From July 2014

Recommended Books for Verbal Ability: Separating the wheat from the chaff

We had done a post on recommended books for Quant a few days back. Here’s the list for Verbal Ability:

The Necessary Ones:

1. How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT: Meenakshi Upadhyay, Arun Sharma

This is a good book for someone who is starting off with verbal preparation for CAT. It covers almost all the topics which have been asked in CAT so far. The exercises at the end of each chapter with varying degrees of difficulty also help. However, as mentioned in the Quant post, there are a few errors and misprints in the book.

Link: Arun Sharma

2. The Pearson Guide To Verbal Ability And Logical Reasoning For The CAT: Nishit K. Sinha

Again as in Quant, this book is similar to Arun Sharma in terms of verbal ability. Pick and choose between this or Arun Sharma.

Link: Nishit Sinha

3. Objective English: Edgar Thorpe, Showick Thorpe

This is a little different from the 2 books mentioned above in that it isn’t tailored specifically for CAT. However the content is pretty good and this can be a good supplement to the 2 books.

Link: Thorpe

The Add-ons

1. Word Power Made Easy: Norman Lewis

Link: Norman Lewis

2. A Communicative Grammar of English: Geoffrey Leech

Link: Geoffrey Leech

3. 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary: Wilfred Funk and Norman Lewis

Link: Lewis Funk

4. High School English Grammar: Wren and Martin

Link: Wren and Martin

Your Weekly Dose of Current Affairs (#5)

current affairsEvery week, we scour the newspapers for the articles which will help you become awesome in GK. Here’s the list of current affairs for this week.

1. Cabinet clears insurance FDI to 49%

The Cabinet today gave go-ahead to FDI cap hike in insurance to 49% with a rider that management control will remain in the hands of Indian promoters, thus paving way for inflow of as much as Rs 25,000 crore foreign funds in the sector

More Details: The Economic Times

2. In a first for an Indian company, TCS’ market cap tops Rs. 5 lakh crore

Tata Consultancy Services today became the first Indian company to command a market capitalisation of ₹5-lakh crore after its share price hit an all-time high.

More Details: The Hindu Business Line

3. Sania Mirza appointed as Brand Ambassador of Telangana

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza was appointed ‘Brand Ambassador’ of Telangana. She will promote the new state’s interests in India and abroad, according to Industrial Infrastructure Corporation managing director Jayesh Rajan.

More Details: DNA

4. Ishant bounces England as India win by 95 runs at Lords

Ishant Sharma grabbed a career best 7 for 74 to bowl out England for 223 and end India’s 3-year drought of away wins.

More Details: The Hindu

5. RBI slaps fine on 12 banks in Deccan Chronicle case

The Reserve Bank of India, on Friday, imposed a monetary penalty on 12 banks for violating central bank rules in the case of Deccan Chronicle Holdings.

More Details: The Hindu

6. India votes in support of UNHRC resolution on Gaza

India along with BRICS countries on Wednesday voted in support of a UN Human Rights Council resolution to launch a probe into Israel’s offensive on Gaza.

More Details: The Hindu

7. CAG Shashi Kant Sharma joins UN board of auditors

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Shashi Kant Sharma took over as member of the United Nations board of auditors

More Details: Business Standard

8. Glasgow: 20th Commonwealth Games begin at Celtic Park

The 2014 Commonwealth Games got off to a colourful start with some enthralling performances by singers Rod Stewart, Susan Boyle and violinist Nicola Benedetti at the Celtic Park and a minute’s silence for the victims of the Malaysian Airlines crash. ( We will be updating the list of medalists in a later post)

More Details: India Today

9. Ram Naik sworn in as UP governor

Veteran BJP leader and former union minister Ram Naik took over as the new governor of Uttar Pradesh

More Details: Business Standard

10. Rory McIlroy wins British Golf Open 2014

Rory McIlroy clinched his first Open Championship and third major title with a two-shot victory over Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler on a thrilling final day at Hoylake.

More Details: BBC

Your Weekly Dose of Current Affairs (#4)

Every week, we scour the newspapers for the articles which will help you become awesome in GK. Here’s the list of current affairs for this week.

1. Germany win the 2014 FIFA Football World Cup

Germany were crowned world champions for the fourth time as Mario Gotze’s extra-time winner beat Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final.

Other Awards:
Golden Ball – Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Golden Boot – James Rodriguez (Colombia)
Golden Glove – Manuel Neuer (Germany)
Best Young Player – Paul Pogba (France)
FIFA Fair Play Trophy – Colombia

More Details: BBC

2. India’s first indigenous anti-submarine warship handed over to Navy

INS Kamorta, the first in series of anti-submarine corvettes indigenously built by Kolkata based Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (GRSE), was handed over to Indian Navy

More Details: The Hindu

3. Environmentalist Chandi Prasad gets Gandhi Peace Prize

Environmentalist and social activist Chandi Prasad Bhatt was presented the Gandhi Peace Prize by President Pranab Mukherjee at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan

More Details: The Hindu

4. Satyam Case: SEBI bars Raju, 4 others for 14 years; seeks return of Rs. 1849 cr

Five-and-a-half years after the Satyam Computer Services scam broke, the erstwhile top management — B Ramalinga Raju, ex-Chairman; B Rama Raju, ex-Managing Director; Vadlamani Srinivas, ex-CFO; G Ramakrishna, ex-VP (Finance); VS Prabhakara Gupta, ex-Head (Internal Audit) — have been banned from the securities market for 14 years

More Details: The Hindu Business Line

5. BRICS set up bank to counter Western hold on global finances

Leaders of the BRICS emerging market nations launched a $100 billion development bank and a currency reserve pool on Tuesday in their first concrete step toward reshaping the Western-dominated international financial system.

