Reality is – This is a typical problem that a fledgling CAT aspirant faces in the initial months. However, with time and strategies he learns the art of finding the keywords, judging the tone and in case of quant and DI, drawing the framework or formulating the problem to plug in the answer options of the problem at hand. Life becomes easier after that. You take more tests, do more practice, use these strategies – you improve. Almost every CAT aspirant undergoes this process of improvement every year.

And then comes July 2009 when CAT takers get ready for the MOCKs (rather some may have started giving). But this year scenario doesn’t seem to be the same. Almost all are facing the RE-RE-RE-DO problem on the computer screen even after mastering the strategies on paper. The frustration is unsettling. The fact that CAT 09 is just a few months away is creating immense time pressure. How can this NEW challenge be met? There must be a way!

Yes! There is one and that requires a paradigm shift in our CAT test taking approach. We must admit that the NEW CAT needs NEW approach. Further, one needs to understand that it’s not the CAT that has changed but the medium of taking it. Only paper based strategies won’t work. We have to master new ways to increase our concentration and comprehension. We will discuss some FRESH approaches to CAT in this series; would apply those on the CAT 2008 questions in order to try them and exercise those on the past CAT questions in order to master them.

Reading Comprehension:
Master the art of constructing a Dot-Diagram

RC is considered to be the first area where concentration plays a major role. Moreover, one should be able to link the information and consciously map the development of the topic. However, reading on the computer screen hampers both the objectives. The major problem that we face is to re-scan the passage for the relevant sentence(s) when we attempt to answer second question based on the RC. It seems that one will have to scan the whole passage again to find out where the topic is being discussed. And the test taker gets confused on whether to read the whole passage first or to read only the opening sentences.  Verbal experts at TCYonline have a workable strategy for this. It is called – Constructing a Dot-Diagram.

The Process:
The process is very simple and starts with something that you are all already doing – reading opening, closing lines and finding the gist. Here is how to proceed:

1. The First step is to “Read the opening 2-3 lines of the first para”. 2-3 lines – because the CAT makers deliberately set passages where opening lines rarely discuss the main point. It is very important to read the closing line(s) of the first para, so do not ignore them. This way the first para is very important and is supposed to set the course of the issue under question. Now what? – Write the adverbs and adjectives that qualify as “strong words” by the author and gist in a few phrases on the scratch paper and give it title “1”.  Also note down if a phrase is given in inverted commas.
2. Just read 1-2 opening sentences of the remaining paras and note down the important words and phrases on the scratch paper. Remember to give then the titles “2”, “3” and so on which will act as pointers to trace the answers to specific questions. Remember not to read these stanzas completely. An average human mind can only remember the development of a topic after one reading and not the complete understanding of each event that cause this development. We will read each event when a question asks us to.
3. Now, based on your understanding out of the written summary on the scratch sheet, write down the important words that are core to overall idea of the whole passage. We call these words as DOTs and the process of identifying and listing them as JOINING THE DOTs.
4. Now, 90% of your job is done. Let us tell you how helpful these dots are:

• Read a question, match the keywords with the words and phrases that you noted on the scratch paper to see which para focuses on it. Read the relevant 1-2 lines match them with the answer options. Finally verify the right choice by noticing the use of your dot in it.
• If you are in hurry, just see which answer options comprise your dots or their synonyms. Following these dots can ensure 90% accuracy.
• If you are stuck at 2 choices, go for the one that contains your dot.

Illustration from CAT 2008:
Let’s now apply our strategy on the following para adopted from CAT 2008:

Language is not a cultural artifact that we learn the way we learn to tell time or how the federal government works. Instead, it is a distinct piece of the biological makeup of our brains. Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitatively the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave intelligently. For these reasons some cognitive scientists have described language as a psychological faculty, a mental organ, a neural system, and a computational module. But I prefer the admittedly quaint term “instinct”. It conveys the idea that people know how to talk in more or less the sense that spiders know how to spin webs. Web-spinning was not invented by some unsung spider genius and does not depend on having had the right education or on having an aptitude for architecture or the construction trades. Rather, spiders spin spider webs because they have spider brains, which give them the urge to spin and the competence to succeed. Although there are differences between webs and words, I will encourage you to see language in this way, for it helps to make sense of the phenomena we will explore.

