MBAUniverse.com hosted live expert chat on Monday, October 17, 2011 with Vinayak Kudva, Product Head, IMS Learning on last lap of CAT 2011.
Q: Geetika: How much importance should I give to sentence correction questions of VA area? This area is unpredictable. So is it a good strategy to focus on other areas and leave it that will fetch me more correct answers?
A: Geetika, if you are able to achieve your target attempts and accuracy by skipping the sentence correction questions then go ahead and skip them. You should not regret missing out on a very simple sentence correction question due to your strategy of solving questions from pre-selected areas even if it means solving some questions that are more difficult and time-consuming.
Q: Geetika: Please advice for answering the tricky questions of RC passages.
A: Often, the reason for getting caught between two options is not grasping the argument along with all its subtleties. Read the PASSAGE FIRST, QUESTIONS NEXT. DO NOT read the questions first. Unknowingly you will not be reading the entire passage, but only trying to find the content relevant to answering the question.
Q: Rahul: Hello sir. I have selected 29th Oct for CAT. Can you please tell me what should be my strategy in these last two weeks?
A: Hi Rahul! A suggested strategy is to take a test every four days. While taking the test, you could mentally slot the questions into those that you can Understand and solve , Can solve but will take time and Can’t solve (whatever the reason may be).
Q: Gopal: How many questions will be sufficient to attempt? What should be strategy at this particular stage?
A: In general, you should look at a minimum attempt of around 24 to 25 questions and push this upwards if the test happens to be on the easier side.
Q: Taksh: Sir my problem is with data sufficiency questions. I am not getting them right. And there are a few areas of mine which are not very strong. I practice them but results are not 100 per cent. What should I do?
A: For Data Sufficiency questions, you generally need to have a flow-chart like approach. First, read and comprehend the basic data given - do not assume anything apart from the basic rules and formulae. Next, combine the individual statements (one by one independently) with the basic data to see if you get the specific info that you are looking for. If one or both statements by themselves give you the specific info that you are looking for - you do not need to proceed further. Else, you need to combine both statements with the basic data to see if you can get the specific info that you are looking for.
Q: Ashwani: I am weak in Quantitative Ability. How would I be able to overcome? I am not getting satisfactory score in the mock tests. Please suggest.
A: Hi Ashwani. Set realistic targets and go after achieving them. It is better to get a 90+ percentile by solving 50 per cent questions with around 80 per cent accuracy than be stuck with 60 to 70 percentile. First, try and achieve a 50 percent attempt per section by identifying those areas where you generally do well.
Q: Karan: Sir what should be the time spent on each question of Quant, DI set, logical, per RC and other verbal variations. Please provide a rough estimate for each of these types.
A: Hello Karan. On an average you should not spend more than two to three minutes per question, in case of Quant, LR and DI. So, in case you have a DI or LR set with three questions, do not spend more than eight to nine minutes on the same. In the verbal section, the grammar and vocabulary questions do not need more than a minute on an average. You either know the answers to these questions or you don't. The verbal reasoning questions would probably need around two to two-and-a-half minutes per question. For RC, you could look at spending around 10 minutes on a passage with three questions.
