First section on First day of CAT 2014 on Nov 16, 2014 brought a few tricky questions based on Data Interpretation. While most of the candidates found Quant questions moderately difficult, the DI question sets were rated as more tricky and time consuming.
An interesting revelation made by some of the test takers after appearing in CAT 2014 exam on Nov 16, 2014 was that they began well to attempt the Data Interpretation questions but got trapped in the data-maze which required tricky comparison in many questions. The comparison points in DI questions were different and were spread over many parameters which consumed more time. In the view of these test takers, it would have been better to attempt more quant questions instead of wasting more time on DI questions.
But it is also a fact that those who practiced well on different type of DI question sets before their CAT 2014 could crack more DI questions, however time consuming they would have been.
Another revealing fact is that those who could crack Data Interpretation question sets faster than their peers with accuracy could turn the tables in their favour as higher the difficulty, lower is the cut off and lower is the difficulty higher is the cut off. Hence those who attempted more DI questions can expect higher percentile in the first section provided they also attempted Quant questions in good number as their peers did.
Number of questions
DI questions in the first section were16 in number on November 16, 2014 in each of the 2 sessions of CAT 2014. Questions in this part were divided in 4 sets based on 4 problems followed by 4 questions in each set. Candidates on the first day of CAT 2014 found DI questions more tricky and time consuming and no doubt in comparison to Quant, DI was more time consuming.
What CAT 2014 asked on DI
The 4 sets in DI were based on more comparative data which were further divided in different sections like years, topics, subjects, courses, placements years. Questions were also based on various assumptions and the test taker was supposed to arrive at the right answer option after incorporating the assumption as given in the question direction apart from comparing the data minutely on all the counts.
The 4 problem sets were placed in the form of tables, charts, diagrams, graphs and students surely needed more time to crack the one problem set with 4 questions than was required to solve 6 quant questions.
Uneasiness with DI among test takers
Many candidates after viewing the Data Interpretation questions left them for later attempts and preferred the quant questions first to maximize their scores. Number of other test takers on the first day adopted another testing room strategy which was not to leave the DI question set half way once you have already spent 3-4 minutes to it. So they solved one set by spending a little more time than what they had already spent on it and then returned to Quant part of the first section or switched over to Verbal Section since there was no sectional time constraint and test takers are allowed to freely toggle between the 2 sections of CAT 2014 new exam.
Nov 22: Same pattern expected
According to Prof S K Agarwal, expert and mentor on CAT preparation, same pattern of Data Interpretation questions is expected in next session of CAT 2014. Question sets are expected to test your skill whether you are able to compare the scattered and tricky data and arrive at the right answer option. The best way to crack this part in CAT 2014 is to practice about 10-20 different type of questions of versatile nature.
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