A new RC Pattern

Few numbered paragraphs are given below. If matched properly they will form a coherent article. Read all the paragraphs carefully and arrange them to form that meaningful article. Paragraph1 It’s tempting to believe that government regulation of the Internet would be more consumer-friendly; history and economics suggest otherwise. The reason is simple: a regulated industry has a far larger stake in regulatory decisions than any other group in society. As a result, regulated companies spend lavishly on lobbyists and lawyers and, over time, turn the regulatory process to their advantage. Paragraph2 That might sound like a happy ending for the current debate on “network neutrality,” in which Congress is being encouraged to restrain the appetites of the biggest Internet service providers. But it actually describes a similar drama from 1887, when Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate railroads, the high-tech industry of the day. Paragraph3    With several promising new technologies on the drawing board, the market for broadband will grow only more competitive. Congress should let the marketplace develop rather than constrain it with regulation. Lawmakers should certainly be mindful of unintended consequences. The Interstate Commerce Commission’s regulations on transportation lingered for decades after their usefulness expired. Any neutrality regulations passed by Congress this year are likely to have a similarly dismal future. Choice and competition will do a better job of protecting Internet consumers than government bureaucrats ever have Paragraph4 Unfortunately, the story is a cautionary tale. After President Grover Cleveland appointed Thomas M. Cooley, a railroad ally, as its first chairman, the commission quickly fell under the control of the railroads, gradually transforming the American transportation industry into a cartel. By 1935, when it was given oversight of the trucking industry, the commission was restricting competition and enabling price increases throughout virtually the entire surface transportation industry. Decades later, in 1970, a report released by a Ralph Nader group described the commission as “a forum at which transportation interests divide up the national transportation market.” Paragraph5 AFTER a decade of explosive growth, a revolutionary new technology transforms the American economy. It allows people to communicate and do business across great distances faster than ever before. Critics, however, contend that access is controlled by a few large corporations eager to abuse monopoly power in order to gouge consumers and crush competition. Congress responds by enacting anti-monopoly rules and authorizing regulators to enforce them. Paragraph6 Of course, incumbent broadband providers do have some limited monopoly powers, and there is cause for concern that they might abuse them. Last fall, the chief executive of AT&T, Ed Whitacre, argued that Internet giants like Google and Microsoft should begin paying for access to his “pipes”— never mind that consumers already pay AT&T for the bandwidth they use to gain access to these services. If broadband providers like AT&T were to begin blocking or degrading the content and services of companies that didn’t pay up, both consumers and the Internet would suffer.  Paragraph7 But enforcing such a “pay to play” scheme might be more challenging than Mr. Whitacre suspects. As every music-downloading student knows, there are myriad ways to evade Internet filtering software. Moreover, an Internet service provider that denies customers access to content risks a serious consumer revolt. Unlike a one-railroad Western town, most broadband customers can choose between cable and D.S.L., and a growing number have access to wireless options as well. Paragraph8 Economists have dubbed this process “regulatory capture,” and they can point to plenty of examples. The airline industry was a cozy cartel before being deregulated in the 1970’s. Today, government regulation of cable television is the primary obstacle to competition. Answer the following questions based on above article after rearranging them to form a meaningful article. In the meaningful article the paragraph that will follow paragraph 2 is a. 1                         b. 3                       c. 4                     d. 5 The paragraph that precedes paragraph 7 is  a. 6                        b. 8                        c. 5                      d. 4 Choose a suitable title for the paragraph

1. Entangling the Web
2. Reiterating the Past.
3. NO, not again please.
4. Lets stop it.

The pattern of CAT2006 – my prediction

CAT – The most difficult and unpredictable exam has no pattern as such. To surprise the cat takers, the examiners always come up with new patterns. While preparing for CAT, one should concentrate on all the basics with out thinking anything about the pattern of the paper but while appearing the mock CATs and FLTs one should try to get a feel of the pattern of the exams taken by all the coaching centers.Few coaching centers have been successful in predicting many things about CAT before the real exam. Erudite was first the institute to come up with mock CAT consisting of questions of different marks and we saw a similar CAT pattern last year.CAT has always given priority to two things (i) TIME per each question (ii) Standard of the Paper. In early 90s there used to be 170-180 questions, which is now reduced to 90 questions, but the standard of questions becoming more and more tough. With reduced number of questions it became easier for the students in reading all the questions and thus selecting which one to attempt and which one to leave out. So my prediction is that next time we might see a paper where the number of questions is more than the number of questions one need to attempt. Why? , Just to make the students read more, have less time and so a good test of time management. Structure of the paper Number of questions =120, one need to attempt any 90 questions. Please do suggest your exam patterns.     

How much time I should spend on CAT preparation?

