The DI LR section has always been playing the role of a second fiddle to the other two sections of CAT i.e. VA and QA, well at least in the test takers’ minds and subsequently their test-taking strategies. Till CAT 2014, one could actually confer lesser importance on the DI LR questions since they were split into half and stuffed into the then CAT’s 2 sections namely VA & LR and QA & DI. But times have changed.
Not only has the DI LR section become a completely separate section but has wryly become the ultimate game decider. That’s because, since CAT ’15, both VA and QA have advertently been made easy to level the playing field between engineers and non-engineers. In such a scenario, a challenging DI LR section that it has been since ’15, becomes the real and the only test of one’s mettle.
In light of this, it’s sagacious to have a well-defined strategy to face the storm of this make-or-break section. Unlike the 5-6 steps that I have suggested erstwhile to ace the other 2 sections of CAT, I’ll lay emphasis on just 2 broad and all-encompassing ones in the case of DI LR:
- Selection is the key: Practicing DI LR questions with the primary aim of honing one’s question-selection skills holds paramount importance! Unlike VA and QA, where one faces single, mutually independent questions, the DI LR section will always comprise of long caselets. Keeping this in mind, I’d sincerely advise everyone to develop a knack of deciding, within 2-3 minutes, whether to even devote time and efforts to a particular caselet or not. Often people end up expending 10-15 minutes of their valuable time to a genuinely difficult question and by the time they realise it, they would have already crossed the rubicon.
- Bottom-line is that it’s OKAY to simply leave a few caselets and channel your entire energy towards those well-selected, let’s say 5 out of the total 8, caselets.
- Expect anything and everything: Staying true to its name, the tone of the questions in the DI LR section will be such that many of them might not fit into any set framework/pattern that one might have regularly come across while practising for them. Unlike QA, where covering as many varieties of questions and formulas as possible during CAT prep is sure to yield great dividends for a candidate, the relationship might not be linear in case of DI LR since this section demands presence of mind during the test and the past practice in equal amounts.
- Bottom-line is that sometimes the approach to a caselet might be too simple and plain logical when one’s hell bent on applying any framework that one might have learnt during his/her preparations.
A broad strategy and the mindset to judiciously implement it during that 1 hour of the actual test is as vital as hundreds of hours one would have spent toiling hard practising DI LR questions. The aforementioned 2 methods can act as cogs in the wheel of your DI LR strategy. Do suggest/inquire any other methods that you might have in your mind in the comments section.