CAT 2014: Micro Analysis, Questions on Error corrections to be the game changer on Nov 22

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
November 19, 2014
The 5 questions on Error correction in Verbal Ability section may prove to be the game changer on Nov 22, 2014.
In contrast to earlier CAT exams but in accordance with published CAT 2014 mock test on its site CAT exam Centre 2014 has focused more on basics of English language this year

The 5 questions on Error correction in Verbal Ability section may prove to be the game changer on Nov 22, 2014. In contrast to earlier CAT exams but in accordance with published CAT 2014 mock test on its site CAT exam Centre 2014 has focused more on basics of English language this year. While there used to be 1or 2 very tricky questions based on Error correction in earlier CAT exams, CAT 2014 has placed 4-5 questions of moderate difficulty in the exam.

Verbal Ability section on the first day of CAT 2014 on Nov 16, 2014 comprised 34 questions   based on Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension passages and 16 questions based on Logical reasoning. The same pattern is expected on the second day of exam on November 22, 2014.

Types of questions that appeared

Format of questions based on Error correction in Grammar and language usage more or less remain the same as was there in earlier CAT exams. The questions were in the form of a paragraph containing 5 sentences marked A,B,C,D, E. Candidates were asked to pick out the correct sentences out of the paragraph.

Direction for all the questions were also the same and the candidates found 4-5 questions in each session on the same pattern on Error correction.

Difficulty level

All the questions were of moderate difficulty level and not very tricky. The 5 sentences in the short paragraph were short and the candidates who have fair knowledge of fundamentals of English Grammar, tenses could solve them quickly. In fact the difficulty level of these questions was lower than the questions available in the CAT 2014 practice test.

Those who attempted these questions with a little close reading could attempt all of them with 100 percent accuracy. It required around 6-7 minutes to attempt all the 4 questions on Error correction in Verbal Ability section.

Topics on which questions were based

Following were the major topics the usage of which was found wrong in many sentences of the question paragraphs. The correct sentences had to be picked out and in most of the cases at least 2 sentences were found correct in the paragraph.

In some sentences Singular was used instead of Plural for example instead of writing ‘A Dictionary has…’ the sentence was ‘Dictionaries has…’ was written which was wrong. Use of  adjective ‘unbelievable’ in place of adverb ‘Unbelievably’ was reported by some of the test takers. Similarly, questions were also framed on the use of Active-Passive; Punctuation; modifiers; Subject verb agreement.

Little practice would fetch good percentile

Same trend with 4-5 questions based on Error correction in English Grammar and usage is expected on CAT 2014 second day on Nov 22, 2014. Those who have practiced well the questions based on fundamentals of Grammar and have conceptual clarity would add 15 marks to their score and the percentile would also improve by 4-5 percent.

The suggestion is to practice past CAT questions especially on various grammar usage like articles, nouns, pronouns, verbs, singular-plural, adverbs, modifiers, punctuation, Reported speech, Active Passive, conditionals and unreal past, perfect tenses.

Expected deviation on Nov 22, 2014

The first day of CAT 2014 asked the candidates to pick out the correct sentences out of the given paragraph. You may find the same question in different format like ‘pick out the incorrect sentence’ in the paragraph. The piece of advice shared by Prof S K Agarwal, Verbal Ability expert and mentor on CAT preparation is to read the direction to the question before going to solve the question and jumping to answer option.

In fact Your skill in Verbal Ability implies that you should know English language usage. You need not be an expert on English Literature nor the IIMs expect you to be a professor of English but the basics of English language usage should be well understood.

In your frenzy to find big error in the sentences, please do not skip the small ones while reading the sentences. CAT 2014 second day may come to you with the sentences containing errors as small as the usage of articles like ‘a’ is placed in place of ‘an’ or vice versa.

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