Hello

02:20 PM

hello!

02:25 PM

Ma'am i have few doubts in RCs

02:26 PM

Hello everybody. I am Nikhita Basti pursuing PDGM 2016-2018 at IIM Ranchi. I have a score of 98.77 percentile in CAT 2015. I would be happy to solve your queries to the best of my abilities. You can shoot your queries now

02:27 PM

Hi nikhita, Please throw insights on how to tackle RC's which are not familiar. Particularly when the terminologies are unknown.

02:31 PM

Hi Nikhita..simple query..irrespective of the difficulty of the exam on an average what should be ideal attempt in RC section which has 24 questions?

02:31 PM

Hello

02:32 PM

Hello Nikita, sometimes I just loose concentration while doing passage. Which means at the end of the reading I am unable to comprehend the main idea. Any sugesstions?

02:32 PM

@Rishabh, As per my opinion it is not very important to know the meanings of the terminologies in the RCs. What plays more important role are the type of questions that are given.

02:34 PM

hello! approach to rc and its question?

02:35 PM

Hi Nikita , I just wanted to know the trick to solve passages on literature and philosophy which are at times very hard to apprehend

02:35 PM

For example, if there is a main theme question like "What is the central theme of the passage?" then, you need to just find the important structure words (conjunctions) like "Although, But, However, Moreover, In summary etc"

02:35 PM

@Akul ... The number of attempts in VARC section depends on the difficulty of the exam. Since 2015 CAT has a relatively easier VARC section most of us could attempt all the questions with at least 80% of accuracy

02:37 PM

Hi Nikhita,what if iam not getting scent of the RC but i have no choice then to attempt the question,how should i tackle those ques?

02:37 PM

How to distinguish between 2 similar options and what should be kept in mind to select the right answer?

02:37 PM

How to decide on what to choose first....either RC first VA next strategy or VA Non MCQs first and RCs next strategy

02:39 PM

Ma'am i am facing difficulties in solving main theme qns! please help

02:40 PM

@akhilesh, While reading the passage, instead of comprehending each and every word, try to read fast in the first iteration and look out for structure words in order to get the central idea of the passage

02:40 PM

Also can you please explain what should we keep in mind while attempting questions such as 1)Main Idea -Which part of the passage should we concentrate for this answer? 2)Summary- Which part of the passage should we concentrate for this answer? 3)Tone 4)Authors View etc

02:41 PM

Mam, I am taking around 12-13 min to solve a 6 question rc...how can I reduce time. I always read the whole passage first. Is this the right strategy?

02:41 PM

when it comes to traps in options what at those traps to get ques wrong and how to avoid it

02:41 PM

what should be an ideal number of times to read a passage? As you said read quickly in the first iteration, does that mean that I should read more than once? If yes what is the exact strategy?

02:44 PM

@Ritesh Kumar, Philosophy passages are one of the toughest to solve but generally in CAT it so happens that if the passage is really tough then the questions are easier. So try to understand under which category a question falls. Mostly the easier questions to tackle are the Data Based questions so solve them first. Advisable not to attempt inference based or hypothetical based questions

02:45 PM

I am taking 10-12 min on an average to solve a RC , how can i reduce time and improve accuracy as well, i am facing accuracy issue as well.

02:45 PM

Hi nikhita I wanted to ask how to do questions like primary purpose Inference based questions and when ever i look out for answers for inference based ques in RCS i tend to waste a lot of time

02:45 PM

@Ishwar, The strategy depends on your strengths, my strength was RC and Parajumbles, so I solved them first and then went to attempt other VA topics. Non MCQs are better to be solved first as they have no negative marking

02:47 PM

Hi Nikhita, my question is when in options there arise 2 options very close and looks like very much the right answer for the questions. In such cases how to eliminate or identify the wrong ones.

02:47 PM

Hi Nikhita My speed and accuracy both have dropped.In just 40 min I am able to attempt 16-18questions.The accuracy has taken a hit with sometimes being 50.What to do?

02:49 PM

Hi Nikhita,what if iam not getting scent of the RC but i have no choice then to attempt the question,how should i tackle those ques?

02:49 PM

hi nikhita, it is said the trick lies in skipping the right question in CAT.. how to select such questions?

02:50 PM

hi Nikhita, how many questions should we aim at attempting in first 30 mins?

02:52 PM

And my scores in mocks are pretty inconsistent, varying from 30-75, what should be the strategy to ensure at least 50 marks in this section

02:54 PM

@Ritesh, @Kedar, @Sarthak Main Idea, Primary purpose, Author's View:- Concentrate on the first and last lines of the first para, second para and/or last para which consist of structure words(conjunctions like "Although, But, However, Moreover, In summary etc) in the RC Summary:- Concetrate on the above mentioned lines but look out for structure words like "As a result, In conclusion, To summarize, Thus, Put simply etc" Tone questions:- We have to look out for the adjectives in the answer options and match it with the tone of the passage/author ex:- whether it is a positive or a negative tone? Example of tone words are:- encouraged, pleased, concerned, hopeful, doubtful etc

02:57 PM

How much time should one give for each RC?

02:59 PM

@Nikhita One last question how to give a suitable title to the passage? As per me this is one of the hardest questions to answer because I never get it right.

03:03 PM

@Bharat, @Akhilesh @Nitesh @Rijul Right strategy is to quickly read out the whole passage first with an eye for important lines and structure words as I mentioned in my previous reply. And then segregating the questions and solving the Main theme, data based and data based inference questions first which directly give you the answer just by reading the passage. Then go on to answer tone based, general inference questions. You should ideally give 10 min to solve a 5 questions RC. So 3 min to read RC in the first iteration and 7 min to solve at least 4 questions if it is a moderate RC.

03:06 PM

Hi Nikhita,what if iam not getting scent of the RC but i have no choice then to attempt the question,how should i tackle those ques?

03:13 PM

@Nitesh, 10 min is fine to solve an RC but accuracy should be good. It can be done through right selection of questions. First see which type of questions you are getting right answers while practicing. Solve those first

03:13 PM

@Avi, @Shaz Don't attempt questions which you are not very confident of. However when you are stuck between two answer choices then your chances of getting the right answer jumps to 50% so it is always advisable to choose one option. Don't leave them

03:16 PM

when it comes to traps in options what at those traps to get ques wrong and how to avoid it

03:23 PM

@all Usually the concerns of accuracy or being stuck in two options arise in tone based, inference based or hypothetical questions. So I would suggest:- Go for an option that has a weaker tone. Weaker tone options include words like "may be, might be, most probably etc". Stronger tone answer options include words like "must, should, definitely, only, will, etc" Inference based and Hypothetical questions:- Always go for "Process of Elimination" method. Eliminate strong tone answer options and options that are Cut Copy Paste from RCs. However if an answer option has a re-stated version of a main theme line in the RC then it is most probably the right answer choice for an inference based question

03:26 PM

@phaneendra The traps are mostly in inference based questions. Please refer to my previous reply on how to tackle them

03:27 PM

thq

03:28 PM

@Ritesh Title based questions should be tackled in the same way as main theme questions. You should choose an answer option which most closely resembles or aligns with the main theme

03:30 PM

Thank you all, It was great interacting with each and everyone of you. Hope my answers helped you all to at least some extent. All the best :)

03:32 PM

Thanks Ma'am

03:33 PM

This helped me alot!

03:33 PM

Only attempting in rc is okie in cat to attempt good percentile in cat in varc section

04:05 PM

hello.I'm going good in RC section but not able to do that well in VA section.How do I improve in VA?

04:12 PM