HOW TO PREPARE FOR DATA INTERPRETATION AND LOGICAL REASONING

The Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section of the CAT is probably closest in resemblance
to the kind of problems you will be dealing with as a manager. It tests your decision-making ability and
speed using limited input. As with all other CAT sections the most important part of preparation is
practice. !eedless to say you should gi"e e"ery practice test as seriously as the real CAT. There is
absolutely no sense in gi"ing untimed tests. In fact gi"ing tests without looking at the watch will only
hamper your preparation.
#tart off with topical tests in the initial stage of preparation. $hen you gain confidence in all areas of
DI%LR it is time to start gi"ing a couple of full-length DI%LR tests. After this merge indi"idual
sectional tests and start gi"ing CAT-type full length test papers containing all three sections. Always
analyse your performance after e"ery test you gi"e and use tests as a "aluable feedback mechanism. If
you feel the need keep going back to topics which you feel re&uire more work and take '-( more area-
specific tests in that topic. An important thing you need to work on is the )udicious selection of
&uestions. *tili+e practice tests for this purpose.
The Data Interpretation%Logical Reasoning section can be di"ided into three key areas,
1. Data Interpretation: This is the calculation intensi"e portion of the section. It consists of a myriad
of graphs charts and tables from which you will ha"e to glean and analyse data. The key to cracking
this area is to &uickly identify the key pieces of data that you will re&uire to work on the &uestions
asked. It is not unknown for &uestion-setters of the CAT to try and bewilder students with a large
amount of data most of it unnecessary. As a rule the more the data presented the easier the &uestions
that follow so don-t lose heart if you see a table with '. columns occupying one whole page. /n the
other hand se"eral seemingly innocuous &uestions may trip you up. Therefore I would ad"ise you to
look at the &uestions first to get an idea of what data you need to be searching for in the
graphs%charts%tables in the main &uestion asked.
Another interesting feature of DI that you as a student can use to your ad"antage is that usually not all
&uestions in a set are of e&ual difficulty. #pecifically most sets ha"e a 0counting- type of &uestion
12ow many companies ha"e profits more than 34 how many people ha"e incomes less than Rs. 5
etc.6. 7ost of these &uestions can be sol"ed without calculation but by close inspection of the data
presented. These I would categori+e as 0gift- &uestions designed to test a student-s presence of mind
and should ne"er be missed out on. There are other similarly easy &uestions in most sets and you
should practice identifying the le"el of difficulty of &uestions so you know immediately which ones to
attempt and which to a"oid. There is no rule that states that you need to attempt all &uestions in a set
so it is a perfectly "alid strategy to attempt selected &uestions across your DI section without perhaps
completely attempting e"en a single set.An unusual source of practice &uestions that I would
recommend for DI is a 8R9 preparation te3tbook or software. These contain se"eral graph and chart
type &uestions most of which are near CAT le"el. 5ou can utili+e these &uestions in the initial source
of preparation to practice reading data off charts and tables and then gradually mo"e on to tougher
&uestions from CAT preparation material. 8R9 software comes with the added ad"antage of an inbuilt
timer that keeps you on your toes.
2. Logica Rea!oning: This is the tougher 1as percei"ed by most students6 portion of the section. It
consists of logical pu++les with se"eral &uestions that follow. The most important and first step to
sol"ing an LR problem is to write down all of the information gi"en in a bo3 table or diagram e.g. if
the problem in"ol"es seating arrangements at a round table always draw the table first and then try
"arious permutations and combinations of people seated around it. /nce you ha"e drawn the figure for
the problem you are free to think with an uncluttered mind. LR problems usually contain se"eral
statements which ser"e as clues to sol"ing the problem. Thus the problem should always be attempted
in a methodical fashion and sol"ed step-by-step because trying to look at all the information at once
will confuse e"en the best of us.
LR problems are usually 0all-or-nothing- type in the sense that if you crack the problem you will ha"e
answers to all the &uestions that follow and if you don-t you will not be able to answer e"en a single
&uestion. This is because if the logic to the problem is apparent to you the &uestions that follow are
tri"ial. 2ence proper selection of problems to tackle is e"en more crucial here than in DI. /ften
students fail to sol"e a problem after in"esting '.-': minutes on it. #ince the information they ha"e at
the end of that time is not much more than that at the beginning they cannot answer e"en a single
&uestion in the set and ha"e nothing to show for their effort. ;roblem-selection is tricky so if you find
that you are unable to make headway after the first : minutes do the smart thing and switch to another
set or section. 5ou can always come back later if you ha"e the time.
LR re&uires the ma3imum amount of practice among all areas in the DI%LR section. Apart from picking
apart problems in your CAT preparation material try looking for pu++le books or newspaper leisure
sections that contain logic pu++les. ;u++le-sol"ing is a knack and the more you start en)oying logic
pu++les the better you will get at them.
". Data S#$$icienc%: This is the third portion of the section and &uite a few D# &uestions were asked
in the last CAT paper. Data #ufficiency problems usually take the form of a logical pu++le and are in
the form of a &uestion followed by two statements. 5ou need to answer whether you can sol"e the
problem using the statements indi"idually or using both or whether you cannot sol"e the problem
using the information pro"ided. The key to answering such problems is to pretend like one statement
does not e3ist try sol"ing the problem and then pretend like the other statement does not e3ist and try
sol"ing the problem again. These problems are generally tricky and I would recommend lots of
practice and perhaps sol"ing them near the end of your section after you ha"e sol"ed the other
problems.
The DI%LR section is one of the higher scoring sections on the CAT so you can look to it for help in
impro"ing your o"erall score as well as long as you de"ote a good proportion of your time to it.
Although recent CATs ha"e had <-: &uestion sets be prepared for '-( &uestion sets as well. D#
&uestions ha"e ne"er appeared in sets. Important things to remember while attempting this section are
that you need be &uick in switching sets if you find a particular set tough and you need to ha"e
presence of mind while sol"ing DI%LR &uestions. =oth of these things can be achie"ed with the help of
practice.