CAT 2014 – How I Attempted New Pattern Mock CAT 12

This is my third and the last attempt at recording the test while attempting it and sharing the video recording share my thought process while attempting the paper. The reason for me not taking any more papers is simple, I feel that after 3 papers I will be repeating myself and will not be adding value to the students. The series “How I took Mock CAT 2014 – Mock CAT XX” will however continue with other CL faculty members taking the subsequent Mock CATs. There are different ways of taking a paper and while my style of taking the paper will work for some of you it will not work for many others and to ensure that we expose you to different styles of attempting the paper. There is no right or wrong way of taking the paper, choose the style or the method that works best for you.

All these Mocks will be taken (and recorded live) by those who can take the complete paper and not by subject experts who can handle only one part of the paper. After all you too have to attempt the complete paper and not a section. The next paper in this series – Mock CAT 13, will be attempted by Gejo and I am sure you will gain a lot from the way he attempts the paper.

Coming back to the new pattern Mock CAT 12, the recording of my attempt was uploaded on 13th Oct and is available in the analysis section of SIS, it can also be accessed by clicking here. The write up for the benefit of those who do not have the patience of going through the 3 hour video is given below.

Scan the paper: Approximately 3 minutes

I went through the paper (the printout) to understand the structure of the paper and found that the paper had a slightly different structure as compared to the earlier Mock CATs. It had lesser DI, just a couple of questions of DS and more QA questions. In the VALR section there were only 3 RC passages which was not a problem. The breakup of the paper was:

  1. 2 questions of DS
  2. 15 questions of DI in 4 data sets
  3. 33 questions of QA
  4. 14 questions of LR in 4 data sets
  5. 12 questions of RC in 4 passages
  6. 24 questions of Verbal logic and English usage.

With the paper by and large sticking to the standard pattern, I decided to continue with my standard time allocation of 80 minutes to VALR and 90 minutes to QADI and also did not see any reason to change the sequence of attempting the sections as given below:

  1. Verbal Logic and English usage
  2. Reading Comprehension
  3. Logical Reasoning
  4. QA Round 1 Questions
  5. DI
  6. QA Round 2 Question
  7. QA Round 3 Questions

However with fewer RC passages I was a prepared for attempting more LR questions. Also I was not very happy with the first set of DI (Q5-8) as with its huge amount of data it appeared to be calculation intensive.

I was not very comfortable while attempting this paper and the speed build up did not happen at any time during the paper, on the contrary I ended up wasting time in a few questions. After the paper I did not feel happy with my effort and it was only during the analysis that I realized that while there were some big misses (in LR and QADI), on the whole it was not a bad attempt but could have been better had I not wasted time in a few questions.

VALR Round 1: 40 minutes for 20 attempts

In this round I attempted 20 out of 24 questions from Verbal Logic and English Usage. I also identification of the RC passages and LR sets to be attempted.

40 minutes for this round and total time elapsed 43 minutes.

Attempted: Q 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 60, 61, 62, 64, 66, 79, 80, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98, 99 & 100

Answer not marked as I was not sure: Q 63, 65 88 & 97.

Noted the following on my rough sheet for RC passages and LR sets:

LR Sets:

Q57-59, 3 questions on circular arrangement, can be attempted

Q67-70, 4 questions, exam marks difference, mathematical set, can be considered

Q81-83, 3 questions logical set, 4 friends true/false, can be considered

Q89-92, 4 questions, selection/arrangement

RC Passages:

Q71-74, 4 questions, not sure about the topic but is readable, 2.5 slides, can be attempted

Q75-78, 4 questions, Art, 2.5 slides, can be considered if others are not easy

Q84-87, 4 questions, Critics, 3 slides, easy to read, to be attempted

VALR Round 2: 14 minutes for 8 attempts

RC passages, 8 attempts from 2 passages with 8 questions in 14 minutes.

Total attempts 28 and total time elapsed 57 minutes.

I started with the passage on “Critics” and followed it with the passage on “Ravens”. I did not consider attempting the third passage (Art) since in my initial analysis I did not feel comfortable with it.

Q84-87 the passage was easy to read and attempted all 4 questions in about 7 minutes.

Q71-74, I was earlier not able to identify the subject of this passage but was able to gauge that it was not difficult to read hence I choose to attempt this passage over the one on Art. This passage too was easy to read and comprehend and I was able to attempt all 4 questions. This passage also took me around 7 minutes.

