Friday, 30 October 2015
The DNA of Verbal Ability in CAT (Common Admission Test)
This week we will discuss the Verbal Ability Section of the CAT (Common Admission Test). Over the years the CAT has established itself as the most sought after, yet the most difficult entrance test for MBA in India. The perception that the CAT is difficult is entrenched among the candidates. And this perception – whether right or wrong – is largely attributable to the Section on Quantitative Ability. IIM aspirants, especially non-engineers, approach the CAT rightfully with loads of material in mathematics discussing the fundamentals, solved problems, shortcuts, strategies and simulated tests.
As the preparation progresses one soon realizes that though quant is the backbone of the CAT, the decisive part of the CAT is neither Quant nor DI but the Verbal Ability section. The Verbal Ability Section of the CAT tests these areas: Reading Comprehension, English Usage (Grammar), Vocabulary, and Reasoning. Somehow, most of the students feel inadequate in all four. The rush starts – for the fundamentals, shortcuts, and strategies in Verbal. And there are none. Solved examples and simulated tests are available for the asking – but the confidence is somehow elusive.
“Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.” These words of Malcolm Gladwell (Blink) encapsulate the elusive Verbal Ability that all the entrance exams test. The deliberate thinking is to be cultivated by reading well, analysing, and training through solving problems, and taking tests. When choosing your answer, the fine balance between deliberate thinking and instinctive thinking need to be achieved. The CAT, unlike the GMAT, sometimes, compounds the problem. The choices, at times, rely more on wordplay than reasoning. Questions are, sometimes, meant to trick rather than test.
In the Verbal Ability Section of the CAT, your instincts do play a large role. An instinct that is not spoiled by conceit or coaching institutes go a long way in getting to the right answers in the CAT. However, one can take concrete steps to systematically address the inadequacy one may feel in the Verbal Section. Cultivate the reading habit so that you are comfortable with processing abstract ideas. Improve your Vocabulary the same way. Learn a lot of grammar. Take several tests. And in the process take care not to fall prey to mere ‘deliberate thinking’.
Almost 50% of the Verbal Section every year in the CAT is Reading Comprehension questions. Over the years, Reading Comprehension has become compact and difficult. The long 2400 word long passages with 10 or 12 questions gave way to shorter 900 word long passages with as few as three questions per passage. Readability decreased and options became analytical. If one concentrates on the Reading comprehension part, the Verbal Section in the CAT is more than taken care of.
Vocabulary and Grammar questions do not change much except in the format these questions are asked. A little bit of reasoning as well is involved in these questions. Proficiency in the language is more helpful than training and preparation. But prepare you must.
The miscellaneous reasoning questions like, Critical Reasoning questions (Fact, Inference, Judgment, Conclusions, and Assumptions etc.), Paragraph completion, Paragraph Jumbles and others appear off and on. The structure of the Verbal Section except for Reading Comprehension is not predictable. However, the areas tested remain the same: Reading Comprehension, English Usage, Vocabulary, and Reasoning.
In order to prepare effectively for the Verbal section, you must be ready to put in a lot of work, without looking for that elusive ‘confidence’ that may arise with efforts. It is all right if you do not feel confident in Verbal (No one can), but you must keep studying and keep taking tests. The guidance from an expert faculty can help. Above all do not allow your instinct to be corrupted – either by over analysis or by an attitude, casual or conceited.
Source: http://cplc.net.in/resources-test-prep/blogs/548-the-dna-of-verbal-ability-in-cat
Strategies to Crack Data Interpretation in CAT
Strategies to Crack Data Interpretation in CAT
The DI section in CAT can be rewarding but also your downfall if not attempted carefully. In today's article we outline some strategies that you could use to make sure that you attempt DI correctly. We have also added a smaller section on how to study for DI in the last month of preparation.
Strategies for Cracking DI
Selecting the Right Sets
Most of the times, your performance in the DI section depends on your ability to choose the right sets. In a CAT DI section, not all sets are worth attempts. There is a good spread of easy and difficult sets. The objective is to choose the easy sets and avoid the tough and time-consuming ones. What is also important is to prioritize the sets that you have chosen to solve so that you don’t end up spending too much time on any one set.