Thinking of language as an instinct inverts the popular wisdom, especially as it has been passed down in the canon of the humanities and social sciences. Language is no more a cultural invention than is upright posture. It is not a manifestation of a general capacity to use symbols: a three-year-old, we shall see, is a grammatical genius, but is quite incompetent at the visual arts, religious iconography, traffic signs, and the other staples of the semiotics curriculum. Though language is a magnificent ability unique to Homo sapiens among living species, it does not call for sequestering the study of humans from the domain of biology, for a magnificent ability unique to a particular living species is far from unique in the animal kingdom. Some kinds of bats home in on flying insects using Doppler sonar. Some kinds of migratory birds navigate thousands of miles by calibrating the positions of the constellations against the time of day and year. In nature’s talent show, we are simply a species of primate with our own act, a knack for communicating information about who did what to whom by modulating the sounds we make when we exhale.

Once you begin to look at language not as the ineffable essence of human uniqueness but as a biological adaptation to communicate information, it is no longer as tempting to see language as an insidious shaper of thought, and, we shall see, it is not. Moreover, seeing language as one of nature’s engineering marvels – an organ with “that perfection of structure and co-adaptation which justly excites our admiration,” in Darwin’s words – gives us a new respect for your ordinary Joe and the much-maligned English language (or any language). The complexity of language, from the scientist’s point of view, is part of our biological birthright; it is not something that parents teach their children or something that must be elaborated in school – as Oscar Wilde said, “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” A preschooler’s tacit knowledge of grammar is more sophisticated than the thickest style manual or the most state-of-the-art computer language system, and the same applies to all healthy human beings, even the notorious syntax-fracturing professional athlete and the, you know, like, inarticulate teenage skateboarder. Finally, since language is the product of a well-engineered biological instinct, we shall see that it is not the nutty barrel of monkeys that entertainer-columnists make it out to be.

Read the passage and answer the questions below:

1. According to the passage, which of the following does not stem from popular wisdom on language?
1.     Language is a cultural artifact.
2.    Language is a cultural invention.
3.    Language is learnt as we grow.
4.    Language is unique to Homo Sapiens.
5.    Language is a psychological faculty.

2. Which of the following can be used to replace the “spiders know how to spin webs” analogy as used by the author?
1.     A kitten learning to jump over a wall
2.    Bees collecting nectar
3.    A donkey carrying a load
4.    A horse running a Derby
5.    A pet dog protecting its owner’s property

3. According to the passage, which of the following is unique to human beings?
1.    Ability to use symbols while communicating with one another.
2.    Ability to communicate with each other through voice modulation.
3.    Ability to communicate information to other members of the species.
4.    Ability to use sound as means of communication.
5.    All of the above.

4. According to the passage, complexity of language cannot be taught by parents or at school to children because
1.    children instinctively know language.
2.    children learn the language on their own.
3.    language is not amenable to teaching.
4.    children know language better than their teachers or parents.
5.    children are born with the knowledge of semiotics.

5. Which of the following best summarizes the passage?
1.    Language is unique to Homo Sapiens.
2.     Language is neither learnt nor taught.
3.     Language is not a cultural invention or artifact as it is made out.
4.     Language is instinctive ability of human beings.
5.     Language is use of symbols unique to human beings.

Was it that simple?

1. SKIMMING THE PASSAGE:

Introductory phrases:

‘Language is not a cultural artifact that we learn’

‘It is a distinct piece of the biological makeup’

Concluding phrase (a repetition):

‘language is the product of a well-engineered biological instinct’

The opening and the concluding sentences say it all.

2. DRAWING A SNAPSHOT:

Let’s consider the Para-wise minor detail.

1. Describing ‘LANGUAGE’ | (Others) ‘describe language as a psychological faculty’ | (The author) prefers “Instinct”. | And then the author gives the analogy of the “instinct” – ‘people à how to talk ||| spiders à how to spin webs’.

2. Author sticks to “instinct”. | And finally states that language is ‘far from unique’ to humans. It is only “modulating the sounds we make”.

3. Biological adaptation to communicate | Product of well-engg biological instinct.

3. IDENTIFYING DOTs:

A casual look at the passage reveals that the words language, biological, psychological and instinct keep occurring again and again in the passage and the word instinct has even been put in quote marks to attract our attention.

4. JOINING THE DOTs:

Language

Biological

Psychological

‘Instinct’

Not unique

5. AND THE ANSWER IS…

Can we now answer the questions only by joining these dots? Let’s see.

Q1. Only option (5) uses our selected dot: ‘psychological’.

Q2. Which analogy is similar to ““spiders know how to spin webs”? Only ‘bees collecting nectar’ is instinctive. (2)

Q3. What is unique to humans? Only voice modulation (2)

Q4. Only option (1) uses our selected dot: ‘instinct’.

Q5. Only option (4) uses our selected dot: ‘instinct’.

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