Common Admission Test (CAT) 2020 is on November 29, 2020, which means the candidates only have 9 days left to polish their skills and prepare for the exam. DILR section in CAT is one of the most tricky sections. This is because it requires interpretation, logic, and quick thinking. The students must note that DILR is usually the decider section and the toughness level of the section has been gradually increasing over the years. However, the aspirants can crack this section with dedicated practice and a good time management strategy. To be able to cope with the last-minute revision of the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section, here are some tips that are effective and easy to follow.
Focus on practicing as much as you can: The questions in DILR are based on data in tables, charts, graphs, diagrams, case studies, logical games, calendars, clocks, cubes, seating arrangements, blood relations, etc. Hence to be able to solve these questions on time and accurately, candidates have to practice as many questions as possible in the last few days. Mock test and previous year paper are the best resource to do so.
Practice time management: This year the candidates shall get 40 mins per section. Hence the candidates have to ensure that they are not spending a lot of time in one particular questions, but their time is equally divided among all the 3 sections. The best is to practice the DILR questions in a manner that all the questions are completed within 40 mins and with 100% accuracy.
Do not start any new topic in DILR now: Suppose a candidate has not yet practice the pie chart type question, then it is advised to just have a look at those type of questions. Do not start the topic from the scratch as this will only lead to confusion in concepts. Since CAT has negative marking, it is always better to focus on the strengths and get as many correct answers as possible.
Question selection: In the last week is for strategising, the candidates must figure out what type of questions they are most comfortable to solve. These questions must be solved first on the exam day. This will enable the candidates to stay high on confidence while solving the problems and will save time as well.
Accuracy is important: The candidates have to focus on getting a question accurate in one go. The level of practice must be such that the candidates can solve the question and get the correct answer in one go.
Practice to scan the questions: Most of the answers in the DILR section is hidden in the question itself. Hence, candidates need a sharp eye, out of box thinking, and ability to read between the lines. This can come from regular practice, try to understand the questions and read it more than once.
These tips are anecdotes for the candidates to cope with their last minute preparation of CAT 2020. There is no shortcut to success, these tips can just help the candidates to get a direction for last week preparation.
To get an idea on what type of questions come in DILR, here are 15 questions that were asked in CAT exam in the previous years:
From CAT 2018 question paper
Ques 1. The multi-layered pie-chart below shows the sales of LED television sets for a big retail electronics outlet during 2016 and 2017. The outer layer shows the monthly sales during this period, with each label showing the month followed by the sales figure of that month. For some months, the sales figures are not given in the chart. The middle-layer shows quarter-wise aggregate sales figures (in some cases, aggregate quarter-wise sales numbers are not given next to the quarter). The innermost layer shows annual sales. It is known that the sales figures during the three months of the second quarter (April, May, June) of 2016 for man arithmetic progression, as do the three monthly sales figures in the fourth quarter (October, November, December) of that year.
Q: During which quarter was the percentage decrease in sales from the previous quater’s sales the highest?
- Q2 of 2016
- Q4 of 2017
- Q2 of 2017
- Q1 off 2017
Question 2. 1600 satellites were sent up by a country for several purposes. The purposes are classifieds as broadcasting (B), communication (C), surveillance (S), and others (O). A satellite can serve multiple purposes; however a satellite serving either B, or C, or S does not serve O.The following facts are known about the satellites:
1. The numbers of satellites serving B, C, and S (though maybe not exclusively) are in the ratio 2: 1:1.
2. The number of satellites serving all three of B, C, and S is 100.
3. The number of satellites exclusively serving C is the same as the number of satellites exclusively serving S. This number is 30% of the number of satellites exclusively serving B.
4. The number of satellites serving O is the same as the number of satellites serving both C and S but not B
Q: What best can be said about the number of satellites serving C?
1. Cannot be more than 800
2. Must be between 450 and 725
3. Must be at least 100
4. Must be between 400 and 800
Ques 3: Twenty four people are part of three committees which are to look at research, teaching,and administration respectively. No two committees have any member in common. No two committees are of the same size. Each committee has three types of people: bureaucrats,educationalists, and politicians, with at least one from each of the three types in each committee. The following facts are also known about the committees:
1. The numbers of bureaucrats in the research and teaching committees are equal, while the number of bureaucrats in the research committee is 75% of the number of bureaucrats in the administration committee.
2. The number of educationalists in the teaching committee is less than the number of educationalists in the research committee. The number of educationalists in the research committee is the average of the numbers of educationalists in the other two committees.
3. 60% of the politicians are in the administration committee, and 20% are in the teaching committee
Q: Based on the given information, which of the following statements MUST be FALSE?
1. In the administration committee the number of bureaucrats is equal to the number of educationalists
2. The size of the research committee is less than the size of the administration committee
3. In the teaching committee the number of educationalists is equal to the number of politicians
4. The size of the research committee is less than the size of the teaching committee
Ques 4: A company administers a written test comprising of three sections of 20 marks each – Data Interpretation (DI), Written English (WE), and General Awareness (GA), for recruitment. The composite score for a candidate (out of 80) is calculated by doubling her marks in DI and adding it to the sum of her marks in the other two sections. Candidates who score less than70% marks in two or more sections are disqualified. From among the rest, the four with the highest composite scores are recruited. If four or fewer candidates qualify, all who qualify are recruited. Ten candidates appeared for the written test. Their marks in the test are given in the table below. Some marks in the table are missing, but the following facts are known:
1. No two candidates had the same composite score.
2. Ajay was the unique highest scorer in WE.
3. Among the four recruited, Geeta had the lowest composite score.
4. Indu was recruited.
5. Danish, Harini, and Indu had scored the same marks in GA.
6. Indu and Jatin both scored 100% in exactly one section and Jatin’s composite score was 10more than Indu’s.
Q: Which of the following statements MUST be FALSE?