VALR Round 3: 29 minutes for 9 attempts

LR sets, 9 attempts from 3 sets with 11 questions

Total attempts 36 and total time elapsed 86 minutes.

This is the place where I goofed up. I was either not able to any set completely or get all questions correct, also I took a long time to solve each of the three set that I attempted.

I started with Q57-59, the data set on circular arrangement of 8 friends. While I was able to correctly arrange the 8 people and correctly identified the favourite dishes it took me 10.5 minutes and also I incorrectly read Q58 and marked the wrong answer.

Next I moved to Q89-92, the data set on selection and solved the first three questions correctly, did not attempt the last one (Q92) as I felt that it would be time consuming. This set took me 11.5 minutes.

With almost 80 minutes gone I was tempted to move to QADI but not satisfied with my attempt in LR I decided to go for another LR set. Hence I Q67-70, the data set in which the difference in marks of 8 students was given with some missing data, attempted the two easy questions (Q 67 & 70) in 7 minutes and left the other two.

Thus in 83 minutes of VALR I had attempted 36 questions and since the initial 3 minutes had been used for scanning the paper I had about 84 minutes for QADI.

QADI Round 1: 50 minutes 22 attempts

Normally I attempt only QA questions that can be solved in about 2 minutes and identify DI sets that can be attempted in R2 but there was such an easy set of DI (Q 39-42) that I attempted it in this Round itself. I also attempted the 2 DS questions in this round.

Total QADI attempts 22

Time taken for this Round 50 minutes, time left after this Round 34 minutes

Attempted: Q1, 2, 4, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 28, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44 & 45

Applied SQC technique in: Q4, 16, 17 & 45

Time wasted in Q 16, 19 & 36 (about 4 minutes)

Noted the following on my rough sheet for DI sets:

Q5-8, 4 questions, Marks PCM, Large data, fill in the blanks, not to be attempted

Q25-27, 3 questions, Transportation, easy data, to be attempted

Q46-49, 4 questions, mathematical set, could be difficult

QADI Round 2A: 7 minutes 3 attempts

One DI set for 3 attempts. Total QADI attempts – 25

Time taken for this Round 7 minutes, time left after this Round 27 minutes

Having already attempted one DI set in R1, I decided to attempt only 1 more DI set and choose to go for the one on transportation cost (Q25-27) and solved it in about 7 minutes and then moved on to the unattempted QA questions.

QADI Round 2B: 27 minutes 7 attempts

In this Round I attempted 7 questions. Total QADI attempts – 32

Time taken for this Round 27 minutes

Started this Round by trying Q1 (Geometry) but was not sure of how to solve and hence decided to move on after spending about a minute. Went on to Q2 and then sequentially attempted the questions that I had marked for R2. In this round I had lapse of concentration in made mistakes in Q7, 16 and 40 but fortunately was able to identify the errors and corrected the error, but this meant I had to spend more time in each of these three questions.

Attempted: Q 3, 9, 10, 13, 22, 30 & 12

Attempted by SQC: Q 9 & 22

Time wasted in Q 3 (about 7 minutes)

Overall performance in QADI is 32 attempts in 84 minutes and a total of 68 attempts in the paper.

GP

93 Comments

  1. Dear Sir,
    I have a doubt regarding Q 11 of QA/DI . Does positive integral solution include 0 as well? I used to think that if the question says non- negative intergers then I have to include 0 .

  2. Hi GP Sir,
    I have been taking mocks for a while now but I have not been able to score 70+ in any of them. I have been practising questions but the questions here appear to be of a higher level altogether. My performance in both the sections is below average & moreover, I do not happen to be an avid reader which implies a great disadvantage at the VA section as well. What should I do in order to improve my score ?

  3. Sir,
    74 in mock 18….i feel like not attempting CAT this year….please help! what should i do in these few days to improve my score…i have been preparing for the last 5 months and it turns out to be completely useless.
    what should i do in these 5 days to atleast get a 85%ile.

    • Dear Vaishali,
      Now is not the time to give up. With a week to go, focus on revising the concepts you have learnt. At this stage setting a %ile will not work neither will getting demotivated help. At the most give one more mock to fine tune your strategy but beyond that just revise & relax. Go through the questions that you have already done. Hopefully you eil cross 85.
      All the Best!

