CAT VA question selection: para jumbles, odd one out and summary

The VA rule in one line

Always enter an answer on TITA questions; on multiple choice, answer only after removing at least one option. A wrong TITA answer costs nothing, so leaving one blank is a free chance thrown away. A blind guess on a four-option para summary averages zero marks (a one-in-four chance of +3 against a three-in-four chance of −1), so it only adds risk. The exact split of question types changes a little from year to year, so check the answer format on screen - a text box means TITA - before you apply the rule.

Para jumbles: attempt all, but cap the time

Four or five sentences, and you type the order that makes a coherent paragraph. Because it is TITA, every para jumble deserves an answer - the only question is how much time it gets. A good cap is about two minutes. The fastest method:

1. Find the pairs first, not the opener. Look for sentences that must sit together: a pronoun ("this", "they", "such a view") and the noun it refers to, a "however" and the claim it pushes against, an example and the idea it illustrates.
2. Then find the opener. It usually introduces the subject without referring back to anything. A sentence that starts with "But", "This" or "Thus" is rarely first.
3. Join the blocks. Two or three fixed pairs usually leave only one or two possible orders.

If the two-minute cap passes with two orders still in play, type the one you prefer and move on. Our para jumbles practice page links a free daily set to drill the pairs-first habit.

Odd sentence out: attempt all, look for the topic shift

Five sentences, four of which form a paragraph; you type the number of the one that does not belong. It is also usually TITA, so it always gets an answer. The odd sentence is rarely off-topic in an obvious way. More often it shares the key words of the paragraph but changes the focus: the paragraph is about why something happened and the odd sentence is about what happened next, or the paragraph is about one group and the odd sentence is about a similar one. Build the four-sentence chain first; the sentence you cannot link into it is your answer.

Para summary: attempt when you can eliminate

A short paragraph and four summaries. Usually multiple choice, so the −1 applies. Read the paragraph once, say its main point to yourself in one line, and then look at the options. Eliminate summaries that:

• add a claim, cause or recommendation the paragraph never makes,
• capture only one example or one half of a contrast,
• make the author more certain or more extreme than the text,
• are true to the paragraph's details but miss its point.

If you can confidently remove one option, a guess between the remaining three is worth taking. If all four still look equally possible after a careful read, skip it - that is the one VA question type where leaving it blank is often right.

How much time VA deserves - and whether to do it first

A common split is about 10 to 12 minutes for the eight VA questions and 28 to 30 minutes for the four RC passages. Whether VA comes first or last is a personal choice, and worth testing in mocks:

• VA first banks quick TITA answers early and gives you a sense of pace, but a stuck para jumble can eat into RC time.
• RC first puts the bigger block of marks ahead of fatigue, and the time left over for VA then sets its own cap.

Whichever you choose, keep the rule that protects both: once VA time is up, type your best answers into the remaining TITA questions and go. Never let a single jumble cost you an RC passage. For ranking the four RC passages themselves, see how to choose RC passages in CAT.

Practising VA the way it is scored

The pairs-first reading that solves para jumbles, and the focus-tracking that solves odd sentence out, are habits that only come from repetition. Do a small set every day rather than a large set once a week, and time every attempt so the two-minute cap becomes second nature. PracticeRC's daily VA set - para jumbles and odd sentence out - is free every day and does not use any of your RC tests.

Frequently asked questions