Listening to Answer....

Do you learn to listen or is it an inborn ability? Many of us think it is an inborn ability, but listening is really an art and you really need to learn this art. But what is so artful about listening? And why is it needed? Following questions are answers to this question. How many times did it happen that you answered without listening the question completely? And how many times were your answers correct?

Listening followed by understanding and thinking is the first step of problem solving or answering a question. When you start listening you brain sends a signal 'Yes! I know this'. And you start speaking something about the question, which certainly is not the answer, because the question does not pertain to your knowledge of the peripherals or the milieu of that knowledge. It pertains to a part of that knowledge, which is extracted by analyzing the required part needed to answer the question.

This process pops up another art called understanding. If you do not listen to the question completely, it is certain that you do not understand it. What will happen if you try to solve a problem without understanding it, for instance do you write a 'B' when asked to write an 'A'? No, because there is a distinction between the two characters. This distinction is so obvious to you that your propensity to answer it will make you feel that you did not try to understand before answering it.But there is an understanding involved.

Understanding obviously follows listening but it requires you to think, which part of your knowledge is required to give the best answer. When you listen to a question, how many times do you think before you answer? If you don't do so, you are just speaking, you are not answering. This thinking process is what I call digging the knowledge to mine the knowledge required to answer the question.

Listening also does not mean hearing. Hearing is as good as seeing something without observing. Listening requires interference of brain for the aforementioned process same as observation needs skills to understand and think.

Keep reading and listening..:)

CAT not only an Exam but also a Lesson for Life....

 

 CAT is an exam people take to get admissions to the most coveted premier B-Schools in India. People have various reasons to take the CAT. Most common being 'to climb up the success ladder' or 'for a better salary potential'.  But most important is that, you crack it or not, you have already learnt lessons in every phase of the preparation. Those lessons will keep empowering you throughout your life.

CAT prepares you in the diverse fields like quantitative aptitude, verbal reasoning data interpretation and logical reasoning which help you become a complete person. Some of you will be surprised to know this, but this is the truth. I am not saying CAT is the only way to be complete but it certainly helps for the same.

How many of you use a calculator for the multiplication of 123*11..A CAT-taker uses a simple trick.. (1, 1+2, 2+3, 3) ~(1353) i.e. just keep adding the terms starting from right. How many of you refer to the dictionary for the word ‘anachronous’…A CAT-taker  breaks the word into ‘ana ’ meaning not(negative prefix)  and ‘chronous’ (related to time) ,something misplaced in time. How many of you still think auto-rickshaw is still the most affordable transport option. A CAT-taker will certainly deduce logically which one of Uber, TaxiForSure, ola etc. offers you the best ride with the provided data of ‘price per kilometer’, ‘waiting time’ and ‘the coupons’ you had received in your inbox.

The preparation for CAT not only prepares you for the aptitude test but also for the day-to-day problem-solving activities. You start analyzing things, you solve your problems logically. You try to infer the meaning of different sentences. So if your boss doubts you of working extraordinarily for any reason, you don't need to take it seriously because if you use your verbal reasoning abilities that is just an 'ASSUMPTION'.

While taking CAT, it is imperative that you be calm and solve questions with utmost equanimity. If you start to panic when the test goes for a toss, you will certainly lose the CAT. There are situations in life, when you tend to panic when you don't find a solution to a problem. For example, if you are in the taxi and there is a lot of traffic outside, suddenly you realize you are half an hour late for the train, and you are certainly going to miss your meeting. If you lose your calm ,you cannot plan the subsequent events, may be you can get a bus to reach the next station and board the train or you can ask the taxi driver to drop you at the next station.

You face many challenges in life and without even trying it you think you cannot do it. Taking a challenge like CAT overwhelms you with the courage of taking any challenge in life. So, if you have a difficult task assigned at work and you have no idea to even start it, you won’t crib and take it the way you took the CAT.

CAT is one of the difficult exams, but if you realize how it shapes your mental abilities, you certainly crack a ‘CAT’ every day.