In the previous post, we took up 6 of the 8 sets from the DI-LR section CAT 2017 Slot 2 and took a call on which ones solve and also looked at the best way of solving the same. In this post, we will look at the remaining two sets and also what is making the DI-LR sections on recent CATs unique.
It’s no longer DI-LR but Math-LR!
One of the things I like to do when I teach is to show students the inner workings of the machine that is a question or a set. As the old adage goes, one should teach people to fish rather than give them fish. To do that one should first know more about fish than about fishing!
So I took a lot of time looking at these DI-LR sets, trying to figure out why they are creating problems for test-takers.
In cricket, we often have mystery bowlers springing up on to the scene who in a short span of time wreak havoc on batsmen of all stripes, most of them also disappear suddenly — the Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis epitomized this phenomenon.
Why do they cause so much destruction? Because they defy expectation and test a different kind of skill or mindset that most batsmen take time to figure out.
The DI-LR sets have been defying the two expectations that test-takers have come to expect when they hear the word DI-LR — calculation and reasoning.
All of you know by now that calculation in the classical sense of breaking numbers down has come down. But what most test-takers haven’t seen is that reasoning in the classical sense has also disappeared.
When we think reasoning we think of it in terms of solving puzzles.
But if we take a look at all the sets, barring The Pizza Set, on the DI-LR section of CAT 2017 Slot 2, they have moved to a new area — Mathematical Reasoning or reasoning in a Math context.
What do I mean by this?
If we can think of an LR set as an equation where the variables are on the LHS and the conditions are on the RHS, earlier the RHS was pure logical constraint, now the RHS is a number!
The LHS has always been the various possibilities and using the RHS we eliminated possibilities.
When the RHS becomes a number, the LHS also becomes a series of numerical possibilities!
Let us look at the sets, which we discussed in detail in the previous post, to get a fair idea:
The Old Woman and her Wealth
The amount of 210 lakhs had to be divided equally and hence the RHS becomes 70 each. Now you have to try out different number combinations, eliminate the ones that contradict conditions and arrive at the answer. This is how we solved the first two questions in the set, we eliminated numbers.
What about questions 3 and 4 in that set?
Q.11) The value of the assets distributed among Neeta, Seeta and Geeta was in the ratio of 1:2:3, while the gold coins were distributed among them in the ratio of 2:3:4. One child got all three flats and she did not get the house. One child, other than Geeta, got Rs. 30 lakh in bank deposits. How many gold coins did the old woman have?
- 72
- 90
- 180
- 216
Q.12) The value of the assets distributed among Neeta, Seeta and Geeta was in the ratio of 1:2:3, while the gold coins were distributed among them in the ratio of 2:3:4. One child got all three flats and she did not get the house. One child, other than Geeta, got Rs. 30 lakh in bank deposits. How much did Geeta get in bank deposits (in lakhs of rupees)?
Ans. 20
It is so obvious that they are purely Arithmetic questions!
There is no way anyone can argue that the two questions cannot be part of the QA section. Just because a question is long does not mean that it becomes an LR question.
The Dormitory Set
The first two questions were pure LR questions but what about the next two?
- 4 of the 10 dorms needing repair are women’s dorms and need a total of Rs. 20 Crores for repair.
- Only one of Dorms 1 to 5 is a women’s dorm.
Q 15) What is the cost for repairing Dorm 9 (in Rs. Crores)?
Ans. 3
Q 16) Which of the following is a women’s dorm?
- Dorm 2
- Dorm 5
- Dorm 8
- Dorm 10
20 Crores has to be divided into 4 dorms and the numbers available are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Only those with a good grasp of averages can see that since the maximum number you have is 6, you have to first give as many 5s and 6s as possible.
This again pushes the set into the realm of Math LR.
The Cup of Tea
This is a simple set but the anchor condition gives you a set of 5 pairs of numbers of which you have to eliminate 4 using other numerical conditions.
None of these sets were pure LR sets that did not involve numbers.
The two sets that are left will illustrate even more clearly the concept of Math-LR set.
