Hey guys,
Firstly, Congratulations on deciding to take CLAT 2011! Now, one of the major concerns that my friends and I had when we wrote our exam, was the Critical Reasoning section of the paper.
I am sure that most of you are aware of the type of questions coming under this section. For those who are not, an example of a question would be where in accordance with the information in a given paragraph you have to determine the conclusion, inference or assumption of the author of that paragraph. Do not worry, we shall be providing you with examples and methods of solving them.
In terms of preparation for this section the only advice I have for all you aspirants is practice. This is a section that demands that you THINK in a certain kind of way which is different from the normal style of thinking. You have to develop this style of thinking by solving problems. I know this might sound a bit confusing now, but, as soon as you start practicing a few problems you will understand what I mean and we shall guide you through any problems you face.
In terms of where to begin practicing CR from: I am sure most of you have joined Coaching classes. They will give you material on CR. Most of my friends had ignored these modules and left it for the end. If you have not joined any coaching centre, DO NOT WORRY. We will be providing ample material online to help you. My advice would be just to solve maybe 10 CR questions in a week. Keep a simple aim which you can meet. The more problems you do, the better you get. It depends on your capacity. Solve the questions from your modules and also all the examples that we put up. Past Years papers also serve as a great source. That will tell you the CLAT format.
The books to be used for CR: I personally used “Verbal and Non-verbal Reasoning” by R.S. Agarwal. It is a great book with excellent examples, quite a few of which match the CLAT style. I have solved it myself and it helped me immensely for my paper. However, R.S Agarwal is of a little higher standard than what you will receive in your CLAT paper so don’t feel discouraged if you are not getting all questions correct.
Initially, most of your answers, even the ones you thought were a sure-shot right, will turn out wrong. Don’t think the book is wrong. CR is like that. That is where the Style of Thinking comes in. Do not get discouraged at all. Treat it as a fun exercise and it will be easier for you. It’s like you are solving a riddle. As you get through more problems you will see a steady increase in the percentage of right answers.
And of course you can post questions on our site and we are there to answer them for you. While solving the questions we shall also tell you the THINKING behind it so you can understand the method.
I hope this article will give you a head start and pave the way towards your preparation for this section of the paper. All the Best!
Nishant Prasad,
The CLATGyan Team
the posting is awesome..and inspiring.. bt i hav a proplem.i wanna know that what all chapter or exercise shall we practice from R.S.Agrawal..actually there is no question based on a paragraph and deriving conclusion ,inference in R.S.Agarwal… help!!
Well with respect to the chapters from R.S. Agarwal for Critical Reasoning, You have to do the following Chapters:
Under Part-I, Section II i.e Logical Deduction
You have to do-
i) Logic – Chapter 1
ii) Statements-Arguments – Chapter 2
iii) Statement Assumptions- Chapter 3
iv) Statement- Conclusions – Chapter 5
Yes you are right there are no questions based on paragraph conclusions but do not worry, if you have your coaching class modules they will have many and also preserve your class exercises. If you are not part of any coaching class do not worry we’ll post up examples and also suggest you books which have the type of questions not present in R.S Agarwal.
As far as CR is concerned except for the paragraph based conclusion-inference questions everything else is present in R.S.Agarwal, even for AR.
If you have any further doubts please do not hesitate to post again.
All the Best,
Nishant Prasad,
The CLATGyan Team.
do we have both verbal & non verbal reasoning ????.
well in r.s agarwal there is no analytical reasoning ??
we book shud i prefer for ar??
@ Kartik … CLAT 2011 will have Analytical Reasoning which is all about Numbers, Directions, Blood Relations, Series.. etc… and Critical Reasoning which includes the theoretical part like Assertion and Reasoning, Assumptions, Arguments etc..
@ Abhay … R.S.Agarwal is only good for Critical Reasoning. For AR, go for Tata Macgraw Hill’s Analytical Reasoning .. or.. B.S.Sijwali by Arihant Pub. (one of these is enough).
sir hw abt m.k pandey cr??
M.K.Pandey is also good. personally i havent used it for CR but based on our other editor opinions I can say that it is a good book for CR definitely.
sir, what we have to do in section1 of rs aggarwal?
Hey
Really Sorry for the late reply.
Section 1 of the R.S Agarwal deals with a part of Analytical reasoning thats why i had not mentioned it..
But since you have asked ..
