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SIMCET 5 –EXPERTS TAKE Overall SIMCET 5 was easier compared to SIMCET 4. The following analysis gives an area‐wise break up of easy, medium and difficult questions, which will help you benchmark your performance. There were 83 easy questions in the paper and only 15 which were difficult. So, a score of 120+ is achievable for a student who has a good reading speed, is comfortable with all areas and practices regularly. Verbal Ability There were 30 Verbal Ability questions in this test. They were of mostly easy to medium difficulty: 14 were easy, 12 were of medium difficulty, and only 4 were tough. CET does not have as strong an emphasis on grammar‐based questions as on vocabulary & usage‐based ones, though the former are present to some extent. The Sentence Combination and Highlighted Phrases questions are purely grammar‐based; questions like Incorrect Words and Cloze can also test grammatical knowledge at times. For example, Qs. 48 and 50, two of the Incorrect Words questions, test you on your knowledge of subject‐verb disagreement and pronouns respectively. The Sentence Combination questions (Qs. 51‐55) are usually not too hard – in fact, they are all easy in this SimCET – and they don’t usually take very long to read. So they can provide a good chance to maximize your score, as long as you know your grammatical concepts well. The Highlighted Phrases questions (Qs. 125‐129) can be trickier, as they tend to test the more complex or difficult grammatical concepts. For example, only 18% of the test‐takers correctly answered Q. 129, which tested knowledge of parallel construction. Q. 126, which also tested parallel construction, as well as phrasal verbs, was equally tough. Make sure to brush up on these concepts if you want to ace the grammar questions in CET. The overall break‐up of the questions was as follows: Area Easy Medium Difficult Total Cloze (2 passages, 5 blanks each) 5 5 10 Incorrect Words 2 1 2 5 Grammar – Sentence Combination 5 5 Synonyms & Antonyms 1 1 2 4 Grammar – Highlighted Phrases 1 4 5 Odd One Out 1 1 Total 14 12 4 30 Verbal Reasoning There were 24 VR questions in this test: 12 easy, 10 medium and 2 difficult. There was a larger variety of VR questions than in the previous SimCET, and less of a focus on CR‐type questions. Students seem to have done reasonably well in the VR questions, though there are a few glaring exceptions. One is the sole Course of Action question, Q. 11. The answer to this question was option [3] – ‘Either A or B’. A whopping 87% of the test‐takers got it wrong! It is likely that most students have gotten into the habit of ignoring the ‘either’ option in such questions, because it is so rarely the answer, and indeed, at times seems almost meaningless as an option. But do remember that it is an option! In this question, both the given courses of action are valid, but mutually exclusive: if Sushil tries to recover his phone, he cannot be said to be willing to accept its loss; and if he chooses to accept its loss, he cannot be trying to recover it. Thus the only possible answer is ‘Either A or B’. The ‘either’ option also seems to have tripped up students in one of the Syllogisms questions, Q. 77, in which the answer too is ‘Either A or B’. Only 8% of the students got this one right. Remember that there are 5 options in all CET questions. If you dismiss one or more of them without a second thought, you do so at the risk of dismissing the right answer. The overall break‐up of the questions was as follows: Area Easy Medium Difficult Total Jumbled Paragraph 3 2 5 Course of Action 1 1 Incorrect Sentence in Context 1 1 2 Critical Reasoning (1 set of 2 questions) 2 2 Syllogisms 4 1 1 6 Strengthen/Weaken the Argument 1 2 3 Paragraph Completion (double blanks) 3 2 5 Total 12 10 2 24 Reading Comprehension As usual, there were two RC passages in this SIMCET, with 5 questions each. The questions were of low‐
to‐medium level of difficulty, with no really difficult question. The first passage (Qs. 17‐21 – the one on artificial lighting) was slightly easier than the second one (Qs. 147‐151 – the one on music), though neither was particularly tough. Or at least, that’s what we thought. The data on the test‐takers’ performance tells a different tale in case of the second passage. As usual, a large number of people (about 28%) have not attempted the second passage at all – despite our regular insistence that in CET you must always mark an answer to all the questions even when you don’t solve them all. But even the ones who attempted these questions got some of them spectacularly wrong: less than 4% and 8% respectively got questions 149 and 150 correct. It’s really surprising, especially in case of Q. 150, in which the right answer (option [5]) is essentially a paraphrase of the first few sentences of the first paragraph. Please remember that Reading Comprehension consists of both ‘reading’ and ‘comprehension’ – you not only read the passage, but also understand what the author is trying to say. Q. 149 seems to be yet another instance of people not paying attention to all the options. The answer is [5] – ‘Cannot be determined’. But it is likely that many test‐takers simply did not take this option into consideration (just as in the case of the ‘either’ options in the VR questions). Before you read the question, all 5 options have an equal chance of being correct – so don’t ignore one of them. The overall break‐up of the questions was as follows: