Preface

As a trainer and an author of various books on aptitude, I have always noticed the lack of a quality resource for students trying to develop their skills in solving reasoning questions.

Q THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF LOGICAL REASONING IN THE CAT

Logical Reasoning has always been an integral part of the CAT and indeed of all other MBA entrance examinations. However, ever since the CAT went online in 2009, the emphasis of the exam on Logical Reasoning questions has drastically increased. The following table would show you how the CAT has moved on to an exam with greater role in Logical Reasoning.

This shift can be gauged from the following table which shows the number of Logical Reasoning questions in the three-section format of the CAT (where Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning formed one of the three sections):

Year Number of Sets in Logical Number OfQuestions in Logical Reasoning (out of the total DI &

The increased emphasis can be further gauged from the following: In the exams before 2009, in order to qualify you typically needed to solve anywhere between 10 to 12 questions correct out of 25—which in effect meant that the key qualifying factor for the section was essentially the Data Interpretation questions.

In the online CATs of 2009 and 2010, the number of questions one needed to solve in order to qualify the DI & LR section was around 12-14 out of 20, which naturally made Logical Reasoning an important component of your process of qualification for this section.

Importance of Logical Reasoning in the two-section CAT:

Fromthe year 2011 onwards, the CAT has shifted to the two-section format namely:

(i) Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation comprising 30 questions

(ii) Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning comprising 30 questions

In my view, this has significantly increased the strategic importance of Logical Reasoning in cracking the CAT. The reasons for this view point are not hard to trace. Consider the following:

(i) Out of 30 questions in the Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning section, typically every test paper has around 20 questions on Verbal AbilityZReading Comprehensionand 10 questions on Logical Reasoning.

(ii) An aspirant needs to attempt around 18+ questions all correct to score a 99+ percentile. At the same time, at an accuracy level of around 90%, (which has been seen to be the normal level for good students) he/she needs to attempt around 22-24 questions.

(iii) Given the fact that all questions in Verbal Ability/ Reading Comprehension would not be attemptable, it naturally means that Logical Reasoning becomes a critical component in order to crack one of the two sections in the exam.

This can be further looked at in two ways:

(a) For the student who is weak at solving Verbal Ability/ Reading Comprehension questions.

If you were to look at it from another angle, suppose one is able to solve all 10 questions on Logical Reasoning correctly (which I may add here, is not very difficult to achieve) the consequence would be that the pressure would be off when you come around to solving the Verbal Ability/ Reading Comprehension questions in the section. Out of 20 questions in these, you would need to be able to solve only 8-10 all correct and you would be heading to a pretty strong score.

Naturally, this would allow you to be stress free during the exam and help you achieve better scores in this section.

(b) For the student who is good at solving Verbal Ability/ Reading Comprehension questions.

Let’s assume you are able to solve around 15 questions, with a maximum of one error out of the 20 questions from these areas. In such a case, you would need to be able to ‘attack’ the logical reasoning questions in order to maximise your scores in this section.

Another aspect to be noted is that the questions on Logical Reasoning included in all the papers of the online CAT have been pretty complex with conditions which needed a lot of thinking to be matched in the correct places. Moreover, each set typically contained a maximum of two questions and a lot of sets had only one question in them. Thus, working on your reasoning solving skills becomes a key imperative if you are a serious CAT aspirant.

Q THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF REASONING IN OTHER MBA

EXAMS AND OTHER PARALLEL APTITUDE EXAMS

Reasoning also forms one of the main parts of parallel MBA entrance examinations like

(i) XAT—where there are two full sections where there is a role for Reasoning namely:

(a) A section on Analytical Reasoning and Decision Making &

(b) A section called Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning.

(ii) SNAP—which has one full section of 25 to 30 questions regularly titled as ‘Analytical and Logical Reasoning’

(iii) IIFT—which has one section dedicated to Reasoning and contains around 20 to 25 questions on an average.

(iv) IRMA—which again has one full section of around 40 questions based entirely Onreasoningtitled ‘Analytical Reasoning’.

(v) CET Maharashtra—has close to 75 to 80 questions (out of 200 in the entire paper) which are solely dedicated to reasoning.

Besides, all other competitive aptitude exams like the Civil Services Aptitude test (CSAT), BankPO Exams, etc. have a fair abundance of reasoning questions.

Thus, even if you are a CAT aspirant who is also aiming for some or all of these other exams, you would ignore reasoning preparation at your own peril.

Q THE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO REASONING

Unlike proper theory-oriented subjects, like physics, biology or mathematics where a substantial part of your preparation would involve studying the theory of the subject before moving to its applications, Reasoning is largely an experientially learnt subject,

i.

This entire book tries to help you:

(a) Experience what the different question types on reasoning are all about

(b) Develop the best processes and thinking patterns in order to be able to solve the questions;

(c) Experience enough situations of each question type such you can say with confidence “Now, I can solve any question of this type”.

However, I would first like to bring your attention to a very less understood issue about the preparation for the Reasoning section.

The degree of control you have while solving a Reasoning question is a crucial aspect of decision making while attempting Reasoning questions.

