about.
Allocate 4-5 minutes for each of these.
Final Tally
Total questions attempted: 11-12.
Target accuracy: 90%+
Expected score: ~30.
Following this strategy is very likely to get you a 99th percentile in Quants. Even if the paper is on the easier side, this will still put you well above the 95th percentile.
The Topics You Actually Need
To confidently solve 11-12 questions, you only need to master 8-10 topics. You don’t need to be an expert in everything. In fact, in all my 99th percentile attempts, I never solved a single question from topics like Geometry and Logarithms because it simply wasn’t necessary for my strategy.
I focused on topics that rely more on basic arithmetic than on complex formulas. These topics allow you to get to the answer quickly by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. My go-to topics were:
- Profit & Loss
- Simple Interest
- Mixtures & Allegations
- Sequence & Series
- Speed, Distance & Time
- Permutations & Combinations
These were my bread and butter. If your strengths align with these, you can achieve a great score. The key is to find the topics that work for you and practice them until they become second nature.
Limit your quant prep and don’t prepare everything or learn every formula. 2 downsides of completing entire quants syllabus
1. Personally mujhe 15 se zyada formule yaad nahi rehte.
2. This helps you manage your EGO. I have seen brilliant people stuck on the first question in quants because they know how solve it but it takes them 5 mins. This is where they are loosing percentile.
For most people with a background in math, quants ka paper is solvable to 20+ questions, but time is the limiting factor. This section much like an MBA is about identifying your strengths, managing constraints and delivering the best result you can.
Disclaimer – I have used AI to polish this post, but the thoughts & strategy is original.
~tldr; For your quant prep pick 5-6 topics that you are very good at, these topics should have a historical high weightage in the exam. Master these topics and you can follow this test taking strategy –
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The 3-Pass Strategy. The goal is a 30+ score in 40 minutes.
Pass 1 (6-12 mins): Scan all questions in 10-15 seconds each. Solve only the 4-5 easiest ones you can do in under 1.5 mins.
Pass 2 (12 mins): Go back for the 4-5 questions you’re 100% sure you can solve, even if they take 3 mins each.
Pass 3 (10-15 mins): Use the rest of your time to try 3-4 questions you have a decent idea how to solve, spending 4-5 mins on each.
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