Does it mean that you provide coaching for CAT and other competitive exams ?

Nope. We do not provide any coaching. In fact, we encourage you to take up a serious coaching or any other professional help that enhances your preparation for these exams.

We help you hone your problem-solving skills and fine tune your abilities to translate your knowledge to quick and efficient solution of problems.

Through a series of “Whacks on The Head”, we guide you through a problem-solving experience that is fun, easy, exciting and efficient.

And how would you do this ?

We provide you sufficient experience to discover how minor adjustments in how you think can drastically boost your skills and confidence at problem-solving.

Additionally, we provide you a detailed analysis of the problem-solving process, the common pitfalls one may get trapped into and waste time, and tid-bits from other people’s experience of solving a particular problem – so that you learn what works and what doesn’t – both from your own and other people’s experience.

As an example, one of the ideas we deal with again and again is – to train yourself to extract valuable information from a problem statement to allow you to reach a solution more efficiently.

At The CAT Lounge, we believe that the only problems you cannot solve are the problems you haven’t understood (assuming a reasonable domain-knowledge).

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ? Most of the times, I understand the problem statement but still I find difficulty solving them.

That’s true. But it means you have gone through only one level of the understanding of the problem statement. There are layers and layers of meaning and depths of valuable information in each problem statement. Every time you peel away a layer of “meaning” of the problem statement and go deeper into it, you are more likely to reach to the solution faster and easier than if you try with a superficial level.

O, I see !!! It is like shifting gears. The higher gear you move to, the faster and smoother you can go with the same effort on the accelerator.

Right. Let us take an example.

Consider the following problem :

CAN YOU PLACE THE NUMBERS 1-8 IN THE SQUARES BELOW SO THAT NO TWO CONSECUTIVE NUMBERS ARE NEXT TO EACH OTHER, EITHER VERTICALLY, HORIZONTALLY OR DIAGONALLY?

This is a fairly easy problem to solve, by simple trial and error. Let us see how to get to the solution quicker by moving to the next level of the meaning of the problem statement. Try solving this problem for a few seconds before proceeding further.

The problem requires you to place the numbers 1-8 in the squares so that no two consecutive numbers are next to each other, either vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

“Whack On The Head” - What does this statement mean ? How can you state it more simply ?

It means that if you place a number ‘x’ (1 <= x <= 8) in cell A, you can place the numbers ‘x+1’ or ‘x-1’ only in cells H, G or F.

It also means that if you place a number ‘x’ (1 <= x <= 8) in cell D, you can place the numbers ‘x+1’ or ‘x-1’ only in cell F.

For most people, this rings a bell - how can you place both the numbers ‘x+1’ and ‘x-1’ in the same cell, i.e. F ? This indicates something – you can only place either number 1 or 8 in the cell D. And that solves the whole problem WITHOUT ANY TRIAL AND ERROR, even before you have started thinking of the solution – just by rephrasing the problem statement differently and in a more simpler language.

But that could be a fluke !!!

Sure, it could be. This exact strategy won’t work for other problems. But any time you go into a deeper level of meaning of any problem statement, it will help you find a way towards the solution much more easily.

THERE ALWAYS IS ENOUGH VALUABLE INFORMATION IN A PROBLEM STATEMENT TO BE ABLE TO REACH TO THE SOLUTION.

Could it be that simple ? What else do you train in ?

Why don’t you find it out for yourself ?

Take the sample CATLounge session and chill your way towards being a master problem solver.