  4. Hello GP Sir,

    I started using your strategy of doing VA first then RC/LR and then Quant. Before using this strategy i was scoring around 60-65 in both the sections. Using this strategy my 2nd section score has shot up to 80-85 but quant has dipped to 45-50 resulting in a situation where i am stuck in 135-140 range which i guess is not good enough to cross 99%ile comfortably. Could you please guide me as to how to improve QA as I start feeling exhausted after QA first round.

    Regards,
    Kunal Jain

    • Kunal, 135-140 should be sufficient to cross 99%ile in CAT’14 however we still need to understand how to increase your QADI score. Please call me at 9811155160 in the evening to discuss.

  5. Sir,
    My score ranges usually above 100, and has gone upto 145. But last two mocks have been a disaster, with me scoring 87 and 109 respectively in them. My scores before these two were showing an upward trend (121, 132, 138, 145), and suddenly they have fallen to such abysmal level. Any advice to make them better again? I felt this mock was damn easy, and though the analysis is not yet out, 109 is poor 🙁 I aim no less than 98% in CAT.

    • Dear Medhavi,

      Is it happening because of the performance pressure? Kindly do not unnecessarily exert your self by over-attempting or anything like that. Instead stick to the strategy that you followed when your scores went up.

      Team CL

      • I am not able to figure that out sir.
        Maybe it is the pressure.
        Also, I wanted to ask if there are any good colleges I can apply to with my CMAT score (99.69 percentile), as my backup?

        • Medhavi, with a 99.68%ile in CMAT I am sure you will get a good score in CAT’14. What is happening to you can be classified as last minute jitters and hence I want you to relax a bit and not put yourself under any undue pressure. Call me at 9811155160 in case you need to discuss your performance.
          The best CMAT college is Sydenham (SIMSREE) for which you will need to apply on through DTE but you can apply to GIM and KJ Somaiyya based on your CMAT score.

  6. SIR, I attempt the valr section in the beginning and attempt nealry 40 in more than 90 minutes in most of the mocks i comfortably get b/w 50-60 and sometimes more.Its the quants section in which my score is very irregular with 70-75 minutes i end up with a score b/w 20-30 the problem being not able to scan the whole paper and identify the questions which are doable i know i can score well if i am able to identify the easier ones and formulate a good strategy in quants section.

    • Amit, while QADI is an issue you need to look at your accuracy in VALR also. With 40 attempts a score of 50-60 indicates at least 15 incorrect answers which is high. With only 70-75 minutes to QADI you will only struggle in this section, it might be worth looking at 85 minutes in each section and consider limiting your attempts in each section.

  7. Sir i appeared for mock 19 today and ended up scoring just 81. In the last mock that i appeared for(mock 16), i had scored 114.
    With just a week left for CAT this score in mock 19 feels like a huge de-motivator. please help

    • Vaishali, you have prepared well and have usually had a decent score so ignore the latest one as an aberration and move on. However do analyse the paper so that you could identify the errors and work on them. It is normal to have a dip in the performance close to the paper due to anxiety. Relax and revise and soon things will fall in place.

      • Thank u so much sir, i just hope mock 18 goes well and sir i am planning to take the 2 mocks left (18 and 20)…so will that be sufficient or should i take more mocks in this week?

  8. thanx fr helping and guiding always.i had ask a ques in cat ke ache din how many ques can get 95 percentile u said atempt of 17-18 with 2-3 wrong is suficent which means around 30 sufficent if i m nt wrong with 4 wrong bt later considerng many website atempt of 30-35 with 2-3 wrong get 95 percentile.Now pls to atempt hw many ques as only 10 day left fr xam

      • p220, attempt of 17-18 with 2-3 wrong would have given you a 95%ile in the old CAT pattern (till CAT’12) but in this new pattern CAT you will need a net score of approximately 60 marks for a 95%ile in a section.

  9. SIR,
    how much questions should i target in each section for overall and sectional percentile greater than atleast 90 ? Also , pls tell the accuracy level for the same .

    • Dear Akshay,

      For both the sections, a raw score of 55 is likely to give you around 90%ile in the section.

