CAT 2023: How to take calculated risks section wise

Writing mocks periodically and experimenting in them will help you assess how good your preparation has been. You should continually keep checking your performance parameters. Observe patterns, like a steady improvement or stagnation in any one area, and try to remedy any issues that may need attention. Apart from taking full-length mock tests, you should also take sectional tests and use them specifically for targeting areas of weakness, or for improving your understanding of specific concepts.

Learn how to take calculated risks section wise

VA-RC

The verbal ability and reading comprehension section of CAT 2023 will test you on how well you can understand and analyse the information that is given to you in the form of passages, paragraphs or jumbled sentences. To do well in this section, you need to broaden the scope of the content you read and get comfortable with reading diverse topics. This will help you take calculated risks in eliminating options. Any of the options that are out of scope can never be the correct answer. The right answer is always based on the information given within the passage. Do not focus on any of the options that distract you from the passage.

DI-LR

This section is an equaliser in the true sense. Majority of the question sets in the section are an amalgamation of both DI and LR. For the past few years, CAT has consisted of caselets with some information followed by 4 to 5 questions based on the given information. It is always suggested that you start with a statement that gives direct information and then pick a statement that is related to the previous statement and so on. If there are no proper links between the statements, then you can pick up the statement that gives the least number of possibilities and solve it by ‘trial and error’ method.

QA

There is a misconception that the CAT is a mathematics-heavy paper and students find it very difficult to score well in the exam. However, what students don’t realise is that nearly 1/3rd, i.e. 7-8 questions, are based on simple, foundational topics such as simple equations, ratios, time and work, time and distance, percentages, profit and loss, averages, progressions etc.

Time-bound practice will help you understand what concepts you require to revisit. Prepare a compendium of formulas topic-wise in an organised manner. Spend time getting the foundational mathematical concepts in place before tackling exam-level questions. However, learning basic mathematical skills is just one dimension of the QA section. The ability to perform in a pressure situation, observation skill, decision-making, adaptability/flexibility and finally, the ability to comprehend the questions are equally important. All these can be achieved if you prepare well in advance and hone your test-taking strategy.

(The writer is a senior faculty member at the T.I.M.E Institute)