More Details: Reuters, Huffington Post

6. RBI issues draft guidelines for small and payment banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday announced draft guidelines for setting up of payments banks and small banks.

More Details: The Hindu Business Line

7. Malaysian Airliner downed in Ukraine war zone, 295 dead

A Malaysian airliner was brought down in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard and sharply raising the stakes in a conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels that has set Russia and the West at daggers drawn.

More Details: Reuters

8. President announces appointment of new Governors for 5 states

BJP veteran leader Ram Naik has been chosen as the Governor of Uttar Pradesh. O.P Kohli, Balramji Das Tandon and Keshari Nath Tripathi have been designated as new Governors of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal respectively.

More Details: The Hindu Business Line

9. Durand Cup Football Tournament to be held in Goa in October

The third oldest football tournament in the world, Durand Cup, will be held in Goa between October 28 and November 9 this year.

More Details: The Hindu Business Line

10. Hamas, Israel resume attacks after brief truce

Gaza residents rushed to banks, vegetable markets and shops on Thursday during a first U.N.-brokered lull in 10 days of Israel-Hamas fighting, but a quick resumption of hostilities after it ended signalled that a permanent truce remains elusive.

More Details: The Hindu, Vox

Recommended Books for Quant: Separating the wheat from the chaff

Books
Your search ends here!

With the plethora of MBA preparatory material available in the market, it is important to segregate the good ones from the not-so-good ones. Hence, we decided to do a post on recommended books for each section. Here are the ones for Quant:

The Necessary Ones

1. How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT Common Admission Test: Arun Sharma
 This is one of the more popular books out there. The book gives a clear explanation of the concepts in each chapter. Recommended for those who are starting with their CAT preparation. There are a few errors and printing mistakes however, so tread carefully.

Link: Arun Sharma

2. The Pearson Guide to Quantitative Aptitude for CAT: Nishit Sinha
 This is quite similar in nature to Arun Sharma’s book and both are equally good. Hence, either this book or Arun Sharma would suffice.

Link: Nishit Sinha

The Add-ons

1. Quantum CAT: Quantitative Aptitude Common Admission Test for Admission Into IIMs: Sarvesh K Verma

Link: Sarvesh Verma

2. NCERT Mathematics Books: 8th, 9th and 10th Standard
 If you think that the level of Arun Sharma or Nishit Sinha is a tad high, then go through the NCERT books to shore up your basics.

Link: NCERT

Keep studying!

Image Credits: University of Illinois

Your Weekly Dose of Current Affairs (#3)

current affairsEvery week, we scour the newspapers for the articles which we think will help you become a GK God. Here’s the list of current affairs for this week.

1. Djokovic defeats Federer to win second Wimbledon title

Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 5-7, 6-4 to win his second Wimbledon title and his seventh Grand Slam championship overall. With this win, Djokovic regained the number one ranking.

More Details: The Hindu

2. TRAI doubles minimum broadband speed

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has notified that the minimum broadband speed has been raised to 512 kilo bytes per second (kbps) from the earlier 256 kbps. Accordingly, the new definition of broadband is “a data connection that is able to support interactive services including Internet access and has the capability of minimum download speed of 512 kbps to an individual subscriber from the point of presence (POP) of the service provider intending to provide broadband service”.

More Details: Mint

3. Sharia courts not legal, can’t enforce fatwas, says SC

Sharia courts have no legal authority and their decisions are not legally binding, the Supreme Court ruled, saying fatwas must not violate rights of individuals guaranteed by law.

More Details: The Hindustan Times

4. Granville Austin dead

Granville Austin (87), renowned scholar of the Indian Constitution passed away in Washington D.C. In 2011, in recognition for his writing on the framing and working of the Indian Constitution, Professor Austin was awarded a Padma Shri award, the fourth-highest civilian honor of India.

More Details: The Hindu

5. Vijay Amritraj to launch Champions Tennis League

Vijay Amritraj, former Indian tennis star and global ambassador of the sport, announced the launch of the Champions Tennis League (CTL) in India. In its launch avatar, CTL will feature six city-based teams across India.

More Details: The Hindu

6. Amit Shah named BJP President

Amit Shah, who is credited with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s spectacular victory in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha election, was on Wednesday named the next party president.

