VA strategy by Mr.CP Singh@ IMS...

Re: PG Underdogs Team (UDT) '08 - 25-10-2008, 11:06 AM
good morning everyone....
i will try to throw sme light on the session dat i had y'day wth Mr.CP Singh at IMS...
i wil post nly the relevant details and try to zip a 2.5hr session in a post...i reiterate...views expressed here are not my own...der may b a couple of contentious points...but then i am sharing wot the faculty shared wth us y'day...so here it goes...

we talked at length on VA strategy...and the topics concerned...we didn spare much time on RC...cuz actually theres vry little u can share in a session dat will do ur RC a world of good in 20 odd days...

so lets first list down the VA topics one by one and then i wil take it forward from there...
1)FIJ
2)Arguments(udli,implicit etc)
3)Sentence Correction
4)Vocabs(usage,Fill in d blanks,Homonymes)
5)Para Jumbles
6)Para Completion
7)Summary
Critical Reasoning.

firstly he suggested we concentrate our efforts and attempts in 3,5,4,7...unless the rest hve sme real sitters or questions where u r relatively confident of ur attempts...this is because the above 4 areas are zones where there is some amount of objectivity...less ambiguity and smethin that with sme amnt of practise u can bring decent accuracy in such topics...d others are at the paper setter's discretion...like FIJs...u can practise a hell lot...still whether a particular sentence is an I or J u can debate on it...and in d xam if ur logic goes wth the paper setter's den u get it right...so its kinda stuff which u wud attempt nly if ur relatively sure of ur basics...without gettin more into this stuff...i hope u people get my point...

1) FIJs :-
mos aspirants are unsure about this topic...and worse is those who are smewot sure don boast of too high an accuracy rate in d Mocks wen it comes to FIJs...firstly will list woteva basics was dicussed in class and then get to the strategy for attempts...
1) Not based on a fact -> Never an Inference.
2)When u state another person's Judgement--> Fact.
3)Fact is easily verifiable.
4)When u base a judgement which is drawn from another Judgement->Judgement.
strategy to attempt....try to get a couple f sure ones among the 4/5 sentences and den use them as anchor wen u eliminate the options...most cases u will get stuck between two options with only one option being J/I...such cases read d sentence...try to reason...the thing with Judgement is u can argue with the author...any adjective(strong) used to strengthen the argument is a Judgement...for Inference jus remember the definition..."Its a conclusion about an unknown... " ... the sentence must have one fact...the thing ur inferring is not known at present but in the light of the fact its a reasonable conclusion to draw....it mayb an opinion.
two exmaples :-
Sachin is a better batsman than Ganguly looking at their Test avgs :- Inference.
Sachin is a better batsman than Ganguly looking at their strokeplay:- Judgement.


2.Arguments

Implicit arguments :- these things are normally based on assertions...there can broadly be 3 types of arguments... 1)supporting 2)defeating 3)irrelevant.
now implicit argument is smething that is latent in the assertion...d closest we can come to defining it is its an assumption on the basis of which the assertion is being made.
e.g "Watching too much of television isn't good for the kids"
Implicit argument :- "A lot of disturbing visuals are being broadcasted now-a-days which isnt good for the kids"

now comes upstream,downstream...
i wud suggest u guys to take up CL Mock 5...and read d definitions of UDLI very carefully...tis pretty well xplained in that paper...
still Upstream argument states "wot are the things that make the assertion comes true"
downstream states "wot will happen if the assertion is true"
Upstream ---> Assertion (Main stmnt) ---> Downstream.
best way to do is...first spot the downstream...take d question stmnt...put it below the main statemnt...and c if it follows logically from the main statement...needn b a conclusion...jus d idea shud flow...
Lateral statement...supports the assertion but maynot be relevant to it...it strengthens d argument...generally we come across example statements talking about cases where the assertion is valid...
irrelevant is completely out of sync wth d given context.