      Best regards,
      Team CL

  10. Hi Gp Sir

    I am very concerned regarding my performance in mock 17 while ur CLPP model predicts a best attempt percentile of 99.93 and likely percentile as 98.5. Since my Cat is on 22 and IIFT on 23 i went ahead and gave 2 proc mock in space of 12 hrs.while the IMS SIMCAT 14 went fine with a score of 150+. my score in mock 17 was paltry 57 QA 20 VA 37 my lowest ever and 1st time after mock 1(98) its gone below 100. Shall i dismiss this as a 1 bad day or is it have i reached a saturation point. I have decided to avoid mocks for few days and solve bit of test gym and IMS 500. Am i doing the right way . Ur inputs will help in the long run.

    Thanks
    Siddhartha

    • Dear Siddhartha,

      As you said that this is the first time ever when your score dropped below 100, I would take it as an exception and not as a blip on your preparation.

      In terms of take aways from this mock performance, identify the mistakes that you made and take a wow not to repeat them.

      You are doing the right thing by solving questions from test gym. To beat your top performance, stay relaxed on the D-day. All the best!

      Best regards,
      Team CL

  11. Hello Sir.
    I aim for a 99+ in CAT. My average mock score has been around 93+. Please tell what should be the average number of attempts and accuracy in QA and DI to get 99+ in the actual exam.
    You have been a great help for all students including those who have only taken the CL mock series. Thanks for all the videos that you upload.

    Thanks.

    • Shama, average of 93%ile in CL Mocks should result in 97%ile in CAT and hence another 3 to 4 correct answers should take you to a 99+. Do ensure a minimum of 90%ile (my estimate is 55 marks) in each section.

  12. Hi Sir
    I recently attempted Mock Cat 02 and got a score of 102.
    with 18 attempts in QA( 4 incorrect) and 28 attempts in VALR (6 incorrect).I wish to secure atleast 96 percentile in cat’14
    1.Please guide me on what i need to do as per each section in order to improve.
    2.You’ve told that a score of 120 would fetch 95 percentile in CAT but here with a score of 102, i got only 68.71 percentile(overall).
    3.Was this mock easier of them all or have i really improved cause in VA/LR i used to attempt 23/24 and get 9 wrong.Is there a glossary of cl mock where we can check the difficulty level as compared to other mocks?

      • Sia, Mock CAT 4 would be an easier paper else at 102 you would have a significantly higher percentile. Your VALR is fine but in QADI 4 wrong out of 18 attempts is an issue. You will need to focus on attempting only those questions that you are sure of solving them.

  13. hello sir..
    1.For IIM -I what percentile should I target
    2. what would be the sectional cutoff for 95+ percentile all over. How many attempt in both section swith what accuracy shoul I target.
    3. My score hovers over 80-95. I find it difficult to increse my attempt beyond 21-22 in QA-DI. While analyzing I find lot of L3 and higher L2 questions in SEC.1…
    Are CL mocks a bit tough to make us prepare better ??
    4. What time should I allocate now to solving old CAT questions (have sloved QA of 2003-2007) , Revising the bookmarked questions in SIS n Fundabook.. I have planned to give 6 mocks in this month.
    Please help sir ..
    thanks in advance 🙂

    • Shubham, to be sure of getting a call from IIM Indorre a general category candidate should target over 99%ile which should be possible at a raw score of 140 marks.
      One should be able to clear the sectional cutoff in QADI at 50 marks but my suggestion is to target 55 marks. 21-22 attempts in QADI with 2-3 incorrect answers is not a problem. The mocks are usually a bit tougher than CAGT to help you prepare better. Also in CL mocks (as in the case of CAT) if you choose your questions carefully getting a good score is not a problem.
      DO not look at solving all old CAT papers if you have not done so already, please refer to the post 4 Weeks to CAT’14 – Ab billi door nahin for the CAT papers that you should practice and also for the schedule that you can follow for the next few days.

  14. Sir,

    I am not able to get past 25 attempts in the first section. Most of the times, my attempt hovers around 20 and average score till now has been abt 40. I have tried applying the round approach and sqc as well,while in mock13 I was able to do 20 ques in 60 mins my attempt continues to remain at 20 ques in 80 mins. I am able to score 70 to 80+ in VA. But, I am not able to improve in QA&DI. Though,every time I analyse my mocks I am able to spot a total of 30 ques I could have attempted. Most of the times I run out of time even when I select the right ques. Pls. help sir, how should I improve my score in the first section.

