Aspirants appearing for the CAT exams. Must know CAT shortcut tricks to ace the quantitative section. He should work hard to score good marks in the CAT exam. Time management is really important to score 99 percentile in exams. As exam contain section-wise as well as overall time limit.

Accuracy and speed are a must for the exam. CAT exam contains three sections. For instance quantitative, data interpretation and logical reasoning. The difficulty level varies from section to section. The quantitative section is the toughest section among other sections. In this article, we will get to know about different CAT shortcut tricks. Therefore, have a look at the below-mentioned article.

The quantitative section contains 26 questions. With a section time limit of 40 minutes to solve questions. This means aspirants get less than 2 minutes for solving each question For every correct answer aspirant will reward with 3 marks.

Important Topics for CAT Quantitative Ability.

Also read: How to Prepare for CAT

CAT shortcut tricks for the square of 2 digits number.

CAT Shortcut technique to find the square of 2 digit number mentioned below. Therefore, Have a look below to know the trick:

• STEP 1: First, Deduct 25 from the number aspirant want to calculate square. This will be the first two digits of the Answer
• STEP 2: Then, Subtract 50 from the number form in the win which one wants to calculate the square. This will become the last two digits of the Answer. In case of carrying over. So please add the number carry over to the answer derived through the first step.

For Example:

1. If you want to find the square of 51 or 51²

• Step 1: Difference from 25 à 51-25 = 26
• Step 2: Difference from 50 à51-50= 01
• Now we need to find the square of 01 that would be 01
• Hence, the Final Answer is 2601

2. Let us try with 63

• Step 1: The difference from 25 is 38
• Step 2: The difference from 50 is 13
• Step 3: Square of 13 is 169

• The answer to Step 1 (first two digits): = 38+1 = 39
• The answer to Step 2 (last two digits): And the last 2 digits of 169= 69

Hence, the Final Answer is 3969.

3. Now let us try with a smaller number 28

• Step 1: The difference with 25 is 3
• Step 2: The difference with 50 is 22
• Step 3: Square of 22 is 484
  • The answer to Step 1 (first two digits): 3 plus 4= 7
  • The answer to Step 2 (last two digits): of 484 i. e. 84

Hence, the Final Answer: is 784

CAT shortcut tricks for a square of 3 digits number.

CAT Shortcut technique to find a square of 3 digit number mentioned below. Imagine you need to find the square the number be XYZ. To find XYZ Steps are mentioned below. Therefore, Have a look below to know the trick:

• Step1: The last digit is equal to the Last digit of Square (Z)
• Step2: Second last digit is equal to 2*Y*Z and adds any carryover from STEP 1
• Step3: Third last digit 2*X*Z and add it with Square(Y) and any carryover from STEP 2
• Step4: Fourth the last digit is 2*X*Y will be added with any carryover from STEP 3
• Step5: At the last check Beginning of the result will be Square(X) will be added with any carryover from Step 4

For Example: Find the square of 431

a. Last digit = Last digit of Square (1) = 1
b. Second last digit = 2*3*1 + any carryover from STEP 1=6+0=6
c. Third last digit 2*4*1+ Square(3) + any carryover from STEP 2 = 8+9+0 = 17 i.e. 7 with a carryover of 1
d. Fourth last digit is 2*4*3 + any carryover from STEP 3 = 24+1 = 25 i.e. 5 with a carryover of 2
e. At last check Beginning of the result will be Square(4) + any carryover from Step 4 = 16+2 = 18

Thus, (431)² = 185761.

CAT shortcut tricks for finding average.

CAT Shortcut technique to find average has been mentioned below. Therefore, Have a look below to know the trick:

• Find the difference between the old average and the new average.
• Then, Divide the difference by the sample size
• Now, Multiply the average increase you found in step 2 by the sample size

For Example, The average of a batsman in 16 innings is 30. In the next innings, he is scoring 70 runs. What will be his new average?

Answer through Regular Method: Total runs scored by the batsman in 17 innings: 480+70=550

Total innings played= 17

Hence, the new average = 550/17=32.35

Answer using the Short Cut technique:

• Step 1: Take the difference between the new score and the old average = 70 – 30= 40
• Step 2: 40 extra runs are spread over 17 innings. So, the innings average will increase by 40/17 = 2.35
• Step 3: Hence, the average increases by => 30+2.35 = 32.35.

For Example 2: The average marks of 20 girls in a particular school are 50. When a new girl with marks of 80 joins the class, what will be the new average of the class?

Answer using the Shortcut method:

• Step 1: Take the difference between the new marks and the old average marks = 80 – 50= 30
• Step 2: 30 extra marks are spread over 21 girls. So, the average marks will be increased by: 30/21= 1.43
• Step 3: Hence the new average = 50+1.43= 51.43

CAT shortcut tricks for multiplication.

Base Method

• One number is considered ase
• For example. 105 - number closer must be taken

For example 15 x 107

• 100 should be considered as a base. As it is closer to both the numbers 105 and 107.
• The Product of Surplus. Since the base is considered 100, So surplus is 5 and 7. 5*7=35 (A)
• Either number will be added to either one of the numbers. Like for example either add 105 into 7 or 107 into 5.
• Then it would be equivalent to the number that should be multiplied by 100. Like for instance 112 x 100 = 11,200 (B)
• In last Add (A) + (B) = 11200+35 = 11235. This will become your answer.

CAT shortcut tricks to solve Algebra questions.

This shortcut trick is helpful to solve questions of simple simultaneous equations with numbers.

For example 6x + 7y = 8, 19x + 14y = 16

Here, the ratio of coefficients of y is the same as that of the constant terms. Therefore, the ‘other’ is zero, i.e., x = 0. Hence, the solution of the equations is x = 0 and y = 8/7.

Alternatively, 19x + 14y = 16 is equivalent to (19/2)x + 7y = 8.

Therefore, x has to be zero and no ratio is needed; divide by 2.

Note that it would not work if both had been ‘in ratio’:

6x + 7y = 8

12x + 14y = 16

Sample Questions to practice CAT shortcut tricks

Questions: What will be the sum of the roots if f(5 + x) = f(5 - x) for every real x and f(x) = 0 and has 4 different real roots?

1. 0
2. 40
3. 10
4. 20

Answer: 4

Questions: If a>0 then what will be the mean of a four-digit even and natural number which can be represented as aabb?

1. 5544
2. 4466
3. 4864
4. 5050

Answer: 1

Questions: If x, y and z are positive integers such that xy = 432, yz = 96, and z < 9, then what will be the smallest possible value of x + y+ z?

1. 56
2. 49
3. 46
4. 59

Answer: 3

For CAT Quantitative section’s full guidance visit this link- https://catking.in/best-guide-for-preparation-of-cat-quantitative-ability/