How does one select or reject a set on the face of it? There are many factors that can decide this.
1. Familiarity with the Data Representation
Sometimes the CAT examiners represent the data in a format that may be unfamiliar to you. Because of this there would be a big risk to attempt such a set as you never know how much time you might end up spending in deciphering it.
Here is a CAT 2008 set to illustrate the same:
2. The Nature of the Data Values
Sometimes, your set may have data values that are big (4 digits and more) or values that are in decimals. Usually such values are not so friendly to calculate. Hence such sets should usually be avoided.
Here is a CAT 2003 (Nov) set that falls in the above category.
3. Ability to Extract Data Values from the Set
Some times that set may be familiar to us and the data values may also be friendly, however it may be difficult to extract the exact values from the set. Since we spend considerable amount of time in calculation, we better take the correct data values and calculate. Again it is better to ignore such sets.
The following CAT 1999 set is a good example of this.
4. Other factors
Apart from the above factors, there are some other reasons why you may choose to leave or do a particular set compared to others. These are:
- How many questions follow a particular data set? – Since you are spending considerable amount of time in deciphering the data set, you might as well take maximum advantage of the time you invested.
- Are the answers options too close of far apart? – Close answer options mean, possibility of approximation are ruled out. You need to spend that extra time to calculate the answer up to the last decimal place.
- Is there a ‘Cannot be Determined’ or ‘None of these’ in the answer options? – You are not sure of your answer and need to spend that extra time to double check whether the answer is indeed one of them, or you have made some mistake in calculation or overlooked some part of the information.
5. The Correct Trade-Off between all the Evils
Having said all of the above, it is important to note that you may not have get a set that satisfies all your requirements. Every set will have some drawback or the other. There may some sets that may not be familiar to you, some others in which the data values are not good enough and others where you may not be able to extract the exact values. This does not mean you should end up leaving all the sets. Probably you may have to Trade-Off one evil for another and decide which of the evils is better to live with, in the light of your strengths. In other words, life won’t be a smooth highway ride as far as DI is concerned. You need to overcome some of the hurdles and avoid treading on some others.
Don’t get Stuck in a Jam!
At the end of the day all of us are fighting against time. This is more true for DI as you may end miscalculating your time distribution across sets if you are not sensitive to the time that you are spending on every question.
The crucial decision that you need to take is ‘All of Some’ or ‘Some of All’. What it means is, whether it is advisable to solve ‘All questions from Some sets’ or ‘Some questions from all sets’. You need to take the former strategy if you could not short-list sufficient number of DI sets in your CAT papers. Since there are a only a few sets worth attempting, you need to solve almost all the questions from them if you need to have sufficient number of attempts. On the other hand, if you that almost all the sets are equally good or equally bad, then you may take the latter strategy. In this strategy you attempt all the sets, but skip specific questions from every set that are difficult or time consuming. Thus key to attempting a DI section is to keep moving on and not get stuck on any question or any set.
How to prepare for DI in the last one month?
1. Work on Speed Calculations
It is too late in the day to work on your calculations. However, if you have still haven’t mastered it, spend a good 3-4 days on calculations. It can still do wonders! Things like Reciprocals, Squares, Square roots, Cubes, Cube Roots etc. Work the calculations out mentally. Initially it may take more than you might want it to be taking, but this habit once formed will go a long way in helping you for DI. Working on Calculations is like swimming. Once you know it, you know it. From then on you can only work on getting better.
2. Study the DI trends in actual CAT papers
Preferably solve the DI sections of all the CAT papers from 2003 onwards. Try and understand how the questions have changed from the previous years. The annexure given at the end of this report can help you in this. This should take not more than 3 days.
3. Solve Section Tests rather than Individual Sets
What is important is to simulate the CAT. Hence rather than focusing of solving individual questions, you need to solve as many section tests as possible. Take these tests under timed settings, with emphasis on selecting and prioritizing the sets.
