[ketanm]

Hi!!

In the TIME and IMS mocks, questions in which a word and its various usage are given (in a table form) and you are asked to find the one which is most INAPPROPRIATE, I have found that i almost always get all of them wrong.

What is the strategy to attempt such questions??

Ketan
PS1: These have never occurred in CAT, but you never know.
PS2: I could not find any thread realted to this topic

[Evanescence]

Dude,

I think such questions can be answered with a fair degree of accuracy only if you have done quite a bit of reading. For eg., I don't evaluate each sentence rather I choose the one that 'strikes' me as odd. I mean answer them by instinct and instinct comes only with a lot of reading. I don't know if there's a way to improve on it . Maybe TIME or IMS study material gives some insight into this. I have never gone through TIME study material for verbal!

Good luck.

[newguy]

Originally Posted by ketanm @ Fri Oct 29, 2004 3:57 pm

Hi!!

In the TIME and IMS mocks, questions in which a word and its various usage are given (in a table form) and you are asked to find the one which is most INAPPROPRIATE, I have found that i almost always get all of them wrong.

What is the strategy to attempt such questions??

Ketan
PS1: These have never occurred in CAT, but you never know.
PS2: I could not find any thread realted to this topic

There were 5 questions based on this in CAT 2003 Retest and 5 questions in the 2003 Cancelled. Before that, it never appeared !

Now, the following words hav been asked till now by IIMs :

Sort, Host, Implication, Distinct, Bundle, Help, Reason, Paper, Business, Service.

Looking at these words, one can tell that they are heavily used words ( has to be..they have multiple meanings after all ).

Risk Factor is very high in such cases as instincts always, wothout exception, is wrong ! Everythng bloody looks right.

This year, this type of questions has appeared in TIME, IMS, CL mocks umpteen times besides their presence in the practice material. Now, the only way to prepare for this ( at this stage ) is to make a list of all the words from the mocks and sims and aimcats and then refer a good dictionary to read the ENTIRE HISTORY of that word.

For CAT 2004, 5 questions will surely be based on this. IIMs would have been encouraged more as last year's CAT showed a pathetic accuracy in this type. Almost everybody I have met has a problem with such questions. Besides, TIME classifies this question either as difficult or very difficult.

Cheers !

[thereisno2ndtime]

very true newguy.. but i would say the best weapon to fight this monster types is to run away from them.. i dont think we can really be prepared for such qns.. it's all about our language skills.... and smart intuitions should evolve, of course, u should be an avid reader to hit any block harder...

makes sense to do an intuitive guessing only if we manage to narrow down to a couple of options.. lest, they should be skipped.. u would find much easier questions ahead!!

regards
roy

[orca]

Originally Posted by thereisno2ndtime @ Fri Oct 29, 2004 5:24 pm

very true newguy.. but i would say the best weapon to fight this monster types is to run away from them.. i dont think we can really be prepared for such qns.. it's all about our language skills.... and smart intuitions should evolve, of course, u should be an avid reader to hit any block harder...

makes sense to do an intuitive guessing only if we manage to narrow down to a couple of options.. lest, they should be skipped.. u would find much easier questions ahead!!

regards
roy

One thing I have observed......while attempting such Q's when I go by pure instinct I seem to get it correct all the time, when I try to reason my way through more often than not it goes for a toss.

So my approach to such Q's is...if the solution hits me the first time I see it( usually within 20-30 sec) I just go by instinct, else I just bypass it. This has worked pretty fine for me till now, whether it will for others is purely debatable........

[newguy]

Originally Posted by orca @ Fri Oct 29, 2004 5:35 pm

One thing I have observed......while attempting such Q's when I go by pure instinct I seem to get it correct all the time, when I try to reason my way through more often than not it goes for a toss.

So my approach to such Q's is...if the solution hits me the first time I see it( usually within 20-30 sec) I just go by instinct, else I just bypass it. This has worked pretty fine for me till now, whether it will for others is purely debatable........

That makes sense !

