SimCAT 14 Experts’ Take SimCAT 14: The Experts’ Take TEST OVERVIEW Section Cut‐off QA‐DI VA‐LR Overall 67 56 150 Overall Impression Both sections of SimCAT‐14 were easier than SimCAT‐13’s. Although the cut‐offs for both the sections and the overall cut‐off seem close to the cut‐offs for SimCAT‐13, considering that SimCAT‐13 had 5 options and a +4/‐1 marking scheme, the cut‐offs in SimCAT‐14 are perceptibly higher. The percentage attempts and accuracy have both seen a substantial jump from SimCAT‐13. SimCAT‐14 also conformed to the trend of having a somewhat higher overall cut‐off than the sum of the cut‐offs of the individual sections – something that has been observed in the last few SimCATs. In some SimCATs, the difference is large while in some others, the difference is not so great. This trend has an important underlying message: You really need to score significantly more than the required cut‐off in at least one section and score enough marks to clear the cut‐off of the other section in order to clear the overall cut‐off. Scoring just enough to clear the cut‐offs of both the sections may not help you clear the overall cut‐off. In the Mock CAT that was recently uploaded on the CAT website, it is heartening to see that the number of questions on QA/DI or VA/LR are almost the same as you have been getting in the IMS SimCATs. Another important development is that we now know that the ‘question paper’ link is going to be available. This makes it much easier for you to scan through a section and select questions and you must utilize this facility to your advantage. Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation In Section‐I, Qs. 1, 3, 7, 8, 11, 14, 24, 27, 33, 36, 43 and 44 in QA and Qs. 4 to 6 and Qs. 37 to 40 in DI (a total of 19) were really straightforward and should not have been left out. In addition to these 19, 9 more questions (Qs. 9, 10, 13, 15, 17, 23, 28, 34 and 46) in QA were also on the easier side. These 28 questions, in all, were suitable candidates for attempting in Round 1. A student who attempted these 28 questions with 80‐85% accuracy would have been at a striking distance SimCAT 14 Experts’ Take of clearing the cut‐off. Two DI sets (Qs. 19 to 22 and 47 to 50) and QA Qs. 12, 25, 30, 31 and 42 (a total of 13) were suitable candidates for attempting in Round 2. A student who attempted these questions with 80‐85% accuracy would have got the additional edge required to clear the overall cut‐off. An analysis of the performance of students shows that fewer students attempted certain questions (such as Qs. 18, 35 and 41) than we expected. Some of these questions (Qs. 18 and 41) were somewhat lengthy. As we have stated earlier, such lengthy questions should not be attempted in the first round. However, no question should be completely ignored just because it is lengthy. It turned out that these questions were actually not so difficult. Q. 35 was time‐ consuming as it required counting the number of points satisfying the given conditions. This question was rightly avoided by most of the students. To our delight, Q. 32 was answered correctly by about 40% of the top‐10 percentilers. The key to the question was that the ranks of the other three students were not relevant to the solution. All the question asked was the probability of one student being ranked higher than the other three. As it turns out, out of the four students under consideration, each has an equal probability of ଵ being ranked higher than the other three. Therefore the required probability is . Such questions ସ typically tend to confuse a lot of students. It is good to note that in this case, the question did not confuse many students. The key to Q. 26 is that the point of intersection of the two lines given is the same as the point (3,‐4) given in the question. All the points on a circle with that point as the centre and a radius equal to 5 will lie at a distance of 5 units from that point. The two given lines intersect the circle at 4 different points and therefore the answer is [4]. Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning The Mock CAT uploaded on the CAT site has given us some idea of what to expect in the actual CAT. While there aren’t any major surprises as far as the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension areas are concerned, it is a little unsettling to note that the Mock test features as many as 7 grammar questions. Though there is no reason to believe that section actual CAT will follow a similar question distribution, (the questions seem to have been randomly selected from the previous years’ papers) you still need to be prepared for such an eventuality. As we have seen over and over again, grammar is most students’ weak point, and even strong students stumble when it comes to grammar questions. SimCAT‐14 was, unfortunately, no exception