Top Mental Math Tricks to Ace the CAT Exam: Speed Up Your Calculations
Are you preparing for the CAT exam and looking to enhance your mental math skills? At Matiks, we believe that mastering mental math can give you a significant edge. With speed calculation techniques, you’ll solve questions faster, attempt more, and boost your score. In this blog, we’ll cover:
- Why mental math is crucial for CAT aspirants
- How it improves speed, accuracy, and confidence
- 6 proven mental math strategies to help you ace the exam
Let’s dive in!
Why Mental Math is Essential for CAT?
Mental math isn’t just about crunching numbers - it’s about saving time and staying calm under pressure. In exam, where every second counts, mastering mental math tricks lets you tackle problems quickly, leaving more time for complex ones. It’s about working smarter, not harder, and Matiks is here to help you gain that advantage.
Importance of Mental Math for CAT Aspirants
The CAT exam isn’t just about conceptual understanding - it’s about speed and precision. Here’s why mastering mental math for CAT is a game-changer:
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Attempt More Questions: Quick calculations allow you to solve more problems, increasing your overall score.
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Stay Calm and Confident: Solving questions faster reduces stress, helping you focus on exam strategy.
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Save Precious Time: Tight time constraints make speed calculation techniques essential for effective time management.
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Simplify Tough Topics: Areas like percentages, ratios, and algebra become easier with the right mental math strategies.
6 Mental Math Tricks to Boost Your CAT Exam Speed
Here are six powerful mental math strategies to help you solve problems faster and more efficiently:
1. Chunking Multiplication for Faster Calculations Break down multiplications into smaller, more manageable parts.
Example: What’s 24 × 18? Split 24 into 20 + 4. Then: (20 × 18) + (4 × 18) = 360 + 72 = 432. Alternatively, use rounding: (25 × 18) - (1 × 18) = 450 - 18 = 432.
This speed calculation technique eliminates unnecessary steps, making it perfect for quant problems.
2. Round and Adjust for Percentages Round numbers to simplify percentage calculations, then tweak the result.
Example: Find 17% of 148. 10% of 148 = 14.8 5% of 148 = 7.4 2% of 148 = 2.96 Total: 14.8 + 7.4 + 2.96 = 25.16 (approximately 25.2).
This is a go-to mental math strategy for data interpretation and approximation-based questions.
3. Memorize Common Fraction-to-Decimal Conversions Knowing fraction-to-decimal values saves time in ratio and proportion problems. _ Example: What’s 1/5 of 85? 0.2 × 85 = 17, solved instantly._
Memorizing conversions like 1/3 ≈ 0.333, 1/8 = 0.125, etc., can significantly improve calculation speed in quant.
4. Quick Squaring Trick for Numbers Near 100 For numbers near 100, use a special squaring formula to solve faster.
Example: What’s 103²? Use the formula: (100 + x)² = 10000 + 2x × 100 + x² (100 + 3)² = 10000 + (2 × 3 × 100) + 3² = 10000 + 600 + 9 = 10609.
This mental math trick is useful for algebra and number system questions.
5. Tackle Easy Questions First Scan the section and prioritize quick, low-effort questions before attempting complex ones. Tip: If a problem looks too time-consuming, skip it for later. Use mental math to quickly assess which problems can be solved instantly.
6. Simplify Division by Breaking It Down Break down division problems into easier calculations.
Example: What’s 378 ÷ 14? Use factors: 378 ÷ 14 = (378 ÷ 7) ÷ 2. 378 ÷ 7 = 54, then 54 ÷ 2 = 27.
This technique eliminates long division, making quant problems faster to solve.
Bonus: Make Mental Math a Daily Habit Consistency is key! Spend at least 10 minutes daily practicing on Matiks. Compete in real-time math duels and sharpen your speed on Matiks!
With these speed calculation techniques, you’ll:
- Solve more questions
- Boost accuracy and confidence
- Improve your overall CAT score
