Each answer marked in CAT 2015 testing room will either push your percentile up by 4-5 or pull it down by 7-9. Know the tips from Prof S K Agarwal, Verbal Ability expert and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation how to add percentile bit by bit in CAT 2015 on November 29, 2015 with the same preparation level.
‘Well begun is half done’ is true not only to improve your score but also to boost your confidence level and keep you motivated throughout the exam.
In the CAT testing room, Candidates in their anxiety to attempt more number of questions usually skip small points while reading the questions, their answer options, using navigating tools and the like. A cautious and careful testing room approach while remembering the small things can save you from losing your marks which you deserve but lose due to a little carelessness.
Direction to attempt the question
Questions in CAT 2015 would begin with the direction which explains what is expected from the test taker. For example a question on picking the out of context sentence from a group of jumbled sentences requires you to pick out only the odd sentence out reflecting a different idea but does not ask you to place all the sentences in a coherent order. Accordingly, the idea is not to waste time in placing all the jumbled sentences as a coherent paragraph. On the contrary you are required to find out the similarities among all the sentences which contain one sentence reflecting a different idea.
For example if you are reading all the 5 sentences, you will find that 4 are about execution of certain policy decisions and one is talking about the policy itself. This sentence is odd one.
Similarly, an RC passage may be followed by a question to explain the meaning of the phrase as used in the passage. The passage might have used the phrase in a different manner than its dictionary meaning. So, despite knowing the dictionary meaning of the phrase, you are supposed to pick the answer option that explains the contextual meaning.
Correct reading and understanding the direction before the question will not only save your time, will keep you away from any confusion but also will save your loss of core 3 marks plus 1 penalty mark due to negative marking. The loss, if incurred will also get multiplied in the process of score normalization which will have a net effect of around 10 percentile.
The loss of marks is incurred not because of ignorance but because of hurrying up the process without ensuring its implications.
Begin with & answer all Non MCQ
CAT 2015 has re-introduced sectional time constraint of 60 minutes for each section and has increased number of sections from 2 to 3. But the biggest change is introduction of Non-MCQs without any penalty for wrong answer. Most of the Non-MCQs are placed in the latter part of the section.
Within the overall sectional time limit of 60 minutes, it will be better to begin with the Non-MCQ type questions after viewing the questions in the section. You can choose any question from the section. Due to time constraint, it is very much possible that you may not reach the Non-MCQs once you start answering MCQs and out of 10 Non-MCQs in the section, you may leave many of them un-attempted. In this situation you may lose the opportunity to improve your score as attempting no-penalty questions is safer than attempting the MCQs carrying negative marking with them. It is therefore better to begin with Non-MCQ and move on to MCQs.
Besides, it is suggested not to leave any Non-MCQ un-attempted, even if you do not know how to solve it. In case you happen to key in its correct answer, you gain 3 marks and higher percentile. If you write a wrong answer, you lose nothing as it is a no-penalty question.
Beginning with the easy ones and going up to difficult ones is the key to success and scoring high percentile in CAT 2015.When the test begins, you may begin with the preferred part in the section. There is no need to think more where you plan to go. Begin with the preferred one and move on.
Marking the response with appropriate navigation tool
CAT 2015 allows to mark your answer and come back for review also, if you feel so. You can very well select an answer for an MCQ or Non-MCQ by clicking on the bubble placed before the 4 choices in the form of radio buttons (o).
Although you can change your answer for a Non-MCQ, even if you have clicked on ‘Save & Next’ but if you click on this answering marking tool for an MCQ, you may not be able to change your answer later. A loss of percentile will again trouble you, although now you know the right answer and have time to mark it.
Hence, use a better option which also exists in CAT 2015 test navigation tools. The option is to click on ‘Mark for Review & Next’ after marking your answer. You save your answer for the current question and also mark it for review, and then go to the next question.
If you find this is correct, you need not do anything to it. This option will get your answer to be considered for evaluation unless you modify the status of the answer.
Please note that your answer for the current question will not be saved, if you navigate to another question directly by clicking on a question number without saving the answer to the previous question. It is therefore mandatory that to avoid loss of score use the option - ‘Mark for Review & Next’.
Don’t get stuck
All the questions in CAT 2015 carry equal marks. If there is a simple and easy question attempt it first. Leave the time consuming one for next attempt. Don’t take it as a challenge and waste time on it. If you can solve 2 questions during the time supposed to be consumed by one question, it is better to solve the 2 and score more instead of losing a percentile due to wrong answer clubbed with penalty of negative marking.
Time Management
Sectional time constraint is reintroduced in CAT 2015. You have to be careful about the time consumed on questions in each section. If you spend too much time only on RC questions (which happen to be 24 this year) you may miss the 10 questions on verbal ability although you may have prepared well on Jumbled paragraphs, para summary and picking the odd sentence out. 60 minutes is not a too much of time to solve 34 questions. So move on and continue with the strategy to solve all the doable questions from the section in first 2 attempts. Watch the timer on the computer screen to judiciously divide your time.
Have confidence
Have confidence in yourself and maintain your cool throughout CAT 2015 exam. If the test is difficult, it is difficult for all. Give your best shot without losing your cool or becoming panicky. It the test is easy, it is easy for all. In the first case low score will be converted into high percentile and in the latter case the high scores will be converted to low percentiles. Hence take it easy.
More RC questions: 2 days to practice
CAT 2015 practice test has indicated 6 RC passages followed by 24 questions. All these questions are proposed to be MCQs. If you can crack them right, you are the winner. Nonetheless, you can practice well a few different questions based on RC passages and ace the section.
Tricks & shortcuts: Use them
You have always learned the tricks and short cuts to crack even the most difficult questions on various topics of Quant, DI, LR and Verbal Ability. It is high time that you utilized them in your favour during the CAT 2015 exam. You have less than 2 minutes per question to solve. If you can solve 20 to 24 questions in each section with 100% accuracy, it can prove to be a good achievement and a high percentile would be waiting for you.
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