Besides the obvious purpose of a standardised exam, training for these tests goes beyond securing admission to professional courses. It also helps build a well-rounded personality, writes SAMREEN HAQ

The growing importance of aptitude training in securing admission to professional courses and getting jobs cannot be under-stated. In order to do well in standardised examinations such as the Common law Admission Test, the Graduate Record Examination, the Graduate Management Admission Test or the ones conducted by the Union Public Service Commission such training is the need of the hour.

An aptitude test usually comprises three sections: Quantitative analysis (class 10 level, applied mathematics), verbal analysis (focuses on language skills but with limited emphasis on grammar and vocabulary) and finally, logical reasoning (with is essentially data interpretation and data sufficiency).

There are several reasons why an aptitude test is administered. First, it ensures a level-playing field for all candidates, irrespective of the subjects they may have studied in high school or college.

Standardised tests are taken by candidates from different academic backgrounds and it is important to ensure that no one group is in a more advantageous position than the other. Irrespective of whether a candidate studied science or commerce or arts, no one must be cornered.

Also, standardised aptitude tests prevent imbalance among students from different schools affiliated to different educational boards, such as the Central Board of Secondary Education, the Delhi-based Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations and various other State boards.

Also, such an examination allows a second chance of sorts to students who may not have done well in their school or college examinations. In taking these tests, there is no difference between a school topper and a person who may have just about cleared his board examination.

Aptitude tests also help determine if a person has a well-rounded personality. To crack such a test, the candidate needs to be able to keep a cool head, have good time management skills and the ability to judge his strengths and weaknesses so that he can approach the test accordingly. Also, the candidate has to strike a balance between theoretical knowledge and its practical application in real-life situations.

There are people who give up on such aptitude tests after performing below par in initial rounds. They forget that with practice they can learn the tricks of the test which helps them improve their scores later. Securing a low score is not a crime, but giving up afterwards is almost criminal. One must always keep in mind that the best general is one who knows the battlefield well.

I remember in the early days of my career, a student asked me a question on data sufficiency and I got the answer wrong. Without giving any extra-thought to that, I asked for another question but still did not get the right answer. Yet, this was my favourite topic, my forte and every time I made a mistake, my brand equity was being diluted. I was really upset that day.

I regretted my failure but couldn’t figure out the root cause. I knew that there was no problem with my fundamentals and even my approach was correct. It was my acid test. Why couldn’t I solve those few problems.

I asked myself: What was my state of mind when I used to solve these questions correctlyIJ The answer was that I used to solve a couple of these problems daily. I was in constant touch with the topic and that gave me an push in the right direction every time.

So, when I got the correct answers, it was due to five major reasons: First, I knew my strengths. Whatever topic I was covering — if I was getting seven out of 10 problems correct, that meant I was in my strength zone. Thus, it was easy for me to gauge which topics provided me an edge.

Second, there was no over-expectation. While solving the problems, my idea was to score well within the time limit, instead of cracking the entire section. This helped me in picking the right problems at the right time.

Third, I focussed on reading and comprehending the problem. While reading the problem I made sure that I didn’t have to re-read it. Therefore, in one shot, I understood what exactly needed to be done. There was no distraction or lack of concentration. Fourth, I engaged in a smart selection of questions — accepting or rejecting problems on the basis of what I was comfortable with.

And finally, time-management. This was the key. While solving the problems, I never hurried, because thanks to my past experience I knew exactly how long I would take to solve a problem.

(The writer is the chief mentor and aptitude trainer of Placementors, an aptitude and attitude training firm)