CAT 2014 – 22 Nov Afternoon Slot Update

Synopsis:

The second slot of CAT has been reported as being characterized by easy QA questions, difficult
DI questions, an easy to medium VA section and medium to tough LR section.

Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation

In the second slot, the QA-DI section was characterized by easy Quantitative Ability and tough
Data Interpretation questions. There were 34 questions on Quantitative Ability and 16
questions on Data Interpretation (4 sets of 4 questions each).

As per some students’ reports, the QA section had even representation of all areas. All the
areas were represented with 7-9 questions each on Arithmetic, Geometry and Algebra. The
remaining questions were on Algebra and Modern Mathematics.

Some students reported that in Geometry, a majority of the questions were from triangles with
one question each on circles, co-ordinate geometry and quadrilaterals. There was one question
on mensuration. In Modern Mathematics, there was one question on Logarithms, 2 on
Permutation & Combination and2questions on Progressions. There was no question on Data
Sufficiency. Most of the questions were straightforward. The overall level of difficulty of the QA
questions was similar to that of the easy proctored SimCATs or the take-home SimCATs.

The DI sets were on the difficult side. A sample distribution: there were three sets involving
tables and one set involving set theory. Most of the questions in DI had an angle of Logical
Reasoning to them. The questions did not necessarily involve complicated calculations but were
more logical in nature. There were reports of DI sets with tricky data. Several students reported
that making sense of the dataand building a table out of the DI set on set theory same was
somewhat challenging.

In general, the QA-DI section can be characterized as ‘high scoring QA’ and ‘low scoring
DI’.Most of the students reported that attempting more than two DI sets in the given time limit
was difficult.

Verbal Ability& Logical Reasoning

The VA section remained of an easy to medium level. There were 34 VA questions. 18 of them
were non-RC questions and 16 of them were RC questions – 4 passages with 4 questions each.
The RC passages were not long – they had about 500 words each.

RC was not challenging. Most of the passages were easy to relate to and their language was
simple enough. Out of 16, most students reported hardly 4 difficult questions. Almost all RC
passages had 1 or 2 direct and straightforward questions. Some students reported having had
passages with 3/5 questions and that too were not consecutive.
The distribution of the non RC questions varied from student to student. A sample question
distribution was – 4 jumbled paragraphs, 3 summary questions, 4 critical reasoning questions, 4
incorrect-sentence-in-context questions and 3 grammar questions (choose the sentences or
parts of sentences that are correct). A majority of the questions were of easy to medium level
of difficulty. Some students found the incorrect-sentence-in-context questions confusing.

There were four sets on Logical Reasoning of four questions each. A sample distribution: one
set each was on Circular Arrangement, Matrix Arrangement, Grouping and Distribution and
Puzzles. The set on Circular Arrangement had an angle of Time-Speed-Distance. Two of the four
sets were easy to medium while the remaining two were medium to moderately difficult.

All the best for IIFT and the other upcoming exams!