CAT 2008 - Analysis (courtesy IMS)

This section had six Data Interpretation sets and one Logical Reasoning set, each set comprising 3 . 4 questions.

The section was a good mixture of calculation and reasoning based questions. A good selection of questions would have led to the attempt of 12 . 14 question in around 40 minutes.

The very first selection should have been the set based on .different coloured houses.. The second selection . the set based on .Stage-I, Stage-II matches. . involved very basic reasoning and was easier compare to other reasoning based sets. Then the set based on the scatter diagram, though involved some calculation, should have been solved.

Then the sets based on .five departments. and .bar graph. both involved calculation, but solvable with some calculation shortcuts. The two sets on .shares. and .cut-offs. were time consuming as well as required more reasoning.

The Problem Solving section was much simpler than last year. It was closer to CAT 2006 than CAT 2007 in terms of level of difficulty.

Although the number of questions remained 25 as last year, the questions were relatively much simpler and it was quite possible to solve around 15 questions with a high accuracy level in 50 minutes.

There were only two Data Sufficiency questions but they were more tricky and confusing as compared to the rest.

The question on .five horses. resembled an LR question and was a bit complex as it involved three possibilities, and test-takers might have missed out one or two.

There were more problems involving counting principles, and Modern Math came to the forefront constituting almost 25% of the section. However the questions were quite easy and tested only reasoning from basic concepts.

Geometry took a back seat, while Algebra and Arithmetic remained at the forefront just like last year. The question on finding the circumradius was quite tough to conceptualize.

This time the Verbal section of the CAT held a major surprise: an increase in the number of questions to 40 (and consequently a greater weightage to Verbal in the entire test). The focus on reasoning seen in the past 2 years has diminished, and the VA questions this time were more based on grammar, usage and vocabulary concepts.

There were no new types of constructs in VA, while old constructs like Fill in the Blanks and Inappropriate Usage made a comeback this year after several years of absence. The only twist in the VA questions was that the grammar-based questions also involved identifying punctuation, spelling and logical errors.

VA and RC had an equal number of questions: 20 each. There were four RC passages: on Sociology, Language, History and Art respectively, all with 5 questions each. The passages were, for the most part, of medium length and fairly easy to understand. The questions were a mix of inferential and direct questions, with a handful of vocab-based questions thrown in.

On the whole, it was a fairly easy section, with plenty of chances of maximizing one.s score.