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In this article, which is the last on CET prep, I have answered some of the questions posted to me in the last few weeks.

I have found DI very difficult to crack during mocks. Sometimes, I need more than three operations to crack a set. How should I go about it?

The Data Interpretation caselets were very easy last year. In many of the questions, not even a single operation was required to be performed. Just looking at the graph could one get the answer. But, things can change this year. There might be questions which could be more difficult compared to last year. But, from what I know of, mocks are a bit higher on the difficulty level as compared to the actual test. And then, if a question is difficult for you, it would be the same for everyone else taking the test. One has to have a flexible strategy if one has to maximise one’s score in the test.

My strategy is that I attempt almost 120-125 questions in 1 and a half hour and after that I mark them on the OMR sheet. One reason behind this is that, I get exhausted and need that break. After I am done with it, I deal with the difficult areas. I mark them in bunches of 5 questions. What is your take on this strategy?

If you are comfortable doing it, you should stick to it. Doesn’t seem bad, though the exhaustion part should not happen. Also, taking 90 minutes to solve the easiest 120-125 questions without marking means that you need to be a bit more quicker – 30 minutes 40 questions is the average speed. For the easier ones, you should be able to touch 45-50 questions in the same time.

Does one need to look at chapters like Quadratic Equations, Number System, Trigonometry, Functions and Graphs, etc.

Regarding Quadratic equations, there might be questions on comparing two items. There, a bit of knowledge about factorisation, sum of roots and product of roots would be enough. Trigonometry, functions and graphs can be skipped. CET maths is more inclined towards calculation speed and cracking the concept required and not on the depth of knowledge.

I am attempting around 180 questions but getting only 120-125 correct. How can I improve my accuracy? What was your strategy regarding the intelligent guesses?

There are two aspects of any test. Speed and accuracy. If you can touch 200, you can make do with an accuracy of around 75-80 % depending on the difficulty level of the paper. If you are attempting fewer questions, the accuracy needs to be right up there. You have an accuracy of 70% which needs to be improved. Do it more carefully. You can go for 170 attempts and be more accurate and score around 140-150 out of them. Coming to your next question, ideally there shouldn’t be any intelligent guesses. But, if you have to, you can zero down to two options and then mark the one you feel is correct. Random marking is very risky and your score would move by 5-6 marks on an average. If you aren’t lucky with your guesses, you might lose badly.

I have a doubt about the syllogism questions when the option is some A maybe B because according to some mock papers it follows, according to others, it does not and another is whether a restatement is a conclusion or not?

The basic thing to do in syllogism questions is to negate the condition in the answer option. If you can form a diagram which negates the data in the option and fulfils the question statements, you can eliminate that option. You should have a basic idea as to how to form the diagram once you see the statement so as to make these negations in a faster manner. If they say: All cups are saucers, it can be interpreted in two ways:

1. All cups are a subset of saucers and some saucers might not be cups

2. All saucers are cups

If you consider the second one only, you might overlook some conditions which might be true. For example: There is another statement which says that some dishes are saucers. The option statement would be something like: Some dishes are cups. Now, if you consider the first version, you can say that some dishes need not be cups. This would be indeed the right answer. But, if you consider the second version, you can say that some dishes are cups which would be a wrong interpretation.

Likewise, you should have an interpretation ready for all kind of statements which can be asked. What you mentioned was Some A maybe B. Now, this can very well mean that some A are not B and also, no A is B. This is an ambiguous statement and doesn’t really mean anything. The most confusing statement which can come in this type is of the type: Some cups are not saucers. Now, this can be interpreted in two ways as:

1. Some cups are saucers
2. No cup is a saucer

While solving questions following this statement, you have to consider both the cases and then proceed along both the scenarios.

Regarding the second query, a restatement is not a conclusion or an inference.

In CET 2010 there was a question on input-output. How do we go about such questions?

Input-output questions are basically, based on series or arrangements. If it is a series question, you will have 5-6 similar series to work with and hence, crack the logic similar to how you do in series questions. Things to remember here would be sum of digits, product of digits, sum of squares of digits, reversing the number, multiplying the number by a specific number, etc.

For the other type, you have to see how the series changes from one step to another. There can be many types of arrangements here. Few of them can be on the basis of: number of letters, alphabetical order either conventional or reverse, alternating series, last letters of words arranged alphabetically, etc.

What is the difference between an inference and conclusion for the same passage?

As I had mentioned, there is not much of a difference in the two terms and it will boil down to the options as to how different they are from the others. In case, the options are same with only the terms conclusion and inference being changed in the question, one can go with the fact that an inference is a partial conclusion and not the central conclusion of the paragraph.

What to do to score well in verbal ability questions like assumptions which are not one of my favourites?

They aren’t the favourite of many of those appearing for the test. It would be wise not to focus on accuracy in such questions and attempt them as quickly as possible. Investing time in such questions doesn’t necessarily mean that you would score good marks in such questions.

In Decision making, it is mentioned, for example, “In case a candidate satisfies all the conditions given above EXCEPT”

condition (1) ALONE,

condition (2) ALONE,

etc..

In such a scenario, only one of the given should be violated and we should look for an exception for that condition ALONE. How to go about such questions?

In these questions, it is very important to read the statements completely. Also, one should not make any assumptions while attempting these questions. There are errors sometimes in the solutions and answers the coaching institutes provide. But that might not be the case with CET. If they say that the candidate can flout one criteria if he fulfils some other, then all the other basic conditions must be satisfied.

Suppose I dont have any time left for say 20 questions. Since there is no negative marking, what would the best thing I could do?

Best try would be to solve as many questions genuinely as possible. If you don’t have enough time, you can go for marking random options. What people do is mark the same option for all the questions. Going by probability, you should get 1/5 correct on an average. If you feel you can get more than 4 questions right out of 20 in the time remaining, you can go for solving them. Else, random marking would do.

Can you please share the “exact way” you solved your paper?

I started from question 1 and went till 200. I had planned to leave out the parajumble, tough visual reasoning questions and the assumption, inference, conclusion ones if I found them very difficult. But the paper was easy and I could solve those questions in the first round itself. I was not able to solve 4-5 questions out of which 1-2 were incorrect. But I had plenty of time at the end and so, could crack the others.

Thus comes to end the Cracking Maharashtra CET 2011 series. I hope you would have benefited from the articles. Keeping a calm head and being consistent throughout the 2.5 hours would make the test an enjoyable experience. Hope to see many of the readers cracking the test.

The entire series can be accessed from here.

All the best for the test.