CAT 2012 Syllabus: What to Study

CAT 2012 will only have 2 sections instead of 3, as has been the case all these years. It was for CAT 2011 that this change in pattern first took place. Will the syllabus change? Not really, since the areas that you will be tested on remain the same. Earlier the 3 sections used to be:

• Verbal Ability
• Quantitative Ability
• Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning

       
Now the topics have just been re-distributed into two:

• Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation
• Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning

We have listed out the topics that should be ideally covered for these areas:

Verbal Ability: This section will test you on 4 areas broadly classified intyo Vocabulary based questions, English usage/grammar, Verbal Reasoning and Reading Comprehension.
The kind of questions vary from syllogisms, contextual usage, analogies, antonyms, fill In the blanks, jumbled paragraphs with 4 or 5 sentences, jumbled paragraphs,sentence correction, sentence completion, sentence correction, odd man out, idioms, one word substitution, different usage of same word etc.

Quantitative Aptitude: Main topics to be covered are Number Systems, Percentages, Profit and Loss, Interest, Speed, Time and Distance, Time and Work, Averages, Ratio and Proportion, Quadratic Equation, Logarithm, Progressions, Binomial Theorem, Inequalities, Permutation and Combination, Probability, Functions, Set Theory, Mixtures and Alligations, Geometry, Co-ordinate Geometry, Trigonometry, Mensuration

Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency: You should cover Data Interpretation based on text, Data Interpretation based on graphs and tables.Graphs can be Column graphs, Bar Graphs, Line charts, Pie Chart, Graphs representing Area, Venn Diagram, etc.Critical reasoning, Visual reasoning, Assumption-Premise-Conclusion, Assertion and reasons, Statements and assumptions, identifying valid inferences , identifying Strong arguments and Weak arguments, Statements and conclusions, Cause and Effect, Identifying Probably true, Probably false, definitely true, definitely false kind of statement, Linear arrangements, Matrix arrangements.Puzzles, Syllogisms, Functions, Family tree – identifying relationship among group of people, Symbol Based problems, Coding and decoding , Sequencing , identifying next number in series, etc.

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