CAT 2014: Spend more time with Game changers; focus on Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning

Updated on November 5, 2014

A ratio of 30 percent questions on DI-LR is high enough to significantly earn you a great percentile and give an edge over others

Neither the Data Interpretation nor Logical Reasoning calls for the formulae based study but needs a regular practice and concentration to ace the respective part in the two sections.

Experts on CAT 2014 suggest not to begin anything new which is difficult to understand at the juncture when 10 days are left to appear in CAT 2014 exam. Prof S K Agarwal, expert of Verbal Ability is of the view that candidates should further strengthen their strong areas and work upon more on those topics which they are already halfway through.

In fact with the publication of full length practice test by CAT Centre 2014 just 20 days before the testing day may give you a faint idea about the pattern of the exam but not the opportunity to know the exact difficulty level or the exact topics. The difficulty level, type and contents of the questions can be different from what you see in the practice test.

DI-LR: CAT 2014 game changer

15-16 questions in each section on DI-LR accumulate to 30-32 questions in the entire CAT 2014. A ratio of 30 percent questions on DI-LR is high enough to significantly earn you a great percentile and give an edge over others. Neither the Data Interpretation nor Logical Reasoning calls for the formulae based study but needs a regular practice and concentration to ace the respective part in the two sections.

Data Interpretation: 16 questions

CAT 2014 mock test available on CAT 2014 site indicates that 15-16 questions might be presented before the aspirants on Data Interpretation in the first section. Since questions on data interpretation as the name suggests focus on interpreting the data available in the question in diagrammatic, graphical, chart, tabular, bar diagram form, the examinee has to read and understand the data carefully.

The questions on DI are asked in sets. One DI problem is followed by 4-5 questions. A candidate has more time to solve one DI problem than 2-3 quant questions which may consume more time. You should however be able to analyze and compare the given data judiciously to arrive at the right answer option. You do not need to apply the mathematical formula to solve the questions. Most of the students with commerce, humanities, life sciences back ground conveniently crack these questions.

In the next 10 days of your preparation journey to CAT 2014, if you spend a little more time on questions based on Data Interpretation along with the questions on Quant, you will get a shot in the arm and boost your percentile to a good extent.

Logical Reasoning: High percentile booster

Logical Reasoning as expected to appear in CAT 2014, will play a very important part in CAT Verbal Ability section. Out of 50 questions on VALR 16 are expected only on Logical Reasoning. If a candidate even weak in Verbal and RC, practices LR well he can score a sectional percentile as high as 60-70 in CAT 2014 with no share of answers from Verbal Ability. The only need is to practice the set of LR questions the way you prepare the questions on Verbal. The preparation centres also do not focus much on this part whereas it is more scoring with the application of logical instincts.

Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability shares and suggests that Logical Reasoning needs less effort and the questions in this section are based on the natural human instincts, so they can be understood and solved fairly easily if proper attention is paid to this section. It serves as an aid to facilitate your entry to the top B-schools since it improves your percentile with a little logical understanding of the reasoning based questions. If you can hit 10 LR and 20 VA correct you may expect a percentile above 90 in this section. There is no dearth of time as well since you have no sectional time restriction in CAT 2014.

Understand the language in LR problem

The vocabulary used in logical reasoning questions is different from the one used in Verbal Ability hence it is imperative that you must have the knowledge of the terminology used in this part, since the questions are formed on the topics based on the said terminology in CAT. Certain topics on which CAT prefers to frame the questions have specific logical rules to follow to solve them.

Practice more on LR: one week is good enough

It is suggested in the interest of the aspirants to prepare, attempt and practice more and more exercises & Mocks on the following topics.

Blood Relations – family tree; Seating Arrangements; Syllogism; Proposition based followed by either deductive or inductive argument; Matching puzzles; Constraint based arrangements; Sets; Clocks and calendars; Assumptions; Binary logic; Venn Diagrams; Statements

If practiced well, Logical reasoning will turn the table in your favour. Although initially during the first 2-3 days it may consume more of your time, it will become a favourite pastime of CAT 2014 aspirants. The suggestion is to focus and practice more on DI and LR questions.