Paragraph Summary questions had first appeared in CAT in the 2003 retest (they had appeared a couple of times before as part of critical reasoning questions). There were four questions that asked students to choose the option that best captured the essence of the text, from the four alternative summaries. Then, five of these questions appeared in the 2004 CAT. After that, these questions recently made a reapparance in the 2014 CAT. They also make an appearance, at times, in other exams. The skills required to solve these questions are essentially the same as those required to solve general

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Sentence rearrangement or Jumbled paragraph questions have been a regular feature in the Verbal Ability section of the CAT. In this question type 4-5 sentences are given in a random order without any indication of the introductory or the concluding sentences. The sentences, when logically reorganized, form a coherent paragraph. This question type can be quite difficult since the subject matter and the sentences in which they are contained are often dense and complex. At times, the sentences can be lengthy and the theme esoteric or scholarly – something an average CAT aspirant is not v

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Whenever someone starts a new business, some money is needed to start the business. This initial investment is called the CAPITAL. In large companies & enterprises, it is very much possible that there could be more than one person investing the money. These could be either partners or shareholders. Both mean the same thing except for the liability they have for the business. It is easier for a shareholder to quit the business, by selling his SHARES in the stock exchange, whereas a partner cannot leave just like that. So, what is a Share? In simple terms, it is a certificate issued b

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Data Interpretation section of CAT revolves around decoding the structured data and deriving meaningful results from the given data. Its significance cannot be undermined in today’s world as strategies are planned and implemented on the basis of inferences and results determined through this vast amount of data. Thus, this topic holds an inevitable place in CAT exam and around 16 questions are asked from it. The data can be represented in form of lines, graphs or charts, tables, and caselets etc. And, in this blog, we will be talking about one special kind of graph known as bar graphs. B

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UNDERSTANDING BASE SYSTEMS: The numbers that we commonly use are the decimal number. The system is called the decimal system. Why is it called the decimal system ? It is because it has 10 symbols - 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ,6 , 7 , 8 , 9 . For example : 85 means - 8 * 10^1 + 5 * 10^0 Here , 10 is known as the base of the decimal system. In this article , we will learn about other bases , how to express various numbers in such bases and questions according to CAT , XAT and OMETs. BASE :  It is the number of distinct symbols used in a particular number system. For example So, depending o

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let me first list down the topics that I am going to cover in this particular blogpost: Number of factors of a given number Number of even factors or odd factors of a given number Sum of all factors of a given number Sum of all even factors or odd factors of a given number   We know that a number N can be written as a product of its factors as given below   N = ap x bq x cr … Here a,b,c… are prime factors of N & p,q,r … are the powers of the prime factors of N.   In such a case the number of factors of N are given by the formula &

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Escalators has now become a topic from which questions are asked quite frequently in CAT. Today, we are going to see the theory behind escalator questions and solve them through both equations and ratios. Once you are through with the concept and are able to solve the questions in this article, you can solve any question from this topic Escalator questions are very similar to the upstream and downstream questions. In a stream, the direction of flow of water is constant whereas, the escalators move in both directions. Escalator questions can be confusing as sometimes, questions might not

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The concept of ‘divide and conquer’, derived from the Latin phrase ‘Divide et impera’, was put into use effectively by everyone from Caesar to Napoleon to The British in India. Even Gaddafi tried using the same but as current events show us – he wasn’t very effective. Dividing rather divisibility rules to be specific can come in really handy at times in solving problems based on Number Systems. The standard rules which nearly all of us are very comfortable with are the ones for 2n and 5n. For these all that one needs to do is look at the last ‘n’ digits of the number. If

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What are Logical Connectives? Logical connectives are basically words or symbols which are used to form a complex sentence from two simple sentences by connecting them. Some Logical Connectives are – If, Only if, When, Whenever, Unless etc. Questions based on statements formed using logical connectives are simpler than other questions of exam so it will be beneficial to take command on this topic. These type of sentences consist of two parts, one is Cause and one is Effect. Usually Cause is present after the connectives. Some examples are like- 1. If you are in navy, you have to wear u

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By now, you must be aware of 50% topics of the verbal ability section- vocabulary & RC. Let’s move on to another crucial part of VA, i.e. Verbal Reasoning. As the name states itself, this section intends to assess your reasoning skills. One of the most important types of questions in this section is based on paragraph summary. So, what is a paragraph summary? If someone asks you to summarise a 3-hour movie, how would you do that? And if it’s your favourite movie? Well, that’s the very purpose of summary questions. All you need to do is understand the paragraph and then, figure

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