CAT and DIFFICULT – are synonymous to each other. Each year, the exam sets high standard in terms the difficulty level of the questions. But what may be difficult may not necessarily be tough to score. Observing the pattern of questions over the last few years, the good news is that more difficult the area, easier is the question asked. The only “not so” good news is that the “easy” of CAT is also moderately tough.

Getting overwhelmed! Well don’t be. MBA Rendezvous will list for you the difficult areas in all the three sections separately so that you can focus on them individually.

VARC Section

The overall difficulty in this section is based on the difficulty level of the RC passages. 24 out of 34 questions in this sections are asked as part of RCs which are fact or inference based, in short test your critical reasoning skills. Passages could be as less as 250 words and as high as 600 words. Questions are also based on the tone of the author and some other vocabulary or Grammar based questions. Since RCs cover almost 70% of this section, it is the difficult area.

DILR Section

On the whole, this is a difficult section of CAT. There are 8 sets, 4 each for DI and LR. Usually 2 sets are from Modern puzzles such as bets, investment and tournaments are definitely asked and are usually tough. The DI sets based on traditional chart types such as table, bar & line graph and pie charts are also asked and mostly calculation intensive. There will be usually 2-3 sets from this area as well.

The challenging bit in this section comes in the form of Analytical Puzzles which are a total surprise and hence difficult to crack. These could be something like random puzzles, fill ups, long or square charts. For example, in CAT 2017 there were sets on Happiness Index, Marks in PCM and Projects were difficult ones and challenging taking students by a surprise.

Unpredictability in the DILR section is the difficult bit, and this can be tamed only by thorough practice on a daily basis.

QA Section

In this section the maximum questions are asked from – Geometry, Arithmetic and Dirty Quant which is about 23 to 26% or 8 to 9 questions per area. The remaining questions are split between Numbers and Equations ( 4 to 5).

Geometry covers Angles, Triangles, Circle, Mensuration, Coordinate Geometry and Trigonometry which is largely formulae based. So memorize them thoroughly. The level of questions based on topics like profit loss, averages, percentages, ratio proportion, TSD, time & work etc is superior as compared to other exams. The most dreadful part is the dirty quant which covers topic like – In-equations, Progressions (AP, GP). P&C, Logarithms (every year there is 1 question for sure), Sets, Modulus, Function & Graphs and Maxima Minima.

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