In section 1 you have:
Chapter 1- Series Completion – Its a fun exercise…try and do as many as you can..but do not give it a lot of importance as we are expecting more of CR in CLAT 2011
Chapter 2: Analogy – Just look through it..to have a brief idea..no need to solve…Not Important but a question might come
Chapter 4: Coding-decoding- Again a fun exercise-might be tested so Practice a few of them..
Chapter 5: Blood relations – Might be confusing at times- So know your family well..and practice a few
Chapter 6: Puzzle test – Important Chapter – Practice these..they are great fun..Can give you easy 5 marks in CLAT or can easily make you lose 5 mks..So be careful while solving these
Chapter 19: Assertion And reason- This chapter forms a part of Critical reasoning so again i apologise for missing out.. Please solve the exercises in this well..
CLATGyan will soon provide all of you with practice exercises of CR which are solved and the reasoning explained…
So keep visiting..
All the Best,
Nishant Prasad
@ Editors – There is something that I’d like to ask – The chapters you just mentioned – Will they be enough or did you simply mention the important ones ?
And in that book ( R S Aggarwal ) there is another part – Part 2 – Non-verbal Reasoning – Will I have to do that as well ?
The chapters that i have mentioned are enough. you do not need to do the remaining.
And Part II of that book is not required to be done. Non-verbal reasoning has not been a part of clat over the last 3 years..so we dont expect it to be a part of it this time as well.
@ Nishant – Except for a few questions…I do not find the R S Aggarwal book very challenging…that is in contrast with the LST questions where the level of difficulty is very high. I usually take up a lot of time and I end up submitting incomplete papers with plenty of wrong answers. I don’t know if you get the picture but even after solving 200 series questions ( from that book) if I fail to answer questions on series..its really very disheartening.
Do you have a solution ? Or at least a book in mind which is more difficult to solve..a lil more challenging may be ? 🙁
Somehow I find the questions on quants and ar given in RS to be unrelated to the kind of questions we are supposed to get. My 2 cents, practice arguments, assumptions etc (CR) from RS. That is what it is for, and that is what is the harder part.
As far as number series goes, honestly I don’t expect too many of those questions in the paper. Neither do I expect them to be very tough. I suppose the lst questions+mylst questions+ basic rs practice should really suffice. If it doesn’t.. well screw it. 😛
And people in here please clarify something for me –
M K Pandey’s Critical Reasoning ? And Sijwali’s Analytical Reasoning ? Are these the best books available ? And what is the actual name of the M K Pandey book ?
@ Premangsu.. the book name is : M K Pandey – Analytical Reasoning by Arihant Publishers.
and I doubt anyone in my batch of NALSAR has used that Sijwali’s book. Stick to MK Pandey, it’ll suffice.
Thanx..and for Critical Reasoning ? Is there a book ?
among rs aggarwal and mk pandey which would you suggest
Ananya – MK Pandey, all the way.
Please clarify..
Quail:Partridges: : yak: ?
a)Cows
b)Deer
c)Oxen
d)Antelopes
the answer is oxen because yak is also an ox just like quail and patridge are birds.
thts nt d resn abhi dear..
ya ans is oxen bt
d resn is
quail is singulr nd patridges is plural nd bth r brds.
so yak is singulr nd oxen is plural of ox nd bth r sm type animls…
Thanx ….. 🙂
thanks for those inspirational words :)i ll solve questions today and ask you my doubts.:) toodles.
sir i have a prob/ i have been doing coaching but reasoning sec. is the 1 where i’m nt finding 80-90% accuracy. i very much discuraged because some day when i solve the ques. i get them all correct but another day the situation is jusst opp.
please help me out in strong arg,assumptiond and conclusions,assertion reason,and logical reasoning 2..please help me as only 1 year is left out.
sir,plese tell me which books i should follow for logic and legal in clat 2012.
soumya rajsingh , cuttack ,orissa
dude… Universal Guide To LLB is the best book fr evry section in preparng for CLAT….its my personal experience..
ditto ques r copied frm it ind paper
Which reasoning book is best with good level and better explanation, verbal and non verbal by R s agarwal ,b s sijwali arihant or some one else?I’m little bit confused to pick a proper book to start practicing reasoning.
sir i have ARIHANT (complete success package for clat 2016) is it enough for me to crack clat 2016
. i dont have money to offered any other books . arihant is enough na