Data Caselets Questions & Systematic Solutions in Data Interpretation

Data Caselets based questions are asked in Data Interpretation sections of almost all competitive exams like CAT, XAT, NMAT, SNAP, etc. Considering the importance of this question type, it is important you understand the fundamentals of Data Caselets.

What is a Data Caselet?

A Caselet is a set of information that is given in paragraph form. In a Caselet, no tables or graphs are given. You have to read the information and draw a table or organize the given data to solve the questions. Practice a lot of caselets based questions to master such questions.

5 Tips for Data Caselets

It helps to convert a caselet into table or any other pictorial form.
Keep jotting down the important points in a caselet while reading it for the first time. Use notations to represent names of things, places, people, etc.
Be careful of the data given and the units as well. You need to be aware of basic conversions and units. For example, what do the terms million/billion/trillion stand for.
Make sure you use the options and approximations to avoid lengthy calculations.
Cover arithmetic related topics (interest, percentage, ratio & proportion) as questions in caselets are often based on concepts from this area.

Let's solve a solve caselet now and see how to approach these questions.

Sample Data Caselet

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Given below is a Caselet to help you understand and learn how it is solved:

Directions: Refer to the information given below and answer the questions that follow.

There are 4 players in the cigar market of the Dominician Republic: Amergio, Byford, Christie's and Ducatti. The sales in 1995 are of $ 100,000 (100,000 boxes of cigars) - the volumes shared by Amergio, Byford, Christie's and Ducatti are in the ratio of 1: 2: 3: 4 and the sales is in the ratio of 4:3:2:1 respectively. The sales in 1996 show a sharp drop - both in terms of volume and in dollars. In volume terms, the demand fell by 60% and in dollar terms the figure was 50%. The shares of Amergio, Byford, Christie and Ducatti in volume terms was 2:2:3:3 and that of the ratio of prices charged was 9:6:3:1. The market picked up dramatically in 1997 - the volumes were the sum total sold in 1995 and 1996 and the sales rose by 390% over that of 1996. For 1997, sales by Christie have amounted to $84,000, which was 20% more than that made by Amergio and thrice the sales of Ducatti. The volumes share in that year was in the ratio of 1:3:4:2.

Example 1: What was the ratio of the prices charged by Amergio, Byford, Christie's and Ducatti in 1997?

Solution: Summarising the whole information, we can deduce the following:

1. Value

For year 1995: Sales (in value) 100,000 $

Ratio of value for:

Amergio: Byford: Christie: Ducatti= 4 : 3 : 2 : 1 = 40,000 : 30,000 : 20,000 : 10,000

For year 1996: Sales (in value) = 50,000$

For year 1997: Total Sales (Value) = 50 × 4.9 = 245,000

Example 2: In which year was Sohan born?

A. Sohan at present is 25 years younger to his mother.

B. Sohan's Sister, who was born in 1964, is 35 years younger to his mother.

Solution: From both I and II, we find that Sohan is (35 - 25) = 10 years older than his sister, who was born in 1964. So, Sohan was born in 1954.

Since, we are getting unique answer from both statements when combined, so the answer is 3^rd option.

Data Sufficiency: Key Learning

In this article, you learned how a Data Sufficiency question is asked and what steps are to be followed in order to solve these questions systematically.
In order to get hold on such questions you need to solve variety of questions to get exposure to different kind of Data Sufficiency questions. Read the question carefully and then solve each statement individually and combine them if required.

Still doubtful about any concept mentioned in the article? Feel free to post in the comment section below.