Sentence Correction :-

a lot to say here...lets again list down the major errors dat are thrown in...
1)Articles.
2)Subject Verb agreement.
3)Tense
4)parallelism
5)moods(subjunctive...)
6)prepositions
7)errors of modifier.
redundancy

among these 2,7,6,3 are most common...4 follows as a result of one or more of the above...so lets address des one by one...
before we get into these...u ppl can actually go thru Wren and Martin (selective topics) and then sit with past IMS papers and try out...
Articles :- nthin much to say here.
Subject Verb agreement- most important error...
weneva theres a present continous tense be careful...we have very few instances of dis...its not applicable wn the sentence talks of feelings,emotions...
in tenses the most common is one tense at the beginning of the sentence and sme other in the closing stages...just check if both are in agreement..
moods...present subjunctive is d rarest form...use the base form of the verb in such cases...i will illustrate with a few examples...
prepositions...go thru d wren n martin list...
remember...each clause has its own verb and each verb has its own subject.

e.g He is one of the few students of the class who study regularly.
it wont be "studies"...its "who study" and not "he studies"...he is assosciated wth d verb "is"

compare like to like..
remember the few paired conjunctions (Scarcely- when, No sooner-than,Not only-But also).
now we come to moods...
When the landlord insisted that he vacate the house,he had no option but to leave.
we use the base form of the verb "vacate" and not "vacates".

any kind of wish that hasn't come true takes verb "were"..i wish i were a cricketer.
now a strange kinda mood...
Hansa would rather Manek spent more time with her.
The verb before Manek is silent...

another instance...weneva the sentence has "insisted,suggested"--> do not use "should"-->its already a part of the suggestion.
The teacher insisted the students that they should study ->Wrong.
The teacher insisted that the students study.

Vocabs
don b too worried with word meanings...u either know them or u don't...no amount of preparation helps....
in FIBs...look for words that fit grammatically,meaningwise,and at times more than one word may fit...choose the best fit...
e.g u hatch a conspiracy...better than u plan a conspiracy.
a blank following "a" wont start with a vowel sound.
in most cases the strategy that works out is shadow....close d options..read d sentence...form ur own word...and den lok at d otpions...if u get d word...mark it...else find d one closest to it...

Para Jumbles.
its a good idea to have a look at options before starting..but don necessarily fix the starting sentence...look for strong links...the lengthier the sentences...d more links u have...d easier it is...look for grammatical relations (pronoun ->precedin sentence,demonstrative adjectives) apart from the standard methods of choosing opening and concluding sentences...in sme cases u wil hve 2 options.. ABCD BCDA...A can fit as either a starting or closing sentence...read and mark with ur instincts...don waste too much time.

Para Completion
this again is a debatable topic...a passage is extracted from a source...d last line is deleted and den ur given 5 close options...like FIJs...here also u have to rely a bit on ur gut feel ftr reading the passage...the following points may help...
1) try to shadow...read d para and jus think wot can b d kinda of sentence dat follows and den look at d options.
2) as in RCs try to get d central idea...try t think why the author wrote the passage...his purpose...and u wil in all probabilities find a statement that carries d central idea...try to lok at options..dat carries forward d idea..not necessarily concludes(don b 2 rigid bt the completion part)..so as to make way for the next paragraph...or it may present a flipside to the given context and end on a dissenting note...woteva it is...it mus belong to the para...no new ideas...it musb related...and it mus logically fit into the scheme of things...don mark too general statements...

Summary
this is one area where u can score well...again just as in RCs and para jumbles...try to get the author's mindset...jot the important points/names dat form the crux of the passage...without which the summary wont b complete...eliminate factually incorrect summaries...dont go for summaries dat state sentences from the passage verbatim...look out for sweeping statements and words(best,only,all,every,cannot,must,never)...mor e often they wont b the correct summary...the author may state some opinion strongly but maynot actually say its d best opinion...so b a bit careful...

Critical Reasoning...
generally we have questions...like wot can u infer,strengthens,weakens,parallel logic...u can read the question first in such cases...and den the passage and den come to the options...it helps dat way...u have a hang of the issue at hand.

dats more or less the whole session zipped in a single post...
i once again reiterate...views expressed here are not my own...i agree/disagree with a few of the above...but i thought i should share this with u guys...apart from RCs des are d areas where one can luk fwd to scoring in the VA section...

apart from this...it was more of a general discussion...like debate on a particular FIJ...approach to VA section of a particular CAT paper...nothing general...so am omittin them here for the sake of clarity...

hope it helped...ny queries get back to me...hve a good Mock this weekend boys!!

Ref:http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/34711-pg-underdogs-team-udt-08-a-41.html#post1258160