Tips on the Verbal Section

[pagalguy]

Hello

I've included below excerpts from my mail to a friend who required a little help in the VA section. I hope this is of some use to all of you.


Jumbled Sentences :

Jumbled sentences have been spotted in various issues of CAT One of the ways of solving the jumbled sentences part would be to see for continuity in the sentences. At times, it is easier to spot the continuity, and at other times, it is not.

The other way would be to take a holistic view of all the sentences and try to arrange them in your head, till it sounds right. Although this is tough, it takes a little time to get used to, but it will help in getting a higher accuracy level.

Else, what is grammar for. If you know the rules about conjunctions, prepositions etc and their appropriate usage with all the rules, it too is possible.

A suitable technique would also be through elimination of the answers. This method can be used with high speed and accuracy once you get used to it. It should not take you more than 30 seconds to arrange a sentence of four using this technique.

You eliminate the options in different ways .

The most effective method would be to see a link between two sentences in the question. Once you are sure of the link , scan the answers and strike the ones out which don't have the link. Then it is easy to eliminate from the options and get it right.


Arranging the 6 sentences type :

It is actually easier when the 1st and 6th sentences are given as now you have more ways of solving the jumble.

Since the 1st sentence is given, it is not always tough to find the next sentence as it will logically follow. Use this method and then again go on an elimination spree.

Also, the 6th sentence is given. Once you get the flow of the sentence, to guess the preceding sentence is not again too very tough. So all you have to do is battle with the 3rd & 4th which again should fall in place once you have guessed the others right.

Do I make sense here ?

Add more VA queries and we'll tackle it together.

[capreal26]

Hi junta..
me needing tips on improving consistency in accuracy in VA desperately..... Pagalguy... thx for some inputs on jumbled paras....
prob is accuracy in VA for me has ranged from anywhere 40% to 95%

think need to correct that urgently..
some inputs ?? coz cant afford to have 10 incorrect in VA. screws up the entire paper...

[arunava_saha]

A[part from VA section the other difficulty is PS any solution for PS section

[Silken_Touch]

Ok, I hate to sound st00pid, but what is PS?

[manduks]

PS = Problem Solving

[kunalrana999]

my views on pjs(para jumbles):

first and foremost they seem to be a bad investment
i always used to skip them unless i REALLY had time
coz usually pjs are too long to b done in less than one minute
everything else in verbal can b done in less than one minutes so one should do them first
THIS is "time management" which v often keep hearing

once u hav to do a pj
having lots n lots of practise really helps
coz then u become familiar with certain phrases which usually start a sentence making ur job easier this eliminates a few choices
then try out the diff links and eliminate
after u cut it down to two choices quickly tick what u feel is right(try both out)
it usually helps if understand what u are unjumbling but in short pjs it wont b necessary.....u can solve them using grammer rules....eliminating choices where grammer rules r violated
but big pjs esp which come in IMS tests i think u hav to understand them 'somewhat'

luv,
kunal

[MavericK]

Originally Posted by manduks

PS = Problem Solving

but then all problems are supposed to be solved rt
anything special abt PS???

[Silken_Touch]

hey, one more st00pid doubt. DO we need to solve some problems from each subsection such as parajumbles, RC, sentence completion to make the sectional cut-off such as for Verbal?

[manduks]

Originally Posted by anil

but then all problems are supposed to be solved rt
anything special abt PS???

If you cant solve the problem, then it is a big problem!!!

Originally Posted by Silken_Touch

DO we need to solve some problems from each subsection such as parajumbles, RC, sentence completion to make the sectional cut-off such as for Verbal?

There is no such thing like that. Just manage the sectional cut-off and that's all you have to work for. How cruel do you think CAT can get?

Manu

[Gordon]

regarding the para jumbles ... this method works real fast and has a 95% accuracy...

scan options and identify the common starting optioons.. like

abdc cdab cabd bcad

select the 2 and 3 option first... now raed the sentences in that order... usually 70% of the time only one makes sense

if both dont work then try the remaining....

now if there are 5 sentences on some u may hit it on the first attempt, on some the last attempt...( some bloke may say what abt if i make it on the last attemp all the time highly unlikely.... coz the probability of getting it on last attempt all the times (.25)^5 get my point)

keep 5 min for 5 sentences... with practice this can be done in a jiffy