1. Harini’s composite score was less than that of Falak
2. Bala’s composite score was less than that of Ester
3. Bala scored same as Jatin in DI
4. Chetna scored more than Bala in DI
Ques 5: Seven candidates, Akil, Balaram, Chitra, Divya, Erina, Fatima, and Ganeshan, were invited to interview for a position. Candidates were required to reach the venue before 8 am.Immediately upon arrival, they were sent to one of three interview rooms: 101, 102, and 103. The following venue log shows the arrival times for these candidates. Some of the names have not been recorded in the log and have been marked as ‘?’.
Additionally here are some statements from the candidates:
Balaram: I was the third person to enter Room 101.
Chitra: I was the last person to enter the room I was allotted to.
Erina: I was the only person in the room I was allotted to.
Fatima: Three people including Akil were already in the room that I was allotted to when I entered it.
Ganeshan: I was one of the two candidates allotted to Room 102.
Q: What best can be said about the room to which Divya was allotted?
1. Definitely Room 103
2. Either Room 101 or Room 102
3. Definitely Room 102
4. Definitely Room 101
Ques 6: Each visitor to an amusement park needs to buy a ticket. Tickets can be Platinum, Gold, or Economy. Visitors are classified as Old, Middle-aged, or Young. The following facts are known about visitors and ticket sales on a particular day:1. 140 tickets were sold.2. The number of Middle-aged visitors was twice the number of Old visitors, while the number of Young visitors was twice the number of Middle-aged visitors.3. Young visitors bought 38 of the 55 Economy tickets that were sold, and they bought half the total number of Platinum tickets that were sold.4. The number of Gold tickets bought by Old visitors was equal to the number of Economy tickets bought by Old visitors.
Q: If the number of Old visitors buying Platinum tickets was equal to the number of Middle-aged visitors buying Platinum tickets, then which among the following could be the total number of Platinum tickets sold?
1. 32
2. 34
3. 38
4. 36
Ques 7: Peacock is designated as the national bird of India is coded as 5688999 35 1135556678 56 458 13666689 1334 79 13366.
This coding scheme has the following rules:
1. The scheme is case-insensitive (does not distinguish between upper case and lower caseletters).
2. Each letter has a unique code which is a single digit from among 1,2,3, …, 9.
3. The digit 9 codes two letters, and every other digit codes three letters.
4. The code for a word is constructed by arranging the digits corresponding to its letters in a non-decreasing sequence
Answer these questions on the basis of this information:
Q: What best can be concluded about the code for the letter L?
1. 8
2. 1 or 8
3. 1
4. 6
From CAT 2019 question paper
Ques 8: The following table represents addition of two six-digit numbers given in the first and the second rows, while the sum is given in the third row. In the representation, each of the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 has been coded with one letter among A, B, C, D, E, F, G,H, J, K, with distinct letters representing distinct digits.
Q: Which digit does the letter A represent? (TITA question)
Ques 9: You ask for the type of item in box 45. Instead of being given a direct answer, you retold that there are 31 items of the same type as box 45 in boxes 1 to 44 and 43 items of the same type as box 45 in boxes 46 to 100.
Q: What is the maximum possible number of different types of items?
1. 1.5
2. 2.4
3. 3.3
4. 4.6
Ques 10: Five vendors are being considered for a service. The evaluation committee evaluated each vendor on six aspects – Cost, Customer Service, Features, Quality, Reach, and Reliability.Each of these evaluations are on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (perfect). The evaluation score son these aspects are shown in the radar chart. For example, Vendor 1 obtains a score of 52 on Reliability, Vendor 2 obtains a score of 45 on Features and Vendor 3 obtains a score of 90 on Cost.
Q: On which aspect is the median score of the five vendors the least?
1. Reliability
2. Quality
3. Customer Service
4. Cost
Ques 11: The figure below shows the street map for a certain region with the street intersections marked from a through l. A person standing at an intersection can see along straight lines to other intersections that are in her line of sight and all other people standing at these intersections. For example, a person standing at intersection g can see all people standing at intersections b, c, e, f, h, and k. In particular, the person standing at intersection g can see the person standing at intersection e irrespective of whether there is a person standing at intersection f.
Q: Who is standing at the intersection a?
1. V
2. W
3. No one
4. Y
From CAT 2009 question paper
Ques 12:
From CAT 2010 question paper
Ques 13:
From CAT 2011 question paper
Ques 14:
From CAT 2012 question paper
Ques 15:
CAT 2020 will be held in 3 slots and each slot will be of 2 hours duration. The candidates have to answer MCQs type (Multiple Choice Questions), where the students need to choose 1 answer out of the multiple options, and the TITA (Type in the answers type), where the candidates have to type the answer using the virtual keyboard.
It’s very useful ma’am. Post like these PYQs for last minute prep. I’m benefiting from this🔥😊continue this method maam and thanking you