    Also, Sir, what would be the right time allocation for the 2 sections? I spend about 85-90 mins in the second section and rest for the first section.

    • Infact, 25 ques is the max i have been able to attempt once and in the last 5 mocks my score has come down to 100 wid a score of 30 35 in qa..

    • Swati, the good thing is that you have about 30 solve-able QADI questions in Mocks and hence if you focus on these question types only (while preparing and in Mocks). You just need to ensure that you are not tempted into attempting “easy looking” question types that you are not comfortable with, these will waste your time. With a good performance in VALR you can make it to the next stage with 22-23 QADI attempts.
      Time allocation appears to be fine but I would also like to know about the sequence in which you attempt the paper.

      • Sir, I start with lr (25-30 min) then va(25-30) followed by rc. With 80 to 85 min left I start with qa followed by di and then qa again.

  15. Hi sir,
    i have been mostly scoring about 100-110 in the mocks. i usually fare well in the VA/LR section with about 33-36 attempts and get 27-28 correct. the problem is with the QA/DI section.in 90 minutes i usually solve about 15-18 and get 13-15 correct. i have been practicing on the test gym adaptive along with other sectional tests provided but it is not helping. can you please help me out with it sir as i really want to score above 140 and want a percentile of around 96. i give around 90 minutes to QA and 80 minutes to VA.
    thank you sir.

    • Dear Rahul,

      In both the sections, your accuracy is fairly good. For QA/DI, you need to identify your strong areas and your weak areas. Attempt questions from your strong areas first and keep the questions from weak areas for the end. You can use the 3 round strategy for QA/DI section.

      If your percentage and ratios fundamentals are clear, you should attempt as many DI questions as you can. Also, please solve the DI questions from previous CATs.

      Best regards,
      Team CL

  16. Hello Sir,
    I have problem solving questions on geometry and the ones involving P&C.. Although I do get the easy ones right sometimes, but the complicated ones never get through..
    I want to know if I can entirely leave these topics and still get a score worthy for an IIM..or do I need to revise such topics from scrap??

    • Navdeep, you can leave these without any problem. However since you can solve the easy ones it will be worthwhile to read the question and attempt if you are sure of solving it. If the question looks difficult or complicated leave it. Your revision of these topics should be restricted to the question types that you can solve.

  17. Hi Sir.. I have a query.. The cut off for IIMs is stated around 90 %ile.. but does that mean if i section %ile is 92-93%ile.. other section 99+ and overall also 99+… then there will be a IIM call.. The big 3 i mean..
    i thing 90 is the qualifying cut off.. What should be the actuall cut off.. i mean..what should be the minimum percentile in a section for which we can expect a call from IIM..
    Can you please suggest few good top 20 colleges who dont have a sectional cut off or have a low sectional cut off.. around 85-90…
    Thanks…

  18. Hi sir ,
    Approximately how many people write CL mocks ?? I want to know as this will help me get the idea of competition.

    regards,
    Rahul

  19. Hello Sir……
    My Acad. Profile is as follows:-
    10th-80%
    12th-69%
    B.tech.-63%
    Work Ex-12 months
    Sir with this Acad. Profile pls suggest me that should I apply for MDI Gurgaon, SPJAIN, IMI Delhi ,XLRI,JAMANALAL BAJAJ,IMT,XIMB,GIM GOA and what %ile should I aim for these institutes?????
    Sir also tell me about the chances and score required in IIFT and FMS as I belong to NC-OBC category

    • Abhijeet, as a NC OBC for an interview call you should have a score of 45+ marks for IIFT and over 95%ile in CAT for FMS. Since FMS has a very high weight for CAT score this will ensure a final selection.
      Past acads is not a big issue in MDI, SP Jain, XLRI, JBIMS and most of the B schools, however given your NC-OBC category it would be useful to restrict yourself to the govt institutes only. MDI and SP Jain will consider you a as a general category candidate and will need a 97%ile for a call but at this score you will get interview calls from all IIMs, FMS, IITs and NITIE.

