Candidate-Experiences |   3883

Candidate-Experiences

Hi Friends, I would like to introduce myself as Bedanta Banerjee from Netaji Subhash Engineering Collage, Garia, Kolkata. I have sat for TCS offcampass drive on 22nd August, 2010 in Techno India Collage, Salt Lake. When I am writing this article, I already got selected in TCS and got the offer letter. Fresherworld and its placement papers helped me a lot and I am thankful to them. This made me to open my pen to share my experiences with you and if you sincerely follow my rules, you will definitely clear the entire selection process with ease.

Touchstone test:

At first, I would like to introduce you to the Touchstone test of TCS generated by TCS employees and IIT
students; This is the aptitude test which you have to clear first.  It consists of more than 2 lakhs questions on mainly quantitative aptitude. Don’t be frightened because of it's sheer volume; actually it consists of only 300 around questions with interchanged data. Touchstone test is a computer based test and it asks you to complete 35 questions within 60 minutes. Again, I am saying that it is a very very easy test to clear, try to follow my rules. A 3 to 4  day preparation is enough.
 
3 day preparation strategy 4 touchstone test :

Rule 1: Prepare yourself on the following topics; Just brush up your basics: ages, percentages, ratio and proportion, numbers, time and distance, sequence, time and work, probability, permutation and combination &  blood relation. {Here probability and per/com is optional because it carries only 3-4 questions on it.}

Rule 2: Go through the previous papers in fresherworld of this test. I have also giving you some relevant questions which appeared in our test.

Rule 3: Try to solve the questions by yourself; don't memorize them because data will be changed.

Rule 4:  Try to just interchange the data of the questions and solve them faster and faster. The Time Management is a important skill often tested in aptitude test. So by practicing the questions given below try to develop speed and accuracy.

Rule 5: Speed reading is a important part of this test as all the questions do have some irrelevant data. So in these 3  days of preparation, try to find the relevant data from the question and read very fast.

Tricks for aptitude test: 

1) You will be asked to answer 35 questions in 60 minutes. At the beginning, don’t even think to answer all questions.

2) Just go through all the 35 questions and solve the easy ones. Every paper consists of minimum 15-17 easy questions and rest of them moderately difficult.

3) Try to answer the easy ones 15-16 questions out of 35 within 45 mins and also write the individual number of moderately easy ones or mark them [that u think can do within 3-4 mins ] in the scratch paper.

4) Last 12-15 mins of the exam, try to solve the marked ones, atleast of 5 them.

5) The difference between you and others will lay answering marked ones, so try to solve the easy 15-16 as fast as you can. [Caution: you try to believe that u can acquire 100% accuracy in easy questions; so complete the easy questions of entire range question number 1 to 35 within 40-45 mins.]

5) So after the time is completed, you will find urself answering 22-24 questions without any rigorous preparation. Those who r a bit slower in calculations can also clear this test by my plan. And cut off, as I already mentioned, lies below 20 around 18-19.

6) Last but not the least, don't try to mark the questions you are not absolutely sure; as the paper consists of negative marking, you will not be able to meet the cutoff.

Some examples of touchstone test:

1. Which is the smallest no divides 2880 and gives a perfect square?
a.1    b.2   c.5   d.6
Ans: c

2. Two bowls are taken, one contains water and another contains tea. Equal amount . one spoon of water from 1st is added to second bowl and mixed well, and a spoon of mixture is taken from second bowl and added to the 1st bowl. Which statement will hold good for the above?

{

Thought process : 

Water bowl                                                                tea bowl

100                                                                                                 100

90w (+10w= spoon vol)                                        100tea+10water

90w+ (10*10/11)tea+ 10/11 w                                100t- (10*10/11) t

                                                                                        + 10w- 10/11w

(1st bowl’s water vol is equal to 2nd bowls tea volume)

3. Form 8 digit numbers from by using 1, 2,3,4,5 with repetition is allowed and must be divisible by4?
a.31250    b.97656   c.78125   d.97657 
Ans: c
 
4. Rearrange and categorize the word ‘RAPETEKA’?
Ans: Bird

5. One problem on (785^3-235^3)/(785^2+785*235+235^2)

Ans: You are free to carry a calculator with you but you should not use it to solve this kind of problem. Because it is simple:
A3-b3 / a2+ab+b2
Ans is : a-b here 785-235= 550 thats it.  
 
