CAT 2014 proposes to introduce number of changes in the exam pattern as revealed in the practice test made available on CAT 2014 website on October 28, 2014. Going by the pattern reflected in the practice test, the Verbal Ability part in second section appears to get a total face change with number and type of questions. According to Prof S K Agarwal, Mentor and expert on Verbal Ability for CAT preparation it is the Verbal Ability that bears most the brunt of changes in CAT as there is not much scope for CAT paper setters to bring too many changes in Quant and DI section. The scope of changes in source topics, question pattern, type and formation of questions is always more in Verbal Ability section.
Well composed Full Length Practice test
The practice test for CAT 2014, in view of Prof S K Agarwal Verbal Ability expert is a well composed one. The best part of the test is that it is a full length test with 100 questions with full time limit of 170 minutes. In earlier years CAT Practice Tests used to contain only a few sample questions which didn’t reflect much about the actual test. CAT 2014 mock test, in fact was much awaited due to many proposed changes in the exam pattern.
Will the type of questions be same in actual CAT 2014?
According to Prof S K Agarwal it is not necessary that the type and pattern of questions would remain absolutely similar. The demo test as conveyed by CAT Centre 2014 “The objective of this sample/ Mock CAT paper is to make the candidates aware of the test environment. The actual content along with the difficulty level will differ from the content shown in the sample /mock CAT paper.”
Number of aspirants have been approaching MBAUniverse.com to enquire whether the questions will of similar type, whether difficulty level will be same, whether questions will be formed only on these topics only. Replying to all such queries Prof S K Agarwal shares only 2 character answer ‘No’.
Prof S K Agarwal shares that changes and surprises in questions on Verbal Ability are not new in CAT. In CAT 2006 Verbal Ability had a new type of question ‘completion of paragraph’. The question asked the candidates to pick out the most appropriate answer option that could be the last sentence to complete the incomplete paragraph. In CAT 2012 another surprise was thrown in the form of new question type in Verbal Ability section and that was to pick out the ‘out of context sentence’ in a jumbled paragraph. CAT aspirants were already having a tough time in placing the jumbled sentences to form a coherent paragraph, this new type gave them a tough ride.
CAT 2014 has totally revamped the test paper and now instead of 30 questions aspirants are going to face 50 questions in Verbal Ability section on a reduced time allotted per question. The practice test reveals that questions on number of topics may go missing while many questions on other forgotten topics may be added in actual CAT 2014 exam.
Let us know expected major changes in Verbal Ability section
16 different questions on RC Passages
CAT 2014 is expected to have 4 Reading Comprehension passages of fairly good length. Each passage will be followed by 4 question. Earlier CAT used to have 3 passages with 10 questions in all. Apart from this 2 passages were comparatively shorter followed by 3 questions each while one passage was longer with 4 questions.
Earlier CAT exam used to have few common questions on all the RC passages like ‘Tone of the author’; ‘Main idea of the passage’; ‘Purpose of passage’ it appears all such common questions may go missing. Question to pick out the meaning of phrases as used in the passages may however be there. Tone of the author might be replaced with ‘Attitude’ of the author. While the passages made available in the practice test are either not very difficult or are taken from past CAT exams, the expected difficulty level in CAT 2014 exam will be higher.
Reading comprehension will still play the most important role in Verbal Ability section. The 16 RC questions out of 34 questions on Verbal Ability in second section with 50 questions constitute roughly 32% share which will be a major part to push the percentile up in CAT 2014 exam.
Following type of questions may not appear
According to Prof S K Agarwal, Verbal Ability expert, questions on ‘Out of context sentence’; ‘Completion of paragraph’; ‘Last sentence of paragraph’ may not appear in CAT 2014 since they have also not marked their presence in CAT 2014 practice test in the 100 selected questions. In all probability such questions may not appear in CAT 2014 actual test and new type of questions would replace these questions.
Expect more questions on Error correction
More questions on correction of Grammatical Errors on the existing CAT pattern have also found a major role to play in CAT 2014 practice test. In earlier CAT exams there used to be 1 or 2 such questions in a session. Now there are 7 questions to find out the correct use of grammar in practice test. It is expected that the same trend might be repeated in CAT 2014 exam.
Questions on Vocabulary usage missing
It appears that Vocabulary based questions wouldn’t find prominence in CAT 2014 as no question in practice test is shared with the contextual use of rich vocabulary. Earlier CAT exams used to have 4-5 questions on vocabulary usage, for example 1-2 questions were there on similar sounding/confused words; 2 questions appeared to pick out the incorrect use of common words/phrasal verb; 1-2 questions were asked to fill in the blanks with most appropriate pair of words.
The practice test for CAT 2014 has not shared even a single question on vocabulary usage and it appears that questions on Vocabulary may not be present, although CAT is famous for throwing surprise element in actual test, so do not stop preparing the contextual use of vocabulary words.
Questions to describe the summary of text
There are 3 new types of questions present in Verbal Ability section of the practice test. The question is based on a small text. CAT 2014 aspirant is supposed to go through the text, form the summary of the text and pick out the most appropriate option that best describes the summary of the text. There were no such questions in past many years in CAT.
To prepare for such questions, a candidate should develop good reading habit, should practice writing summary of a paragraph on regular basis. Answering such question may not be difficult then.
5 statement based questions
A new type of question has been placed in Verbal Ability section in the CAT 2014 practice test. Number of such questions is 5 and they are more related to Critical reasoning. Question is based on 4 sequentially ordered statements. Each statement can be classified as Fact, Inference or Judgment. The question is followed by 4 options and the most appropriate option that describes the sequence of these statements is to be picked out. Such questions were not being asked in many earlier CAT exams.
Modify the preparation strategy a little
Most of the CAT 2014 aspirants have been devoting more time in learning vocabulary words, practicing questions like picking the out of context sentence in a jumbled paragraph; ‘Last sentence of paragraph’. Since more new types of questions are proposed to be added to CAT 2014 Verbal Ability section, following is suggested to modify in the preparation strategy
- Read editorial in the newspaper daily, make a summary of the paragraph in one fourth of its original size and check whether any point is left
- Practice statement based questions more. You may find them in Critical/Logical reasoning part of the book you are studying
- Improve your reading speed. Read with accuracy and practice more RC passages.
- Devote more hours in continuity to your studies
Related Links
CAT 2014 New Exam Pattern: Live on Oct 28, 2014; familiarize with new pattern and questions
CAT 2014: Know the section wise expected number & type of questions while practice test awaited
CAT 2014 Test Day Guide out; reveals important dos and donts for the exam day
CAT 2014: Aspirants waiting for practice test to best utilize the Diwali Holidays
CAT 2014: 5 big changes revealed on Test day Video; listen and read carefully
CAT 2014 Test day video launched; Examinees to report 2 hours before the test at Exam centre
CAT 2014 Admit Card: All the details available; Check carefully to confirm your candidature
CAT 2014 Admit Card is out: Download now and take the print
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2014 Exam pattern