The Airplane Seating
Eight friends: Ajit, Byomkesh, Gargi, Jayanta, Kikira, Manik, Prodosh and Tapesh are going to Delhi from Kolkata by a flight operated by Cheap Air. In the flight, sitting is arranged in 30 rows, numbered 1 to 30, each consisting of 6 seats, marked by letters A to F from left to right, respectively. Seats A to C, are to the left of the aisle (the passage running from the front of the aircraft to the back), and seats D to F, are to the right of the aisle. Seats A and F are by the windows and referred to as Window seats, C and D are by the aisle and are referred to as Aisle seats while B and E are referred to as Middle seats. Seats marked by consecutive letters are called consecutive seats (or seats next to each other). A seat number is a combination of the row number, followed by the letter indicating the position in the row; e.g., 1A is the left window seat in the first row, while 12E is the right middle seat in the 12th row.
Cheap Air charges Rs. 1000 extra for any seats in Rows 1, 12 and 13 as those have extra legroom. For Rows 2-10, it charges Rs. 300 extra for Window seats and Rs. 500 extra for Aisle seats. For Rows 11 and 14 to 20, it charges Rs. 200 extra for Window seats and Rs. 400 extra for Aisle seats. All other seats are available at no extra charge.
The following are known:
- The eight friends were seated in six different rows.
- They occupied 3 Window seats, 4 Aisle seats, and 1 Middle seat.
- Seven of them had to pay extra amounts, totaling to Rs. 4600, for their choices of seats. One of them did not pay any additional amount for his/her choice of seat.
- Jayanta, Ajit, and Byomkesh were sitting in seats marked by the same letter, in consecutive rows in increasing order of row numbers; but all of them paid different amounts for their choices of seats. One of these amounts may be zero.
- Gargi was sitting next to Kikira, and Manik was sitting next to Jayanta.
- Prodosh and Tapesh were sitting in seats marked by the same letter, in consecutive rows in increasing order of row numbers; but they paid different amounts for their choices of seats. One of these amounts may be zero.
Q.25) In which row was Manik sitting?
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
Q.26) How much extra did Jayanta pay for his choice of seat?
- Rs. 300
- Rs. 400
- Rs. 500
- Rs. 1000
Q.27) How much extra did Gargi pay for her choice of seat?
- 0
- Rs. 300
- Rs. 400
- Rs. 1000
Q.28) Who among the following did not pay any extra amount for his/her choice of seat?
- Kikira
- Manik
- Gargi
- Tapesh
Look at the anchor condition — it’s purely a mathematical condition — condition 3.
Why is this the anchor condition — an anchor condition is a boundary condition that puts constraint on all the stakeholders, it does not pertain to one specific stakeholders.
You might ask why then are conditions 1 and 2 not the anchor conditions. Well, they do not bring in a specific constraint that will result in deductive breakthroughs — for example, the total score in R2 and twice that of the total score in R1 — they are very general like conditions 1 and 2 — conditions that you have to keep in mind but will lead to any additional breakthroughs.
Just like 210 lakhs, and 20 crores in the previous sets, in this one, it is 4600.
You have to divide 4600 among 7 people using the numbers, 1000, 500, 400, 300 and 200.
The biggest mistake that test-takers can make while solving this set is to start by trying to arrange people into seats and then try to fit the Math into it. Nothing can lead you to waste more time and get stuck than this. And if this set came right at the beginning for you then you have had it.
What you need to do is to start by changing your mindset — put the Math before the LR. The way Aravinda De Silva, for example, was very successful against Anil Kumble because he did not treat him like a spinner but like a medium-pacer.
How do you go about putting the Math first?
4600 divided by 7 means an average of around 650. Since the average is closer to 500 than to 1000 there will be more 500s and under than 1000s. So more 500s than 1000s out of 7 means the division can be 4-3 or 5-2. It is always best to test the extreme cases, 5-2 instead of 4-3.
Can you have two 1000s? If you have two 1000s then the balance is 2600 over 5 people making the average over 500. If the maximum value available is 500 then you cannot have an average of over 500!
So it has to be three 1000s, and the rest of the 1600 over 4 people.
The next big condition says
Jayanta, Ajit, and Byomkesh were sitting in seats marked by the same letter, in consecutive rows in increasing order of row numbers; but all of them paid different amounts for their choices of seats. One of these amounts may be zero.