Source:http://cplc.net.in/resources-test-prep/blogs/547-strategies-to-crack-data-interpretation-in-cat
Thursday, 29 October 2015
Shortcuts to Crack Data Interpretation Sets Containing Tables and Graphs in CAT Entrance Test
Data can be represented in the form of tables, graphs or even caselets. Data represented in the form of a table is raw and usually is quite time consuming to process such data. Analyses such as trends, problem areas, percentage distribution are quite difficult to perform when the data is represented in the form of a table. Graphs on the other hand represent the same data visually. Graphs offer the luxury of processing data by observation as we can easily see the trends and distribution. Even problem areas are easy to identify by looking at the deviation from the trends. Representing data in the form of caselets is quite uncommon in the real world. However, it is very popular with CAT examiners. In this case, date is hidden between paragraphs and you have to unearth the data as you go on reading the paragraph. This is probably the worst case of data representation when it comes to analyzing and drawing conclusions out of it. In this article we bring to you the shortcuts that will help you master these types of data representation.
Tables
Tables refer to the arrangement of data in the form of rows and columns.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| 1. Data is available in a compiled form; hence there is no ambiguity in interpretation. | 1. Trends cannot be easily established in the table. |
| 2. Data Values are directly given and hence one need not spend time finding the accurate Values. | 2. One can get confused over the sheer volume of the data. |
Shortcuts to crack DI sets containing Tables
1. Do not get carried away by the sheer amount of data, the set may be easy for all you know!!
Check out this table from CAT 2002.
At the first glance, it seems that this table has too data intensive and hence should not be attempted. But on second thoughts if you look at the questions, you will find that this is a simple set pertaining to counting some values. So rather than getting carried away by the volume of data, you need to have a look at the questions as well.
2. Modify the question such that the answers can be easily calculated.
Check out this table from CAT 2002.
In the first question, we need to find the ratio of ‘production to population’ i.e. divide the second-last column with the last one and find out how many of these values are greater than that of Gujarat. However one may find that this division results in values in fractions and hence difficult to compute. Instead, if we were to modify the question and calculate the ratio of ‘population to production’ and find out how many of these values are less than that of Gujarat, the entire calculation becomes oral. For example, for Gujarat this value is between 2 and 3. We can find that the only states for which this value is less than that of Gujarat are Haryana (1…), Punjab (1), Maharashtra (2…) and Andhra Pradesh (0…).
Similarly in the second question, we need to simply figure out that the values of the second last column need to be multiplied by 10 and this needs to be divided by the values of the last column. The states where this value is more than 4 is Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
Graphs
While tables express actual numbers, graphs are a diagrammatic representation of data. They bring out the relationship between data more clearly than numbers in a table. For example, a pie-chart can bring out clearly the percentage that Anil Ambani owns of Reliance Communications Ltd and the fact that he is the largest shareholder, while a table would require you to actually calculate the percentage of each shareholder's ownership to find out the largest shareholder. Graphs are far better to understand changes in variables - whether a particular value has risen or fallen over the past few years and hence analyze the trends.
Pie Charts
They derive their name from its shape, like that of a pie divided into various portions. They always represent data in the form of a percentage of the total, with the total percentage being 100. In such a chart, the length of the arc (and therefore the angle each sector subtends at the centre) is proportional to the quantity it represents. Such charts are often used in the corporate world and in newspapers. Since a circle comprises 360 degrees, each percent of a pie-chart is equal to 360 divided by 100, or 3.6 degrees. This fact will be important for the calculations you are expected to perform.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| 1. More effective in calculating the percentage share of each element in the total. | 1. Less accurate than tables as one may take time to establish values. |
| 2. Questions based on comparisons can be effectively solved using pie charts. | 2. Trends cannot be established in a pie-chart. |
| 3. One pie chart can represent only one data set. Hence, when a question pertaining to pie chart is asked, in most cases data pertaining to only one or two data sets are asked. Because of this a student need to handle only limited number of data values. |
Shortcuts to crack DI sets containing Pie Charts
1. Ignore the overall value in comparison based questions and avoid calculating every value.
Here is a CAT 2002 set to illustrate the same.
In the above question, a normal tendency would be to calculate the value and quantity for all 6 suppliers and find out for which country is this ratio the highest. However you need not do this! Since the overall values of both the pie-charts are same for all the countries, we need to simply compare the ratio of the respective percentages of the two pie-charts. This ratio is close to 2 for Switzerland (20 / 11). No other country is even close to this.
