CAT 2017 New Pattern – Expert Tips #4: LOGICAL REASONING; don’t ignore it for IIM Call

Logical Reasoning (LR) in CAT 2017 can prove to be the game changer in the revised CAT Syllabus and CAT Exam Pattern to boost or doom your percentile score. Despite scoring 97 or 99 you may not get shortlisted by any IIM, in case your Logical Reasoning remains weak.

12 to 16 questions on Logical Reasoning in CAT 2017 with a maximum score of 48 will consist of 4 Non-MCQs also without any penalty of negative marking. It may take your CAT percentile up to a very high level or can slide it down below the qualifying level of 70 or 80 required by IIMs, depending upon your attempting the question sets.

Important Links:

• CAT 2017 New Pattern – Expert Tips #3: Verbal, RC; grab this high scoring opportunity
• CAT 2017 Must read Expert Tips: 2- How to prepare DI & add 40 percentile in new CAT syllabus, exam pattern
• CAT 2017 must-read expert Tips-1: 5 things to note in new syllabus, changed exam pattern

Logical Reasoning was separated from Verbal Ability section in 2015 and now has found a place with Data Interpretation as a separate section in CAT 2017. Questions on both DILR taken together have formed a new 3^rd section now which is as important as other sections. Earlier till 2014 Logical Reasoning was clubbed to Verbal Ability section and Data Interpretation was clubbed to Quantitative Ability Section.

Official CAT Mock: LR questions reduced
Questions on Logical Reasoning could be either 12 or 16 as revealed by Official CAT Mock test released by IIMs on October 30. If you can crack 7-8 questions in LR section correct, you may score a high sectional percentile of 90+ in CAT 2017. CAT 2017 exam is on November 26 and hardly a week remains to brush up, and revise your last minute preparation on Logical Reasoning for CAT 2017 exam day.

MBAUniverse.com is publishing a series of expert tips in view of the changes in CAT exam syllabus and exam pattern to help the CAT 2017 aspirants to crack different sections in CAT exam with high score by following certain tips, tricks and short-cuts suggested by the CAT preparation experts. In the CAT 2017 Expert tips series, this is the expert tip-4 to add more percentile in CAT 2017 score through questions on LR in CAT 2017. Prof  S K Agarwal-expert on CAT preparation shares insights on how to prepare, approach and quickly crack the questions on Logical Reasoning in CAT 2017.

Prepare Logical Reasoning in CAT as individual section

CAT 2017 exam despite many changes in exam pattern and syllabus, proposes to focus equally high on Logical Reasoning area and will offer an opportunity for CAT 2017 aspirants to score in a range of 36 to 48 core marks only on LR questions in CAT 2017 exam. This can add 50+ to your percentile score even all the 2.31 lakh registered candidates for CAT 2017 appear in the exam.

Clubbed with Data Interpretation and without standing alone, LR in CAT 2017 will form an independent and high weightage area in DILR section and can prove to be a game changer in boosting your score in CAT 2017.

Prof S K Agarwal expert on CAT 2017 preparation suggests to prepare Logical Reasoning treating it at par with VARC and Quant sections. Since reasoning is considered as one of the important sections in all the MBA entrance exams, IIMs have also decided to give it the due importance in CAT 2017, gateway to 20 IIMs and other top B-schools like FMS, SPJIMR, MDI, IMI, IMT among others.

Logical Reasoning Syllabus in CAT 2017
Important changes in CAT syllabus for Logical Reasoning are summarized below:

1. DILR in CAT 2017 to have 32 total questions
2. LR part to have 12 or 16 questions in the section
3. All the LR questions are to be in the sets of 4 questions each. Accordingly one problem will be followed by 4 questions
4. 1/3 Negative marking penalty questions in CAT 2017 on LR: 8 or 12
5. No-negative marking penalty questions on LR in CAT 2017: 4
6. Topics covered in LR section of CAT 2017 syllabus are: Team formation; Family pair; family tree, direction sense, seating arrangement among others.
7. It is suggested by the experts not to take more than 6-7 minutes to answer one set of 4 questions. In case you are consuming more time, it is advisable either to practice more on it, or skip the particular type of question set. 

LR Offers Percentile Balancing Act
Will your high overall score in CAT 2017 give you the opportunity to get admission in highly ranked IIMs and other B-schools or you need a balanced score? Ask this question to yourself and you will get the answer in favour of the latter part.

In fact it is not necessary that you score 99+ percentile with very low and very high sectional percentile fluctuations. IIMs need a balanced sectional percentile score. Logical Reasoning despite consisting of 16 questions in all could work as a score booster making balancing act to keep your percentile steady and can improve it further substantially.

In view of Prof S K Agarwal expert on CAT 2017 preparation Logical Reasoning is considered as one of the important sections in all the MBA entrance exams, IIMs have also decided to give it the due importance in CAT 2017.

Check your preparation on Key topics
Although topics on Logical Reasoning cannot be restricted nor there is any limitation to what should and what shouldn’t appear in LR section of CAT 2017, following topics, if prepared well, will lead an aspirant to a well-placed position. You need to develop your skills in Logical Reasoning section to get a good percentile.

