How to solve Para Jumble questions

How to solve Para Jumble questions

For this you need to find the links between the sentences. The goal in
these types of sentences is to rearrange the sentences in the original
sequence. It consists of a group of sentences that have been jumbled
up. All the Best for CAT 2011! Let us look at Para Jumble (PJ)
questions that appear in the CAT.


I am sure you can rearrange the above passage to make coherent sense,
converting it from a confusing 'Para-Mumble' to a solved Para-Jumble!
You can either view solving a para-jumble as a tough task or a kind of
a fun activity we used to do as kids --- assembling Jigsaw Puzzles.
Trying out various permutations and combinations of the pieces till
the full picture emerges. Arranging and rearranging the pieces till
all of them interlocked. In para-jumble questions, you will be given a
paragraph made of four to five sentences whose original sequence has
been changed and you have a few minutes to figure out what that
original sequence was.


Why are PJ questions important?


Para-jumbles are significant because they have been regularly
appearing in the CAT and other MBA entrance tests. There is a good
chance of three para-jumble questions appearing in the 20 questions of
the Verbal Ability (VA) section. Which means that if you cracked the
para-jumbles correctly --- 20% of your VA score stands secured
(assuming that you will attempt 15-odd questions in the this section).


Secondly and more importantly --- PJs are one of those questions of
the CAT in which you can improve your skills dramatically within a
short span of time. Engineers have a special fondness for PJs as they
appeal to the need for symmetry in their souls and let's face it ---
it is probably one of the few areas of CAT VA where the scope of
ambiguity is limited!


Types of PJ questions


Para-jumbles broadly fall in three categories. In each category, the
jumbled sentences are coded with an alphabet (usually A, B, C and D).


1. 4/5 sentences are given in a random order and you have to unjumble
all of them. Toughest of the lot!


2. The opening sentence + 4/5 sentences are given and you have to
rearrange the group of 4/5 sentences, having been given prior
knowledge of the thought that starts off the flow of the discussion.


3. 4/5 sentences + the closing sentence is given and you need to
correctly sequence 4/5 sentences so that they flow into the last
sentence.


4. Opening sentence + 4/5 Sentences + Closing Sentence are given.
Easiest of the lot. You know where the story starts and where it ends.
You only have to figure out the screenplay in between!


The smartest approach


a) The best approach to solving PJ questions is the 'free fall' one.
That is, develop a high reading speed and scan all 4-5 sentences. Try
to get a feel of what the passage is about.


b) At this point you need to decide whether this particular paragraph
is one which you are comfortable with or not.


c) If you decide to go ahead, then scan the answer options. Are they
of any help?


If , for example the options are,


a) BDAC b) BCAD c) CABD d) CBDA


Then you know for sure that this paragraph has to start either with B
or C. A quick look at B and C will tell you which one looks like a
better opening sentence and already your choices will be halved.


Similarly, with options,


a) BDCA b) CDBA c) DCAB d) ACDB


then we know that it has to end with either B or A. So browse
sentences A and B and see if any one of them look like a concluding
sentence.


There might be other indicators to keep an eye out for. For example if
three of the five options start with A and the other two with C/B/D
there is a good probability that A is the starting sentence.


If, say, a link CB occurs in more than 2 options then it is something
worth paying attention to.


PJ strategies to save time and increase accuracy


Strategy 1: Once upon a time long ago... / ...and they lived happily
after: Identify the opening/closing sentence using what we discussed
above. Either the tone of the paragraph or the option elimination
method.


Strategy 2: Where's the interlock dude? Identify links between two
sentences and try to see if that link exists in multiple answer
options (a sure way to know that you are on the right track). A
combination of 1 and 2 will take you home most of the time.


Place your magnifying glass on the following,


Strategy 2a: Make it 'personal'. Look out for personal pronouns (he,
she, it, him, her, you, they). Personal pronouns always refer to a
person, place or thing. Therefore, if a sentence has a personal
pronoun without mentioning the person, place or object it is referring
to, mark it in your head and scan the paragraph for the original
person, place or object that it refers to.


For example if you go back to the opening jumbled paragraph of this
article, the third sentence starts with 'it'. We now need to figure
out what 'it' refers to and the sentence containing the original 'it'
will come before this sentence.


Strategy 2b: Look for 'Poriborton' (Change, in Mamata Banerjee's
tongue). Certain words called 'transition words' help the author to
shift from one thought flow to another. In other words, they usher in
change. Some transition words that appear regularly are --- hence,
besides, simultaneously, in conclusion, etc. While you practice PJs
whenever you come across a transition word --- note it down. Make a
list!


Strategy 2c: Demonstrate! Look for demonstrative pronouns --- this,
that, these, those, etc. Again, if you look at our opening paragraph,
the first line starts with 'for this' --- now we know that we need to
figure out what 'this' refers to and the sentence containing the
original 'this' will come before this sentence.


Strategy 3: Main samay hoon! Sometimes the events mentioned in the
paragraph can be arranged in a chronological order making it easy for
you to identify the sequence. Example,


A: Alexander Bain, Scottish clockmaker, patented the electric clock.


B: The next development in accuracy occurred after 1656 with the
invention of the pendulum clock.


C: Clocks have played an important role in man's history.


D: Spring-driven clocks appeared during the 15th century, although
they are often erroneously credited to Nuremberg watchmaker Peter
Henlen around 1511.


It is quite obvious by studying the chronology what the sequence should be.


Strategy 4: The Chota Rajan Approach. Sometimes you will find that for
some terms in the paragraph both the full form and the abbreviation
have been used. For Example IMF --- International Monetary Fund,
Charles Dickens --- Dickens, Dr Manmohan Singh --- Dr Singh. In these
cases where both the full form as well as the abbreviation is present
in different sentences, then the sentence containing the full form
will obviously come before the sentence containing the abbreviation.


Strategy 5: What an Idea Sirji! If there are two sentences, one
containing an idea and another giving examples of the same idea then
the sentence containing the idea should come before the sentence
containing the examples. But they need not necessarily be exactly side
by side. Example,


A: Russia possesses the largest stockpiles of weapons of mass
destruction in the world.


B: 489 missiles carrying up to 1,788 warheads and 12 submarines
carrying up to 609 warheads form a looming threat.


A will come before B in this case, even though there might be
sentences in between.


Strategy 6: An article of faith. It is highly unlikely that the
definite article 'the' will be part of an opening sentence. If 'a/an'
and 'the' both are used for the same noun then the sentence containing
'the' will come after the sentence containing a/an.


Tips for beginners


Focus on improving your reading skills. Also try to improve your
cognitive ability. For example --- Go to a random website article. Go
immediately to the second paragraph and after reading it try to guess
what the author could have possibly said in the previous paragraph and
the next paragraph. This will help you with a couple of other types of
questions as well which we shall discuss in later articles.


Tips for the 99 percentilers


Whenever you solve para-jumbles the accuracy and speed is a function
of how quickly you can become comfortable with the topic. So from
today for every PJ you solve, plug a sentence from the PJ into Google
which will throw up the source of that PJ or similar articles. Read up
that article fully. This will broaden the base of your reading.


To-do practice activity for all of you


Team up with another friend. Both of you select passages from
newspaper editorials, magazines, etc. Paste them to Microsoft Word.
Break them up into sentences. Jumble up the sentences. Exchange and
solve.


Practice!! Practice!! Practice!!


For practice material - email - varcprep@gmail.com


All the Best for CAT