CAT 2015 to be convened by IIM Ahmedabad proposes to introduce number of changes in the exam pattern and major part of these changes would be in Verbal Ability section as revealed by the sources. The CAT 2015 aspirant, if focuses well on this section comprising Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning could sure turn the table in his favour by scoring high percentile in the exam.
The Verbal Ability part in second section, it appears would 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.
Although the exact nature of the Verbal Ability section in CAT 2015 may not be known till the exam is held, it has also been made clear by CAT 2015 convening IIM Ahmedabad that the exam would be over in a single day. Hence there would not be any scope for CAT 2015 aspirants to learn from the previous day and session as to what is expected on the next testing day in CAT 2015.
In CAT 2014 also, despite knowing that there would be 50 questions in Verbal Ability section the question topics could come to be known only when the practice test for CAT 2014 was out. In view of Prof S K Agarwal Verbal Ability expert although the pattern of questions in Verbal Ability section in CAT 2015 is expected to remain the same, more topics could be included in CAT 2015. Questions on such topics as did not make their appearance in CAT 2014 in Verbal Ability section could be asked in CAT 2015. It is expected that before the actual CAT 2015 exam, a full length practice test would be placed by CAT 2015 centre to make you familiar with the real exam.
Revamped VA section in CAT 2015
CAT 2015 is expected to have totally revamped Verbal Ability section. The section is proposed to have 50 questions with a reduced time allotted per question. While Verbal Ability is proposed to have the lion’s share with 34-36 questions in this section, Logical Reasoning questions would be limited between 14 to 16 out of 50. Those who can fare well in Verbal Ability part may score a high percentile in this section.
It is also very much possible that questions on number of topics that appeared in CAT 2014 may go missing while many questions on other forgotten topics may be added in actual CAT 2015 exam.
Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor CAT 2015 preparation 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 2015 to have 4 RC passages with 16 questions
CAT 2015 is expected to have 4 Reading Comprehension passages of 800-900 words length. Each passage is expected to be followed by 4 questions. 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.
The type of questions which are supposed to follow RC passages could be based on their contents, phrases used in the passages and could be little indirect ones. Besides there could be questions on True/False statements related to RC passages. 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. Tone of the author might be replaced with ‘Attitude’ of the author.
Reading comprehension will play the most important role in Verbal Ability section. The 16 RC questions out of 34-36 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 2015 exam.
Questions on Grammar Usage to play important role
More questions on correction of Grammatical Errors on the existing CAT pattern will also find a major role to play in CAT 2015. In earlier CAT exams there used to be 1 or 2 such questions in a session. Now there could be 6-7 questions to find out the correct use of grammar. It is expected that the actual CAT 2015 exam would have around 7 questions on correct grammar usage in Verbal Ability section.
Questions on Vocabulary
Although vocabulary based questions remained missing in CAT 2014, they may re-surface again may be in a different form. Earlier CAT exams used to have 4-5 questions on vocabulary usage, for example 1-2 questions marked 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.
CAT is famous for throwing surprise element in actual test, so do not stop preparing the contextual use of vocabulary words.
Statement based questions
A new type of question was placed in Verbal Ability section in the CAT 2014 and it is expected to be repeated in CAT 2015 also. Number of such questions could be from 4 to 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.
Questions on Para summary
There are expected 3-4 new types of questions in Verbal Ability section of CAT 2015. The question is based on a small paragraph. CAT 2015 aspirant will be supposed to go through the paragraph, form the summary of the text and pick out the most appropriate option that best describes the summary of the paragraph.
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.
Tips to turn the table in your favour
With slight change in preparation strategy, a CAT 2015 aspirant can make the VA section a high scoring section. With more new types of questions proposed to be added to CAT 2015 Verbal Ability section, following is suggested to modify in the preparation strategy
- Devote more hours in continuity to your studies
- Improve your reading speed. Read with accuracy and practice more RC passages.
-Read editorial in the newspaper daily, make a summary of the paragraph equivalent to 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
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