How to Manage Your Time When Attempting the CA Foundation Business Mathematics, Logical Reasoning and Statistics Paper

In a previous post, we gave you tips on how to tackle MCQs. In this post, we will give you an overview on time management in the Business Mathematics, Logical Reasoning and Statistics paper. You should not take this as THE FINAL WORD on this topic. Rather, you can adapt our suggestions for your own. As you know, ICAI has divided the paper into these sections: Mathematics and Logical Reasoning, and Statistics. The paper duration is of 2 hours and there are 100 questions. This works out to be about a minute per question. This is enough time to attempt and finish all the questions – if you plan it well. The question is, what’s the plan? How do you manage your time?

How to Manage Time when Solving the Business Mathematics, Logical Reasoning and Statistics Paper

We’ll divide the plan into 5 phases. You should tackle each phase in order:

• Phase 1: Categorizing Questions and Solving Easy Questions
• Phase 2: Solving Questions Related to Statistics
• Phase 3: Solving Questions Related to Logical Reasoning
• Phase 4: Solving Questions Related to Business Mathematics
• Phase 5: Checking Your Answers

Notice a few things about the way in which we order and structure the plan. The most important part of the plan is to categorise and solve the easy questions first. Once you have identified and solved the easy questions, and categorising the rest according to topics, you must decide the order in which you attempt the remaining questions. The plan says that in general, attempt questions from the Statistics part first, followed by questions from Logical Reasoning and then finally from the Business Mathematics section. Leave the questions that involve a lot of calculation for the end. In general, it would be from the topic Time Value of Money which falls under the Business Mathematics section. And in general, questions from the Statistics section are theoretical and/or involve limited calculation … which means you can solve these quickly. This overall strategy works because all questions are worth the same amount of marks, and so the order in which you attempt them doesn’t matter! Now, for each phase, you should employ slightly different strategies. And each phase should take you different times to go through. Keep an eye on the clock to successfully follow this plan. Here is the breakdown of the time taken for each phase of the plan: This plan is one of the most optimal ways in which to tackle the paper and gain as many marks as possible. To fully understand the plan, we should delve deeply into what each phase involves. Let’s do that!

Phase 1: Categorizing Questions and Solving Easy Questions

As soon as you get the paper, you need to go over it. Spend about 10 – 15 minutes going over the paper and categories each question according to topic. During this period, mark off questions that look easy for you, and see if you can solve them within 3 -5 seconds upon reading. You’d probably solve about 10 – 15 questions immediately during this exercise! In some cases, perhaps even up to 20(!). Or even 30(!). As an example, let’s look at the mock test paper released by ICAI. In the mock paper, according to the author of the post, the easy questions are: 2 – 4, 7, 12, 22, 23, 29, 35, 39, 43, 61 – 70, 74, 75, 79-81, 84, 86, 87, 90 – 92, 95 – 100. The author was able to solve these questions almost instantly. (This is based on the author’s experience; it may take you a bit longer so don’t worry. This is just for illustrative purposes.) While you are doing this, categories the questions section-wise and topic-wise. For this mock test paper, the questions in the section Business Mathematics fall into these categories:

Categorizing Questions in the Business Mathematics Section

Business Mathematics
Topic	Questions in Category	Questions already attempted on the first pass (ones categorised as easy)	Questions to be attempted
Ratio and Proportion, Indices and Logarithms	1-6	2-4	1, 5 and 6
Equations and Matrices	7 – 12	7, 12	8 – 11
Linear Inequalities	13	None	13
Time Value of Money	14 – 25	22, 23	14-21, 24, 25
Basic Concepts of Permutations and Combinations	28, 30-32	None	28, 30-32
Sequences and Series – Arithmetic and Geometric Progressions	26, 33, 34	None	26, 33, 34
Sets, Relations and Functions	27, 29, 35	29, 35	27
Basic Concepts of Differential and Integral Calculus	36 – 40	39	36 – 38, 40

For logical reasoning, the categories are as follows:

Categorising Questions in the Logical Reasoning Section

Logical Reasoning
Topic	Questions in Category	Questions already attempted on the first pass (ones categorised as easy)	Questions to be attempted
Number Series, Coding, Decoding and Odd Man Out Series	41-44	43	41, 42, 44
Direction Sense Test	45, 59, 60	None	45, 59, 60
Seating Arrangements	46 – 50	None	46 – 50
Blood Relations	55 – 58	None	55 – 58
Syllogism	51 – 54	None	51 – 54

And for statistics, the questions fall into these categories:

Categorising Questions in the Statistics Section

Statistics
Topic	Questions in Category	Questions already attempted (ones categorised as easy)	Questions to be attempted
Statistical Description of Data	61-65	61 – 65	None
Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion	66 – 78	66 – 70, 74, 75	71, 72, 73, 76 – 78
Probability	79, 80, 82, 83	79, 80	82, 83
Theoretical Distributions	81, 84 – 90	81, 84, 86, 87, 90	85, 88, 89
Correlations and Regression	91 – 94	91, 92	93, 94
Index Numbers and Time Series	95 – 100	95 – 100	None

Now, don’t worry if you can’t make a firm categorisation. Just categorise the questions as specifically as you can. Once you are done with this, it’s time to move on to phase 2 of the plan. Here, after you’ve solved the easy questions, you will tackle the questions related to statistics first.

