By Sriraman Jha
- IT’S AN ORWELLIAN WORLD:All sub-sections are equal, but some sub-sections are more equal than others.
Topic ‘X’ may have been included in one antique CLAT paper long ago. In contrast, you may discover that the worth of topic ‘Y’ reaches its eight-mark-Everest on the second Sunday of May every single year. By no means should you ignore the former – but it wouldn’t seem unwise to lay greater emphasis on the latter.
- AND THEN THERE WERE (N)ONE: When no other being can enter or exit an island, the murderer must be one of the ten people stuck there.
You don’t even have to choose between ten, but in fact less than half of that number. What next? Be the Scotland Yard detective, and strike down the least likely perpetrator! Repeat till you are left with the one notorious assassin, err, right answer. Shout out: And Then There Were (n)One!Less fancy creatures term it the ‘Rule of Elimination’.
- THE RISK-RETURN TRADE-OFF: There exists a very real relationship between the amount of return gained on an investment and the amount of risk undertaken in that investment.
If marks were eggs, the paper might just choose to put half a dozen of them in one basket. Indeed, these are the problems in Logical Reasoning which you either figure out or you don’t. Must you put your skates on and jump in? Or must you look the other way and focus on the other thirty-five marks? Neither.
Base your decision on:
(a) how difficult the problemlooks (because scientifically speaking!, difficulty is inversely proportional to time),
(b) how lengthy the rest of the section is (as is length),
(c) whether it could possibly prejudice the rest of this section in your paper (by soaking in an unfair amount of time and energy), and
(d) whether you have sufficient practice in attempting (and solving) such questions (make sure you find yourself nodding to this! Get going already.)
- THERE’S A 60’S SONG FOR EVERYTHING:No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. Strive to ensure that are unable (yes, unable) to relate to these words! Working on the assumption that you have already figured out the share of two hours (say ‘T’) you wish to devote to Logical Reasoning, take out a minute before you begin and skim through the section like a newspaper section you don’t enjoy but must pay attention to. Make a mental note of how you wish to divide ‘T’. Think of it like a cake: the fat boy (in this context, the most mind-boggling questions) must get the biggest share. Be a responsible/responsive host, and keep everyone happy (score your level best, that is).
For believe me, they got the cliché wrong. All’s well that begins well.
Why do I jump the fence and draw insight from seemingly far-flung fields like Literature, Music and Business?Because I can.