More Details: The Hindu

7. 3 out of 10 in India are poor: Rangarajan Panel

A panel headed by former PMEAC Chairman C. Rangarajan has dismissed the Tendulkar Committee report on estimating poverty and said that the number of poor in India was much higher in 2011-12 at 29.5 per cent of the population, which mean
s that three out of 10 persons are poor.

More Details: The Hindu, The Economic Times

8. Nigeria suspended from international football by FIFA

Nigeria have been suspended from all international football by FIFA amid allegations of government interference in its football federation.

More Details: BBC

9. Railway Budget – Highlights

The Railway Budget was presented by the Railway Minister, Sadananda Gowda during the week. Here’s a video giving the summary of the railway budget.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eod5XbX_EGw

The highlights can be found here: Railway Budget

10. Union Budget – Highlights

The Union Budget 2014 was presented by the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley during the week. The highlights of the budget can be found here: Reuters

In case you want a more detailed explanation, check this link: PWC

Your Weekly Dose of Current Affairs (#2)

current affairsEvery week, we scour the newspapers for the articles which we think will help you become a GK God. Here’s the list of current affairs for this week.

1. Saina Nehwal wins Australian Open Super Series Title

Saina Nehwal clinched the Australian Open Super Series Title after beating Spain’s Carolina Marin in the finals in Sydney. Following the win, Saina has climbed to 7th in the latest world rankings.

More Details: The Hindu

2. ISRO launches PSLV-C23 with 5 foreign satellites

The Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV)-C23 was launched successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The 5 satellites belonged to 4 countries – France,Germany, Canada and Singapore.

More Details: Hindustan Times

3. Bor Sanctuary to be Maharashtra’s 6th and India’s 47th tiger reserve

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) approved the state’s proposal to notify Bor Wildlife Sanctuary in Wardha district as a tiger reserve.  Bor becomes the 6th tiger reserve in Maharashtra after Tadoba, Melghat, Pench, Nagzira and Sahyadri.

More Details: Indian Express

4. Pistol Shooter Jitu Rai is World no. 1

A historic gold medal in the recent World Cup catapulted pistol shooter Jitu Rai to the No.1 spot in 10m air pistol event in the latest ISSF rankings. Rai is the seven Indian shooter to be ranked No.1 in the world. Anjali Bhagwat, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Gagan Narang, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Ronjon Sodhi and Heena Sidhu have been No.1 in the past.

More Details: Business Standard

5. Prime Minister Modi inaugurates Udhampur-Katra railway line

Prime Minister Modi flagged off the train linking Udhampur with Katra. Katra is the base camp for pilgrims headed to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine nestled in the Trikuta hills.

More Details: The Hindu

6. Kvitova wins second Wimbledon title

Petra Kvitova claimed her second Wimbledon title on Saturday with a commanding performance over Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6—3, 6—0. Kvitova had won her first Wimbledon title in 2011.

More Details: The Hindu

7. Shah Rukh Khan conferred France’s highest civilian award

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius conferred his country’s highest civilian award — Knight of the Legion of Honour — on Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural diversity across the world.

More Details: The Hindu

8. Tata Motors Shareholders reject pay hike for top honchos

In a rare instance of activism, shareholders of Tata Motors have defeated three resolutions proposed by the company relating to remuneration of three of its top executives, including the late Karl Slym.

More Details: The Hindu

9. Centre brings onion, potato under Essential Commodities Act

In an apparent bid to douse the raging fire of rising onion and potato prices, the Centre on Wednesday brought these two vegetables within the purview of stockholding limits under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

More Details: The Hindu Business Line

10. Reliance MediaWorks takes stake in Prime Focus

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group has acquired a minority stake in Prime Focus Ltd, an animation and entertainment services provider, in a multi-layered deal which will see the former merging its media and entertainment arm Reliance MediaWorks (RMW) with Prime Focus.

More Details: The Hindu Business Line

Cognitive Reflection Test – Can you answer these?

Answer these three questions quickly. They are quite simple!

1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
2. If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?

The Cognitive Reflection Test is a short psychological test designed by Shane Frederick at MIT. The test measures a person’s tendency to override an initial “gut” response that is incorrect, and to engage in further reflection to find a correct answer.

CRT also has high correlation with other measures of intelligence, such as the IQ tests. Read the complete text given at the bottom of the article but before that, have a look at the answers.

Answers:
(1) A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
The answer is 5 cents (not 10).
Bat = Ball + 1.00
Bat + Ball = 1.10
Ball + 1.00 + Ball = 1.10
2Ball = 0.10
Ball = 5 cents!

(2) If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
The answer is 5 minutes (not 100).
Ratio:
5 widgets / 5 machines*5 minutes = 1/5
100 widgets / 100 machines*x minutes = 1/5
Hence, 5 minutes!

(3) In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?
The answer is 47 days (not 24).
Every day, the patch doubles in size. So if on nth day the area covered is x, then on (n-1) day, the area covered will be x/2.
Since on 48th day, the entire lake gets covered, on 47th day, 50% of the lake will be covered on 47th day!

Reference:
Shane Frederick’s paper on Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making – Complete text