Sujata Khanna
Chairperson, Career Forum Ltd.


“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins. Not through strength, but through persistence.”

For the tenacious, the three P’s have finally paid off – ‘Patience, Persistence and Perspiration’!

The persistent efforts of the past few months, and the burning of the midnight oil has proved its worth today. A formidable paper, even for the best prepared and a challenge to those, whose strategies were firmly rooted! But as goes the adage “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”, so your preparations will not go futile. Your opportunities were the PreCATS and the Countdown papers that you have so diligently worked on, further strengthened your convictions that ‘Yes, The CAT can be belled’.

STRUCTURE OF THE PAPER

The pattern was not unusual to a regular student who has been familiar with the PreCATs and the last two years of CAT 2007 and 2006. CAT 2008 laid more emphasis on the Verbal Ability section giving it 15 questions more than the Quantitative Ability section and the Logic and Data Interpretation section. With 90 questions in total, there was no room for any speculation.

The paper was easy on the eye and the overall difficulty was “Average”
1. Time: 150 minutes
2. Total: 90 questions.
    25 questions in Quantitative Ability (QA)
    25 questions in Logic and Data Interpretation (DI) and
    40 questions in Verbal Ability (VA).
3. Marks per question: 4
    Negative Marks: 1 mark deducted for every wrong answer.
4. 5 answer options for each question.

The marking scheme implies that scores will have integral values and not decimals.

HIGHLIGHTS/LOWLIGHTS

1. Few sitters in QA. Overall a tougher section than the CAT 2007.
2. The DI section was complicated and in comparison to the earlier two years, had stronger emphasis     on reasoning. It contained less classic Data Interpretation.
3. Data Sufficiency (DS) questions appeared only in a caselet of Mathematical Reasoning.
4. The VA section was pleasant and visually appealing even with the increase in the comprehension     passages. A breather after an exhausting round of DI.

TIME ALLOCATION STRATEGY

Considering the fact that a balanced score has to be maintained for all sections, the smartest strategy would have been an allocation of 50 minutes for each section.

QUANTITATIVE ABILITY SECTION

The distribution of question types in the Quantitative Ability section was very similar to what was seen in the past. There was maximum weightage on Algebra while Arithmetic was left in the dark.

• Algebra had nine questions
• Geometry had six questions
• Numbers had four questions
• Mathematical Reasoning had six questions
• Data Sufficiency questions covered only under Mathematical Reasoning



An attempt of 12 questions with around 70% accuracy would give you a score of 28 marks in this section which can fetch you 1+ IIM calls.

Considering approximately 3-4 minutes per question on an average, this section would have taken the stipulated time of 48-50 minutes.

LOGIC & DATA INTERPRETATION SECTION

This time, this section had more reasoning based questions.
• 2 caselets on tablular format
• 1 caselet of ‘Reasoning Based Data Interpretation’
• 1 caselet on bar graph
• 1 caselet on analytical reasoning
• 1 caselet on mathematical reasoning
• 1 on a diagram of scattered graph

The two caselets on tabular format were comparatively simple to handle. The caselets on mathematical and analytical reasoning were easy.

The bar graph and the ‘Reasoning Based Data Interpretation’ questions were quite tricky.
Not attempting the scattered diagram would have been a wise move.



A clever approach would be attempting a combination of one table, the caselets based on mathematical and analytical reasoning and some questions from the ‘Reasoning Based Data Interpretation’ caselet. This would make a total attemptability of 13 questions.

Considering an accuracy of 70%, this would have totaled to 32 marks fetching you a call from 1+ IIM. Considering approximately 3-4 minutes per question on an average, this section would have taken the stipulated time of around 50 minutes.


VERBAL ABILITY SECTION

This section gave us a sense of déjà vu.

• The Vocabulary and Grammar segment stood out with 80 marks
   This segment comprised of inappropriate usage of words, double blanks, choosing the    grammatically appropriate sentence, confusing words, and paragraph completion.
• There were four Reading Comprehension passages followed by five questions each, accounting for    80 marks. Length of the passages was approximately 700-800 words. Two of the passages had    specific detail questions
• The missing element was the Critical Reasoning questions



• A clever approach would be to select any two or three Reading Comprehension passages, that is,   attempting 8-12 questions, with an accuracy of 60%. The scoring in the Reading Comprehension   would be in the range of 17-23 marks

• In the Vocabulary section, since there are five question types, a wise move would be to attempt an   average of three questions per question type. A good attempt would be around 12-15 questions   with an accuracy of 60%. The scoring in the Vocabulary segment would be in the range of 28-35   marks.

This accounts for an attemptability of approximately 24+ questions worth 46+ marks, fetching you 1+ IIM Calls, in the total time of 50 minutes to be spent on the section on Verbal Ability.

In retrospect this paper was an intelligent one proving once again that "Leadership is a challenge to be something more than average".