Para summary questions in CAT: method, traps and worked examples

Para summary questions look like the easiest part of verbal ability. The paragraph is short, the options are one sentence each, and at least two of them sound right. That last part is the problem. Most wrong answers here are not careless; they come from picking an option that is true to the paragraph but not a summary of it.

This guide gives you a way to write your own summary before looking at the options, names the four traps that examiners build, and works through original examples with every option explained.

How the question is asked

You get a paragraph, usually four to six sentences, and four options. The instruction asks for the option that "best captures the essence" of the paragraph. In recent CAT papers these have been multiple-choice questions, so a wrong answer costs you a mark, unlike the type-in-the-answer para jumbles.

What a good summary does

A good summary option does three things at once.

• It states the main claim, not a supporting example.
• It keeps the author's qualifiers and balance. If the paragraph says "as much as", the summary cannot say "more than".
• It adds nothing new: no remedy, no generalisation and no opinion the author did not give.

A useful distinction: the topic is what the paragraph is about; the claim is what the author says about it. Options that name the topic correctly but miss the claim are among the most common traps.

A three-part method

1. Read the whole paragraph once, then find the turn. Many summary paragraphs pivot on "but", "yet", "however" or "the problem is". What comes after the turn is usually the author's point.
2. Write your own summary in about 15 words, in this shape: topic + the author's claim + the key qualifier. For example: "Exams (topic) are flawed mainly by poor question design (claim), though many do reward memory (qualifier)."
3. Eliminate, don't select. Knock out options using the trap list below. Only then compare the survivors with your own sentence.

The four traps

Worked example 1

Cities often measure success by the number of new buildings they approve. But a city's liveability depends as much on what is preserved (parks, public squares, old neighbourhoods) as on what is built. Growth without attention to shared spaces can leave residents with more buildings and less city.

My summary: city success (topic) depends on preserving shared spaces as well as building (claim), not building alone (qualifier).

(a) Cities should stop approving new buildings.
(b) Parks matter more to residents than new housing does.
(c) A city's liveability depends on protecting shared spaces as well as on building new ones.
(d) Old neighbourhoods are the most valuable part of any city.

Answer: (c). It keeps the balance of "as much on what is preserved… as on what is built".

• (a) is a distortion. The author asks for balance, not a halt.
• (b) breaks the balance by saying "more", and it narrows shared spaces to parks.
• (d) takes one example and makes it extreme ("most valuable", "any city").

Worked example 2: the concession trap

Exams are often criticised for rewarding memory over understanding, and many do. Yet the remedy is not to abolish them. A well-designed question can make memorised facts useless unless the candidate sees how they connect, while a badly designed one rewards recall however it is marked. The problem critics identify lies less in the fact of examination than in the craft of setting questions.

My summary: exams (topic) are flawed mainly because of poor question design (claim), though the critics' observation is partly right (qualifier).

(a) Exams reward memory rather than understanding and should be replaced by other forms of assessment.
(b) Although many exams do reward memory, the fault lies mainly in how questions are set rather than in examining as such.
(c) Well-designed questions make memorisation useless.
(d) Critics of exams have misunderstood what exams are meant to do.

Answer: (b). It carries the concession ("many do"), the turn ("Yet") and the conclusion.

• (a) takes the critics' view and adds their remedy, which the author explicitly rejects.
• (c) is too narrow and drops a condition: memorised facts become useless "unless the candidate sees how they connect".
• (d) is a distortion. The author agrees with the critics' observation and disagrees only about the remedy.

Why close options are close

Examiners build the best wrong option by changing a single element of the correct one. Compare the correct answer and the strongest wrong answer from example 2 side by side.

When you are down to two options, list the elements this way. The option that changes even one of them is out.

Practice set

Write your own 15-word summary before you look at the options.

1. "Translation apps have made it possible to read a menu or a street sign in almost any language. It is tempting to conclude that learning languages is becoming pointless. But a language is not only a code for exchanging information; it carries the jokes, courtesies and silences of the people who speak it. An app can tell you what a sentence says. It cannot yet tell you what the speaker meant by saying it that way."
   • (a) Translation apps handle information well, but learning a language still gives access to meaning that they miss.
   • (b) Translation apps are unreliable and should not be trusted.
   • (c) Everyone should learn at least one foreign language.
   • (d) Jokes are the hardest part of a language to translate.
2. "Public health campaigns often assume that people act badly because they lack information. Tell smokers that smoking kills, the thinking goes, and they will stop. Yet most smokers already know the risks. What they lack is not knowledge but an easy alternative at the moment the craving arrives."
   • (a) Smokers ignore health warnings because they do not believe them.
   • (b) Public health campaigns are a waste of money.
   • (c) Changing behaviour depends less on supplying information than on making the better choice easy at the right moment.
   • (d) Most smokers know the risks of smoking.
3. "A startup that grows quickly is praised; one that grows slowly is pitied. But speed of growth says little on its own. A company that doubles its customers every month while losing money on each of them is not succeeding faster; it is failing faster, and on a larger scale. Growth is a virtue only when each unit of it pays for itself, or soon will."
   • (a) Startups should avoid rapid growth.
   • (b) Most fast-growing startups lose money on each customer.
   • (c) Slow-growing companies are more successful than fast-growing ones.
   • (d) Rapid growth is valuable only if it is profitable, or soon will be.

Answers:

1. (a). It keeps both halves: apps work for information, and a language carries more. (b) is extreme; the author accepts that apps work for menus and signs. (c) is an added recommendation. (d) is too narrow, and it adds a ranking ("hardest") that the paragraph never makes.
2. (c). The turn "Yet" leads to the point: the gap is an easy alternative, not knowledge. (a) contradicts "already know the risks". (b) is extreme; the paragraph questions an assumption, not the value of campaigns. (d) is a supporting detail.
3. (d). The final sentence carries the claim, and (d) keeps its condition. (a) is a distortion; growth is fine when it pays for itself. (b) turns one hypothetical company into "most" startups. (c) reverses the point; the author does not praise slow growth.

What to do next

• Do five para summaries a day for two weeks, always writing your own summary first.
• For each one you get wrong, name the trap from the table above.
• Para summary and RC main-idea questions use the same skill. Pair this with how to read a CAT passage and para completion.