CAT 2007: Analysis of a real mock CAT

For most MBA aspirants across India, taking a mock CAT has become a habit by now.

Most of us have already taken at least ten mock CATs and some All-India mocks till date.

Let us see how you can take the best out of the efforts that have gone into taking such MOCKs.

As was discussed in the previous article -- CAT 2007: Six point mock CAT analysis -- the parameters to be measured can be summarised below:

(For the first time readers, the MOCK CAT is available on www.tcyonline.com)

Sr. No.	PARAMETER	ANALYSIS	INFERENCE
1	Attempt Pattern	Easy test / Sectional order: DI-Reasoning-Verbal-Quant /	You get one way of attempting a MOCK -- section wise & question wise. Sectional preference can be fixed with particular question types appearing in this test but question wise preference will vary with varying formats.
2	Sectional Count	The Test result & analysis page on www.tcyonline.com after the test has divided the total test into individual topics.	Know your weak topics and take 1-2 topic-wise tests for those topics before sitting for the next MOCK
3	ABC	The right order has been explained in the MICROSCOPIC ANALYSIS given below	Learn to identify these. It will take 2-3 mockss for you to master the art of spotting A, B and Cs in a CAT.
4	EMD Count	All the accelerators can be termed as "E" rated questions, but recommended in the microscopic analysis - make sure that you learn strategies to convert Breakers into accelerators.	Compare the ones that you think were easier to the ones that TCY Experts recommend.
5	Total time wasted	This is something very subjective to your attempt. Always remember to keep a record of the same.	Please calculate the time that went wasted. Make sure you see a reduction in the next mock in this.
6	Micro-Motions	This, again, is a factor that is subjective to your attempt. But mentioning it in each mockCAT analysis will help you make it a habit.	Please calculate the time that went wasted. Make sure you see a reduction in the next mock in this.

**Analysis based on online TCY MOCK CAT available on www.tcyonline.com

Microscopic analysis:

Attempt pattern

Overall, this test was easy. If you look at the three sections, your best bet would have been DI & Reasoning section followed by Verbal and Quant sections respectively. Rely on your strong areas to choose the questions for first round.

DI section had most of the data as integers, so you need not to be worry about the calculations at all. The focus should have been more on reasoning part. Logical sequencing questions (55-59) are normally easy to handle than questions 60 - 63. Moreover questions 55 - 59 had five questions, less data to interpret as compared to question 60 - 63.

Same goes for the quant section as well. Conventional questions like pipes and allegation required just the application of formula and you are done!

You must have spent 40 minutes on each section and then rest of the 30 minutes should have been divided in such a way that maximum time given to the high scoring section (DI). Rest of the time divided in the rest of the sections to clear a certain minimum cut-off.

ABC of your attempt

~ Quant

Accelerators:                Q. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 12, 13, 15, 20, 23, 25

Speed breakers:          Q. 7, 9, 14, 17, 18, 19, 22, 24

Carry home:                 Q. 5, 8, 11, 16, 21

~ Verbal

Accelerators:                Q. 34 - 37, 43 - 45, 46 - 50   

Speed breakers:          Q. 30 - 33, 38 - 42  

Carry home:                 Q. 26 - 29

~ DI & Reasoning

Accelerators:                Q. 51 - 54, 55 - 59, 72 - 75

Speed breakers:          Q. 64, 65, 66, 67 - 71

Carry home:                 Q. 60 - 63

EMD Count

It is being said that you need to dig deeper and deeper into the sea to get the pearl putting in a lot of effort, but the result is awesome. Same way in all your mock CAT analysis; you need to dig deep into the basics of each question, trying different methods, strategies and finally come up with the best result.

It requires great skill and patience to identify the accelerators and speed breakers. Your mentor can help you to identify the thin line that separates accelerators and speed breakers. Till your CAT, you should be capable enough to convert these speed breakers into your scoring ones.

Overall analysis

So, if we have to summarise this test, overall analysis would like this:

Analysis -- Quant

For the students who have gone through the total CAT quant concepts and can be able to solve good logical and reasoning based questions, the Quant section of mock seems to be moderate. In their first go they should have to solve about 10 - 12 questions and can solve overall about 15+ questions. For the students who still feel themselves tight in solving quant, should have gone for about 7 - 9 questions in very first go and should have selected their favorite topics first. Time management in CAT is having its very important role to score high percentile. Overall view of quant section is Moderate and the expected cutoff in this section for IIMs should be 48+.

Analysis -- Verbal

The student has first to analyze his/her strengths and weaknesses. Those who are not tuned to fast reading may find RC based questions to be time consuming.  Unless Verbal Ability section is the last to be attempted in the MOCK CAT, most of the students would prefer to tackle EU based questions first. Same was case with TCY MOCK CAT too.

Questions 43 - 45: For students having good grounding in grammar, questions 43 – 45 should have been a cake walk.

Questions: 46 - 50: When once the students are able to find out definite judgment based and definite fact based statements, answering the questions becomes easy and time saving.

Questions 38 - 42: The students may have to apply their minds to get the focus of the short passages, which should not take much time. Thereafter, answering the questions becomes easy and time saving. Unless a student feels more comfortable with passages 1 and 2, because of his/her academic background, the order for attempting the RCs should have been as under:

RC Passage - III: This was based on the common concept of global warming. The context used is Indian and the student should have felt more comfortable to get the focus right. Most of the questions were direct.

RC Passage - II: The passage states that intelligence is not the exclusive domain of humans. When once this was understood, questions based on the passage should not have been difficult to answer.

RC Passage - I: This is a philosophical passage and a majority of the students may have found it a little difficult. All the questions were also inference based. Therefore, questions based on this passage should have been the last ones to be attempted.

Analysis of DI and Reasoning

If we compare the difficulty level of this section of TCY MOCK CAT with CAT 2006 paper, there is not much difference as this section is moderate if seen from point of difficulty. The question from 51 - 59 were easy ones and should have been solved in first go, the graphical section was also moderate in difficulty and could have been easily solved in the first round.

Leaving these two sets unsolved would result in low score in this section. Question 60 - 63 should not have been taken in the first attempt but probably could be solved if a student had time in his/her second go. Questions number 64, 65 and 66 could be solved only when a student has done them previously.

Munish Kumar is a competitive examination expert with Top Careers & You. He can be contacted at tcy@tcyonline.com.