Aptitude preparation: Study Plan

In my last post (http://asknilesh.blogspot.com/2008/01/aptitude-preparation.html), I provided information about key resources (books, websites etc.). In this post as I promised, I would like to focus on the Study Plan for the aptitude preparation for the campus placement.

Firstly you need to sit down and work out a flexible study plan. Five hours of study per week for six weeks is more than sufficient. In my case, I decided to study at weekends only.

Try to start with verbal section as early as possible. I firstly concentrated on improving my vocabulary. Side by side, I started solving Shakuntala Devi’s “Puzzles to Puzzle You”.

“Barron’s GRE Guide” was perhaps the greatest help. It’s really an amazing tool to hone your problem solving ability and improve your vocabulary. The book not only provides a word list of about 3500 words but also marks out about 350 imp words separately which is an instant help for those with a crash-course kind of attitude. The exercises in this section are of at most Importance because many companies especially TCS picks up questions for their tests based on these exercises. The “KEY FACTs” in the maths and quant section of the book are simply marvelous! As this book caters to the needs of GRE aspirants the difficulty level of questions is a little higher.

I also recommend to study following sections from “Quantitative Aptitude” by R. S. Aggarwal:

1) Problems on ages

2) Ratio and proportion

3) Chain rule

4) Time and work

5) Pipes and Cisterns

6) Time and distance

7) Permutations and combinations

8) Probability

and the entire Data Interpretation section

I also found many useful tricks and tactics in the book “How to Prepare for CAT” by Ahemad Muneer.

You also need to fair well in your exams in order to become strong in your respective area of specialization; e.g. a computer engineer should have a good knowledge of data structures, networking, compilers etc.

Inculcate a habit of reading especially about current issues. This will improve your vocabulary, hone your communication skills and also prepare you for GDs and interviews. I regularly read “Times of India” and “Reader’s Digest”. Especially the “Ascent” supplement that comes with TOI tells you exactly the latest trends in various job sectors and includes useful write-ups for guiding job aspirants.

Besides this I will be providing you company specific study material. You can download it from my e-storehouse

http://www.esnips.com/user/nileshmiskin

You can always google the net for more study material. You may find links to some popular sites for aptitude preparation right here right on the side panel under the title “Adds by Google”.