2. Replace big values by small values for comparison sake.
Consider this CAT 1999 set for example.
In the first question above, though we can shortlist OPEC (H) and Asia (I) by the sheer value of the percentages, it would take a little while to shortlist between the two. What you could have done is instead of taking the values as $40,779 and $33,979, we could have approximated it as 41 : 34 or approximately 6 : 5. Now, with these values, we can compare H and I easily. For example, in case of H, the total trade would be (23 × 6) + (10 × 5) = 188 and in case of I it would be (14 × 6) + (20 × 5) = 184. Clearly the value is higher for H i.e. OPEC.
3. Deploy smart techniques to do percentage calculations.
Check out this CAT 1995 question.
The above question can be solved in two ways:
Traditional Method: Interest in 1990-91 = 28% of 120 = 33.6, Interest in 1991-92 = 42% of 150 = 63. Hence Percentage increase = 29.4 / 33.6 = 87.5%. Obviously, this would involve some bit of caluculation.
CPLC Method: Overall Operating Profit has increase by 25% i.e. from 120 to 150 (this can be done mentally). The percentage share of interest has increased by 50% i.e. from 28 to 42 (this can be done mentally). Hence, the overall Percentage increase in interest value will be successive percentage of these two values i.e. 25 + 50 + 12.5 = 87.5% (this can be done mentally as well.
What is also means is that if we were required to find that component which has undergone the highest / lowest percentage change over the two years, you can simply find out that component that has undergone the highest / lowest percentage change in its market shares and get the answer. You need not bring the overall values (120 and 150) into the picture at all!
Bar Graphs
Bar graphs represent data in the form of columns or bars. Bar graphs can be horizontal or vertical. The length of the bar is proportional to the data value represented by it.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| 1. Trends can be easily established as compared to tables and pie-charts. | 1. Less accurate than tables as at times, especially when the grid lines of the graph are missing because of which exact value of the bar cannot be accurately established. |
| 2. Comparative type questions can be easily solved by visual inspection of graph. | 2. The graph may get a little complicated in case of multiple bar chart or stacked bar chart. |
Shortcuts to crack DI sets containing Bar Graphs
1. In comparison based questions use the lengths of the bar and not exact values to solve the questions visually.
Here is a CAT 2003 (Feb) DI set to illustrate the same.
It is clear that to solve the above question we need to look at the second graph. However, rather than struggling to get the exact values and then spending more time diving them to get the answer, we can do better by solving the question visually. The question boils down to diving the un-shaded bars by the shaded ones and find out for which year would this value be the highest. For a fraction to be the highest, its numerator should be as high as possible and the denominator should be as low as possible. In other words, the un-shaded bar should be as long as possible and the shaded bar should be as short as possible. This is clearly seen for the year 1995.
2. Use the grid lines effectively for quick calculations.
Let us solve this CAT 1996 question to understand the same.
One way to solve the above question is to add up the exact values and get the answer. The other way is to establish every value of the Revenue in terms of ‘Gridlines’. For example, in 1991, the value of Revenue corresponds to 5.75 gridlines. Similarly for 1992 it is 6.5, for 1993 it is 7.5, for 1994 it is 8 and for 1995 it is 8.75. If we were to add all, we get a value equivalent to 36.5 gridlines. Since we know every gridline corresponds to a value of 25 lakhs, every 4 gridlines would correspond to a value of 100 lakhs or 36 gridlines would correspond to a value of 900 lakhs. Plus another 0.5 grid lines corresponds to 12.5 lakhs. Thus the total revenue for the given 5 years is 912.5 lakhs.
This method helps you to deal with single-digit or two-digit values and hence enhance your calculation speed.