  20. Sir,
    I used to get a score of around 80-85 in the initial mocks but now am consistently getting between 100-110 in the last few mocks. I usually have less problems with the VALR section and spend about 90 mins attempting around 33Q and consistently get a score between 65-75 and even got 80 once.
    But I am losing hope in QADI section with each passing day.I have solved all funda books and most of the sectional tests too.
    I get a score of around 30-40 regularly and hardly can attempt 20Q in the last 80 mins. I have tried spending 90 mins sometimes and see the score fall even more then! I am at a loss and don’t know what to do. I love your SQC techniques but am unable to identify most of the Q’s which I can atempt using the technique. Please help me Sir! I really want to score above 140.

    • Sunando, The biggest reason for low attempts in QADI is the amount of time that is wasted in trying to solve questions that you are not sure of solving. Each such question leads to a loss of approximately 3 minutes and if your can eliminate this time wastage you would have sufficient time for attempting extra questions without increasing your speed.
      Please pick up the last 3 mocks that you have taken and go through the QADI questions again and in each paper identify:
      1. how many questions were solve-able for you in the paper?
      2. how many of these solve-able questions did you miss attempting and why?
      3. what was the reason of mistake in the questions that you marked incorrectly – silly mistake or choice of question?
      4. in how many questions did you spend a couple of minutes (or more) and then left it without marking an answer since you could not solve them? These are the questions that you need to ensure that you do not attempt in the subsequent papers.
      5. Revise questions covered under Point 1 above regularly.
      6. Do this exercise for other Mocks as well and revise them also regularly.

      • Sir, I also have been facing exactly the same problem. However, the problem is that looking at the question initially it seems solvable. But halfway through I get stuck and ultimately waste time. please suggest something.

  21. SIR,
    I am hovering around the score of 100 since my initial mock..although during the analysis i am able to answer many more of the question..panic stricken i tend to waste a lot of time in QA section and find myself short of time..

    • Aman, you have to relax in the paper, remember that an attempt of 25 in QADI is good enough to get a good score in CAT and attempting 25 questions in 80-90 minutes is not a problem.

    • Aman, you have to relax in the paper, remember that an attempt of 25 in QADI is good enough to get a good score in CAT and attempting 25 questions in 80-90 minutes is not a problem.

  22. Sir, I scored 120 by with the following stats:
    Quant 30A/19C, Verbal 33A/26C

    My Mock scores are around 110- 125 and I really want to improve my Score. I attempt Quant initially and devote 90 minutes to it… but still I am scoring only 19-24 correct in the mocks. Kindly advice me on improving my quant score ..

    • Priya, while you could look at improving your accuracy by a couple of questions, your section 2 is not a problem. As rightly identified it is the accuracy of QADI that is worrying. In QADI out of 30 attempts you should have at least 25 correct, please check if the issue is with choice of questions or with unforced errors (silly mistakes).
      Please pick up the last 3 mocks that you have taken and go through the QADI questions again and in each paper identify:
      1. how many questions were solve-able for you in the paper?
      2. how many of these solve-able questions did you miss attempting?
      3. what was the reason of mistake in the questions that you marked incorrectly – silly mistake or choice of question?
      4. in how many questions did you spend a couple of minutes (or more) and then left it without marking an answer since you could not solve them?
      Please call me at 9811155160 to discuss once you have done the above analysis.

  23. Sir,
    With a score of 120, how much percentile can I expect in cat 2014? And to get around 95% in each section,what should be the rough score section wise?
    In the CL mocks,my overall score is hovering in the range of 100-110.
    In the Va section I’m constantly above 60-65.
    Problem lies with the Qa part.
    I’m expecting that the questions in QADI and LR in Cat 2014 will be easier as compared to the CL mocks.

    • Priyam, a score of 120 is likely to be above 95%ile in CAT’14.
      I too expect QADI to be easier in CAT’14 as compared to Mocks.

  24. Hi GP sir ,

    Can we also get time spent on each question in the CL mocks we take ( proctored and unproctores ) and also the sectional tests in test gym 3.0 ??? sir without getting to know the amount of time spent in each question , it does not make any sense .

    Regards ,
    Rahul

  25. Sir,
    My scores have impoved from aound 90-95 too 135-145 in the recent mocks.
    The E-SQC nd TGA has help immensely
    Although my slot is 16th mornin…nd i am panicking…
    im sort of feeling others will have an edge since they can research on how earlier slots were to improvre score?
    Could u guide me whether my paranoia is justified and can i work any differently ?!
    bcoz im really panicking sir…

    Alsob are any e-smart cracker for DI/VA/LR in the pipeeline bcoz they will b immense help!!!