Phase 2: Solving Questions Related to Statistics

As mentioned earlier, of the remaining questions, solve the questions related to Statistics first. But in which order? Remember when you categorised the questions topic-wise? This comes into play here. In extremely general terms, according to the author, the easiest topics of statistics ranked in terms of difficulty with the easiest topics first are as follows:

1. Statistical Description of Data
2. Index Numbers and Time Series
3. Theoretical Distributions
4. Correlations and Regression
5. Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion
6. Probability

This order may be different for you because of your own strengths and weaknesses. But this order is the author’s preference as said before. Based on this order, let’s re-arrange the table of categorisation with the easiest topics first:

Re-arranging Topics in the Statistics Portion According to their Difficulty

Statistics
Topic	Questions in Category	Questions already attempted (ones categorised as easy)	Questions to be attempted
Statistical Description of Data	61-65	61 – 65	None
Index Numbers and Time Series	95 – 100	95 – 100	None
Theoretical Distributions	81, 84 – 90	81, 84, 86, 87, 90	85, 88, 89
Correlations and Regression	91 – 94	91, 92	93, 94
Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion	66 – 78	66 – 70, 74, 75	71, 72, 73, 76 – 78
Probability	79, 80, 82, 83	79, 80	82, 83

This means, for this mock test paper, the author would attempt the questions in this section in this order:  85, 88, 89, 93, 94, 71, 72, 73, 76 – 78, 82 and 83. Once these questions are solved/attempted, you are done with the Statistics section. You should expect to take about 20 – 30 minutes to finish up this section. If you spend a longer time, leave the questions that remain and move on to questions from the next section. You should now tackle the Logical Reasoning section.

Phase 3: Solving Questions Related to Logical Reasoning

Now, according to the author, in general (not specific to the mock test paper), the easiest topics of Logical Reasoning ranked in terms of difficulty with the easiest topics first are as follows:

1. Number series, Coding, Decoding and Odd Man Out Series
2. Direction Sense Test
3. Seating Arrangements
4. Blood Relations
5. Syllogism

Let’s re-arrange the table of categorisation again based on this suggested order. (This applies to the mock exam discussed above; the numbering and number of questions will change depending on the paper!):

Re-arranging Topics in the Logical Reasoning Section According to their Difficulty

Logical Reasoning
Topic	Questions in Category	Questions already attempted on the first pass (ones categorised as easy)	Questions to be attempted
Number Series, Coding, Decoding and Odd Man Out Series	41-44	43	41, 42, 44
Direction Sense Test	45, 59, 60	None	45, 59, 60
Seating Arrangements	46 – 50	None	46 – 50
Blood Relations	55 – 58	None	55 – 58
Syllogism	51 – 54	None	51 – 54

This means for this mock test paper, the author would attempt the questions in this section in this order: 41, 42, 44, 45, 59, 60, 55 – 58, 51 – 54. The expected time taken to finish these questions should be around 15 – 20 minutes. Once again, if you spend more than this, leave the remaining questions in this section for later and move on to solve questions from the main, Business mathematics section.

Phase 4: Solving Questions Related to Business Mathematics

From the business mathematics part of the paper, the questions should be solved in this suggested order (this is in general terms and not specific to the mock test paper under discussion):

1. Ratio and Proportion, Indices and Logarithms
2. Equations and Matrices
3. Linear Inequalities
4. Sets, Relations and Functions
5. Sequence and Series – Arithmetic and Geometric Progressions
6. Basic Concepts of Differential and Integral Calculus
7. Basic Concepts of Permutations and Combinations
8. Time Value of Money

And for the mock test paper under discussion, the table below shows the suggested order of attempting the questions (adding the usual caveat that the numbering and the number of questions varies in general):

Re-arranging Topics in Business Mathematics According to their Difficulty

Business Mathematics
Topic	Questions in Category	Questions already attempted on the first pass (ones categorized as easy)	Questions to be attempted
Ratio and Proportion, Indices and Logarithms	1-6	2-4	1, 5 and 6
Equations and Matrices	7 – 12	7, 12	8 – 11
Linear Inequalities	13	None	13
Sets, Relations and Functions	27, 29, 35	29, 35	27
Sequences and Series – Arithmetic and Geometric Progressions	26, 33, 34	None	26, 33, 34
Basic Concepts of Differential and Integral Calculus	36 – 40	39	36 – 38, 40<