There is just no point pondering over such questions. They don't desrve more than 2 minutes ( for the entire set..attempt or bypass )...I am more biased towards bypassing as of now as CAT 2003 retest has left a bitter impression. I attempted 31 questions in total ( 28 right and 3 wrong ) ...Then...i just took a chance and attempted all 5 of this...got all of them wrong...as a result...28 right and 8 wrong of 36 attempts....

now, if you couple this with the probable truthfulness of the progressive negative marking, your net score would suffer like anything...I guess, reading 2 short passages in the given time would be a better bet ... What say ?

[vengun]

hey guys,

I generally get the "inappropriate" questions correct. In my opinion it should be treated as an odd man out type of Q. Most of the time this works. Let me give an example,

1.Germaine (AIMCAT 513 q)
a)linked b)relevant c)impertinent d)akin

linked , relevant , akin are all similar terms. Please use them in a sentence/context and think if thats correct.

Impertinent is defenitely the odd man out - hence the right choice. Please try this approach, it works for me all the time.

[newguy]

Originally Posted by vengun @ Fri Oct 29, 2004 6:56 pm

hey guys,

* * * * * * I generally get the "inappropriate" questions correct. In my opinion it should be treated as an odd man out type of Q. Most of the time this works. Let me give an example,

1.Germaine (AIMCAT 513 q)
a)linked * *b)relevant * c)impertinent * *d)akin

linked , relevant , akin are all similar terms. Please use them in a sentence/context and think if thats correct.

Impertinent is defenitely the odd man out - hence the right choice. Please try this approach, it works for me all the time.

You got it wrong Buddy !

We are not talking about this ...The discussion is about the type of question where four usage of a single word is given and we have to identify the wrong usage..

For Example :

REASON :

a) Your stand is beyond all reason.
b) Has she given you any reason for her resignation?
c) There is little reason in your pompous advice.
d) How do you deal with a friend who doesn't listen to a reason?

BTW, the inappropriate usage in this example is the option number (6-5+3)

[vengun]

Heheeh, my DI should suck eh ???? thx newguy - i stand corrected

For the type of questions uguys are talking about , the quickest way to get the answer - which has worked for me - is to go for the more obscure or less common usage of the word.

To use the same AIMCAT as u newguy - "HABIT" is a garb worn by a monk. that is a less common use of the word. generally thast the key to crack it. The right match for this word will be present (generally) only in the right answer choice. Please give it a whirl and see if it works for you. It does for me.

If you are easy with the different usages of the word - then the questions crack themselves. Please check out "ABANDON" q 18 in AIMCAT 13 .the less common use of the word is - "total bindaas" - (A) which matches with choice H .
and A > H is part of only one answer choice - which is the correct one.

Hope this helps - and sorry abt the blooper last post.

[newguy]

Originally Posted by vengun @ Fri Oct 29, 2004 7:19 pm

Heheeh, my DI should suck eh ???? thx newguy - i stand corrected

For the type of questions uguys are talking about , the quickest way to get the answer - which has worked for me - is to go for the more obscure or less common usage of the word.

To use the same AIMCAT as u newguy - "HABIT" is a garb worn by a monk. that is a less common use of the word. generally thast the key to crack it. *The right match for this word will be present (generally) only in the right answer choice. Please give it a whirl and see if it works for you. It does for me.

If you are easy with the different usages of the word - then the questions crack themselves. Please check out "ABANDON" q 18 in AIMCAT 13 .the less common use of the word is - "total bindaas" - (A) * which matches with choice H .
and A > H is part of only one answer choice - which is the correct one.

Hope this helps - and sorry abt the blooper last post.

Knock ! Knock ! You goofed up again !!!

The kind you are discussing about is matching the dictionary meaning with the usage and those questions are dirt cheap...In fact, their presence in the Q Paper lifts the cutoff.

What I was talking about is a different kind...

Refer Q Nos 29 to 31 in AIMCAT 16. You'd know what it is.

PS : The example which I cited in my last post is not from AIMCAT 13 ( there was no such question in AIM 13 )..That was from CAT 2003 Retest.