This is how the pricing looks.
|
R |
A |
M |
W |
|
1 |
1000 |
1000 |
1000 |
|
2-10 |
J – 500 |
J – 300 |
|
|
11 |
A – 400 |
A – 200 |
|
|
12 |
B – 1000 |
1000 |
B – 1000 |
|
13 |
1000 |
1000 |
1000 |
|
14-20 |
400 |
200 |
|
|
21-30 |
From this we know that the only possible option for three consecutive rows for Jayant, Ajit, Byomkesh with different pricing are 10, 11 and 12 aisle or window.
The next condition:
Gargi was sitting next to Kikira, and Manik was sitting next to Jayanta.
The first question asks, in which row was Manik sitting?
Since Jayanta is sitting in row 10 and Manik is sitting next to him it has to be in row 10, so we have the answer to one question in the bag. (Note that next to him need not mean in the middle seat. It can be that they are sitting on two aisle seats in row 10)
We now go back to the numbers and know that we have to use three 1000s.
Jayanta, Ajit and Byomkesh, 10, 11, 12 be it aisle or window, use up only one 1000.
The two 1000s are there in rows 1 and 13, and we know that Gargi and Kikiri are the only two other people next to each other so they have to use the two 1000s either in row 1 or row 13.
The third question asks how much extra did Gargi pay for her seat, we have the answer now, Rs.1000.
The next condition:
Prodosh and Tapesh were sitting in seats marked by the same letter, in consecutive rows in increasing order of row numbers; but they paid different amounts for their choices of seats. One of these amounts may be zero.
If we go back to the pricing table, we can see that the only two consecutive row with different pricing left are rows 20 and 21, aisle or window. So the only options left for Prodosh and Tapesh are 20 and 21 in that order. So Tapesh is the one who did not pay for his seat, which is exactly what the last question is asking.
Manik is sitting next to Jayanta in row 10, but it cannot be in the middle seat since the middle seat is free and, the only free seat has been used by Tapesh.
So the only way Manik and Jayant can sit next to each other are by sitting in two aisles in row 10.
This means that J, A and B are in aisles of 10, 11, and 12 in that order.
The only question left is how much Jayanta pay for the seat, aisle in row 10 costs Rs.500.
Since we have come this far, we can complete the set as much as we can since they could have also asked other questions as well based on the same information — how much did Prodosh pay extra?
- Jayanta — 500 (A) Manik — 500 (A)
- Ajit — 400 (A)
- Byomkesh — 1000 (A)
- Gargi — 1000 (W/M) Kikira — 1000 (W/M)
Prodosh is in row 20 aisle or window.
The total is now 4400, we have 200 left, so Prodosh has to be in the window seat in row 20, with Tapesh behind him in a window seat in row 21.
The Fingerprint Set
A high-security research lab requires the researchers to set a passkey sequence based on the scan of the five fingers of their left hands. When an employee first joins the lab, her fingers are scanned in an order of her choice, and then when she wants to re-enter the facility, she has to scan the five fingers in the same sequence.
The lab authorities are considering some relaxations of the scan order requirements since it is observed that some employees often get locked-out because they forget the sequence.
Q.29) The lab has decided to allow a variation in the sequence of scans of the five fingers so that at most two scans (out of five) are out of place. For example, if the original sequence is Thumb (T), index finger (I), middle finger (M), ring finger (R) and little finger (L) then TLMRI is also allowed, but TMRLI is not.
How many different sequences of scans are allowed for any given person’s original scan?
Enter your response (as an integer) using the virtual keyboard.
For any given key if two letters can be out of place then how many ways can we choose those two letters out of 5 letters? 5C2 or 10 pairs can be out of place and still be valid. So including the original combination, one can have 11 valid passkeys.
This entire set is built on the bedrock of P&C. It is no surprise that my colleague VK, whom most of you would have seen during the LMTC sessions or know from his website vkpedia, found this set very easy since he is a champ at P&C.
On such a DI-LR section, those who are naturally good at QA, especially the Number Systems experts should have cleared the cut-offs without much trouble. Those who are primarily good at VA-RC, Arithmetic, and LR, would have struggled or just fallen short of the cut-off.
