Quantitative aptitude is a part of almost every competitive examination in India, be it state-level recruitment exams like the UP Police Recruitment or exams like CAT and GATE.
It is generally the toughest and the most time taking part in every exam. It is often seen that Quantitative Aptitude is a weak point of a lot of candidates.
Quantitative aptitude questions are generally of the 10th class level. You may at times even come across word problem questions where you need to calculate the up police salary as per the given basic salary and allowances in percentage form or you may be asked to find the wrong number in a series.
Here we have some tips to score better in quantitative aptitude in competitive examinations:
Attempt Easy Questions First
Generally, the time frame for attempting every section in any competitive examination is less. Hence, you must try to solve the easy questions first. Now, the point to note here is that the questions themselves are not easy or difficult but their options decide the difficulty. Sometimes, you don’t even need to solve a particular question. You can answer the question by logic directly.
Some of the easiest questions that you can attempt are from the topics:
Sequence and series
Odd man out
Ratio and Proportions
Percentage
Inequalities
Simple Interest
Apart from these, you can also go for Data Interpretation questions ie, questions based on comprehension or table. Since multiple questions are to be answered through the same data, it becomes easy to attempt such questions together.
Learn your tables:
Calculations play a very important part of the quants section. To be fast and accurate in calculations, you must memorize multiplication tables till 25 at least. Apart from this, another table that you must learn by heart is that or squares and cubes. You must remember the squares and cubes of numbers at least 30. You must also be thorough with some basic ratios to decimal conversions. By learning these tables, you get to know their factors and multiples which also help you in solving problems. All this will help you calculate faster and with more accuracy.
Practice Mental Maths:
While almost every online exam offers a virtual calculator, it is a waste of time to use it during the exam. Hence, you must well verse yourself with mental maths so that you do not have to scribble on paper or take help of the calculator. Spend at least 20 minutes daily randomly practising addition, subtraction and multiplication on random numbers. Alternately you can leverage applications like Zetamac to practice mental maths problems and to increase your calculation speed as well.
Do not guess:
In the quantitative aptitude sections, you will either arrive at a particular answer or will be able to eliminate some wrong answers. Do not make a blind guess and over attempt. Try to eliminate answers as much as possible but do not panic and over attempt in haste if your number of attempts is going low. This holds true for the exams where there is a negative marking. For the ones where there is no negative marking, attempt as many as possible by actual calculation and elimination first. In the end, answer all the questions with only one option.
The concept is the key:
Do not just mug up the formula, but understand the concepts. Shortcuts and tricks are helpful in saving your time, but the concepts will help you solve questions that are not formula based but require the actual application of the brain.
Hope you liked this super informative and short read! Play with numbers, do not be scared of them!