Overall Analysis
This was one of the most eagerly awaited CAT, may be as much as Dada’s retirement. Like Saurav, CAT has also retired (at least that is what is everyone is made to believe) from its present paper-pencil form. How would the next version of CAT be is a big mystery? (Ajantha Mendis ?). Will a student be allowed to choose the easy questions first? Can he skip a question? Will there be multiple dates for the test? Will there be multiple versions of the test? Will the test be adaptive in nature as a GMAT is? Phew! There are so many questions that confront more than 1000 CAT-2009 aspirants with CPLC. If the IIM authorities are helpful enough, this mystery will be unraveled over the period of time. So rather than looking at the future, why not face the present!

If we were to sum up CAT-2008 in one word, I would call it an Unbiased CAT. For the first time in 10 years, CAT was impartial to students who have a strong Verbal background. Since 1999, CAT was believed to be biased towards students (read engineers!) who were strong at Quant, with about two-thirds of the paper being quant based. Before that, Quant based questions (Quant + DI) and Verbal based questions (VA + RC) carried almost equal weightage. In the last couple of years, they tried to balance it by giving a difficult (confusing) Verbal section. But then the scores in this section dipped and it was difficult to separate men from the boys. Hence CAT 2008 was a Fair to all CAT! With 90 questions 50 based on Quant and 40 on Verbal, the CAT examiners have put all the criticisms, about them being biased towards engineers, to rest. While the Quant cut-off is expected to rise (but only marginally), the DI cut-off is expected to show a sharp decrease and the Verbal cut-off would soar due to the high number of questions.

Quantitative Aptitude
CAT 2008 marked the return of Modern Math (Permutation Combination) in CAT! With 4 questions this year, it is the highest number of questions asked on this topic in the last ten years. Also, after a one year break, we saw the return of Geometry (remember there was only 1 question on Geometry last year). With as high as 6 questions on Geometry (including the question on ‘Speed’ that required application of Geometry to calculate distance), this topic has also made a strong comeback. Algebra (Equations and Functions) as usual took the cake with 7 questions in this year’s CAT. The remaining 8 questions were largely based on application of Number System. The CPLC students should have found a lot of these questions familiar due to our strong emphasis on topics like Number System, Algebra and Geometry.

Questions that were a must attempt (with hints):
1. Q8 in set 111, Q1 in set 222, Q17 in set 333 and Q5 in set 444
If every time, (a + b) is replaced by (a + b1), the value the series decreases by 1. Since we are performing this operation 39 times, the value should decrease by 39.

2. Q24 and 25 in set 111, Q19 and 20 in set 222, Q15 and 16 in set 333, Q6 and 7 in set 444
The only data sufficiency questions this year, and fairly easy ones too. If the number of players is a power of 2, there is no requirement of a bye! Also, ‘which’ power of 2, indicates the number of rounds. Any number of players, more than the power of 2 indicates the number of byes.

3. Q14 in 111, Q8 in 222, Q1 in 333 and Q12 in 444
A sitter of a Permutation Combination question! The only thing that you needed to be careful about is that the number ‘4000’ is also possible. Hence add 1 more to your answer.

4. Q11 in 111, Q2 in 222, Q6 in 333 and Q16 in 444
A regular remainder concept question, asked time and again! The question needs to be modified as ‘Find the remainder when divided by 100’.

5. Q1 in 111, Q4 in 222, Q9 in 333 and Q8 in 444
A simple linear equation based question. Solving this equation would get you a unique answer.

6. Q4 in 111, Q7 in 222, Q12 in 333 and Q25 in 444
The first number can be seen the question itself i.e. 21. You will get all others by successively adding 20 (LCM of 4 and 5) to it. The above 6 questions should have been solved by a student in 15 minutes. In the remaining 25 minutes, a student should have attempted another 5 questions. With a fairly good accuracy, he should have managed a score of around 32 36.
Good Time Allotment in Quant: 45 min.
Good Attempts in Quant: 10 12 Q’s
Good Score in Quant: 32 36
Score for 1 IIM call: 22 24

Data Interpretation
The DI section had an interesting blend of calculation and reasoning based sets. Also, there were a couple of sets that were deceptive (especially the one with sectional cut-offs). The analytical reasoning based sets (the one on house colours and the one on sports event) were fairly easy. Another special feature of this year’s DI, was the amount of approximation that needed to be done while solving calculation based sets.