There are no closed sets
Another feature of these sets is that none of them are closed.
- The Pizza Set — With the given information you still do not know anything about EC or DD
- The Dormitory Set — You do not know where rooms 2 and 10 fit in or the specific costs of rooms, 1, 3, 5 & 9
- The Old Woman and her Wealth — everything is open
- The Chess Set — everything is open
- A Cup of Tea — the places of 4 cups are unknown
- The Airplane Seating — the rows of Gargi and Kikira or the specific seat numbers of the aisle people.
- The Fingerprint Set — everything is open
It is now easy to see why these sets are causing trouble or taking a lot of time — they are Open Sets based on Math and this is the exact opposite of what test-takers like and want — Closed sets based on Arrangement.
Developing the fast-twitch muscle in the brain
One of the key requirements to be good at solving LR sets such as The Dormitory Set or even The Airplane Set is to be able to quickly list alternatives, keep moving from one condition to the other and keep eliminating options.
This is very different from LR sets where you do not have to list alternatives but only work the conditions.
I find the former skill very similar to solving Sudoku. One has to keep moving very dynamically across cells and keep arriving at the number by the process of elimination.
Even before I began solving all of these sets, I felt that I needed to get my brain warmed up and supple. I felt that I since I haven’t solved LR sets in a while I would need to get the blood pumping through the gray cells. So I did what works best for me a few Sudoku sets on my phone till I knew that I was moving absolutely smoothly without getting stuck.
My favourite batsman, Brian Lara, was known to have a net or play some TT during the breaks between innings, especially if he was in good nick and scoring fast, he just didn’t want to let go of the rhythm and quick reflexes.
I would strongly advise solving 3 medium-level Sudoku sets a day targeting an average time of 4 mins per set. On every third day, you should take up a difficult set so that you push yourself a bit harder.
Don’t expect sets to yield with you on auto-pilot
The brain like the body wants to be on auto-pilot mode. This means that it is traversing familiar territory and hence will execute the motions it has perfected already with considerable ease. Think of this as playing on an ODI or T20I pitch where the ball and the bowler cannot surprise you because the pitch does give them any purchase.
And what is tough is usually so because it is unique. And unique means that you cannot be on autopilot. Think of this as batting on a worsening pitch in the fourth innings — the same limited overs heroes struggle to chase down 250 in a day (it’s not the format but the skill sets that have become limited, which why our Indian team manager’s talk on recent international test tours about intent is doesn’t translate into runs).
If you make this change in your head then you know what you are up against.
The ability to think deeply and with clarity
Chasing down a total, not just surviving, on a fourth innings pitch means that you have to concentrate hard.
The ability to think deeply means that when you read a set you are figuring out the complexity of the set and really understanding it in terms of how to represent it.
The core skill would be the ability of your brain to focus deeply and for long without getting tired or distracted.
The best way to do this by ensuring that all your prep sessions are for 3 hours with your phone switched off. If you are prepping with your phone on then I am afraid that you are doing yourself a great disservice.
I always know how likely I am to do a set correctly and in good time based on how fresh and relaxed my brain is feeling.
So one of the things that you should ensure over the next two months when you will be taking a lot of tests is that you conserve your mental energy.
While you might think that watching your favorite TV show or browsing social media for an hour or so is relaxing, it is taxing your eyes with light from the screen. I would rather suggest a nap or a walk as the ideal rest or break.
Also, do not forget to do some form of exercise regularly since it increases the oxygen supply in the system. I know of a few people for whom none of this will matter but as I said I know only a few and I am not one of them.
There is no point in looking for exactly these kind of sets to solve since you will never get mirror replicas. I would rather suggest that you resolve all the sets from the SimCATs keeping in mind the following things:
- rate the set before solving
- figure out the best way of representing instead of blindly jumping to draw something
- identify the anchor conditions and learn to work with them
- keep moving between conditions and eliminating instead of getting stuck in your table
- identify the Math-LR sets and execute putting the Math first
Becoming good at something is always about doing 10 small things right. Most of the time people think it is one big thing that they lack and that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The CAT Writer 
Hi Tony sir,
Thanks for the very insightful article!
