DI-LR Tips You Must Know Before CAT 2020 | Ft. Kritika Mittal, IIM Bangalore

---

You may also be interested in reading: How I Went From 71.6 %ile To 98.13 %ile In DILR Section

---

Some questions could even be very straightforward and require minimal standalone working, especially in DI sets. Standalone working means they are independent of other information given in the set. Consider the revenue-cost DI set 8 in the CAT 2019 exam, slot 2. A quick snapshot of the cracked set is as below. We have 4 statements, marked A, B, C and, D, and the plots to deduce the information. The set is followed by 4 questions.

As highlighted, the weights 2x, 4x, and so on have been deduced using statements A, B, C, and D, and the corresponding statement used has been indicated too. These are the only inferences required to crack the set.

Say a student is short on time and cannot make all the deductions of weights. But only Statement A, i.e., "The percentage profit for the store in 2016 was 100%." is sufficient to solve the third question "What percentage of the total profits for the store in 2016 was from the Electronics department?". This question uses only the yellow highlighted information in the picture.

• Statement A
• 50% and 30% figures for 2016 electronics department
• Deducing 2x and 1x from statement A

One doesn't even require to find yearly percentages for all 3 departments, hence avoiding writing down 16 other numbers! This easily saves you precious 2 minutes. Question 3 is also independent of statements B, C, and D. On a quick calculation: (50%*2x - 30%*1x) / (2x-1x) gives you 70%, which is the answer. These are easy 3 marks that should be seized.

---

Also Read: From Dreading LRDI To Scoring 99.45% In LRDI – Here’s How I Improved!

---

The trick can be extended to say that if you're in the last 3-5 minutes of the DI/LR section and think it would be useless to pick up a new set. I urge you not to make a mistake and still start attempting any leftover set and glance at the questions. There's a high probability that you can solve at least 1 of them, gain the extra 3 marks, and they end up making the difference that's needed to make to your dream school. So gear up and ensure you eyeball all DI/LR questions to spot any such standalone or partial information questions! May the force be with you.

***

Watch how Kritika cracked the CAT in her second attempt and made it to IIM Bangalore!