Question: How should you analyse CAT Verbal Ability Mocks?
Solution: Well, this is a tricky one. QA, LR and DI Mocks are easy to analyse. You spot your mistakes and check solutions for questions you got wrong. And through some questions in the mock, you learn some new short-cuts and tricks. Does the same happen with Verbal Ability?
Honest answer: NO.
Tricks, tips and shortcuts in Verbal Ability are extremely limited. In fact, almost everything that is classified as a tip or a trick is actually a subjective piece of advice. Considering this, should you analyse the Verbal Ability Mock? And if so, how should you go about it?
Well, I am going to outline 6 things you need to do for Verbal Ability Mock CAT Analysis. Keep these things in mind when you next analyse mocks.
Analysis Activity-1: Solve all incorrect questions
This is the most obvious one: solve once again all the questions you go wrong. I hope this is understandable and needs no explanation.
Analysis Activity-2: Check your gut-feeling
You need to be really honest here. You need to check all your answers (correct answers included) and check how many of these actually guesses. This will showcase your real attempt in the exam and your current skill level. Remember the inconsistent VA scores are nothing else but a factor of gut-feeling accuracy. The days you get your guesses right, you do well. On other occasions, the cookie crumbles. So, make sure you analyse your attempt and re-solve the questions you solved on the basis of guesswork/gut feeling.
Analysis Activity-3: Solve unsolved RCs
Any RCs you missed should be solved. Remember, mocks offer you the best source of passages and it makes sense to solve RCs you skipped or were not able to solve in the actual test.
Analysis Activity-4: Identify areas of Reading Discomfort
Identify areas where you were not able to read comfortably. For example, some of you might dislike economics-related articles. Make sure you start targeting these areas and improve your comfort levels for these areas.
Analysis Activity-5: Time-wise Analysis and Accuracy Analysis
Make sure you carry out a time-wise analysis of your attempts and identify areas where you could have saved time (including questions/RCs you should not have solved). Co-relate the time-wise analysis with your accuracy analysis. On the basis of this, form your section strategy.
Analysis Activity-6: Words are not important but ideas are!
Words, per say, do not hinder comprehension (unless your vocabulary is really weak). On the other hand, ideas and key terms you discover in mocks need to be explored. What am I talking about? For example, the following ideas might be talked about in mock RCs:
- Impression (art)
- Neoliberal economics
- Feminism
You need to make sure you explore these ideas and understand the important tenets/ideas for these areas. This essentially prepares you for any future passages from these areas. I do agree this will take some time investment but all good things in life require patience and hard work.
Well, this completes this article for VA mock analysis. Hope you learnt something valuable from this article.
Happy Learning..:)
Wordpandit