I need your guidance related to overall exam and mocks. My performance since past few mocks has been consistent…consistently bad! My scores are stuck in 50s and I am at a loss as to what to do. Outside the test environment, I am able to solve most if not all QA questions and DILR sets but during the test, I don’t know why am I not able to perform. Maybe its the nerves or lack of taking enough mocks.
Right now, I have completed Learn section from IMS portal for all 3 sections and Practice section for Verbal and DILR and expecting to complete Practice for QA section by 1st week of October. After that I am planning to take Sectionals everyday for all 3 sections and then full length mocks from October till the D-day. Currently, I stand at 0 sectionals and 7 proctored mocks (Highest %tile – 80).
Will this be the right approach to improve my speed and question selection (both of them being my weak areas) or am I missing out something?
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Hi MB,
Well, I have done a detailed post on the first part of your query — https://thecatwriter.com/2021/08/16/it-is-not-test-taking-skills-why-your-actual-abilities-might-not-be-as-good-as-you-think-they-are/
I do not think the strategy of sectionals first and full-length tests back-to-back makes any sense since you will just be depleting yourself a lot before test day.
It makes a lot of sense to do sectionals between SimCATs so that you can fix specific issues that you identify during test analysis.
The big thing to do is to ensure your selection skills and technique are spot on — I have covered this in detail in the Last Mile to CAT and the Masterclasses.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Thank you for your insights, sir. Coincidentally, I read that article after I posted this comment and realized how redundant my comment is.
Yes, it makes a lot of sense to use sectionals as a tool to finetune my weak points. As far as I understand, you are recommending an iterative approach of Sectionals -> Mocks -> Repeat instead of the linear approach I had in my mind. This makes perfect sense, thank you!
Since my weak areas are speed and selection, should I keep at sectionals till I notice an improvement then give couple of mocks, find new weak areas to work on and repeat the cycle? Or have I missed your point?
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Hi,
The whole situation is like a sport; there is nothing like match practice.
You can try speed and selection on sectionals but doing QA standalone and doing it at the end of the other two sections is a different ball game altogether.
There are 40 mocks on offer! Just start taking mocks straight out and use the sectionals in between.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Thank you soo much for this post sir.
sir, there is one news doing rounds regarding reduction in no of questions in CAT 2021.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/cat-2021-number-of-questions-to-decrease-across-sections/articleshow/86368996.cms
if this is true, the no. of questions will further decrease. Assuming that IIMs are reducing 2 que per section, i.e total que 70 from previously 76. can this prediction be correct?
VARC- 24 Que.
DILR- 22 que.
QA- 24 que.
What could possibly be a section-wise breakup and is there any need to change our test-taking strategy?
Can we expect 4 RC and 5 DILR sets or lesser?
Warm Regards.
Vaibhavi
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What do you think, Vaibhavi?
You will either have the same time and fewer questions or the same questions and more time?
Essentially, life is easier!
So, the only strategy is to be happy!
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Hello sir,
This will be my second attempt, and right now I’m scoring about 90-95%ile in mocks. My scores are always around 83-87. I have scored 100+ only twice or thrice. I really need to convert it this year, as I’ve already graduated and have taken a gap year. I am 24 and I don’t want to spend another year preparing for CAT.
Also, last year I bought the narrative that mock scores don’t matter, but after having a horrible experience in the actual exam, I have started believing that mock scores are definitely very important. I also think there’s a high chance that I’ll end up scoring *less* than what I do in mocks. (because for eg. my attention span is extremely low in noisy environments, and what if the test center is in the middle of a busy market?!). There are so many things that can happen and for which we cannot prepare.
Coming to the preparation, since my basics are covered, I am thinking of taking one mock everyday, to test different strategies and to practice solving questions in a time-bound manner. Do you think this is a good idea?
P.S. I have been reading your articles since last year, and they are really very helpful 🙂
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Hi P,
I don’t know where the narrative came from!
All I can say is that CAT prep is not a movie where one can rely on ones peers and may be the biggest ability in today world is to just follow one or two people or sources of information and keep all the rest at bay!