6. In school there are some bicycles and 4 wheeler wagons. One Tuesday there are 190 wheels in the campus. How many bicycles are there?
Ans: 15

Thought process : b*2+w*4=190   i.e. , b+2w=95 now see u ca not solve 2 unknowns fron 1 eqation, so just plot options here to get the right answer  and verify if you are getting integers as vales of B and W.

7. There are two persons paul and Jay .Paul lies on Monday,Tuesday,Wednesday and the remaining days he speaks truth.Jay lies on Thursday,Friday,Saturday and the remaining Days he speaks truth. once they meet each other, in their conversation Paul says that  yesterday is the day one among those I lie. Jay also says that yesterday  I also lie. what is that day?

a) Sunday.  b) Tuesday.  c) Thursday.  d) Wednesday
[Thought process: Now this day cannot be Sunday because in Monday paul speaks truth and Sunday everyone tells truth. So it must be weekdays. Again, Tuesday  can not possible because Monday and Tuesday paul speaks truth. In case of thrus day, paul speaks lie and Wednesday he speaks true. And joy speaks truth in thrusday and he speak lies in Wednesday.  So, thrusday is the answer.
 
8. A father has 7 penny’s with him and 1 water melon is for 1p, 2chickoos for 1p, 3 grapes foe 1p. He has three sons. How can he share the fruits equally?
Ans: 1 watermelon, 2chickoos, 1grape
 
9. (1/2) of a number is 3 times more than the (1/6) of the same number?
Ans: 9
 
10. There are two pipes A and B. If A filled 10 liters in hour B can fills 20 liters in same time. Likewise B can fill 10, 20, 40, 80,160…. If B filled in (1/16) th of a tank in 3 hours, how much time will it take to fill completely?
Ans: 7 hours
 
11.  A man is standing before a painting of a man and he says I have no bro and sis and his [painted picture] father is my father’s son?
Ans: His son
 
12. One question has last part like difference between two terms is 9 and product of two numbers is 10, what is the squares of sum of numbers?
 
Ans: thought process : a-b=9  and  ab= 10
 
a+b = sqrt[9^2 + 4*10] = 11
a= 10 and b=1 so 101 ans.
 
13. What is the value of [(3x+8Y)/(x-2Y)]; if x/2y=2?
Ans:10 {the numerical may change)
 
14.   A pizza shop made pizzas with to flavours.in home there are ‘N’ different flavors, in that ‘M’ flavors are taken to made pizza.in how many ways they can arrange?
(Logic: NcM )
 
14. One grandfather has three grandchildren, two of their age difference is 3, eldest child age is 3 times youngest child’s age and eldest child’s age is two times of sum of other two children. What is the age of eldest child?
Ans:15
 
15 . In one organization, material,  labour and maintenance are in the ratio of 4:6:7, the material cost is: Rs. 100, what is the total cost?
Ans: 425

16. KEYWORDS: density, reluctance, sensitivity, voltage, current, what is the resistance Formula is “R=V/I”

17.   In a market 4 man are standing .the average age of the four before 4 years is 45, after some days one man is added and his age is 49. What is the average age of all?
Ans: 49
 
18.   In a school for a student out of a 100 he got 74 of average for 7 subjects and he got 79 marks in 8th subject. what is the average of all the subjects?
Ans: 74.625
 
19.  In a question ,last part has, the ages of two people has the ratio of 6:6 and by adding the numbers we get 44, after how many years the ratio would be 8:7?
Ans: 8
 
20. One train travels 200m from A to B with 70 km/ph and returns to A with 80kmph, what is the average of their speed?
Ans: Use harmonic mean formula: avg speed = 2ab/a+b  = 2*70*80/150

21. A question  like a wire is wound whose resistance is  some 132. 44647 ohms. If a voltage of 30 mv, 296 ma current is applied to it what is the resistance.

Clue: use formula  R= V/I. beware of voltage & current particularly kilo or milli etc. units.

22. In a city,  there are 100 buildings numbered by corporation between 0-100, how many twos are shown in door,
Ans: 2,12,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,32,42,52,62,72,82,92=(20 twos)

I have attempted 28 questions in the test and meet the cut off with ease. My name was 1st to be declared. In our offcampus batch of aptitude, out of 90+ students only 22 names were declared. So when it will be your turn, make sure that your name will be declared.

I think my plan to tackle the test will give you an extra edge; best of luck to you all those will be going to sit for the test in 2011.

See you at TCS. I can be reached any time at bedanta.passionate@gmail.com

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