Most of you know why you are reading this article – to gain some knowledge, to sharpen your skills and ultimately to clear CAT and get most coveted IIM calls for admission in India’s top-notch B-schools for a colorful MBA degree. Right? But how many of you know that why do you want an MBA-degree? Your answers can be – money, lucrative job, and exotic work culture, higher growth in pay package or status symbol. Hmmm. But what after that – are there any more targets or any more goals to achieve? May be you have never thought of that.

I was asked these series of question by one of my friend in 2^nd semester of my graduation from Delhi College of Engineering. My responses were in similar fashion but he was insisting on the point that ‘what after this’ every time. He said, “All these are targets for some coming years only but what is your ‘Ultimate Aim of Life’. And how these smaller goals are directing you towards achieving that ultimate goal?” I was clueless because I’d never thought that way. He showed me one book and pointing towards the picture on the cover page he said, “This planet is my ultimate aim of life.” The book was Srimad Bhagwatam by Srila Prabhupad.

 Divisibility Rules
A. Divisibility by 2, 4, 8, 16, 32.

A number is divisible by 2, 4, 8, 16, 32,.. 2 ⁿ when the number formed by the last one, two, three, four, five…n digits is divisible by 2, 4, 8, 16, 32,..2 ⁿ respectively.

Example: 1246384 is divisible by 8 because the number formed by the last three digits i.e. 384 is divisible by 8. The number 89764 is divisible by 4 because the number formed by the last two digits, 64 is divisible by 4.

B. Divisibility by 3 and 9

A number is divisible by 3 or 9 when the sum of the digits of the number is divisible by 3 or 9 respectively.

Remainder Theorems

It is uncanny how children pick up a lot of small habits and beliefs of their parents. Even the ones that rebel against their parents bear the subconscious resemblance to their father or mother. There is a lesson for instructors in this. It is important for them to realize that students mirror their feelings about CAT. If the instructor expresses or feels that CAT is tough, or is fearful about CAT, his students will mirror the same feeling and will be less confident. If the instructor is brazen and casual about the paper and scoffs the competition, his students would reflect the same feelings. Also, it is so necessary to have unflinching faith in one’s students. I still remember that during my school days my mother used to proudly proclaim that I was an intelligent kid. I was barely scrapping passing marks in the school exams. If truth be told I was at the bottom of the class, but my mother had her blinkers on. And because of my mother, I also believed that I was second to none. It was only years later, during my boards exams, that I took to studying seriously, and managed to outperform everyone else. I don’t know if it was my mother’s blind love for me or that she could see some bright spark in me that made her claim my intelligence but it really had great effect on my attitude. And attitude, in an exam like CAT, is everything.

Well, it’s almost everything. A keen attitude towards CAT subjects’ fundamentals also plays an important role in one’s performance.

The concept of averages is hardly a new concept at all. If asked, all of you would give me the following formula for calculating

So far so good. But if I ask all of you to solve a simple problem many of you would reach for their pens.

The average score of three students A, B, and C is 50. When the score of another student D is added to the group, the average score becomes 47. What is the score of student D?

Answer: for most of you, the score of student D would be 4 × 47 – 3 × 50 = 38.

For me, the calculation would just be 47 – 9 = 38.

Some of you might have understood what I did. Let me start explaining through a simple example. Then we shall extend our explorations to more complex problems.