Mock Analysis 101

VARC Edition
Silver Lining
What works for me might be disastrous for you,

Or it just might be what you were looking for.

Analysis on Two Fronts
There are two sorts of statistics that you can obtain from every mock that you take,
and these are:

1. Data based on the timing, difficulty level, question type, accuracy, etc.

2. A detailed and analytical review of the various question types that you get on the
mock.
● The first step in your analysis is to note the time that you spent per question.
● Was it too much, was it too fast or was it just perfect?
● Since a general rule of thumb is that we roughly get 1.5 minutes, or 90 seconds
per question in the actual CAT, anything that is double this time can be
counted under “Too Slow” and anything less than two-thirds of this time can be
classified as “Too Fast”.
You need to be able to check whether you just marked an entire set because you
felt you were running out of time, or if you spend a lot of time per question, more
than it demanded. And you need to highlight this in your analysis, take note of the
questions that are consuming a major portion of your time, and analyze your
problem or improvement areas accordingly.
Problem areas are indicated by:
● Percentage questions that are correct constitute below 50%, especially if the
overall difficulty level is low or average
● Average timing that is 30 seconds (or more) higher or lower than it should be
(on average)
● A big discrepancy (more than 20-30 seconds) in average time for correct vs.
incorrect answers of the same type
SWOT
A general recommendation regarding analysis is to divide the entire VA section,
including RCs in four different sections, namely:

1. Strengths,

2. Weaknesses,

3. Opportunities, and

4. Threats
A Strength can be a topic area with 85%+ overall accuracy, and where timing is within the
specified time limits.

An Opportunity can be a topic area where the overall accuracy is 50-85% plus the timing
is within the specified limit or was just way too fast, or way too slow.

A Weakness is described as any topic area where the overall accuracy is below 50% and
the time taken for the same is either too low (too fast), or just around the time-limit.

A Threat is any topic area where you consistently get less than 50% correct plus timing is
way too slow. You are getting these wrong anyway, so you should either take less time to
get these wrong, so as to get others right, or you should just skip these altogether.
STRENGTHS
● DO NOT SKIP THE ANALYSIS OF THESE QUESTIONS.
● First, did you get the question right for the right reasons? Or did you get a little
bit (or a lot!) lucky? If you got lucky, then you just as easily could have gotten
this question wrong, which means you need to move this question to another
category.
● Did you do the problem in the best way that it could be done?
● Your overall goal is to recognize future problems (as opposed to having to
figure everything out from scratch).
● Finally, if you had had to make a guess on this problem, how would you have
done so?
Opportunities
● First, you need to figure out which weak areas here are actual weaknesses and which areas
were merely consequences of other things happening on the test (eg, the question was highly
rated).
● Include why you thought the wrong answer was right (and make a note that this reason is not a
good reason to use to pick an answer) and why you thought the right answer was wrong (and
make another note that this reason is not a good reason to use to eliminate an answer).
● Finally, something in this category may indicate a fundamental weakness.
● The only acceptable reason to get a problem wrong too quickly: you decided this problem was
way too hard for you, so you made an educated guess and moved on. If you sped up because
you thought it was easy, then made a careless mistake, your first instinct in the future should be
to take your time.
● Don’t sacrifice a correct answer just to save 30 seconds. Alternatively, if you sped up because
you thought or knew that you were behind on time, then you need to fix your timing problems
elsewhere in the section. If this is the case, try to decide whether this problem is something you
should be able to do in the expected time-frame or whether you still need some review and
practice in this area. Check other problems of the same type on this test or previous tests to
make this assessment.
Weaknesses
● These questions are costing you points elsewhere on the test – may be more
points than you’re gaining on this problem. Figure out why the timing is higher
and how you can do these more efficiently. If the timing is just a little bit too
high, that may be okay.
● If you’re consistently going wrong, however, then perhaps you don’t know the
best way to solve the problem, in which case:
(a) figure out the best solution, or
(b) the best way to recognize that this problem requires a certain set of steps,
or
(c) both.
● As with your strengths, don’t forget to make sure that you really did know what
you were doing on the ones you got right; if not, then move questions from this
category to threats.
Threats
● Get them wrong faster. Seriously – you’re getting them wrong anyway, so start
by just taking less time to get them wrong! That will improve your performance
on all those other ones on which you’re currently rushing and making careless
mistakes!
● What is slowing you down? Figure that out and it will tell you what to do next.
● You may need to review the material from your books, or do more practice with
problems of this type, or find more efficient ways to solve, or learn better how
to recognize questions of this type, or be quicker to make an educated guess…
whatever that is, do what you need to do to get better. (At the same time,
evaluate the frequency with which the particular material in question is tested;
set higher priorities on the things that are more frequently tested.)
● Your time is better utilized elsewhere, especially if you think you have started
your preps a bit late. Know the category, and avoid it like a plague.