in this regard: students found the 3 grammar questions to be some of the most difficult in this section, with an effective accuracy of 15‐25% even among the top‐10 percentilers. On the bright side, this is not quite as poor a showing as in the last couple of SimCATs. However, there is no doubt that grammar should be your focus during your final preparation. SimCAT 14 Experts’ Take The Mock test featured no vocabulary‐ or usage‐based questions. If this is taken to indicate that CAT 2014 will have few to no vocabulary‐ or usage‐based questions, it would be a mixed blessing. On the one hand, we have seen that students are mostly quite comfortable with certain types of questions in this category, such as Fill in the Blanks and Word Pairs – for instance, in SimCAT‐14, Qs. 61, 62 and 85 were among the easiest questions in the second section. So the lack of such questions in the actual CAT could represent a loss of potentially scoring questions. On the other hand, students tend to make silly mistakes in usage‐based questions (especially ones which test knowledge of English idioms and phrasal verbs) such as Qs. 58 to 60 in SimCAT‐14, which fewer than 35% of the top‐10 percentilers got correct. So the possible lack of such questions in the actual CAT could be a good thing. There are 16 RC questions in the Mock test, spread across 4 passages – the same as in SimCAT‐14. Surprisingly, students found the first passage of SimCAT‐14 (the one on the creation hypothesis) quite easy, though the topic of the passage was somewhat abstract. The last passage (the one on overpopulation) was almost as easy. On the whole, we are satisfied with students’ performance in the RC section in SimCAT‐14. Remember – the format of the Mock test cannot be considered certain indication of what will appear in CAT 2014 (as the questions it features are a somewhat haphazard mixture from the original CAT papers of 2003‐2008, when the CAT was a paper‐based test, and significantly different from the format it has had since going online). Out of the four Logical Reasoning sets, two (Qs. 51 to 54 and Qs. 75 to 78) were easy and were suitable candidates for solving in the first round. These sets should not have been skipped. The last Logical Reasoning set (Qs. 87 to 89) was difficult, while the remaining set was of a medium level of difficulty. Overall In order to clear the cut‐off for section 1 comfortably, about 32 questions could have been solved with 80% accuracy. To do the same for section 2, about 28 questions could have been solved with 80% accuracy. In order to clear the overall cut‐off, you would have to solve about 14 more questions with 80% accuracy. Given below are the questions you should have solved. Sec. Must‐Solve Questions* Potential Score Improvers** Total Qs QA‐DI 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,17,21, 23,24,25,27,28,30,33,34,36,37,38,39, 40,43,44,47 52,53,54,57,61,63,65,66,67,69,70,71, 72,75,76,77,78,79,93,94,96,98,99,100 1,13,19,20,22,26,29,31,32,46, 48,49,50 44 51,55,56,58,62,64,74,80,85,86, 90,92,97 37 VA‐LR * Questions that have been attempted by a majority of the top 10 %ile students, with an accuracy of at least 80%. **Questions that have been attempted by a majority of the top 10 %ile students, with an accuracy of 50-80%. SimCAT 14 Experts’ Take General Tips • Solving multiple back‐to‐back full‐length tests during the last two weeks is not a good idea as it is likely to be physically draining. We would suggest that you not solve more than 2 tests per week in the remaining time. Make sure that you take the tests in the same time slot as your actual CAT, so that your mind and body get used to being alert during that time of the day. We suggest that you not solve any full‐length test the day before your CAT. • From this point onwards, your focus should be more on solving different questions. Solve about 30‐35 questions each at the CAT level of difficulty from Mathematics and English every day, from different areas. Solve at least 1‐2 DI, LR and Reading Comprehension passages. You can pick up questions from section tests, area tests or take home SimCATs. The majority of this question solving exercise should be done on the computer and not on paper, as you will have to solve the actual CAT on the computer. • As we have pointed out earlier, the key to cracking the CAT is identifying the right questions to attempt and getting them correct. If a particular question appears too difficult, do not get stuck on it but move ahead. There might be easier questions lying ahead, which you might miss if you get stuck on a particular question for too long. Make sure you apply this technique effectively in the actual CAT. If you haven’t appeared for the previous SimCATs, make sure you do and read their Experts’ Takes for more useful tips and insights. All the Best for SimCAT‐15!