Skip to content
IPMATway
Sign in

Lesson 6 of 8 · Paragraph data caselet

Max min

DI: Caselets · for IPMAT Indore, IPMAT Rohtak and JIPMAT

The idea of Paragraph data caselet

A caselet is a data set written as a paragraph instead of a table. Behind the sentences there is a small grid (companies x products, months x items, campuses x boys/girls). Once you fill that grid, every question is a one-line calculation: a ratio, a percentage change, an average or a difference. The skill being tested is converting the text into the table without slips. The arithmetic itself is easy.

The exam method

  1. Grid first, questions later. Fill the whole grid once. It costs a minute and saves re-reading for every question.
  2. Anchor clue. Find the clue with a plain number (for example "128 girls in East, 40% of all girls"). It usually gives a total: 320 girls, 800 students.
  3. One unknown. If no anchor exists, let x be the cell that most clues refer to (here, PNBE in May) and write the others as a*x + b. Questions that add "if... = 42500" just fix x.
  4. Remainders last. The cell that "takes the rest" (Goa's female athletes, Assam's male athletes) is total minus the others. It is also your check.
  5. Read the base. For "what percent more/less than" questions, underline the word after "than": that quantity is the base.