It is suggested in the interest of the aspirants to prepare, attempt and practice more and more exercises & Mocks on the following topics, although you may face questions based on other topics which have never been asked so far.  But following are the favourite topics in CAT, check if you have prepared them well –

• Seating Arrangements
• Matching puzzles
• Constraint based arrangements
• Blood Relations – family tree
• Syllogism
• Proposition based followed by either deductive or inductive argument.
• Assumptions
• Statements
• Sets
• Binary logic
• Venn Diagrams
• Clocks and calenders   

Vocabulary is different
The vocabulary used in logical reasoning questions, according to the expert is different from the one used in Verbal Ability hence it is imperative that you must have the knowledge of the terminology used in this part, since the questions are formed on the topics based on the said terminology in CAT. Besides, certain topics on which CAT prefers to frame the questions have specific logical rules to follow to solve them.

Ranking questions in Logical reasoning
In the Logical Reasoning section of CAT 2017, you may find one or more than one question based on the concept of Ranking. It is very important to understand the strategy and required skill that would cater to solve such Logical Reasoning Problems.

Ranking questions can be related to an object/objects, person, institutions etc. based on their stature, performance, size, distance, height, weight and so on. Placing any object according to certain norms of ranking will measure the same in either descending or ascending order.  

For example - how do you choose your preferred IIM or any other choice of selection? Suppose you are offered admission by all the IIMs – you have a clear vision where to go. The selection of preferred IIM is based on the Ranking which in turn depends on various factors like – past performance, faculty, departments, campus, academic and industrial exposure. Same logic is applied to prepare, practice and attempt these Logical Reasoning questions in CAT

Required Skill

1. Analyse the information given in the question after attentive reading
2. Find out the various clues in the information, form a table
3. Form a structure in accordance to the question which requires creation of Rankings
4. Place the clues and necessary information in table.  This will help you to avoid referring to the text information again and again apart from the fact that you will be able to answer number of questions based on the gathered information.
5. The clues which may not be direct may be understood and should be placed where your table needs the same. Visualize the movement of the question.
6. Whatever information you have not been able to decode, may be left blank in the prepared table till you are able to insert it.

Now you have got plenty of information. You may proceed to answer any question based on the information

Sample Questions on Ranking for CAT 2017
Question is followed by two statements, A and B.  Answer the question using the following instructions –  

• Mark (a) if the question can be answered by using statement A alone but not by using statement B alone
• Mark(b) if the question can be answered by using statement B alone but not by using statement A alone.
• Mark(c) if the question can be answered by using either of the statements alone.
• Mark(d) if the question can be answered by using both the statements together but not by either of the statements alone
• Mark(e) if the question cannot be answered on the basis of the two statements.

Q.1 - In a particular school, sixty students were athletes. Ten among them were also among the top academic performers.  How many top academic performers were in the school?

1. Sixty percent of the top academic performers were not athletes
2. All the top academic performers were not necessarily athletes.

1.(a)   2.(b)   3.(c)   4.(d)   5.(e)

Q.2 - Five students Atul, Bala, Chetan, Dev and Ernesto were the only ones who participated in a quiz contest.  They were ranked based on their scores in the contest. Dev got a higher rank as compared Ernesto, while Bala got a higher rank as compared to Chetan.  Chetan’s rank was lower than the medium.  Who among the five got the highest rank?

1. Atul was the last rank holder.
2. Bala was not among the top two rank holders.

Approach to answer – Expert tips

1. (a) should be the right answer. As per Statement A- 60 percent of top academic performers were not athletes; but 40 percent were athletes.  Ten among the athletes were also top academic performers, hence it can now be resolved that number of top academic performers can be found as athletes plus non – athletes, so A is sufficient to answer the question.   Now let us analyse the statement B.- All the top academic performers were not necessarily athletes, well –we need more information in this regard which is not available in the statement B.  Therefore, option (a) is the right answer.

2. (d) is the right answer. Try to form a table on the basis of Statement A– Atul was the last rank holder:

The possibilities, however, bring B and D, hence as per our approach we find that answer cannot be formed based on statement A only.   

Now analyse the statement B – According to this statement nothing substantial is divulged to us. Many combinations could come up with the placement of first rank. It could be either Atul or Dev.  We are required to use both the statements and if we use statement B along with A, we arrive at the right possibility of Dev being the topper conforming to the given information.

Award due importance to Logical Reasoning
Logical Reasoning, if viewed in totality, plays a very important role in CAT. The irony however, is that the aspirants do not prefer preparing it the way they prepare the quant and Verbal. It might be due to the scattered or undefined syllabus which makes it difficult to systematically organise the study pattern of the aspirants.

CAT preparation expert Prof S K Agarwal finds Logical reasoning as one of the most important parts of CAT 2017 exam and advises the aspirants to devote full time to its preparation. In view of the experts the CAT aspirants are well aware that human brain is considered superior because it has the power to reason. It can distinguish between right and wrong, can pick out the relevant from the irrelevant. Looking at its importance CAT has combined logic to reason making it more advanced, more pointing and value added. Logical Reasoning (LR in short) therefore, becomes a guide to good decisions by following a systematic thought process. Hence IIMs have awarded LR higher importance in CAT exam.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates and expert tips on CAT 2017

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