The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a highly competitive management aptitude test conducted in India for management aspirants, mainly the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other top management institutes. Every year, thousands of candidates rush to take part in the exams, but only a tiny fraction of them are able to pass them with top grades. One of the most popular queries of the CAT aspirants is about the hardest subject in the CAT exam. The answer to that is subjective, and the difficulty level is related to people’s strengths and weaknesses to some degree, but still, some patterns can be seen regarding the nature of subjects and experiences shared by miserable past candidates.
Dissecting the CAT Exam: The Three Sections
Before going on with which subject is the hardest, it’s substantively necessary to analyze the three sections comprising the CAT exam:
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC): This section assesses the candidate’s comprehension of English passages and assessment of vocabulary and grammar.
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR): This section is about interpreting the given data and also aims at logical reasoning.
Quantitative Ability (QA): This section contains mathematics which includes areas like arithmetic, algebra, geometry and number systems as outline above.
Must Read: How do I Start Preparing for CAT at Home?
The Toughest Subject in CAT
Moving on, the question that comes into the mind is that which subject in CAT can be rated as the subjective. Still, DILR is considered the most challenging and toughest section according to most people.
How to Tackle the Toughest Subject?
Practice Regularly: Consistency, in this case, is only for hard practice, no matter what subject you find difficult to tackle. Solving CAT mock tests helps in identifying weak areas and working on them. During a mock test, the candidate is able to feel what it is like to answer questions in the real exam which assists the candidate in the time management skills.
Analyze CAT Previous Question Papers: One of the effective strategies is to go through CAT previous years question papers. It imparts knowledge of the type of questions asked and the trends of difficulty over the years.
Strengthen Your Basics: In the case of DILR, there are no standard formulas or set of theories that you need to learn. However, improving logical reasoning and solving various types of questions from several dinosaur CAT books will yield better results.
Time Management: Time is of the essence in the CAT examination. Practice with CAT mock tests would help one in managing time for each of the sections, especially DILR where students sometimes get engulfed in lengthy problems.
Practice Comprehensively with Oswaal360 Online Courses for CAT 2024 Exam
Practice Now with Free Oswaal360 Online Mock Test for CAT 2024 Exam
Conclusion
As has been outlined above, the question of which subject remains the most difficult in CAT will never be answered definitively as it is a matter of individual strengths and weaknesses. DILR has been the focus; however on the contrary, most of the time poses more sieves for most candidates owing to its nature of being elusive and time-consuming however the proper and effective approach towards preparation is regular practice using question CAT books and CAT previous years question papers.
While tackling the other related exams like CUET, it is also important to have the appropriate preparation material. One can also note that there are useful study materials in CUET books that cover the entire syllabus and provide effective strategies for combating the CUET exam.
