The necessity of data science in the modern-day world is recognised by one and all. In today’s context, it’s hard to make a business thrive in the absence of data analytics and interpretation. As a result, B-schools have figured out the importance of including subjects like Data Analytics, Big Data Analytics, Statistics for Business, Human Resource Analytics, Research Methods for Business in their curriculum.
A team manager or business leader, without the capability to interpret data and solve the business issues would cease to hold his position well. Thus, LR-DI becomes the most important subject, not only for CAT and other relevant B-school entrance examinations, but also for your academic performance while pursuing an MBA.
This article talks about the most effective and time-tested top 5 Preparation Tips for CAT LR-DI section.
Read More : – 5 Ways to Excel in CAT VARC
Exam Pattern of CAT LR-DI Section
The pattern for the Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation (LR-DI) section has been the same in CAT 2017, CAT 2018, and CAT 2019, as illustrated below.
| Number of Questions | 32 (16 each from LR and DI) |
| Kind of Questions | MCQ’s and non-MCQ’s |
| Types of Questions | LR – Varying from topics like inequalities to symbol operations, direction sense test, etcetera
DI – The section usually consists of 7-8 caselets/sets that are calculation-based, counting based, logic based, and structure based. There are 4-6 questions in each set. |
| Negative Marking | +3 for every right answer, -1 for every wrong MCQ. No negative marking for MCQ’s |
| Difficulty Level | LR – Moderate
DI – Moderate to Difficult |
Important Points on Preparation of CAT LR-DI
- The Logical Reasoning questions are easily solvable and thus, this section is highly scoring.
- The Data Interpretation questions should be attempted with caution as a single mistake can lead the aspirants towards attempting all the questions from a particular set incorrectly leading to a pile up of negative marking.
- Another remarkable change that has happened from CAT 2019 is that the questions in this section have started becoming a combination of both data interpretation and logical reasoning questions, meaning the demarcation between the LR questions and the DI questions is slowly but significantly fading away.
5 Preparation Tips for CAT LR-DI
LRDI is considered to be the toughest and the most challenging section of CAT. But let us do away with such notions for good and focus on the top 5 tips to crack the CAT Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation section.
1. Begin Early – If your goal is to score beyond 95-percentile in this section, you need to be an early bird. Start at least 3-months prior to the CAT exam day to develop your proficiency over the period of time.
- To begin, pick any recommended study material. Our suggestion would be ‘Arun Sharma for Logical Reasoning’. Solve basic questions from topics like Seating Arrangements, Venn Diagram, Puzzles, Rankings, Games and Tournaments, Quantitative Reasoning etc. Such questions might not be asked in a direct way, but a good hold on these topics will help you develop the logic required for answering such questions.
- Since, the trend of questions asked in CAT during the last few years are unique and cannot be specifically found in most books, the best source of finding quality LR-DI sets is previous years’ mock tests. Try and solve SIMCATs and AIMCATs of the previous few years.
- Practice mocks on a daily basis and keep a track of time to improve your speed. Once you are done with your mocks, spend an hour or two analysing them for a deeper understanding of the questions and their solutions.
2. Honing Accuracy – Aspirants should be more focussed on how accurately they solve the caselets/sets rather than focussing on solving the maximum number of questions. According to the past trends, attempting anything from twelve to fourteen questions (i.e. 3/8th of the LRDI section) with 100% accuracy, will fetch 40-42 marks, which will get an aspirant close to a 97-98 percentile.
3. Learn the Trick of the Trade – Every question in the Logical Reasoning section has some tricks, which when understood could help aspirants speed up things and save a lot of time. Tricks can be found in the books/study material or learnt via classes (online/offline). Jotting down the tricks and practising them time and again would help you remember them for good. But the most important part is to understand the question before application of the tricks. Until and unless you understand the question well, you would fail in your approach. Tricks just help in saving time once you grasp the questions well.
4. Exam Hall Strategy – Always keep your exam hall strategy handy. The two crucial components of ‘Exam hall strategy’ are Time Management and Smart Work
- Time management is very essential for LR-DI (hail the length of caselets), but it is essential not to jumpstart with the first caselet itself. Take a pause and give a glance to all the cases and start with the one that seems familiar and easy. Solve the easy ones as fast as possible and then proceed to the tougher caselets.
- Smart work – At first sight, some caselets may appear very tough, but if some moment is spent on reading the case and the questions, one might come across 1-2 easy questions. Be smart and solve the easy questions rather than wasting precious time on the other difficult questions in that particular set.
5. Right Mindset – Last but not least, the key to control the nerves is the right mindset. How can that be achieved? Through a balanced approach of practice and rest. Thorough practice would make the aspirant confident at solving problems in the exam hall even in a hurry. Productive rest would provide the much-needed calming effect to the brain for functioning at its optimum best.
Pro-tip – Start playing chess or sudoku in the free time to enhance your Logical Aptitude.
