Everything You Need To Know About DILR - By IIT Alumnus Avik Pramanick (98.52 percentile in DILR, CAT 2017)

Avik, an alumnus of DoMS IIT Roorkee, has been an inspiration to his juniors and a torchbearer for young minds aspiring for MBA competitive exams. With a percentile of 98.52 in Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) in CAT 2017, he is here to share his valuable experience of slaying the section. Get ready to know everything about DILR before CAT 2020!

Going back to the basics, CAT is a management entrance exam conducted by the IIMs for admission in different B-Schools across the country. The CAT score is accepted by IITs, IIMs, and other top-notch B-Schools and is considered one of the most competitive MBA exams in India. The latest pattern of the exam includes 3 sections:

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)
Quantitative Aptitude (QA)

Talking about DILR, this section comprises 32 questions and the time allotted for this section is 60 minutes. Both the unit i.e. Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning have 16 questions each. One can expect 24 MCQs and 8 non-MCQs in this section. However please note that the timing has been reduced to 40 minutes and the number of questions in this section is still not disclosed by the authority for CAT 2020.

DILR has some topics for preparation that you can find in any book or online, but they are not exhaustive. Every year this section comes up with some new patterns of questions.

It has been seen that some question sets are a combination of two or more units like DI & LR, DI & Quant, LR & Quant, or DI, LR & Quant. Therefore, you need to practice every type of question that comes in your way.
Don’t depend on one source rather explore multiple sources for the preparation.
Take as many mocks and sectional tests as you can and analyze them properly. Practice the same questions that you got wrong after one week.
Solve at least 3 sets of both DI & LR questions every day. Keep track of the time that you are spending on one set and try to minimize it.
Don’t compromise with the accuracy at any cost.

A heedful approach to DILR section

This section has posed some of the trickiest questions in the exam in the last few years. Hence you can expect the same this year as well. Here is a mindful approach that one can consider to nail the DILR section:

Firstly, start navigating through the section and select the type of question that you are most comfortable with. Remember you will be spending some crucial time on that question so be critical while selecting the questions.
Read every detail carefully. If you miss one, it may lead to an incomplete/wrong solution.
If there are multiple scenarios in the question, make a separate solution for each scenario simultaneously.
This section decides a lot on the overall percentile of a candidate; hence you should be very selective and accurate to attempt this section.
Finally, don’t rush to solve all the questions rather attempt the maximum number of questions with 100% accuracy.

I wish all the aspirants good luck with their preparation!

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Avik Pramanick - DoMS IIT Roorkee

(Batch 2018 - 2020)

Prior to his MBA, he has 3 years of corporate experience. He has a knack for making and presenting innovative presentations to people. In sports, he loves to play Table Tennis & Snooker. He firmly believes that nothing can be achieved without hard work.