How to prepare for DILR section in CAT

Business & Management
#1

  • This section usually doesn’t have any fixed format. It keeps on changing every year. The overall pattern might also change every year, but the number of questions and sets in these topics are always tricky.

  • There are many topics this section covers. Some of the important topics are tables, pie charts, bar graphs, arrangements, logical grouping, critical conditioning statements, data sufficiency, matrix and grid-based interpretations, dice related problems, cubes, coin toss problems, probability, games and tournaments, logical grouping and conditions, caselets, order and ranking, verbal arithmetic, sequential outputs etc.

  • Start solving the basic questions of each topic and then pick up previous year papers and solve them. This way, you can understand the level of difficulty of the questions. The most important thing for this section is picking up the write set during the exam.

  • To get in that zone, you have to practise around 10 sets 5 from DI and 5 from LR daily. Also, try solving puzzles from the outside of the book as well, like Suduko in The Hindu.

  • Track the time while solving each set; it helps you analyse how difficult or easy the question is. You should know when to quit the question, so practising daily in fixed time intervals will help you get used to it.

  • Also, you should take a calculated risk and manage time efficiently. Instead of solving a full-length mock, try solving sectional mocks to improve in each section. It would be best to form your strategy according to the situation while writing the exam/mock.

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#2

• DI and LR are different, but asked by set type questions, cracking the set will help solve 4-5 questions.
• LR questions are based on riddles, seating arrangements.
• DI questions are based on graphs and pie charts.
• You can use some formulas such as percentages, profit and loss in DI questions.
• Starts solving questions with only 5 variables.
• If you can easily solve the above, go to the 7-8 variable question.
• Solve as many number of set-type questions.

Beginners : Students who have never solved puzzles, reasoning questions, or sudoku should start solving basic questions from materials or online websites.

Intermediate : Students who are generally interested in solving questions can skip the solution of principles and increase the difficulty of sentences by solving questions from rankings, orders, and matrices.

Expert : Students who have tried CAT before and are familiar with the basic concepts of LRDI can start preparing by solving the previous year’s questions about SIMCAT, AIMCAT, CAT ticket papers and more.

#3

DILR or Data interpretation & Logical reasoning section is one of the joker cards of the CAT examination. It is considered the most challenging section of the test due to its unpredictability and increasing level of hardness year on year.

The syllabus of the section consists of -

  • Different kinds of charts like pie, spider, bar etcetera. For the data interpretation section.
  • Math based puzzles
  • Grids and tables
  • Table or position-based questions.
  • Sequence and selection.

The preparation of this section is as hard as attempting the section. The lack of structure for the preparation is one of the significant problems. Another problem is inconsistency in the questions.

To prepare for the section, you have to follow the following -

  • Go through basics related to DI and LR topics.
  • Practice as many questions as you can. Also, look at last year’s questions to understand the basic structure of the questions.
  • Take as many mocks as you can to formulate a strategy best suitable for you.