CAT 2011: Strategy for tightening your grasp on DI & LR

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NOIDA, U.P, India, Republic of (Free-Press-Release.com) June 23, 2011 -- The Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning is one of the sections which can give a hard time to the CAT 2011 aspirants. Now that you can hear the CAT 2011 announcement any time now, it is high time for you to tackle the areas which are away from your comfort zone. This article of MBAUniverse.com will tell you about the Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning section and how you can develop your preparation strategy to improve it.

The topics of the DI & LR questions, which have been appearing for the past five years are Data Sufficiency, Analytical Reasoning, Percentages, Differences, Manipulate quantities etc. The difficulty level of the section ranges from moderate to tough.

DI & LR tests your reasoning skills, decision making ability and time utilization with limited inputs.

The DI area consists of graphs, charts, tables etc. for calculating data. Though some questions need calculation, others can be solved without calculation. Since it is not compulsory to answer all the questions, you have to carefully select questions which can be answered by close scrutiny of the given data. No cumbersome calculation process is required.

The LR area is considered tougher than DI by most MBA aspirants as it consists of logical puzzles followed by several questions. “This section of CAT exam usually consists of family trees and analogies, which require a good concentration and flow of thoughts,” informs Kamlesh Sajnani, Managing Director, IMS Learning.

Like other sections of CAT, this section also needs ample practice in order to excel in the final exams. For DI & LR go through last five to six years CAT exam papers and try solving them without any preparation. Analyze and evaluate your approach with reference to every question including the one which you solved easily.

Sajnani says, “Refer to the graphs and data provided in various business papers and magazines. You need to identify techniques to solve questions which require big and time consuming calculations.” A sound knowledge about different forms of graphs, charts and tables is also necessary to excel in the CAT exam.

“You must practice a lot in order to interpret the data. Solve at least one DI&LR problem every day. You must read articles, especially on business which are heavy on data and analyze them. This will keep your 'DI cells' on toes,” says Gejo Sreenivasan, Principal Consultant, Career Launcher and added that an MBA aspirant should spend at least one hour a day for this section.

For practicing this section you should take a couple of tests in speed math everyday. However, one thing that should always be kept in mind while preparing for these sections is that along with speed, accuracy is also important.

Vinayak Kudva, Product Head, IMS Learning says, “I would suggest that you should solve enough DI & LR question sets, maybe one to two sets per day leading to CAT 2009 preparation to help build the confidence that is required to face the section in the actual CAT entrance exam.”

For DI & LR, you do not need to get hold of proper subject-wise material. You will find enough practice materials around you. As experts suggest, you should read business articles in the daily newspapers or business magazines and try to analyze and interpret the data.

“Refer to the graphs and other data provided in the business newspapers and magazines. This will help you to identify techniques to solve questions that require time-consuming calculations,” says Sajnani. You should also sharpen your skills for drawing graphs, charts, tables and analyzing them etc.

A fun way of preparing for this section of CAT exam is by solving puzzles like Sudoku, Crosswords etc. Solve puzzles from puzzle books easily available in the market, and puzzle sites on the Internet, to improve reasoning skills and speed.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more on CAT 2011 preparation.

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