Line Graphs
Line graph represents data in the form of straight lines that connect various data values. Both line graphs and bar graphs are used to convey same things and hence can be used inter-changeably. For example, a line graph can be generated by joining the tip of the bar graph.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| 1. Trends can be even better established in Line graphs than Bar graphs. | 1. It has a similar disadvantage as the Bar graph in terms of establishing the exact values |
| 2. Questions pertaining to percentage change and growth rates become easier to solve using line graphs. | 2. Line graphs can only indicate the value at the end of a certain period and not between any two values./td> |
Shortcuts to crack DI sets containing Line Graphs
1. Use the advantage of looking at slope of the line in questions pertaining to growth rates.
Let us have a look at this CAT 2003 (Nov) example to drive home the point.
The growth rate or the decline rate is calculated as the growth or the decline as a percentage of the initial value. For this rate to be highest, the growth or the decline has to be the highest on a very small initial value. While for this rate to be the lowest, the growth or the decline has to be the lowest on a very high initial value.
For the first question, we need to compare the values pertaining to the ‘0th month’ and the ‘2nd month’. Now looking at the slope (steepness) of the graph, it is clear that the answer is Geeta. For her the growth is the highest and that has happened on a very small initial value.
For the second question, we need to compare values pertaining to the ‘0th month’ and the ‘5th month’. Again, it is very clear that the answer is Shyam. The growth is the least in his case and that too on a very high initial value.
2. Beware that in a Line graph you can only know value at the end of a certain time period and not the values in between two time periods.
Here is a CAT 2003 (Feb) set to understand this.
In the above graph, how many times during the given time period do you think was the price of Rice and Onion the same?
From the graph, it seems like 3, because the two graphs intersect thrice – once between 96 and 97, once between 98 and 99 and once at 2000. However, we can only be sure about the year 2000. What is important to know is that the line graph can only show the values at the end of a particular time period (in this case ‘year’). We can never comment what happened in between two years. For example, at the end of 1996, the price of Rice was Rs.12/kg and at the end of 1997 it was Rs.10/kg. Similarly, the price of Onion was Rs.10/kg and Rs.18/kg between these two time periods. We had to join these two points by a straight line, and they intersect at a point (in this case at Rs.11/kg). This is no way indicates that the prices of these two commodities had been Rs.11/kg between 1996 and 1997.
Caselets
In caselets, the mathematical data is represented in the form of a paragraph. Hence extracting data and establishing relationships between different data values becomes difficult. However caselets are very popular with CAT examiners.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| 1. Most caselets seem difficult due to lack of data values, but are very easy when you get down to solving them. | 1. Data values are not easily available and hence you need to have a lot of patience to decipher a lot of it after reading the passage. |
Shortcuts to crack DI sets containing Caselets
1. Represent the data in a form such that you can easily extract the data for the questions that follow
Let us look at this CAT 2005 set to understand this.
The above set can be represented in the form of a Venn Diagram having three sets TR, FR and ER. Similarly, you can represent data in the form of a Table or a Network. The idea is to help us get the required data with a single glance upon reading the question.
2. Always start a caselet with a value that you can directly plug in.
Have a look at this CAT 1991 caselet:
The only value that one can see in the entire caselet is that at the end, he had a balance of Rs.11,000/-. This is good place to start this caselet from. Try to work out other values from this value now.
Combined Data Sets
Data is represented in two or more different types of data sets. It could be combination of a table and a graph or two or more graphs. You may have to correlate the data in different data sets to solve these questions. Thus interpret ting data takes time. These type of sets are very common in GRE. However since CAT is going online, there is a good chance that these sets may figure in CAT as well. However our gut feel is that if such a set comes in CAT, then it would not be heavy on data and be an easy set to interpret because of the limited space on the computer screen.
Shortcuts to crack DI sets containing Combined Data Sets
1. Try to establish a relationship between different data sets
Here is CAT 1996 set to understand Combined Data sets:
If you realize, in the above set, you need to first get the number of students who passed out every year from the line graph given below. For Eg. 800 students passed out in 1992. Of these students, what percentage of students opted for what specialization is given in Table 1. Thus, of this 800 students, 12% opted for Finance which accounts for 96 students. And finally, the average starting salaries of these specializataions is given in Table 2. Thus, in 1992, the average starting salaries of 96 students who opted for finance was Rs.5450 per month. It is important to also note that the average starting salaries of students who opted for ‘Other’ specialization cannot be established.
Source:http://cplc.net.in/
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