If CAT 09 has made some of the known names in CAT preparation rack their brains, those surely are verbal trainers. The new format has created such a vacuum for strategies in Verbal Section, especially in handling the all time boring and jargon rich RCs, now on computer, that even the best performers in verbal section are finding it hard to strategize time management on RC based questions. The trainers are working hard to devise new ways of attempting RCs on computer. However, the experts at www.TCYonline.com, who have been designing strategies for other similar computer based tests like GMAT and GRE for over 10 years, are filled with a sense of Déjà vu. Moreover, the fact that over 50, 000 students prepared online for CAT 2008 with www.TCYonline.com has given them enough experience to discover better ways of attempting CAT verbal when it goes online.
Here are a few overall reading strategies we believe will prove helpful to the aspirants for online CAT:
Strategy 1:
Imagine an RC on a computer screen on the left vertical half of the screen for passage and right vertical half for questions coming one by one.
Difficult to imagine?? No problems!!
Let us take the help of an RC test designed by www.TCYonline.com using the FREE Test Generator tool (www.TCYonline.com/CreaTest). Here is how it looks like:
CAT 2009
As you can see from the screen shot, to your left is the passage and to the right is Question No 1 out of total 20 questions. The “NEXT” button helps in moving ahead to the subsequent questions if a question is done or is to be left un-attempted.
As you would observe, an RC on computer poses some real challenges. Some of them are:
- No way to underline the keywords in the questions as well as in the passage.
- One has to scroll down the passage using a ‘scroller’ as the complete passage is not visible at a time.
- You can read only one question (and NOT all the questions in one go as is possible with the paper-based CAT) at a time.
- It is expected that a lot of time will be wasted when a student has to re-read the passage every time a new question appears.
- Moreover, it is easier to spot the right place to get an answer to a particular question on paper rather than on a computer screen.
- Result: Time taken per question is bound to rise and the accuracy is adversely affected if the test is attempted in rush.
Hence, the ways to attempt an RC based question on computer screen should also be different so as to minimize the possible wastage of time because of obvious reasons. Verbal experts at www.TCYonline.com recommend the following strategy to ensure dual advantage – (1) Overall idea and tone of the passage (2) Pointers to spot the right place where the answer is located.
Constructing a “Dot Diagram” of the passage:
Remember the dot diagram that you came across in the kids section of a paper or magazine? There could be hundreds of dots. When once you join a few dots to form a picture, the other dots become irrelevant. Your RC is like that dot diagram. The hundreds of words are like the hundreds of dots. The questions revolve around the picture and not the words. So get the picture out of the dot diagram.
Now how to join the dots? Our advice:
Pre-read: Get a feel of the passage by reading the opening lines of each para (the opening para in particular) as well as the concluding lines of the last para.
Speed Read: You have to drive a train, say from Delhi to Mumbai. Should you drive at the same speed throughout? What about the stations that fall on the way? You will definitely slow down and even stop at some of the stations. Do the same thing in the case of RC.
I keep forgetting as I proceed: Speed read the first para. Write down its gist in one single phrase on your scratch sheet. Do the same thing in case of the other paragraphs. Now you have five ideas for (say) five paragraphs. The common link among these five ideas is your dot diagram.
Post read: This is to make sure that the picture you made was right. Look for repetitive words and phrases in the passage. These have to be part of the picture.
The opening paragraph and the concluding para are important. But remember if the test taker is smart the test giver is smarter. Sometimes there may be nothing much in these paragraphs. So don’t overdo it.
Linking up the answers: You will be able to view only one question at a time. But the answer to various questions based on a passage should have some link. And the link is provided by – what else but – the picture that you formed.