The DI sets could be logically classified into the same categories that we had we had given CPLC students as a part of our reviser series:

Ratios or Percentage based sets:
1. The table on department, employees and average pay
2. The special graph on revenue from data transfer as a percentage of total revenue

Reasoning based sets:
1. The caselet on house colours-position-height
2. The caselet on sports event with two stages

Multiple scenario based sets:
1. The caselet about three traders trading shares
2. The table about exams and their cut-off marks for different colleges

Calculation based set:
1. The bar graph on revenue received by US and Europe from Internet subscribers

Sets that were a must attempt (with hints):
1. Q41 to 43 in 111, Q26 to 28 in 222, Q38 to 40 In 333, Q39 to 41 in 444
An easy set to crack, as it was only a matter of mapping the positions, colours and heights of the houses. 10 statements were more than enough to easily crack this one.

2. Q44 to 47 in 111, Q35 to 38 in 222, Q41 to 44 In 333, Q35 to 38 in 444
Normally the tournament based sets seem difficult because of multiple points system. This one was easy because there was no point system. You need to only track who played against whom in each round and who was the winner.

3. Q26 to 28 in 111, Q32 to 34 in 222, Q48 to 50 In 333, Q29 to 31 in 444
This table was easy considering the fact that the data values were small and manageable. But the set was quiet deceptive and needed to be solved with utmost care. Besides the fact that one question was debatable, other questions were easy.

The above 10 questions should have been solved by a student in 30 minutes. In the remaining 15 minutes, a student should have attempted one more set. With a fairly good accuracy, he should have managed a score of around 2832.
Good Time Allotment in DI: 45 min.
Good Attempts in DI: 13 15 Q’s
Good Score in DI: 30 33
Score for 1 IIM call:22 24

Verbal Ability
CAT 2008 Verbal Ability Section was a pleasant one to a serious test taker. First, there were plenty of questions to choose from. If one was constrained by the limited number of questions (2006 and 2007), CAT 2008 gave 40 questions to choose from.

Second, none of the question types were unfamiliar. All the question types were the ones that one had sufficient practice with. There was almost no need to read the instructions, other than to check appropriate vs. inappropriate etc.

Third, whatever was one’s strong area in Verbal (Vocabulary, Grammar, Reasoning or RC) CAT 2008 provided enough questions in all these areas. What more can a serious test taker ask for?
Next, equal importance was given to RC and Non RC questions with 20 questions in each, as is the tradition in CAT.

Going by students’ feedback about quant and DI, one could give either complete 55 minutes or even a little more than 55 minutes to Verbal in the exam in order to maximize in this section.
The sentence completion questions were downright easy no vocabulary problems, no long sentences to read, no tricksters in the options. One could attempt all four questions in 5 to 6 minutes.

The four inappropriate usages of words like, round, run, buckle, and file (Typical CAT, and everyday words) could also be attempted in about 5 to 6 minutes. The four confusable words questions did not give us anything like discrete vs. discreet or such difficult pairs. Like the FIB and incorrect usage questions, these 4 questions also could be attempted in about 8
minutes.

Grammar questions were merely a task in observation of spelling errors, (imigrant looked like a joke), and punctuation errors, and glaring grammar mistakes. Elementary errors related to comma use, pronoun inconsistency, and tense were tested. And the combinations in the options were such that certain fragments need not be checked at all they were merely fillers. All the four questions could be attempted in a matter of 8 minutes or faster.

Sentence completion questions were typical with a couple of close options in each. It would take one less than 10 minutes to attempt all the four questions. Non RC questions if completely attempted one would spend close to 30 minutes. To make the attempts rather conservative and practical, we would not be wrong in saying that in about 25 minutes 15 questions could be attempted.
Reading Comprehension, if at all, was the surprise element in the 2008 CAT. Highly readable passages, unambiguous options, several banal options, made the scoring options stand out like red flags! Selection of passages, selection of questions, analytical skills etc. were irrelevant to this CAT RC. Hence, whichever passage one chose, one could score. How fast one could score was the only issue. However, going by the most conservative estimate, in about 25 minutes one could attempts about 7 questions with ease.

Good Time Allotment in Verbal: 60 min.
Good Attempts in Verbal: 22 25 Q’s
Good Score in Verbal: 55 60
Score for 1 IIM call: 40 45

Parag Chitale
Founder and Director