This is the most common question asked by many cat takers esp. those who have just started their preparation and it is the most difficult question to give an answer. One can be given the guidance only if all the details of that person are known. To find a standard answer to this question one must consider few parameters. Go through the following lines carefully if are unsure about how much time you should be spending on your preparation, it might help you. Before starting preparation for CAT you must know your competency level in all the three departments that IIMs assess through CAT. There are very few persons who have the same level of competency in Maths, DI/DS and English. Out of the three, there must be one or two section which you like most and you can easily score high in CAT. The best way to judge it is to take last years CAT paper and give it a try. My advice to all who are just about to start there preparation for CAT – The first thing you need to do is to arrange last years paper and attempt it as if you are appearing the real CAT. While taking the test, be sure you are true to your self. Take the test for 15 minutes less than the allocated time (2 hours or 2.30 hrs). As it’s your first test you should give equal time to all the sections, during the test even if you feel you have done enough to get a good score in that section continuing with that section (you are giving this test to judge your competency level). After you have done with your test check the answers .Match your results with last year cutoffs section wise. If you have cleared the cutoffs then its great if not then check by how much marks you missed it. If you missed it by 2-4 marks then with a little bit of preparation you can cross the cut off level. 2 months of preparation with weekly 25-35 hours for the basics, then another 2 months on FLTs and revisions of basics should be sufficient. You should always fix last 2 & ½ months for Mocks. If your score is in between than 60% - 80% of the cutoff, then you need to do a lot of hard work. It’s not that easy to increase the score in a very sort time span. You need to make a long term plan. I would suggest 4 months to basics. First check out in which area you find yourself comfortable. ( for ex in Number System, Geometry, arithmetic, algebra ,etc ) Select only one section and give a full month or so to it. Start it from the basic and do all the problems in that section. Give few sectional tests without any time constrain and try to achieve 100%. With number of questions reducing & level of difficulty increasing, the importance given to accuracy should increase. When you find most of the questions are familiar to you go to another section. If you have scored less than 60% ,I ‘ll suggest please forget about IIM and target 2nd tier institutes. Less than 60% means you were not serious in your school and no way one can go to that level to learn the basics. You follow the methods that I have described earlier for 60% - 80% category. But if you feel you have all the basics but you couldn’t score well because of not remembering the formulas or for few silly mistakes then you can hope for IIMs too. In summery If you cleared the cutoff or missed it by 10%-20% then – 2/3 months of preparations + times for mocks should be your total time If you score 60% -80 % of the cutoff marks then – 5/6 months of preparation (with weekly 25-35 hours) + times for mocks should be your total time If you score less than 60% , start preparing now. Give how much time you can spend for your preparation.

How much time should I spend on CAT preparation?

This is the most common question asked by many cat takers esp. those who have just started their preparation and it is the most difficult question to give an answer. One can be give the guidance only if all the details of that person are known. To find a standard answer to this question one must consider few parameters. Go through the following few lines carefully if are unsure about how much time you should spend on your preparation, it might help you.

Before preparing for CAT you must know your competency level in all the three departments that IIMs assess through CAT. There are very few persons who have the same level of competency in Maths, DI/DS and English. Out of the three, there must be one or two section which you like most and you can easily score high in CAT. My advice to all who are about to start their CAT preparation -The first thing you need to do is to arrange last year paper and attempt it as if you are appearing the real CAT.

While taking the test, be sure you are true to your self. Take the test for 15 minutes less than the allocated time (2 hours or 2.30 hrs). As it’s your first test you should give equal time to all the sections, during the test if you feel you have done enough to get a good score in that section continue with that section till the allocated time.(you are giving this test to judge your competency level). After you have done with your test check the answers .Match your results with last year cutoffs section wise.

If you have cleared the cutoffs then its great if not then check by how much marks you missed it. If you missed it by 2-4 marks then with a little bit of preparation you can cross the cut off level. 2 months of preparation with weekly 25-35 hours for the basics, then another 2 months on FLTs and revisions of basics should be sufficient. You should always fix last 2 & 1/2 months for Mocks.

If your score is in between than 60% - 80% of the cutoff, then you need to do a lot of hard work. It’s not that easy to increase the score in a very sort time span. You need to make a long term plan. I would suggest 4 months to basics. First check out in which area you find yourself comfortable. (for ex in Number System, Geometry, arithmetic, algebra ,etc ) Select only one section and give a full month or so to it. Start it from the basic and do all the problems in that section. Give few sectional tests without any time constrain and try to achieve 100%. With number of questions reducing & level of difficulty increasing, the importance given to accuracy should increase. When you find most of the questions are familiar to you go to another section.

If you have scored less than 60%, I ‘ll suggest please forget about IIM and target 2nd tier institutes. Less than 60% means you were not serious in your school and no way one can go to that level to learn the basics. You follow the methods that I have described earlier for 60% - 80% category. But if you feel you have all the basics but you couldn’t score well because of not remembering the formulas or for few silly mistakes then you can hope for IIMs too. In summery If you cleared the cutoff or missed it by 10%-20% then - 2/3 months of preparations + times for mocks should be your total time If you score 60% -80 % of the cutoff marks then -  5/6 months of preparation (with weekly 25-35 hours) + times for mocks should be your total time If you score less than 60% , start preparing now. Give how much time you can spend for your preparation.