A test a day might be a bit too draining and you might end up depleting mental energy. You need to peak at the right time.
You have around 8 weeks, so three tests a week (max) should suffice.
Don’t go from no tests to only tests!
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi Tony Sir,
I hope you recognize me from the previous year comments as well. I really wanted to come by and thank you for your approach and strategies especially in the VARC section. Slowly the section I feared so much, is showing better results over the mocks. I knew about the Para to question approach from your blog but I missed recognizing a lot of points about the process which I could finally recognize in the RC 2 masterclass after analysing my attempt and it helped me a lot. After the practice you had recommended, I’m still 4 days into that mode with around 32 RCs practised, and I jumped in to take the mock, surprisingly I had a nearly 15 mark jump in Simcat 9 from my previous scores with high accuracy just from the RC part. Slowly I’m able to anticipate what all would happen in the rest of the paragraphs just by reading the first or first two paras which helps me attempt a few specific questions of the passage I left in the last few minutes. I’ll make sure I do practice all the 100 passages within the next 6-7 days as well as critical reasoning. Thank you so much, Sir.
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Hi Ananya,
I do recognise you from last year!
Glad to hear the techniques and processes are working for you. Usually, it takes a year and more often another attempt before people truly chuck their own methods and start applying processes.
All the best for the rest of the season!
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*off-topic*
Hii sir,
Regarding the DILR score improvement batch. The final lecture was cancelled on 17 Sept ’21 due to a network issue at Amit sir’s end. But the session ‘Miscellaneous-7’ has not been rescheduled yet. Can you please look into it and reschedule at the earliest possible?
Also homework assignment solution for the session which happened on 13 and 15 Sept ’21 is not uploaded on live.ims portal. Usually, they are uploaded next day of the live session.
Can you please look into these problems?
The DILR score improvement program was absolutely great and I could see the difference in my DILR skills. Very thankful to Amit and Param sir for the live sessions.
Warm Regards,
Parth
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Hi sir. I just finished watching the Maximising the DILR video. You were just like the Jeethu Bhaiyya from Kota Factory. The video was very much helpful
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Hi Vignesh,
Glad to know that the video was useful.
I have not watched Kota Factory but I’ll take the compliment!
All the best!
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Hi Tony Sir,
In DILR I find it difficult to overview all the sets and choose the easier ones from those within 5-6 mins, it’s taking longer than that, How do I fix this? And even after choosing, I am not necessarily successful in choosing the easiest one’s which I realise while analysing my mocks. Can you please help?
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Hi Abhishek,
I have demonstrated the selection in Maximising DI-LR session. It will seem time-consuming and difficult in the beginning, just like any other new process, give it some time and you will be able to fine-tune it!
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Since german elections are going on and I was going through to understand how the voting process works. To me, it looked like an amazing Logical DI set that can be asked in the CAT. Any such sets in the simcats would really be help.
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Hi Adarsh,
That is a good suggestion will pass it on to the team!
All the best!
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Hello sir, I recently bought the IMS test series. I am new to your blog and now I wish I had stumbled upon these wonderful insights earlier. This will be my third attempt at CAT. I scored overall 95 percentile in 2020 with only 57 percentile in DILR. So, this year i decided to focus more on DILR so much so that i dedicated more than half the month of august only to it, after which it was pretty hard to pick my pace back up in QA and VARC. Now my mock scores reflect a dip in QA scores mostly due to lack of practice.
As its already October I am confused what should i do now. Take only mocks and improve QA or should I focus more on practicing QA questions topic wise while reducing the number of mocks?
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Hi Mahek,
Glad to know you find the blog useful; usually it takes a while before students come to it.
I think you should practice questions from areas where you are the weakest and also take section tests in Quant.
As far as mocks go you should take around 1-2 per week not more than that.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Sir if I’m sure that I won’t be getting a score high enough to get into NMIMS in NMAT , should I still fill the NMAT form ( given that I can apply to some of the good college under NMAT like K J Somaiya, SDA Bocconi, XIMB through other exams like CAT and XAT as well ). Plz guide .
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Yeah, if you are likely to score more on NMAT than on the other exams that these colleges accept then by all means take the NMAT.
