CAT 2010: Understand the Logic behind Reasoning questions

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning is one of the critical sections in the CAT exam. If you are taking CAT 2010, you should know the basic features of the section, the question pattern and the preparation strategy. This article of MBAUniverse.com will tell you all about Logical Reasoning for CAT 2010 preparation.

Question patterns of Logical Reasoning

In the Logical Reasoning section, you will be given a paragraph which will contain certain information. It will be followed by two to three questions. The questions generally start with ‘If’, ‘Why’ or ‘Then’. In such cases, more than the information, your own thinking ability has to be used. Some common forms of questions are family tree, letter encoding etc. These questions are a sophisticated version of riddles that you used to solve in your childhood.

Ways to prepare for Logical Reasoning

If you logically prepare for this section, scoring in CAT 2010 will not be that big an issue. “To start with, go to the previous years’ CAT papers and try to understand the ratio. Solve them regularly to get a good grip of it,” mentions Gejo Sreenivasan, Principal Consultant, Career Launcher.
Ample practice should be there. At this stage, when it is almost three months to CAT 2010, you should solve around 10 sets every day. “Solve at least eight to 10 questions on Logical Reasoning every day,” says Sidharth Balakrishna, author, CAT expert and IIM Calcutta alumnus.
An interesting way to prepare for this is by regularly solving crossword puzzles, Sudoku, riddles etc. “For this, pick out the leisure section of the daily newspaper. You can also solve caselets from various books and puzzle sites in the internet,” refers Manish Saraf, COO, PT Education.

While solving Logical Reasoning questions

The first step to follow when you see the Logical Reasoning question is that read the question carefully and note down all the information you obtain from the question. To have a better understanding, you can draw Venn diagrams on the basis of it or tables or charts, as per your convenience. “If the question is talking about a linear or round table seating arrangement, always draw the seats first and then place people on various positions as per the restrictions. If the question is talking about a tournament of some sport, draw the points table and then proceed. Putting the data in a tabular form helps your think with an uncluttered mind,” suggests Vinayak Kudva, Product Head, IMS Learning.

According to Kudva, in a set, the questions are very closely linked. So it is very important for you to read and re-read until you understand what you are required to answer from each questions. “If you get the logic behind the set, you will be able to solve it,” he says. He mentions a three step process to solve the questions:

Read

Understand

Solve

He gives an example of a Logical Reasoning Question on Encoding:

Problem: If BARK = 41324121 and BAD = 4116 then BAFFLED will be coded as what?

Solution: Consider the English Alphabet and look at the positions of various letters. B is 2, A is 1, R is 18 and K is 11. So BARK stands for 211811. Similarly BAD stands for 214.

2 1 18 11 is becoming 4 1 324 121.
2 1 4 is becoming 4 1 16.

If you look at it carefully you would notice that every number is getting squared. Hence

BAFFLED which stands for 2 1 6 6 12 5 4 will be encoded as 4136361442516.

“Logical Reasoning requires the maximum amount of effort in the DI / LR section of the CAT examination. You should look beyond your CAT Coaching material and try out puzzles,” Kudva mentions.

To read the article on Data Interpretation, click on the following link:

http://www.mbauniverse.com/article/id/3371/Tips-on-Data-Interpretation

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more on CAT 2010 preparation.

About the Author

MBAUniverse.com is one of India’s most comprehensive MBA portals. MBAUniverse.com was set up in 2006 to address the information asymmetry in the management education and practice domain.

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