MOCK CAT – 6 (2008) file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/harsh/Desktop/mock%206%20...

MOCK CAT – 6
(September 7, 2008)

Overview

Another surprise! This was a paper designed to break the myth of a set pattern. It moved away from the usual and had a
message that change is the only constant in nature!!!

Let us now analyze the paper in detail!

In this paper, the Quantitative Ability and the Logical Reasoning based Data Interpretation sections were easy but
the Verbal Ability section had a high difficulty level.

The information on the cover page made available to you was:

There were 60 questions in all, distributed over three sections with each section having 20 questions. The marks
allotted to each question were five. Each wrong answer attracted a penalty of one-fourth of the marks allotted.

Total time available to answer all the sections was two and a half hours.

Executive Summary:

A synopsis on how this paper could have been attempted:

Suggested Possible
Possible
Section Topic Total Qs. Time number of
Score*
(in min.) attempts
I Verbal Ability 20 50 8 20 - 25

II Data Interpretation 20 50 8 - 10 30 - 35

III Quantitative Ability 20 50 8 - 10 30 - 35

Total 60 150 25-30 80 - 95

*Note: The numbers of attempts and the score have been worked out on the basis of the experts’ insight on how
the students would have taken the test and what score IIMs have been considering for dispatching the call letters.
The correct cut-offs can be confirmed statistically only after seeing the actual performance of students.

Section-I
Verbal Ability

The section had a high level of difficulty. The key was to treat EU and RC as two separate groups and attempt the
questions in them in two rounds. It would have helped to identify the easy questions and attack them.

B. Round 1: Q 1 and 2, Q 3 and 4, Q 5 to 7, Q 8 to 11, Q 14 to 17

C. Round 2: Q 12 and 13 (Passage -1), Q 18 to 20 (Passage 2)

A. Round 1:

Q 1 and 2 (Para Jumbles): This was a difficult pair of questions. You could have tried one of them and got it right.
Question 1 was doable.

Q 3 and 4 (Vocabulary - Homophones): These questions were moderate to difficult. It would have been a good move to
attempt both of them.

Q 5 to 7 (Grammar): A set of questions aptly designed for a bon vivant of language. Unless you were clear on the rules
of grammar, there was no benefit in attempting these questions.

Q 8 to 11 (Para - Completion): A doable set of questions; you could have made a wise choice of attempting these
questions. At least two questions could have been correct from an attempt of four.

Q 14 to 17 (Sentence Jumble): A new kid on the block! It would have been best to leave these questions alone as they
are too tedious.

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B. Round 2: There were two Reading Comprehension passages in this paper. Out of these two passages you could have
identified a couple of straight questions and got them right. Q 13 and 20 were doable.

Overall, considering the high difficulty level of the section, a score of 20-25 should have been possible.

Section – II
Logical Reasoning based Data Interpretation

As the total number of questions was reduced to 20, the level of difficulty (despite a majority of the questions being of
moderate to difficult level) remained Easy.

The ideal way to attempt this LRDI section would have been to attack the five puzzles before attempting the different
problem sets.

The problem sets in this section can be classified as below:

Problem Set Type Concepts Level of Difficulty

21 to 25 Individual Puzzles Logic Moderate
26 to 29 Tables Logic Moderate to Tough
30 to 32 Tables Logic Moderate to Tough
33 to 36 Bar Graph Logic Tough
37 to 40 Tables Logic Tough

Four of the five puzzles must have been attempted and solved correctly. Ideally, you should have attempted the
problems in the following order:

Order of Attempt Problem Set Time Allocation

1 21 to 25 10 - 12 minutes
2 26 to 29 10 – 12 minutes
3 30 to 32 10 – 12 minutes
4 33 to 36 12 – 15 minutes
5 37 to 40 12 – 15 minutes

To summarize, an attempt of 8 to 10 problems was a good attempt and with a good accuracy rate (at least 80%), a
score of 30 - 34 marks could be achieved.

Section – III
Quantitative Ability

In the LRDI section, “Problem-Sets” are a norm. W hat if it becomes a norm in the QA section as well? That was the case
in Mock CAT 6 as only two of the 20 problems could be solved individually.

At first you might have been intimidated by this pattern but if you cared to devote a good 3-5 minutes in scanning the
entire QA section you could have identified the problem sets that you wanted to attempt and also the ones that you did
not want to get in.

The section had only 20 problems in it with the following distribution amongst the different topics and the different
difficulties levels:

Table : Topics & Difficulty wise break-up of QA Section

Topic Questions Marks
Easy Moderate Tough

Number Theory Q47 Q46 10

Arithmetic Q41, Q42, Q59 15

Algebra Q57, Q58 Q43, Q44, Q45 25

Geometry Q48, Q50, Q55, Q56 25

Q49

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Topic Questions Marks

Modern Math Q51 Q52, Q53, Q54 20

Reasoning Q60 5

Marks 50 30 25 100

As you can see from the above table, as many as 9 out of the total 20 problems were “Easy”. You only had to hold on
your nerves and attempt every problem as an individual problem independent of the problem set it belonged to. In
Round-1, problems all of Q41, Q42, Q48, Q49, Q50, Q55, Q57, Q58 and Q59 could have been attempted as there was no
dearth of time. In the worst case, you should have been able to solve at least 4 to 6 problems (equivalent to 20 to 30
marks) of these problems.

In the next round - Round -2, you should have attempted 2 or 3 of the problems that are categorized as
“Moderate”.

Making available 50 minutes for the QA section, you could have very easily attempted 8 to 10 problems. As you had to
attempt a lesser number of problems in this section, a high accuracy rate(at least 80%) was expected of you. Overall,
you could have very easily scored 30 – 35 marks in this QA section.

All the best!!

Career Launcher Team

Close

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