    Eagerly waiting fr a response as ur always amazing help GP sir!!

    • Rushil, obviously this is unjustified paranoia, continue with your current preparation strategy, you are improving and should be able to do well on 16th.
      There is no special advantage that will be available to those who take the paper on 22nd, while they would have an idea of the paper structure they will encounter new questions and with IIFT on 23rd, they will also have the disadvantage of 2 back to back papers.
      Overall there are advantages and disadvantages for students in all slots and rather than worrying about others focus on your preparation. Remember to be successful you have to do well, how others perform does not matter.

  27. hello sir,
    The exam guidelines says that they will be proving us with PEN… earlier pencil was been provided to all these days I accustomed myself to use pencil in exam… it is a great help in geometry.. BUT
    Should I shift to PEN now..
    Thanks in advance sir.. 🙂

  28. Hi Sir,
    My name is Jia. Sir, my Quant percentile has always been very low. I try to attempt a question(quant section) that i feel i can solve, but after having solved it half way through and spending about a minute, i get stuck. I am unable to judge my strengths and weaknesses as in some mocks one section seems to be easy while in another some other section seems to be of interest. Despite having solved most of the funda books I am unable to boost up my score. The same problem occurs with questions in the LR section. I am planning to go in for MBE, wherein i believe the cut off is around 85%ile. Please suggest me some way to boost up my score.

    • Jia, the target score for MBE should be around 92-93%ile for which you will need around 110-115 marks, fortunately MBE does not have sectional cutofffs and you can get away by doing more of VALR and a bit of QADI.
      In QADI your problem is inability to identify the questions to attempt and also lack of revision. Suggest that you pick up the last 3 Mock CATs that you have attempted and go through the QADI questions again (solve and check solutions) and put them in one of the two categories:
      1. Questions that you want to attempt in subsequent papers.
      2. Questions that you will not attempt in subsequent papers.
      This will give you the question types that can be attempted by you in papers. Revise these questions regularly to ensure that you are comfortable with these question types and can solve these questions fast.
      Do this exercise for the other Mock CATs also and for all papers (sectional tests and Mock CATs) that you attempt in future.
      When you take a Mock CAT attempt only the QADI questions that are similar to the ones you have identified.
      Please call me at 9811155160 to discuss.

      • Thanks a lot sir.
        Sorry for such a late reply but i guess there was some issue as i was checking the blog almost everyday but my post said ‘awaiting moderation’.
        I have my CAT day after sir, and my college end semesters are also about to begin in a week’s time. Could you please suggest me some last minute preparation tips as to what all sections to focus more on.
        And can I still call you for discussion?

        • Jia, at this point of time you can only look at revising. Hope you have attempted the 4 new sectional tests based on the paper of 16 Nov.
          You can call me at 9811155160 in the evening for a discussion.

  29. sir
    earlier when i was doing mocks i was getting around 70-80 % accuracy(without time limits). but now attempting around same frequency of 70 ques i get around 20-25 correct only(within time limits around 2 min per Q.).I am dam disappointed don’t know what to do it has hit my confidence too.

    • Shashank, a test induces pressure and hence your attempts or accuracy or both could fall under test conditions. Suggest that you slow down a bit and cut down on your attempts to have a better overall score. Call me at 9811155160 to discuss the issue.

      • sir i tried to call you but it’s not connecting might be server issues due to diwali .sir if you tell sufficient attempts for iiml,i,k and fms + jbims in both sections…. strong is va& lr and how much minimum to clear the qa&di cut off for iims ,,, please sort out it i got 5 percentile last year and have lot of pressure this year on me current getting around 60-70 only on only light attempts

        • Shashank, you can call me any time tomorrow.
          My estimate is that to definitely clear the sectional cutoff in QADI one would need 55 marks.

          • sir after having a conversation with you on saturday i follow up the prescribed routine .monday i have attempt around 50 ques (25 in each) got around 35 correct overall good in VA,LR,DI but out of 12 got 4 only right in QA.

