If you are thinking about preparing for the Common Admission Test (CAT), it is essential to familiarize yourself with the examination pattern and the time allotted for the examination. The first thing that you must understand about the CAT is that it is an examination, which will evaluate your academic, critical and analytical as well as your ability to do time management. Undoubtedly the CAT is a strenuous examination, which you can excel only with proper preparation. In order to prepare for the CAT you must understand the essential features of the subject areas of the test which are, Quantitative Ability (QA), Verbal Ability (VA) and Reading Comprehension (RC), Data Interpretation (DI) and Logical Reasoning (LR). The LR and DI questions form one section of the CAT, the QA questions are a separate section, while VA and RC together form another section of the CAT. However, while preparing for the CAT it is essential that you understand the basic features of each and every section of the examination and some these have been discussed below.
- Quantitative Analysis (QA)
As per the nomenclature of this section, it is evident that questions in the QA section will cover various subject areas of Mathematics. However, the QA section will also evaluate your problem-solving skills. As mentioned earlier in order to ace the test you must learn time management. Hence, it is advisable that you develop shortcuts to solve the QA questions. By developing shortcuts for answering the QA questions, you will also be able to hone your analytical skills as well. An important factor about this section is that you will have to solve a total of one hundred and two questions and you must solve all of these questions in a matter of sixty minutes. Thus, time management is also essential if you want to ace the QA section of the CAT.
- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
If you are in the habit of reading the information provided by reputed online youth forums regarding CAT preparation, then you will know that the VARC consists of thirty-four questions of which twenty-four are multiple choice questions (MCQs) and the remaining ten are non-MCQs. Thus, you will have to prepare yourself for the VARC section accordingly. Faculty associated with the premier MBA colleges in Pune often mention that aspirants usually get confused in the VARC section, because of the variety of the question types. Hence, while preparing for the VARC section of the CAT you must hone your skills in answering both MCQ and non-MCQ questions within the allotted time of sixty minutes. This section too consists of one hundred and two questions.
- Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)
The DILR section of the CAT consists of questions on Statistics and other similar areas of Mathematics. However, the objective of this section of the examination is to evaluate your analytical skills. The DILR section consists of graphs, charts, patterns and series which the aspirants have to understand, evaluate and analyze in order to answer the questions. This section consists of ninety-six questions which you have to solve in sixty minutes.
Thus, the CAT question paper is designed in such a manner that you will have to think critically before answering a question. It is also advisable that you check the information provided by reputed online youth forums, to understand the types of questions asked and the question paper pattern of CAT in a better manner. By familiarizing yourself with the question paper pattern of CAT, you will become more confident in answering the questions asked in the examination.