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Sir, I have started my preparation very late (in September mid) and since I’m an engineer, my VARC is really really bad. In all my mocks separately, I have not been able to score two digit marks. My QA and DILR are okayish but VARC is terrible. I’m not sure what to do to improve my VARC. In one of the mocks, I tried attempting just one passage and 2-3 VA questions but then it also didn’t work out and I ended up scoring 9 marks.
It’ll be great if you can guide me a little bit regarding what should I do to improve my VARC scores.
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Hi Harshit,
For VA-RC you can look at the posts under the Verbal Strat section; it is will be easier to find it if you open the site on a laptop.
Apart from this, if you are an IMS student, you can go through the Masterclasses and Last Mile To CAT sessions that I have done for VA-RC.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi sir,
My scores have not stopped fluctuating till now, and its difficult to gauge the reason behind it, My highest percentile in simcats has been 92, but average is around 75-80s. the only patters my mocks show is one 90, then 77, then 90 again and so on. despite everything else staying the same, like the LOD or my mindset and strategy during the exam, I fail to understand why the scores are still fluctuating. Could you please suggest anything for this Sir?
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Hi Tanya,
The only reason can be that you might not be applying the question and set selection trategies in a water tight way every single time.
Apart from that the only other reason can be that technique to solve questions is not good enough when the level goes up or wide enough — you prefer to solve questions from particular areas in QA, or you are interested in solving only particular types of DI sets, so lower width of capabilities ends up hampering your ability to score equally well across tests.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Got it Sir.
also sir, before the admit card release, i was really dreading the evening slot as most of the energy goes down by evening. and i have got that slot only…pls suggest something on how to conserve the energy on the d-day.
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Hi Tanya,
Energy does not go down automatically during the course of a day, just like your phone’s battery does not go down if you do not use it.
So, unlike a regular day, if you are not working or doing prep, you can stay fresh until evening.
Eat a lot and carry chocolate is all I can say!
All the best!
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Hello sir, I hope this is the right place to ask this question. My DILR scores and percentile have declined by a huge margin in the past 4-5 mocks that I attempted. I know it’s not like the test is very tough or something like that, because when I attempt a sectional, I score comparatively higher. I used to attempt 2-3 sets prior to the mentioned duration but currently I’m struggling to get beyond 1.5 set. The only mistake I realised after analysis is that I have been selecting the wrong first set. I always try to not repeat it, but somehow I miss this everytime. I do not know how should I attempt the next mocks, and to be honest I fear that this can reduce my chances getting a good college(I am scoring sufficient in QA and VARC).
How can I stop this and make the most of my abilities during the test? Your advice will be highly valuable.
Thank you.
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Hi Sharad,
One of the things can be that you are taking too many tests one after the other. This can lead to a certain kind of fatigue and this manifests itself most in decision-making situations such as set-selection. Space out your tests more and talk to yourself before and between sections as I mentioned in the Zen and the art of test-taking session.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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HELLo sir i have done 27 ar sets of big book.my weak points is misreading and miscalculation.i want to do well in DILR .WHAT SHOULD BE MY NEXT STEPS WILL BE AFTER THESE TESTS.I AM BAD AT RATING THOUGH I NEVER TRY THAT IF I MISJUDGE THE SET AND IT ALL GONE WRONG WORRIES ME.LAST PROBLEM IS CONCENTRATION WHICH IS A PROBLEM FOR ME MY MEDIUM SUDOKU SPEED IS 12 MINUTES.SO WHICH WAY SHOULD I GO NADAL WAY OR FEDERER WAY.NADAL HAS MORE GRANDSLAMS NOW.
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Hi Vibanshu,
Fear cannot be the foundation for anything, so you have to start rating and keep your goals modest — 2 sets right and nothing more.
Now as far as concentration goes, think of your brain as an organism and think of everything that goes into it deliberately or through others and the frequency with which it happens over the course of a day — every single thing from messages received, to time spent on social media to videos watched — now think of the ability of this organism to remain still and concentrate within this information exchange environment — you will find the reasons for lack of concentration.
How to improve it? Start by incorporating pranayama and meditation to begin and end your day. You will definitely find more stillness over a period of time.
All the best!
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