Mock 10 Expert Analysis

MOCK CAT – 10 (2008)

1 of 3

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/harsh/Desktop/MOck%2010%...

MOCK CAT – 10 (19th October, 2008) Overview Stumped or Rejoiced ?? The number of questions and the overall levels of difficulty of all the sections went up in Mock CAT 10. What was the feeling when you encountered verbal logic problems in the LRDI section ? The reaction could have been different but this was enough to further increase the exam hall anxiety !! So what do you think ? Did we play around with the pattern ? Well ! Yes w e did but then not exactly ! Way back in 1999 and 2000, CAT did club Verbal Logic with the LRDI section and who knows if CAT repeats this pattern ! As a sincere aspirant you should be prepared for any kind of pattern changes be it the change in the number of questions or in the composition of sections! Let us now analyze the paper in detail! In this paper, the Quantitative Ability had high difficulty level. The Logical Reasoning based Data Interpretation and the Verbal Ability sections had moderate to high level of difficulty. The information on the cover page made available to you was: There were 105 questions in all, distributed over three sections with each section having 35 questions; each section carried 100 marks. The sections were further divided into sub-sections A and B. All the questions in sub-section I-A, II-A and III-A carried two marks each.The marks allotted to each question in sections I-B, II-B, III-B were four. Each wrong answer attracted a penalty of one-fourth of marks allotted to each question. Total time available to answer all the sections was two and a half hours. Executive Summary: A synopsis on how this paper could have been attempted:

Section

Topic

Total Qs.

Suggested Time (in min.)

Possible number of attempts

Possible Score*

I

Data Interpretation

35

50

15-17

32.5

II

English Usage + RC

35

50

18-20

38

III

Quantitative Ability

35

50

10-12

25

Total

105

150

43-49

95.5

*Note: The numbers of attempts and the score have been worked out on the basis of the experts’ insight on how the students would have taken the test and what score IIMs have been considering for dispatching the call letters. The correct cut-offs can be confirmed statistically only after seeing the actual performance of students. Section - I Logical Reasoning based Data Interpretation Your anxiety was not without any reasons but then you are now supposed to handle such pressure and in CAT, you must be prepared for any kind of pattern, any number of questions and any mix of the questions ! Lets analyze the paper the section in detail ! The section was divided under two parts – A and B. Part A had 20 questions- 10 on LRDI and 10 on Verbal Logic. The questions in part A carried 2 marks each. In part B, there were 15 questions, all from the LRDI and carrying 4 marks each. Problem Set

Type

Level of Difficulty

Section I A(2 Marks Each )

10/30/2008 2:13 PM

MOCK CAT – 10 (2008)

2 of 3

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/harsh/Desktop/MOck%2010%...

1 to 5

Pie Charts

Easy to Moderate

6 to 10

Critical Reasoning

Easy

11 to 13

Syllogisms

Easy

14 and 15

Critical Reasoning

Easy

16 to 20

Bar Graph

Tough

Section I B(4 Marks Each ) 21 to 25

Combination Graph

Moderate To Tough

26 to 30

Tables

Easy to Moderate

31 to 35

Table

Moderate To Tough

As it was for the rest of the paper, the challenge in this section was to handle the pressure of more number of questions (which increased from 25 to 35) and in managing the available time. You should definitely have spent 2-3 minutes in scanning the entire section, paying special attention to the difficulty level of the verbal logic questions. As the verbal logic questions were of easy level, ideally you should have attempted at least 5-7 of them and got them correct as well. An ideally way of attempting this section was: Order of Attempt

Problem Set

Time Allocation

1

1 to 5

8 – 10 minutes

2

6 to 15

-

3

26 to 30

8 – 10 minutes

4

21 to 25

10 – 12 minutes

5

31 to 35

10 – 12 minutes

6

16 to 20

12 – 14 minutes

Problem set (Q 26 to Q30) was based on one of the problem sets that appeared in CAT 2005. At this stage of your preparation, you were expected to crack this set in a maximum of 8-10 minutes. Problems sets (Q 16 to Q 20), (Q 21 to Q 25) and (Q 31 to Q 35) were either “Tough” or “Moderate to Tough” difficulty level. Even in these problems sets, the first or the first two problems were of easy level. You could have attempted only these problems and then moved on to the next problem sets. To summarize, an attempt of 15 to 17 problems was a good attempt and a score of 30 - 32 marks is a satisfactory performance in this section. Section-II English Usage and Reading Comprehension The section was of moderate to high level of difficulty. The key was to attempt both the sub-sections II-A and II-B and treat EU and RC as two separate groups. 1.

Round 1: Q 36 to 39; Q 40 to 43; Q 44 to 47; Q 48 to 51; Q 68 to 70

2.

Round 2: Q 52 to 55; Q 56 to 59; Q 60 to 63; Q 64 to 67

A. Round 1: Q 36 to 39 (Para jumbles): A moderate to high level of questions; you could have attempted 3 and got at least 2 correct. Q 25 to 28 (Grammar): A difficult set of questions. Still could have taken a shot at one of these. Otherwise, a set best left untouched. Q 44 to 47 (Para - completion): These questions had a moderate to high level of difficulty. You could have taken a shot at three and got at least two correct. Q 31 to 35 (Vocabulary - word usage): An easy set of questions, you could have attempted all four and got at least 3 correct.

10/30/2008 2:13 PM

MOCK CAT – 10 (2008)

3 of 3

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/harsh/Desktop/MOck%2010%...

Q 68 to 70 (Vocabulary – homophones): An easy to moderate set of questions, you could have attempted all three and got at least two correct. B. Round 2: Q 52 to 55 (Passage on Global Warming): An easy passage to attempt, a wise strategy would have been to skim through this passage and answer the questions, you could have managed at least three attempts with two correct. Q 56 to 59 (Passage on Fame): A difficult passage with easy questions, you could have attempted at least two questions and got one correct. Q 56 to 59 (Poetry): Although, it looked lethal, the poem was easy to read and understand; at least two questions were direct from the poem. Q 64 to 67 (Passage on political theory): A difficult passage with difficult questions; best left out. Overall, considering the moderate to high difficulty level of the section, a score of 23 - 25 should have been possible. Section – III Quantitative Ability Overall the QA section was of high difficulty level. The fact that it had 35 questions, whereas the general trend has been of 25 questions, divided in two subsections - A and B. Lets take a look at the distribution of the questions:

Table : Topics & Difficulty wise break-up of QA Section Topic

Questions

Marks

Easy

Moderate

Number Theory

Q73

Q86, Q93, Q94, Q100, Q101

Arithmetic

Q79

Q74, Q78, Q104

Q90

12

Algebra

Q75, Q77, Q87

Q72, Q81, Q82, Q85, Q88, Q91, Q92, Q97, Q103

Q102

36

Geometry

Q83

Q71, Q76, Q80, Q84

Modern Math Marks

12

Tough 20

10

Q89, Q95, Q98, Q99, Q105

Q96

22

78

10

100

You should have attempted Section- III-A first and then Section III-B. From section III-A the following questions must have been attempted: Q73, Q75, Q77, Q81, Q82, Q83, Q84 and Q86. From section III-B the following questions could have been attempted: Q93, Q97, Q98, Q 99 and Q 103. Making 50 minutes available for the QA section, you could have attempted 10 to 12 problems and you could have scored 23-25 marks, which in this paper would have been a satisfactory performance.

All the best!! Career Launcher Team Close

10/30/2008 2:13 PM