I had made a conscious decision of not attempting the LRDI set in the MCQ section of IPMAT Indore. The reason was I lacked confidence in them, I used to spend alot of time but couldn't either have all the questions correct or I would miss on the other questions. Doing just quants allows me to attempt more questions with high accuracy of 1 to 2 questions being wrong. But lately taking the mock tests I came across DILR sets in SA as well. This leads to me skipping those questions and losing on the marks and attempts. 1 month is left my stratergy for MCQ remains the same, but skipping DILR in SA section is something I cannot afford. How shall I go about it in the remaining time? What should be my stratergy ahead?
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Your strategy is not flawed at all. I did the exact same thing. I never really attempted DILR seriously because I just couldn’t crack it consistently; even basic sets would eat up time and still not guarantee accuracy. Once I stopped forcing DILR in MCQs and focused purely on QA, my scores jumped. Earlier, I was stuck around 50s–60s, and after skipping DILR, I moved to around 70s–90s in mocks, and in the actual exam, I ended up with 78 in MCQ. So focusing on your strength absolutely works.
Coming to SA, same story. In my actual IPMAT attempt, I skipped all DILR questions initially. I solved everything I was confident in, got around 11 questions done, and still had some time left. Then I tried the DILR set, managed to get one question right, and left the rest. So yes, if you’re confident that you can hit 10–11+ questions in SA without DILR, you’re still in a very solid position. For the remaining month, don’t try to master DILR, just do 1 basic set daily so that if an easy one shows up, you can attempt it. Otherwise, stick to QA, maximise that, and use leftover time for DILR instead of sacrificing your main score.
Thank you so much for the advice 🥹. I tried solving DILR sets yesterday and today I'm able to solve them but, it takes me hell lot of time to solve them. The only doubt is what if the other questions I face in SA comes out to be very difficult or something like that? How can I get myself prepared for the tough questions or be sure of scoring as high as you? I am able to get 8-10 questions right on a regular basis in SA(with some silly mistakes 😭) and I attempt around 15 ques in MCQ with high accuracy of 14/15 or so. So what is your take on this?
First, about DILR taking time; that’s completely fine. Even for me, sets would take a lot of time and still weren’t reliable. That’s exactly why I didn’t depend on them. Your job is not to become fast at DILR now, it’s just to be comfortable enough to pick an easy one if it shows up. Treat it as a bonus, not your main scoring area.
Now your bigger concern: “what if SA becomes tough?” this is where your current numbers matter. If you’re already getting 8–10 correct consistently in SA, that’s actually solid. In my case too, I aimed to secure 10–11 questions first, and only after that did I even think about pushing further. So your priority should be the same: lock your 8–10 questions cleanly with minimal silly mistakes. That itself keeps you in a safe zone.
For MCQ, 14/15 accuracy is very good, just try to slowly push attempts to 16–18 without dropping accuracy. That’s where your overall jump will come from. And about “tough papers”, they are tough for everyone, not just you. So your relative position doesn’t change much. If you stay calm and stick to your strengths, you’ll still be ahead of most.
So simple takeaway: secure your SA base (8–10), push MCQ slightly, and treat DILR as optional upside. Don’t let “what if paper is tough” make you change a strategy that is already working for you.
Understood, thank you so very much for your valuable insights. I'll keep them in mind and be working in it.