Ambiguity in verbal

[supervish]

After a few mock CL mocks, i get a funny feeling abt the verbal stuff... esp the english usage part. There are ambiguities, i feel. Ran thru a few real CATs, the verbal stuff is straight. Doubltless the para jumbles etc are challenging, but EU is pretty staraightforward for someone who knows the language well.

Not so CL.

What say ?

[RahulSharma]

Aisa mat bol yaar. I'm studying Verbal from CL notebooks only.
VA is bound to produce some ambiguity.

[newguy]

I guess a difficult Verbal section can send your "Good Knowledge of the language " for a six. For example, take SIMCAT 1. The basic issue is that the paper gets more and more difficult as the options get more and more closer. I am not an expert on this but I believe that there is no set of rules to the usage. It's just the way you interpret things. Look at the answers to the verbal questions..they are so sissy...man, i can write a similar explanation for a different options and to add to it, i would cite some examples from the authors and so called learned guys from the literature.

I am particularly inetersted in too much of reading and this is the real killer in my case. I have developed so many styles of writing and following so many different schools of literature that I am in a mess. I mean, you can't mix woodehouse and hardy. They follow different style and no one is wrong...We need to ask a basic question to ourself...Who do these CAt guys want us to follow..what is their " English"...and we don't need to reinvent the wheel..coaching insti like TIME and IMS are there for it..

I have devised a method to tackle verbals. Dunno how far does it help.

I will just read the explanations for each and every frigging paper given by TIME and IMS and would make an encyclopaedia of " MODERN USAGE FOR CAT "

another resolution....no more classics before CAT..Adieus Hardy and Hemingway !!!

[supervish]

arre newguy, i'd be perfectly content with accepting what you say had I not seen differences between the Mock CATs and actual CATs. True, if you think in Queen's english, it wont help, but still, I'm not quite convinced. Anyway, if you find any weird explanations/justifications to usage by these coaching instys, post em up here.

[newguy]

I will surely post them as and when i find them..but see, you don't get the point....my point is that even those explanations are not wrong but I can prove another option to be the answer by digging into the literary works and finding out that Homer used that in 800 BC. and hence, it's not wrong. I am at fault, actually....I need to read the entire Wren and Martin or Better English to know what's going on these days ! May be you can be of some help !! What say?

[cattie]

I've always been of the opinion that the scores in the VA part cannot be improved overnight and one who has been doing a lot of reading since his childhood would certainly have a great edge over the rest.
But after taking a few Mocks I feel apprehensive abt the latter while the former still seems to be true. I've seen that no matter wht amt of reding u've done, u certainly do not have a cutting edge over the rest of the students. This is wht has been happening in my case. It's true I've been scoring a few odd marks more than my frnds who r a bit weak in Eng but wht the hell!, this diff could also be just by a freak of nature.
The type of ques that r being asked r so tricky that it would hardly make a difference whether u've done a good amount of reding in u'r childhood or not. I mean, who would ever care to c a diff in the sentences:
John has left just a few minutes ago.(wrong)
John left just a few minutes ago.(right)
OK the example might not be suitable but I hope u get the point.

I wanted to know whether this changes after doing a rigorous amount of the TIME, PT or IMS material. Though I've been advised to do a lot of reading but I begin to c it hardly makes a difference. I feel unless u do the excercises frm the materials of the coaching institutes extensively u'll have no edge over the others, or am I wrong??? Plz clarify.

[starsunil]

yah newguy..couldnt agree with u more........

[ashishyahoo]

hey guys...

the topic here is really important..english section in most of the mocks sometimes does get real vague, the closeness of the options in RC, the parajumbles sometimes, and of course the grammatical corrections as mentioned already...still it has always been a pun that it is the english section which has been scoring for 90 percent of the people around...most of the guys try to maximise their attempts and score here...

however remember...the section can really deceive u at times..like for RC, i think to get a real load of the mock CAT or the CAT RC's..u gotto put ureself in the shoes of the guy who set the English section....or else u normally land up in a different point of view other than the author's...this is very common..the explanator answers of the mocks then become useless as its hard to prove ureself wrong....

remember again...even if we all attempt 500 RC passages...the 501st passage can deceive us and dump our scores...

so in English section too.qstn selection becomes imp...

Ashish

[newguy]

That's right Ashish,

I really could never understand how people score humongously in Verbals. I am a TIME Student and whenever I sit to analyze my scores by comparing it with others, everyone seem to be scoring 30ish in verbals...NO IDEA HOW??!! Could someone ( not to mention, those who really crack verbals ) please let us know the tricks ! PLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[THUSSU]

the trick with RC is not to take any of the answer choices at face value. if the answer is taken verbatim from the passage, from a part of the passage in close proximity to the part in question, it is most probably the wrong one!
the correct answer is the one which carries the essence of the question

but, thats easier said than done. one strategy is to mark out or circle important bits of the passage while you are reading them. it is also good to underline key words like 'the reason for this...' or, 'the most important causes for..'

this will help you locate these relevant bits later on. you can also make arrows in the columns, dynamite sticks, naked stick figures etc.

i also like to glance at the questions before i start the pasage. the rc may be easy but the questions could be tough!
on the other hand, some metaphysical rc's (like the ones on karma!) may be tough but ask you really simple questions
so, choose carefully.
also, english is always tricky because cat requires you to be intuitive as well as logical when using the language. as a rule, this produces ambiguity.
gosh! havent those guys heard of poetic licence!~