Advice to Aspirants - CAT: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning | Additional Study Material for CAT PDF Download

“Cracking CAT, one of the toughest management exams, requires knowing the right formulas and concepts, attempting mock tests, and dividing time equally for all the sections.” - Sahil,99.5 percentile in CAT 2018

Our team has mentored thousands of students in the last 3 years, including 100+ students who cracked IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow & other top B-schools, and one thing that was common among all the toppers is the strategy & regular practice that they did to clear the exam. With the guidance of various IIM graduates, the relevant information about the exam has been compiled in this EduRev document to help you devise your own strategy. Our efforts are targeted to help you score the elite 99%ile scores in CAT.

Importance of LRDI for CAT

The current pattern of CAT has Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning as one of its three sections. It has equal weightage as the rest two, i.e. Quantitative Aptitude(QA) & Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension(VARC) sections.

Many topics of Quantitative Aptitude form the base of questions in data interpretation. Hence a thorough knowledge of the basics, and a fair amount of practice of the quant section, is very crucial for your preparation of data interpretation.

1x effort = 1.5x marks (DI is 50% of LRDI Section).

The purpose of this EduRev document is to make you understand how to study LRDI as a subject for not just CAT but also other B School entrances like SNAP, XAT, NMAT etc. The archives of different B-school exams might be instrumental in determining the path you should follow during preparation. By the end of this document, you will have clarity on how to tackle the LRDI section. We at EduRev recommend the LPA strategy – Learn, Practice & Analyse to score full marks in the LRDI section.

CAT 2020 Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning Details

As the CAT exam does not have a predefined syllabus, numerous candidates face difficulty and get confused during preparation. But it should be noted that the questions are generally asked from a few repeating concepts every year, so our experts have compiled a complete list of these topics CAT Syllabus (based on the last 10-years question papers). To access the syllabus document, click on the link:
CAT Syllabus

EduRev Tip: Attempt Past Year Questions of CAT exam to understand & adapt to the exam pattern.

You can check out past year papers of the last 31 years with detailed solutions here:
Past Year Question Papers

Topics in CAT LRDI

It is considered to be the most challenging section. This section assesses your ability to solve problems and understand a given logic.

Considering the past CAT exams pattern, our experts have created the Logical Reasoning(LR) and Data Interpretation(DI) course, which offers video lectures, detailed notes, practice questions & level-wise MCQ tests for each topic. You can access all the materials for each topic by clicking on the links below:

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning Syllabus

• Number Series
• Blood Relations
• Data Sufficiency
• Graphs Related (Pie chart, Line chart, column/bar graph)
• Seating Arrangement
• Tables and Caselets
• Calendars
• Syllogisms and Venn Diagrams
• Logical Sequence
• Logical Connectives
• Logical Matching
• Analogy
• Arithmetic Reasoning
• Cube and Cuboid
• Miscellaneous

Topic-wise weightage CAT 2020

You can check out CAT logical reasoning and data interpretation questions (with explanations) for the last 3-years by clicking on the respective links:

- CAT logical reasoning and data interpretation 2020 (Slot 1)

- CAT logical reasoning and data interpretation 2019 (Slot 1)

- CAT logical reasoning and data interpretation 2018 (Slot 1)

Tips to Ace Questions in LRDI For CAT Section

1. Strengthen the Basics

CAT LRDI section assesses a candidate’s ability in problem-solving. Regular and vigorous practice will help you get an edge over others in this section. You can ace this section with devoted practice and rock-solid knowledge of basics.

“I used to practice a lot of questions from particular topics and also focused a lot on them while taking the mock test.” - Rahul Gupta,100 Percentiler CAT 2019

You can view detailed lectures, practice 5-10 tests on each and every topic under the Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation course in the CAT exam category.

One way to assess your knowledge is to start practicing the questions; first-hand practice will help you cover the basics. You can access practice documents for all the quantitative topics here to understand the type of questions being asked in the CAT exam.

2. Practice

The data interpretation and logical reasoning section is considered one of the most time-consuming CAT sections. It consists of questions that involve a high level of calculations and logic. To score well in the CAT DI section, enough practice is very much important.
Once you have completed the basic levels of preparation, attempting tests that are planned level-wise will help you in sharpening your concepts. You can attempt them here - level-wise tests.

Our experts from IIMs have prepared these level-wise tests by referring to books like Arun Sharma, Nishit K. Sinha etc., to provide you with the best possible learning experience. Our medium level tests replicate the level of majority CAT questions, and hard level questions are generally present for you to be competitive for a more challenging CAT exam.

The common problems faced by aspirants

Practice questions are either too easy or are too tough that even the first step is very difficult to figure out. It is crucial to understand the thought process of someone who scores well in the section. Understanding an expert’s thought process while solving a CAT - level LRDI question set will help you bridge the gap and get to 99+ percentile.

“Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section during my preparation phase was attempting a wide variety of questions from the previous year papers of CAT and then re-attempting them. During the mocks, I made sure that I read all the question sets first and then picked out the ones that were easy and could be managed instead of doing the questions in order of question paper. After all, CAT is never about attempting all questions but getting one more right than your competitors”. - Lakshya Kumar, CAT 2019 topper (99.99 percentile)

EduRev Tip: “Selecting the right puzzle is half the battle won. Attempt the right puzzles, not the toughest ones”

3. Revision

The probability of success increases with the revision of concepts. There is no topper of CAT who aced the exam without revising the concepts. Logical reasoning(LR) and data interpretation(DI) course has 200+ tests with 5-10 tests for each topic, prepared just for you so that you can revise and master each and every topic and gain confidence. We also recommend you to attempt the cumulative subject wise mock tests (HyperLink) & Archive for LRDI: CAT, XAT, NMAT, SNAP. This will give you an idea of how the final LRDI section in the exam would look like.

In case you feel the necessity of revising through videos, we have the best videos that can help you with the conceptual understanding.

4. Practice Mock Tests and Previous Year Papers

“For me, attempting and analysing CAT mock tests was the best way to prepare. So, I took more than 80 mock tests. After each mock, I analysed the mistakes and maintained an error log. If you simply avoid making the same mistakes again, the performance improves.” - Meet Agrawal, 100 percentile CAT 2017

CAT Mock Tests are very crucial as the test acquaints the candidates with the real exam scenario and helps to analyse the actual level of preparation. The past year papers are beneficial to examine the paper pattern and difficulty level of questions.

To solve LRDI questions, create a smart plan and work in a task-oriented fashion. Set concrete tasks and complete them. Remember that as you experience more and more LRDI situations/questions, your ability to comprehend and solve LRDI would keep going up if you focus on the repetitive tasks you keep doing while solving LRDI questions.

The sureshot way to attain confidence is to attempt as many mock tests for CAT as you can. As an aspirant, you might consider giving exams of other B-Schools as well. Though their syllabus is almost the same, the pattern of the actual exam is really different.
So, we've created a different mock test series for all these exams. Check out the links below to access the mock test series for the respective exams:

• SNAP Mock Test Series
• XAT Mock Test Series
• NMAT Mock Test Series
• IIFT Mock Test Series

You can check out SNAP, NMAT, and XAT syllabus through these links. And to know more about the CAT LRDI section, go through the frequently asked questions in the Logical Reasoning(LR) and Data Interpretation(DI) course.