Part-2
2.
Improving the option marking ability a.k.a. how to test oneself
I read a question. 4 options. I narrow it down to 2. A lot of see-sawing later, I always end up marking the wrong one. :splat:At times, none of the 2 considered turns out to be the correct option :shocked:
Common complaint?
How do we address that? Well, most shall agree that a considerable element of gut feel comes into the picture here. We must know our abilities well and then take a call on attempting such questions.
Now let's see how to test oneself:
Funda: Say, you take up a set of 4 RCs and place a time limit of 30-40 minutes to solve them.
40 minutes over? Done with marking the options?
1. Drink some Glucon D-nariyal paani-vodka cocktail and get back after 10 minutes.
2. Don't touch the answer key yet! Now for the dirty part.

Review each question and the answer you have marked.
Say you have marked 20Q out of the given 30.
Rate your option.
#Surely Correct
#Most probably correct
#Dicey
#WTF have I marked!
Now check the 10 Qs and mark an option for each one of them.
Rate all of them as #tukka

They have not been marked either because you could not get to them or because you chose to play safe.
Anyway, these 10Q are not for evaulation as you would not have marked them in the actual exam.
Now check your key and see how many you got correct.
Say you got 12 questions correct out of the 20 attempted. Now you know the wrong option for each of the other 8 questions. Attempt them again; now easier because you have three options for each Q instead of the earlier 4. ;)
Say this time, out of the 8, you got 6 correct. Repeat again-this time you'll have two options to choose from for the remaining 2 Qs. I'm sure-we shall get all the 20 right by this time. If not-tough luck and look at it as a plain aberration
Now you know which and how many Qs of each rating were correct and wrong in which round. Analyse, how and why you missed out on the correct answer in the first go in case of the wrong ones. For the correct answers in dicey Qs- check why you were hesitant in marking it.
After a few rounds and having tested yourself in diverse areas- you shall have a sound knowledge of your abilities in each area: sports, philosophy, politics, blah, etc. and should be mindful of it in the examination.
This shall drastically improve your discerning abilities and you'll be very aware while attempting an RC. You won't rush through the passage; take your own sweet time and smartly breeze through it.
E.g. I have a tremendous record of screwing up philosophy passages- I better be very careful about marking the options-rather I would not attempt the dicey Qs at all. On the other hand, I appear amazingly comfortable in sports based passages, I'll definitely take my chances in the dicey Qs
What about the 10Qs we had rated #Tukka?Well, as the name suggests, it checks your blind guesswork; lays bare your gut feel and you can analyse this and use it to check how good you are for the guesswork you do when you take a risk and go all out attempting all 30Q in section-2

If you consistently get >6 out of 10 correct, i'll say take the chances! :)
CAT has always been about diligence and I find these two fundas diligent ways of improving and testing one's ability! :)
Hope this helped.
Regards
Anish Nambisan
UDT '09 PS- It has taken me over an hour to compose this; shall be posting in other threads I'm regular on too.
Regards
Anish Nambisan|UDT '09|FMS-2014 | CAT '11- 99.69|Calls- IIM LIC, XLRI, FMS
Converts- I,L,FMS