Going by the IIM Ahmedabad announcement regarding the changes in CAT 2015 especially making Verbal & Reading Comprehension (VRC) section with 34 questions stand alone without the support of Logical Reasoning questions would lead to more twists and surprises in VRC questions in actual exam.
The anticipation according to Prof S K Agarwal, Mentor and expert on Verbal Ability for CAT preparation is that Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VRC) section would bear most the brunt of changes in CAT 2015 as there is not much scope for CAT paper setters to bring too many changes in Quant and DILR sections. The scope of changes in source topics, question pattern, type and formation of questions is always more in Verbal Ability section.
Changed face of VRC section in CAT 2015
-- No question on Logical Reasoning (LR). Accordingly CAT 2015 takers cannot depend upon LR questions to improve their score but will have to focus their preparation on Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension part.
-- There will be about 6-7 Non-MCQ type of questions in VRC section. These questions will not be followed by answer options and the candidates will be required to solve these questions first and then type their answers on computer screen. Therefore avoid the habit of jumping to answer options before solving the questions
-- Questions could be in longer or shorter form
-- Till CAT 2013 there were 70 minutes allotted to solve 30 questions, now the 34 questions in VRC section will have to be solved in 60 minutes
-- The additional 10 minutes in CAT 2015 can be utilized only in VRC section as sectional time constraint of 1 hour per section has been re-introduced.
Composition of VRC section
The first thing first, if you can anticipate the proposed composition of question in VRC, you can sure prepare better and crack more questions. Let us see what could be the expected formation of VRC section in CAT 2015 and how it would be different from earlier exams. There could be a little deviation in number of expected and actual questions that appear in CAT 2015.
-- Total number of questions-34
-- Total MCQs in VRC section-28
-- Total Non-MCQs in VRC section-6
-- Total RC passages-4
-- Total questions based on RC passages-16
-- Total questions on Jumbled sentences- 3
-- Total questions on Out of context type sentences-2
-- Total questions on Para summary-2
-- Total questions on Facts, Inference & Judgement-3
-- Total questions on English language Error correction-6
-- Total questions on direct/indirect vocabulary usage-2
(Source: MBAUniverse.com expert analysis)
Topics to prepare for CAT 2015
According to Prof S K Agarwal the formation of VRC section may differ to some extent and it is not necessary that the type and pattern of questions would remain absolutely similar. For example CAT 2014 did not have questions on contextual usage on English Vocabulary. However CAT 2015 may ask the questions on Vocabulary usage. Even when the CAT Centre 2015 goes to publish the practice test in late October 2015, it would declare “The actual content along with the difficulty level will differ from the content shown in the sample /mock CAT paper.”
-- Verbal Ability expert Prof S K Agarwal suggests the CAT 2015 aspirants to follow topic centric preparation strategy
-- Your preparation material should be as per CAT 2015 pattern comprising exercises on MCQs and Non-MCQs
-- Non-MCQs in VRC could be based on RC passages, Error correction in sentences & paragraphs, paragraph summary, contextual vocabulary usage among other topics
-- 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.
-- Improve your reading speed. Read with accuracy and practice more RC passages.
-- English Grammar is the core part of VRC section. Revise and update your preparation on Parts of Speech, Tenses, modifiers, conditional sentences. It would help you crack 6 questions on Error correction
-- Practice more FIJ questions of good difficulty level
-- A consistent practice of all the above expected type of questions in VRC section would add to your skill and will prove to be a score booster in CAT 2015
-- CAT 2015 has totally revamped the VRC section. Although actual number of questions may vary in CAT 2015 exam, if you can crack 18 MCQs and 4 Non-MCQs, you can hope for a high percentile in CAT 2015. Please note that there will be 60 minutes allotted to solve VRC section in CAT 2015.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates and preparation tips on CAT 2015
