CAT- 2003 (Retest) Analysis Overview: The person most hated at this moment would surely be Ranjit Don.

The vendetta of his thankless action was taken out on the students. First the students had to wait for almost 3 months for the test to re-happen. And after the lon wait! they were taken by surprise by the above turn the "AT took. The pattern remained more or less similar to the e#am held on $3rd %ovember $&&3 and also to "AT $&&$ ' $&&( e#cept the level of difficulty. The paper was one of the tou hest "ATs so far for the simple reason that none of the 3 sections offered any respite. )sually one section of the three is pretty easy *for last 3 years it was the D+ section,! but this time students did not have any such luck. The D+ section was une#pectedly different than that of previous "AT papers and was mi# of -uestions based more on calculation rather than on countin . The only positive surprise was the relatively easy R" passa es. .ith the pattern remainin that of 3 sections! one would not have any difficulty in dividin the $ hours amon the three sections. +deally one could have spent /& minutes on each section and the followin table captures the possible number of attempts0 Section # ( $ 3 TOTA& Sectional Analysis: 7ection +0 1uantitative Aptitude The break-up of this section with comparison to previous 3 years "AT is as follows 0 Topic Arithmetic %umber 7ystem T7D9Time and .ork :ercenta es! 7+!"+ and :;D Ratio ' :roportion! :ipes Al ebra 5-uations and ine-ualities :ro ressions Functions =a#ima 9=inima CAT 2003 (2 (( ( $ ( (3 < $ 3 ( CAT 2002 $4 (8 2 & $ 8 4 ( $ & CAT 200' (4 (& $ / & (2 3 $ $ 3 Topics 1A # of Qs 2& S !!este" ti#e /& min 32 - /& min /& - /2 min '20 #in $ossi%le atte #pts (3 - $& $3 - 3$ $$ - $/ )0 - )( $ossi%le Scores (4 - (3 $$ - $/ (3 - $& *0 - *2 C toffs (/ $$ (4 (+

5)6R"6+R $(6$26&/ D+6D76AR $46&/6$& '(0

>eometry :lane eometry =ensuration "oordinate 6 raphs 6 tri onometry ?ase 7ystem "alendar

(/ / 8 ( & & 2

8 2 / ( & & (

(3 3 3 $ ( ( 3

Miscellaneous
:ermutations ' "ombinations TOTA& 3 (0 2 (0 ( (0

As seen the number of -uestions from the >eometry ' =ensuration increased substantially and -uestions on calendar ' base system were totally absent. The presence of -uestions on al ebra would have taken -uite a lot of students by surprise. @ne could have one about in this section usin the round strate y and in the first round one could have solved around (& -($ -uestions in $2 minutes by prudential selection of -uestions from Arithmetic and Al ebra. +n the remainin (2 min one could look at some of the -uestions from >eometry. 7ection ++0 5) ' R" ,n!lis5) Aocab - fill in the blanks Aocab - conte#tual meanin :ara jumbles 2 sentences 7ummariBation Aocab - dictionary meanin 7entence "orrection Readin "omprehension$2 >reek Art *%o. of words 3&&, Cistory of aviation technolo y*%o. of words 3&&, :olitical science*%o. of words 8&&, ($th century learnin *%o. of words 3&&, "ultural capital* %o of words 3&&, $2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 (2 # of Qs $2 3 2 3 / $ossi%le Atte#pt (8 4 / 4 3 # of Qs in 2002 $2 4 2 2 & 2 / $2

TOTA&

(0

30.

(0

The followin could have been easily identified about the R" passa es 0 >reek art0 (.$2 pa e! 2 -uestions. As we all know anythin that has ot anythin to do with art or philosophy or mysticism *read >reek, enerally makes us uneasy and sli htly scared. =ost people would have read these terms and left the passa e immediately. To add to this the -uestions were basically inferential. This passa e should have been left. Cistory of aviation technolo y0 ( pa e! 2 -uestions. The passa e was -uite easy and for most people would be interestin . All the -uestions were direct. +f you look at the -uestions youDll see that a couple of -uestions actually told you where to look for the answers. That is to say that you could have afforded to not read the passa e and still et all the answers ri ht. :olitical science0 (.$2 pa e! 2 -uestions! lan ua e comple#! / 1s can be answered by just readin the first para raph and the remainin 1s by readin the last para raph. ($th century learnin 0 ( pa e! 2 -uestions! lan ua e is not very tou h! and also most -uestions were direct. "ultural capital0 ( pa e! 2 -uestions! lan ua e is pretty easy! -uestions were inferential and not direct. ?ased on this! one could have identified at least 3 passa es that were comparatively easy and most of the -uestions could have been attempted from these. Cowever! it was advisable to leave out the passa e on :olitical science that dealt with :anchayati raj as the answer choices were too close. @f course the >reek art one also. +n 5)! obviously the -uestions on vocabulary *fill in the blanks ' identify incorrect usa e, would have been the first choice to attempt. @f these (3 -uestions! 8 -(& attempts could have been made in (& min. +n :ara jumbles one could have attempted 4 out of the 3 -uestions and ot 2 correct. .e came across a new -uestion type that dealt with summariBation. These -uestions could have been left in case one was runnin short of time. Cowever e#cept for the novel type of -uestionin ! these were very easy and could have fetched / marks without much effort. @verall the section was relatively easy and attempts of 3&-32 were possible and the cut -off would probably be around $$. 7ection +++0 Data +nterpretation Sr/ 0o/ '/ Topic 1ata 2nterpretation ;ine >raph *(, Table */ sets, =i#ed raph *?ar "hart, *3 sets, # Of Qs 2* 3 (/ 8 $ossi%le Atte#pt '3 # of Qs in 2002 32 & $/ *2 sets, 4 *( set,

:ie 2/ 3/ Analytical Reasonin! (( sets) 1ata S fficiency TOTA& 20 3 (0 + 2 22-23

$ * (2n"ivi" al Qs) . 3(' set) + (0

%eedless to say one should have adopted a strate y of Esome of allE i.e. you need to pick up easy and short problem of most of the set and leave the rest of the -uestions of the set. +n the -uestions on Data +nterpretation! one could have seen the tables with e#tensive data as first choice as these sets thou h they have haBaar data! are usually countin based and have been easy in the previous years. ?ut then one should also have been perceptive enou h to identify that the set on sortin the countries by birth rate and death rate was pretty tricky and should have left this set or at most attempted just ( or $ easy -uestions. 7imilarly for the sets on Decathlon and 7e# ratio in various states! choosin which -uestion to attempt was the key. Cavin understood that the tables are pretty difficult! one should have immediately moved to the ;ine and ?ar raphs! which were comparatively easier. 3 of the / D7 -uestion were simple and the one too be left out was obvious because of its len th. 7omeone who is ood at AR could have capitaliBed on the AR -uestions and made up for the difficult D+ sets. @verall Analysis and cut-offs A net score of 236 will ensure calls from ++=s and score of 22 from %+T+59=D+97:Fain. 2& would fetch a call from TA:=+9=+"A and /& would be ood enou h for +=+9F@R59%irma9GF 7omaiyaH +n briefH Section 5) 6 R" 1uant D+ 6 D7 6 AR Total Q estions 2& 2& 2& (2& S !!este" Atte#pts $3 - 3$ (3 - $& $$ - $/ <& - <2
Close

$ossi%le Scores $$ - $/ (4 - (3 (3 - $& 4& - 4$

C t offs for"efinite calls $$ (/ (4 23