My experience and observation of preparation trends and student processes used in solving reasoning questions tell me that most aspirants lose a degree of control they have on a question. Whether a question is within one’s grasp and one would be able to solve a question or not, is something that aspirants realise too late into the question. By the time they realise that a question set was not worth investing the time, they would have already invested too much time in a futile attempt to solve the question.

In the question sets that appear as a part of the Reasoning in the CAT and other non­CAT exams, realising early whether a question set is going to get solved by you should be a crucial aspect of your preparation objectives.

Hence, the ability to pinpoint whether you would be able to solve a question set while you are going through it for the first time could be a big differentiator and could go a long way towards improving your test scores.

There are a few concrete steps you can specifically do for Reasoning:

(a) Work on developing an advanced warning system about the difficulty level of a question.

The problem that students face in segregating reasoning questions is that since they are all language intensive, they all look the same. This is the reason test­takers face a problem in understanding whether a question set is to be solved or not.

(b) You would have to use all the information in most reasoning questions that you come across.

This assumption holds true because redundant data questions are very rarely

found.

(c) The first thing you should look at in the question is the number of variables involved.

Typically, more the variables, more difficult the question is likely to be.

Given this, your approach to every reasoning question should be based on a sentence- by-sentence analysis of the question. Look at the clues closely and for each statement you come across, try to see whether it is a direct or an indirect clue. Direct clues would typically give you direct relationships between the variables involved and hence are easy to place (something like, “Amit is wearing the red shirt,” is a direct clue).

Indirect clues, on the other hand, are much more difficult to place and have to be used at specific points in solving a problem (A typical indirect clue would read something like: “The person wearing the blue shirt lives somewhere to the right of the person who hates coffee and he is not Amar”)

Naturally, higher the proportion of direct clues, the easier the question would be. On the other hand, if the indirect clues are higher, the question starts becoming more and more difficult to solve and this single fact should go a long way towards helping you distinguish the tough reasoning questions from the easy ones.

Q THE STRUCTURE AND SALIENT FEATURES FOR THIS BOOK

This book is divided into the following parts:

Part 1: LogicalReasoning

This part is divided into three broad sections:

Section (1) Logical Reasoning: This section starts with an introduction to logical reasoning and then moves on to cover the various question types that one is likely to encounter under Logical Reasoning.

The objective of this section is to help you understand the various question types that one would typically see under Logical Reasoning—which is the most common question type inside the CAT and is also commonly seen in all other major aptitude exams.

Section (2) Verbal Reasoning: The question types covered under the Verbal Reasoning Section are: Syllogisms; Logical Deductions; Set Theory, Venn Diagrams and Network Diagrams; Binary Logic; Critical Reasoning.

Again, the objective in this section is to help the reader to understand the various question types that are classified under verbal reasoning (and which are relevant from the CAT view point).

Section (3) Reasoning Exercises based on Level of Difficulty: In this section of the book you would find exercises in increasing level of difficulty starting from LOD 1 to LOD 2 to LOD 3 (where LOD = Level OfDifficulty). These exercises help you put a final stamp on your understanding and ability to solve reasoning questions at varying levels of difficulty.

Part 2: Reasoning Question Types from Other MBA Exams

This part of the book takes you through the reasoning question types that have not been popular in the CAT but have been a constant presence in other MBA entrance exams. However, these have been covered inside this book for two reasons:

(a) With the evolving nature of the CAT, it is a good idea to know what kind of surprise questions can crop up in each

(b) In my experience, I have seen that a lot of people who appear for the CAT also appear for at least one or more of the other MBA entrance exams listed above (if not, also for other parallel aptitude tests like PO, CSAT, GATE, etc). Hence, in order to provide completeness to the resources in the book, I decided to include the following topics too (even though they have been rarely asked in the CAT):

Sequences and series; Blood relations; Direction Test; Statement and Conclusions; Statement and Assumptions; Assertion and Reason; Statement—Courses of Action; Mathematical Operations.

Part 3: Reasoning Archives

Part 3 of this book which is “Reasoning Archives” takes the readers through an entire gamut of experience that the reasoning questions/section has taken aspirants through in the CAT and three other major MBA entrance exams (XAT, IIFT and SNAP). While CAT questions on reasoning are covered from 1999 to 2008, XAT, IIFT and SNAP exams are covered over the last 5 to 6 years. This coverage gives you a feel of the level of difficulty of the reasoning questions asked in each of these exams.

Going through the questions in the archives and the solutions to those questions would help you put a final seal in your quest for mastering the all important reasoning area of your test preparation.

Q A FINAL WORD

One final thing I would like to tell you about this book before you embark on your journey for the preparation of reasoning. The solutions contained in this book for the most part give you a step-by-step solution to every question thereby helping you understand exactly what you need to do and how you need to organise your thinking while you are dealing with a reasoning question. I call this step-by-step approach to explaining how to solve a reasoning question as the “REACTION TRACKER”. In the easy direct questions, the ‘REACTION TRACKER’ might just help you get clarity in terms of how you thought and what were the things that you did correct in order to get to the answer of the question. In the slightly more difficult questions, this approach to explaining how a question gets solved would actually help you upgrade your skills in reasoning.

I would encourage you to use the unique ‘REACTION TRACKER’ approach in this book to solve reasoning problems. All the best for a fruitful learning experience!!

Arun Sharma