            Today i saw the cat 14 mocks which is similar to the cl mocks . i have exam on 16th in morning so please suggest me my actual attempt in xam to score 99 percentile + as i have 50 in x,62 in xii and 65 in graduation and minimum in both the section

          • Shashank, please go through the paper again, are there questions that you could have solved but were not noticed by you. If yes then there is a way forward, if no then you will have to consider attempting more of VALR. The bigger issue is that out of 12 QADI attempts you have only 4 correct which indicates poor choice of questions. Please call in the evening to discuss.

    • Yash, one of the screenshot in the CAT 2014 Test Day Guide had a screenshot of the test window and in the upper right corner there was a button for Calculator hence it was assumed that calculator will be provided in the test platform, however it is no longer available in the screenshot on Pages 9 and 10 of the document thus calculator will not be available. It most probably came in by mistake and hence possibly the document has been replaced.
      In the CAT 2014 Test Day Video also you can see the Calculator button on the top right hand corner at 4 min 13 sec however while the other buttons are explained between 5 min 10 sec and 6 min 17 sec the calculator button is not mentioned/explained hence I will go by the assumption that calculator will not be available.

  31. Sir,

    There is a statement in CAT pdf for guidelines for exam day ” the penalty for wrong and “unattempted ” questions will be disclosed on the exam day. ” If the CAT does this the whole concept/strategy of leaving time consuming questions and smartly attempting questions stands vague right?

    Your views sir….

    Avi

    • Avi, it says “…will be disclosed closer to the …” thus we will know about it at least a couple of days before CAT.
      If there is penalty for unattempted questions then there are 3 possible scenarios:
      1. The penalty for incorrect answers is greater than that for unattemtped questions: In this case I will continue with my approach for leaving difficult questions and focus on attempting the easy and less time consuming questions.
      2. The penalty for incorrect answers is equal to or less than that for unattemtped questions: In this case I will continue with my approach of solving the easy and less time consuming questions but will also mark an answer to all the questions that I cannot attempt.

  32. Sir,
    the CAT Test Day Guide PDF is shows images in which the calculator is shown at the right top(otherwise the UI is the same as CL), is it a sign that a calculator will be allowed or should we just ignore it?

  33. Hello, sir.
    I belong to SC category and my percentile keeps on hovering just below the 80 percentile mark.

    I am good at English, average at LRDI and weak at Maths.

    Can my strategy of attempting around 15 -17 questions ( 10 from DI and 6-7 from maths with good accuracy) from section 1 (given the low sectional cut off for SC category) work?

    Assuming attempts of 30 questions in section 2 with high accuracy what overall percentile I can hope for ?

    Hoping to get into a top B school but I am confused with my strategy. Please help.

    Thank you.

    • Gaurav, your strategy is fine, the only change I will suggest is to increase your target attempt in QADI to 18-20.
      If you attempt 45 questions in CAT with 7 incorrect answers you will most probably have a score in the range of 85-90%ile.

      • Sir,
        Thank you for your suggestion. I will work on it.
        Will attempting 18- 20 questions in Sec- 1 with good accuracy help me to clear the 90 percentile mark as I want to get into IIM-C ?

  34. GP Sir, Good Morning .

    In Q:33, If we solve it by SQC putting the values , two values give me the answer .

    AS given in the question , price increase :10% , qnty decrease by 9.09% and initially the qnty was 5 kg. And the expenditure is constant.

    IF i take 10/ kg initially , expenditure =10*5=50
    After increase : 11* 50/11 ( qnty decrease by 9.09%) = 50 ( Satisfied )
    Similarly by taking initial price = 20/kg

    Please clarify .

  35. Hii sir,
    Nice review!!
    I adopted your way of attempting the paper in my last prock..
    I was able to attempt 28 quest of va/lr in 84 min including the time for scanning.
    I got 24 correct.
    But i got stuck in the quant section with R2, R3 types question because of improper judging. And eventually ended up with only 15 questions in 80 min. Inwas not able to get through DI sets.
    I have solved DI funda books yet the ghost lingers.
    I noted that , often when i score good in one section my other section gets disturbed.
    Please help me out..
    Thank you..

    • Rashid, please go through the DI sets in the mocks and in CAT 1990-99 papers and identify the ones that you can consider solving in the paper. Please do the same for QA questions in Mocks and it will help you identify the questions to be attempted/left in R2/R3. Also if your target attempt in QADI is around 25 questions then you can restrict yourself to two rounds only. Call me at 9811155160 in case you want to discuss the issue.

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