Area Easy Medium Difficult Total Passage – Artificial Lighting 2 3 5 Passage – Music 3 2 5 Total 5 5 10 Logical Reasoning Since this area has a weightage of around 25‐30% of the total exam,it is important to identify the sitters as well as those questions that just require you to analyze very less data and solve those first.Questions based on Series ,Coding ,Symbol based logic etc etc involve you to understand a logic and should take not more than 30 seconds to get the same .Even a set based on Sequential Output should not take you more than 90 seconds to get the underlying pattern .Within these time limits if you are not able to understand the pattern /logic for the question/set it would be advisable to mark the answers and move on.Even Selection Criteria just involves comparison of fixed parameters and are quick to solve .In the area of Logical Reasoning , around 40‐50% can be expected on the topics mentioned above.A lot of you (close to 20%) have left questions 182‐186 (the set on Alphanumeric Series ) which was a sitter.Sometimes, 4 to 5 marks can make all the difference in getting you to a top college. The overall break up of questions in Logical Reasoning was as follows Area Easy Medium Difficult Family Tree 7 Linear Arrangements 14 Circular Arrangements 6 Alphanumeric Series 5
Sequential Output 7 Conditional Coding 6 Resultant ‐2 rows 4 Series Completion ‐2 ROWS 1 4 Selection Criteria 5 Quantitative Aptitude Like in earlier SimCETs, questions on Problem Solving were marked mostly by questions that were solvable in about a minute. However, the surprise element here was 6 questions based on Approximations. About 1 out of 5 test takers have left out these questions.Though these kind of questions have not appeared in the last 3 years,they were a regular feature in CET from 2007‐10. One has to be ready for surprises as once in a while CET pattern of questions may undergo changes in a particular area. At least 4 of these 6 questions could have been easily solved if you know the cubes and squares of natural numbers upto 11. An area‐wise analysis is given below. Area Geometry (Circles ) Arithmetic (TSD,Work,SI) Numbers ‐ BODMAS Modern Math (Probability,P&C,Sequences) Quantitative Comparison Easy Medium Difficult 2 2 3
6 1 2 1
4 Visual Reasoning Though the overall accuracy rate in Visual Reasoning questions is quite good , a lot of you still seemed to be troubled by questions where there are 5 or more elements .Do not try and get the pattern of movement of each and every element in a question .Try to look at the pattern of just 1 or 2 elements.Take the example of Q 162 ,where the nos 1,2…8 are used.If one looked at the movement of 5 ,then it would have been very easy to guess that in the answer figure ,the water image of 5 has to appear as the lower element in the upper left quadrant and this happens only in option (2).Similarly for Q. 164 ,if one studied the pattern of “×” and “π” , one would know that these have to appear at the extreme left hand side at the bottom and middle respectively ,which happens only in option (1). The overall break‐up of the questions is given below: Area Vis R ‐ Dissimilar pair amongst 5 pairs Vis R ‐ Odd Man Out ‐7 figure series Vis R ‐Series –(Completion ) ‐6 FIGURE Vis R ‐Series –(Missing) ‐5 FIGURE Easy Medium Difficult 1 6 4 2 8 4 1
Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency Out of all the DI sets ,Venn Diagram was the toughest and best left to be solved in the end if time permitted .The remaining sets were quite easily solvable as is reflected in the average accuracy rate with 1 out of every 2 takers getting it correct. The break‐up of DI sets was as follows Area Easy Medium Difficult Pie Charts 3 2 Venn Diagram 5 Tables 5 Bar graph 2 3 A lot of you seemed to have been troubled by the Data Sufficiency questions on Logical reasoning this time around with an average accuracy of less than 20% for questions 22‐25 .An important point in data sufficiency questions is that do not assume any facts apart from those stated in the question and the statements.In Q 22 a lot of you probably assumed that all 5 people are facing one direction which lead a lot of you mark option (4) .Similarly in Q 24 , a lot of you assumed Pramod is a male ,which lead you to mark option (1). Epilogue Since these are the last 4‐5 weeks you do not have time to go back to the BRM and start reading it all over again. Instead, do the following. ✓ Solve & Analyze all the SimCETs and Take Home Tests
All the concepts required to crack the CET have been tested in the SimCETs and Take Home Tests. So the best thing to do now is to solve them . After solving every test, solve the unattempted & unsolved questions .Analyze each and every question.Look at the solution and compare it to the method used by you to solve that question.Check if there is an easier and quicker method to solve the question Try and locate a pattern .Maybe you are facing a problem with a particular area or making the same mistakes ✓ Maximize your return on prep-time
You have a finite amount of time before the CET, so every minute of prep‐time that you spend from now on should result in you getting better at something. ✓ Study in smaller but more focused sessions
Limit your prep‐time 90 minutes per session. Determine the objectives for each session in advance. Don’t solve questions just for the sake of it, which means there is no point in solving arithmetic question unless you have a major problem with arithmetic All the best for SIMCET 6 !!!!