CAT 2013 Day 1 - Quant tough, Verbal easy; Day 2- Verbal Difficult, LR Tricky; Day 3-RC Lengthy, Quant Moderate; What will be the trend on Day 10 or Day 12? What will be the pattern on your test date, in your session?
If you are also among those thousands who are worried with the unpredictable nature of CAT 2013, this article will solve all your queries as we go ahead and Decode the unpredictable nature of CAT 2013 and tell you how scoring 95 + percentile is just a child’s play.
CAT 2013 has completed seven days and all the days have shown a different pattern in both the sessions. Hence, it would be wise to throw some light on the last seven days paper pattern and analysis to predict the future pattern of CAT 2013. Read carefully and don’t miss the change in difficulty pattern of each day.
Let’s Rewind
Date: October 16, 2013 CAT 2013 Day 1
CAT 2013 started with a tough and tricky Quantitative section and an easy Verbal section.
- Quant section had maximum questions from Geometry and Algebra.
- Number Systems, P&C were absent in many question sets.
- DI saw most questions on Pie Chart and Caselets.
-Verbal ability easy and covered all topics
- LR was a repeat of last year
Date: October 18, 2013 CAT 2013 Day 2
After a gap of one day, day 2 of CAT 2013 changed track with difficult Verbal section and tricky Logical Reasoning.
- Maximum questions from Algebra and Functions
- Permutation & Combination was again missing
- DI easy and average
- Long RC passages, No fill in the blanks
- Logical Reasoning questions were lengthy and tricky.
Date: October 19, 2013 CAT 2013 Day 3
On day 3, RC was very lengthy while Verbal & Quant section was moderate in difficulty level.
- Maximum questions from Geometry and Functions with around 10-12 questions
- Number System was missing
- DI had Pie Chart and Bar Diagram and was easy
- RC Passages were very long; Vocabulary was difficult
- LR was easy with questions on circular arrangements and blood relations.
Date: October 20, 2013 CAT 2013 Day 4
On the fourth test day, difficulty level of Quant section was on a higher side while Verbal section was fairly easy.
- Most questions from Trigonometry and Geometry, Questions mixed with other topics
- Arithmetic and Probability absent
- DI more of observation and calculation than logical. Simple interest &Venn diagram.
- Maximum questions from sentences correction and para jumbles
- LR questions were easy but analytical, had sets on arrangements and calculation.
Date: October 21, 2013 CAT 2013 Day 5
Quantitative section along with Logical Reasoning was very calculation intensive while Verbal and Data Interpretation were easy
- Maximum questions from Trigonometry, Circles and Algebra
- Permutation & Combination along with Geometry was missing
- DI easy with questions column graphs and pie charts
- Verbal easy, Shakespeare made RC tough to understand
- LR tricky and very lengthy, Questions from Logical Matching, Binary logic and blood relations, repeat of CAT 2012.
Date: October 23, 2013 CAT 2013 Day 6
After a gap of a day, Quantitative section was very calculation intensive and time consuming while verbal was moderate in difficulty level.
- Geometry and Algebra had the maximum questions
- Number System and Permutation & Combination were reported absent
- DI tricky and difficult, Questions were from bar diagram, Percentages and Pie Charts.
- Vocabulary difficult, RC Passages were long
- LR was tricky, questions included circular arrangements, blood relations and Logical Sequence
Date: October 24, 2013 CAT 2013 Day 7
Quantitative section was easy but very time consuming while verbal section was average in difficulty level.
- Maximum questions from geometry and functions, Number system was missing
- DI was easy, questions were from tables, bar graph and pie charts
- Verbal easy, RC Lengthy, Fill in the blanks Missing
- LR time consuming, sets on Logical Matching, Binary logic seven and blood relations.
Key learning: Decoding CAT 2013 Question Pattern
So what did you analyze from the last seven days CAT 2013 paper pattern? Let’s summarize some definite trends:
- Balancing: If you look at the daily pattern closely, every day the pendulum of difficulty level shifts from one section to other, from one Quant to Verbal and then to DI or LR. So, if the day before your exam had easy Verbal section, tighten your belt for lengthy RC or tricky Logical reasoning questions.
- Attendance: In quantitative section, Geometry has received nearly 100% attendance in CAT 2013 while Permutation & Combination, often termed as P&C by CAT Aspirants has been the Out-Standing (Absent) candidate. Number System was also reported missing in the question sets. Data Interpretation has Pie charts and bar diagram while Logical reasoning has Blood relations and logical sequencing.
- Limelight: Topics which had enjoyed maximum share of questions and hold the key to higher percentile are; Geometry, Functions, Algebra and Trigonometry. RC passages have been in limelight due to their lengths but the questions have been direct and easy.
Rules for 95 + Percentile
- Wait, gauge the section and start with the question you are sure to know how to solve.
- Stop looking at your neighbor, look into your question set
- Let go your ego and also the question which you are not able to solve form past 2 mins.
- Use rough sheet for arithmetic calculations, don’t try to be a whiz kid. More than 70% math’s problems go wrong because of silly mistakes.
- Concentrate and leave no stone unturned. Dig out those relevant formulas from confinement of your brain cells. Remember, CAT 2014 will come only a year later.
- Reading RC passages twice is not wasting time, It’s called earning sectional percentile
- Don’t go by your talent of ‘guess work’, unless you have earned your living with it.
- Get in love with data, tables & graphs, after numbers and equations they are your next best guide to IIMs.
- Believe in yourself and don’t lose your focus. It’s just a matter of 140 minutes.
P.S.: Message from Experts
Quant Section
Mr. Arks Srinivas, Quant guru and seasoned CAT expert shared his mantra to achieve 95+ Percentile in CAT 2013. CAT 2013 aspirants should now devote more time to practice questions on Geometry, Trigonometry and Algebra. The difficulty level is supposed to remain the same. With this difficulty level, a higher percentile can be scored, if the aspirants can crack 13-15 questions in Quant and DI with 100 percent accuracy level. More questions are to be attempted in this section, if the accuracy level is less say 85-90 percent to score a high percentile.
Table below shows the number of question one needed to attempt in CAT 2013 to score above 95 percentile.
|
CAT 2013 Exam: Way to achieve 95%ile |
|||||
|
|
Quantitative Ability |
DI |
Verbal Ability |
RC |
LR |
|
Scenarios 1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Accuracy level |
100% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
|
Number of attempts required |
6 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scenarios 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Accuracy level |
90% |
90% |
90% |
100% |
90% |
|
Number of attempts required |
8 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scenarios 3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Accuracy level |
80% |
80% |
80% |
100% |
80% |
|
Number of attempts required |
11 |
9 |
8 |
7 |
8 |
Verbal Section
S.K. Agarwal, Verbal Guru and seasoned CAT Expert, says, “Verbal section in CAT 2013 is consistently moderate to difficult. If the aspirants attempt even the common and comparatively less difficult questions that are present in almost all the sessions in Verbal Ability, like ‘tone of the passage’ (2-3 questions), main idea of the passage (2-3 questions), purpose of the passage (1-2), simple vocabulary words usage (2-3 questions), completion of last sentence of Para (3 questions) and one of three parajumbles, scoring a good percentile is not difficult. The tip is to improve your attempts with accuracy.
MBAUniverse.com will continue to update this analysis. For daily CAT 2013 updates and student’s feedback, visit MBAUniverse.com Forum .
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