Gauri Chhabra
October 16, 2013, the CAT was out of the bag. Like the annual budget, it attracted a mixed set of responses. For some it has been smooth sailing with a little bit of rough weather, for others it has been a bolt from the blue.
The identification proof
Nitesh Jain, faculty, Career Launcher Ludhiana who appeared for the CAT at SASIIT, Sec 72, Phase II,Mohali on October 19,2013 said that CAT has maintained its tradition of being the toughest aptitude examination. When asked about the process before the entry to examination hall he explained, “The first entry point marked the checking of documents and verification of identity.Only the Admit card and identification documents were allowed beyond the point set for identity proof. We had to stand before a computer to get their image and finger prints captured. This procedure didn’t take long and immediately after that, we were escorted in the same order to the designated work station in the testing lab. The Test Centre Administrators (TCA) had to sign in every candidate. The image of the test taker appeared on the computer screen, when he was signed in.There were instructions being issued on various do’s and don’ts during the examination. All the candidates were provided with two pencils, one eraser and scratch paper. All these were to be returned on completion of the examination.There was tutorial available and everyone was asked to go through it before the examination. It was good enough to understand the navigation tools, ‘mark’, ‘unmark’, ‘review’ etc. buttons and there were no practice questions in the tutorial”.
The start
The test started with a disclosure agreement that appeared on the screen, which had to be clicked on ‘I agree’. The first section appeared with Quant and DI questions; 30 questions had to be solved in 70 minutes. Candidates, in accordance with their learning experience, found Quant a little more difficult in the first session of CAT 2013 and DI comparatively easy but confusing. There were more geometry based questions, so the expert in this area did well. Overall this section was doable. A few of the candidates were not feeling comfortable with Quant and couldn’t go beyond 14-16 questions in this section. Only when 70 minutes elapse are you allowed to move from the first section to the second.
Test takers’ Speak
Nitesh Jain who is a repeat taker of the test said” The Quant section has been the most difficult section in the past 3 years. However, even if you were able to relatively shuffle through the questions and 15-20 questions from the section with accuracy, you would bag a good percentile”
However, some first timers had a different opinion.
BCom graduate Amrita Sharma said”The Quant section bowled me over. I am worried,”.
Quantitative Ability- the tough turf
Keeping its tradition alive, this year’s CAT too had a tricky and brain scratching quantitative Ability section.Most of the questions were based on Geometry and Algebra. Other topics contributing to this section were Arithmetic, Trigonometry, Functions, Mensuration, Time speed & Distance. Number Systems, Permutation & Combination were not present in many question sets. Data Interpretation area saw questions on Pie Chart and Case lets. Out of total 30 questions in this section, 21 were based on Quant and 9 on DI.
According to Mr. Nitesh, Career Launcher” the Quant section has been the most difficult section that has appeared in the past 3 years while the Data Interpretation were less difficult but time consuming due to their calculation intensive nature. Since each candidate got a different question paper, it all boiled down to picking the questions that were less tricky. If you spend 3 minutes on a question and then chuck it out, you have wasted a lot of time”.
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning – No surprises there
Second section comprising 30 questions, had 20 questions on Verbal Ability including three questions on critical reasoning – completion of last sentence of paragraph and 10 questions on Logical Reasoning. The section was not very tough and therefore would have a higher cut-off percentile.
The Reading Comprehension passageswere all based on Philosophy, Literature and History called for inferential and attentive reading. There were a few common questions on these passages. Out of 10 questions two questions were ‘What is the Tone of the passage’; 3 questions were on ‘summarise the Main idea of the passage’. Once you were able to detect the tone of the passage, it was smooth sailing. Other questions were based on meaning of the phrases and information available in the passages
Three paragraphs with jumbled sentences appeared in the examination. The surprise of CAT 2012 was repeated and one question to pick out the ‘Out of context sentence’ again found the place in parajumbles, though there was no fresh surprise. The two other questions were based on random jumbled sentences. The questions were not very difficult. Those who practiced a little could attempt them well. The contextual vocabulary usage questions required us to fill in the blanks with the appropriate pair of words.
Logical reasoning constituted sets, arrangements, arguments and was not very difficult although a little time consuming.
A piece of advice
Mr Jain said, “Looking at the pattern, you should now devote more time to practice questions on Geometry and Algebra also. The relative difficulty level is supposed to remain the same. With this difficulty level, a higher percentile can be scored, if you are able to crack 13-15 questions in Quant and DI with 100 percent accuracy level. The questions can follow any pattern from easy to complex and also complex to easy. So, maintain your calm and handpick the questions that are crackable
For Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning, the level of difficulty is expected to remain the same. All you need is practice. For Parajumbles, look for connecting words like ‘those’, ‘these’, ‘this’, ‘who’, ‘as’ . Besides, any sentence depicting a thought, different from the flow of action, should be construed as ‘out of context sentence. Cracking contextual vocabulary would require common sense more than anything else.It is not required to cram your head on learning the words. Read and understand their usage. It will help to mark at least two of the vocabulary questions right.
The trick is to opt for the sentence that should conclude the paragraph and should not take the thought to any further discussion. For Logical Reasoning, practice more on sets and arrangements.”
Thus, focus and commitment are the two key mantras to clear the CAT.
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