Does the Verbal Ability section of the Common Admission Test 2005 worry you?

In a recent chat with Get Ahead readers, CAT trainers Gautam Puri and Arun Wadhwa, had this advice to offer CAT aspirants: VA is the critical portion you need to work on. Try and brush up on grammar fundamentals. You'll probably need to increase your attempts in this section, so some time transfer can happen from the QA to the VA section.

• Top strategies for CAT 2005

CAT expert Gautam Puri, co-founder and managing director of Career Launcher (I) Ltd, chatted with aspirants for one hour and answered their queries. As the questions poured in, Arun Wadhwa, CL's national programme head for CAT, joined Puri in answering them.

Puri, an MBA from IIM-Bangalore, has had successful stints at Hindustan Petroleum, Britannia [Get Quote] and VAM Organics. He has prepared close to 1,00,000 students for CAT. To keep himself abreast with the latest trends, he has been sitting for the examination every year for the last 10 years.

Arjun Wadhwa has been associated with Career Launcher since 1999, when he was a student with CL preparing for his MBA. Influenced by his mentors in the organisation, and armed with his passion for teaching, he joined Career Launcher straight from campus after completing his MBA from MDI, Gurgaon. He has been with CL for four years.

Here is the transcript:

Part I: CAT 2005 -- A repeat of CAT 2004?

Part II: Does work experience count?

manik: what do you ve to say about plunging percentiles in mock's and inconsistency varying from 70 - 99 percentiles..

Gautam Puri: Repeating, but you need a lot of revision of important questions in FLTs and Mocks.

ASKAY: If working for manufacturing industry and then switching to IT to ITES companies ...will this mixed exposure with the position of engineer have a negative or possitive opinion on my work ex during admissions?

Gautam Puri: It is positive if you have learnt a lot in the process.

Quant_Guru: sir 98 percentile mean approx what rank if 1.5 lakh ppl appearing in CAT?

Arjun Wadhwa: Top 3,000.

vipul: sir is there any preference given for C.A. Inter & C.S. Inter???????

Arjun Wadhwa: Not really. Academically, you have done a more advanced course than a normal B Com and you'll probably get asked more focused questions in the interview.

srinu: sir now my scores are in 40s in mock cats.what shoud i do for these 10days maximise scores. my average scores are VA:12-13,QA:15-18,DI:15-20

Arjun Wadhwa: VA is the critical portion you need to work on. Try and brush up on grammar fundamentals. You'll probably need to increase your attempts in this section, so some time transfer can happen from the QA to the VA section.

STs: hi arun/gautam, i want to know whether the cutoff marks for each section is lesser for ST candidates..if yes,, wat is the cutoff marks for each section??? pls reply

Arjun Wadhwa: The cut-off does get lower, though the quantum is not very clear. There are a number of cases where the cut-off will be lower -- at anywhere between 50-70 percent -- depending on the institute.

manujmittal: hello arjun what pattern do u predict for cat this year shold we focus on last year pattern only

Arjun Wadhwa: Go with an open mind. Though, I personally don't expect the pattern to change this year, anything can happen.

Sathya : Hi arjun, I am able to attempt only 13 to15 questions in each Quant and DI and clear the cutoff most of the time with 100 percent accuracy. But, I face problem when I do careless mistakes. My basic is good. How to improve speed.

Arjun Wadhwa: Considering the time that is left, I suggest you spend the next 10 days or so predominantly on picking up all your old Mocks and FLTs and reviewing the mistakes that you've made.

Specifically spend time on mistakes that have been repeated in two or more tests.

NIMI: I M ALREADY DOING MY PGDBM FROM IIMM, PUNE BUT NO WORK-EX IS CO. LOOKING 4 EXPERINCED ONE OR ONE WITH WORK-EX

Gautam Puri: Companies are open to both the profiles.

mahesh: Dear Sir, I have done BE in telecomm Have 2 year experience in networking field which is better MBT In finance HR Marketing or IT. Sir i am thinking of MBA-IT but i dont have software experience which is better

Gautam Puri: First year is common for all students in most of the institutes. You need to choose your area of specialisation only in the second year.

ANKUR: hi sir ankur herepls tell how to crack questions in english part as my vocab is not so strong and till now i have cleared the cutoff only once

Gautam Puri: Pick up your FLTs and Mocks. Mug up all the vocabulary, fill in the blanks and grammar questions. This will ensure at least a 75 percent accuracy.

Aniruddha: If initially I pick maximum speed solve as many Q's as possible in 1st 0.5 Hr and then allocate 30 mins each to remaining Qs will it help to enhance percentile? Please suggest.

Gautam Puri: Nothing wrong with this strategy. If you have found it working for you, please continue with it. Or else drop it.

vinod: In english I always get stuck up between two choices that always look close...how much of a chance can I take in such a case because my number of attempts suffer...Always one of those two is the right answer.

Arjun Wadhwa: Happens to a lot of people, take a chance only if your gut instincts are normally right. Most people know that when they take a chance, normally sahi hota hai ke nahi.

In parajumbles, specifically try to take an extra 30 seconds to re-arrange and check.

hk1: hi GP , In a 3 section paper i am using 35-35-35 min strategy and clearing cut offs in EU/VA and DI , however i think i am not making the best possible use of last 15 mins , any suggestions for utilising the last 15mins in the best possible manner ?

Gautam Puri: At this time, rather than looking at a new way of using the last 15 minutes, I would suggest a 40-40-40 minute plan for CAT.

chirag: what is CAT percentile required for s.p. jain. I am a Chartered Accountant with 2 years of work ex.

Gautam Puri: About 95 percentile.

DEBI: Hi Gautam, U didn't answer. I asked, Hi Gautam, I've got 44 months work-ex in top of the line PSUs.How much of an advantage will it provide to a get a call from IIMs?

Gautam Puri: A couple of marks at best.

Tomorrow: The transcript continues...