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AIMCAT1404 Analysis
The AIMCAT might take a few of us by surprise on account of the number of questions we would be able to attempt with the first section being several notches easier than the past few AIMCATs. At the outset, there are a few very important things that we must understand CAT has traditionally been a mixed bag with questions ranging from very easy to very difficult. The presence of the 4-5 very easy questions in a test gives one time to attempt a few extra questions. Also, the seriousness levels during CAT would be higher than the mocks. This means that your attempts in CAT would generally be higher than those in the mock tests we have been writing. It is strongly advised that we do not go into a test targetting any fixed number of attempts. Because, if your attempts are higher than what you had expected then you might end up feeling very heady in the second section and therefore missing out on a few questions. On the other hand, if the attempts are lower than what one had targetted then one naturally feels demoralised in the second section and therefore ends up missing out on a few questions. During a high-pressure test like CAT, it is very easy to lose track of time. It often happens that one starts attempting a section, and even before one realizes the time for the section is over. This mandates that we have a lot of practice in the proper test-taking strategy and keep a tab on time during the test so that we do not miss out on any easy questions in a section. Section I - Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation The overall difficulty of the first section was lower than the earlier tests, with: The questoins from Data Interpretation were easy-moderate (with only one or two being on the difficult side). The test had a reasoable number of problems from arithmetic and the difficulty level of these questions was only easy-moderate. Most of these questions were on the traditional models ones which you would have encountered several time in the classroom discussions, handouts and study material. Several questions from Numbers area were on familiar models methods you would be expected to remember from the classroom discussions. As one started out into the section the tone was clearly set the questions were of a moderate difficulty and could be answered with familiarity/recall of concepts/application of visualisation & induction. Q1 should have been solved using induction checking the number of regions for 1 line, 2 lines, 3 lines etc and then creating a general formula for n lines. Q2 was based on one of the oft-seen models in CAT with two or more than two circles intersecting and given the frequency with which questions on the model are seen in the AIMCATs, it should have been easy to visualise etc. The idea here is that one gets a perspective into the difficulty level of a test with the first few questions. An ability to get a hang of these things will be helpful while writing OMETs where you would not have much idea about the pattern/difficulty level of the test. The easier questions in the section were Q6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24 and 26. At least 10 of these 13 questions could have been attempted in the first iteration itself. The questions at the next level of difficulty would have been Q1, 2, 3, 4, 17, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29 and 30. Another 8-9 questions of these 11 questoins would have given you a total 17-18 questions. With an accuracy of 80%, one could have scored around 50 marks which is likely to be the cutoff for the section. Section II Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning AIMCAT 1404 presented 21 VA/RC questions in the VA/LR segment. (Section II) The breakup was as follows: A) Para based Questions 4 questions (3 Parajumble questions, 1 para completion question. There was no parajumble and odd sentence out question). B) Reading Comprehension Questions 13 questions (on 4 passages with 2, 3, 4 and 4 questions respectively) C) Vocab usage Questions 3 questions (2 text completion or FIB questions; 1 incorrect usage of words

C) Vocab usage Questions 3 questions (2 text completion or FIB questions; 1 incorrect usage of words question) D) Grammar based 1 Sentence Error Identification question. A) Para based Questions One of the parajumble questions (dealing with probability) was very difficult. The second parajumble question dealing with the views of Sir Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn was also difficult. The third parajumble questions dealing with cosmology was also difficult. The paracompletion question was moderate. In both the areas (Parajumble and para completion areas), overall understanding of the content before approaching the choices would have helped - candidates would have been able to spot the thought flow, grammatical connections and logical possibilities. B) Reading Comprehension Questions The following table explains the R.C. Segment of the AIMCAT in detail. No. of No. of words Questions 422 2 Minimum no. of attempts 1 or 2

R.C. Topic Philosophy Albert Camus' writing Frankenstein Angst and Depression

Question Type 1 Main Idea and 1 Inference question

Difficulty level Level 4 each

599

1 Specific Detail and 2 Inference One Level 3 and Two question Level 4 questions 3 Specific Detail and 1 Inference Two Level 3 and Two question Level 4 questions 2 Specific Detail, 1 Inference and 1 Summary based question One Level 2 and Three Level 3 questions

616

611

The first three RCs were difficult to read. The last R.C. Passage on Angst and Depression was relatively easier. None of the questions in R.C. this time belonged to the Level 5 category. 1 or 2 questions in each passage were difficult. The remaining were moderately difficult. By now, students must be getting familiar with these themes philosophy; literary writing, science based themes like depression. Some of these R.C. Topics have also been observed in the CAT. A majority of the questions were challenging primarily because they were indirect. Most questions were doable. One could also manage an optimum reading speed while doing these passages. Most of the time, there was not one clear answer and more time or intelligent reading would be required. A careful reading of the passage and elimination of wrong choices should have helped for all the question types, most of which you are already familiar with, by now. So all four passages should have been read, the specific detail or direct questions should have been attempted first followed by the inference and other question types. One should be able to skim through the passage quickly, identify the central idea quickly and then the thought flow between one para and the next. C) Vocab usage Questions Of the 3 vocab-based questions, the question on Incorrect word usage was difficult and so were the questions on fill in the blanks. Having a reasonably good vocabulary and a good reading habit would have helped. Also practising phrasal verbs and understanding the logic of the sentence in fill in the blanks always helps. D) Sentence Error Identification questions The grammar-based question were somewhat difficult. As usual, the errors were small and were easily missed. You must be aware of all the possible grammar errors that you can be tested on, by now. Interestingly, the CAT Sentence error identification question does not ask to make the correction, it only asks you to spot the error. Kindly revise and apply those rules in a proper sequence to find out what is wrong with a particular part or sentence. The main error types are as follows: 1) Errors in parts of speech (especially pronouns, prepositions, articles)(CAT's favourite) 2) Errors of subject verb agreement 3) Errors of tenses, verbs and auxiliaries 4) Errors in adverbs, adjectives, modifiers, degrees of comparison 5) Errors of parallelism, sentence construction 6) Errors of redundancy and double negatives 7) Errors of punctuation, spelling and logical consistency.

7) Errors of punctuation, spelling and logical consistency. The questions from Logical Reasoning were of a moderate level of difficulty and did not present any major twist. A well prepared student should have been able to attempt all the 9 questions from the area. Overall, one been able to attempt 20 questions out of 30, and would aspire to get 15 of them right. The cutoff in the AIMCAT is expected to be around 30 marks.