Feb 2014 CMAT Exam Analysis: Interesting format for a student who has worked hard!

By Parasharan Chari

CMAT – first day, first slot analysis

A nice and complete balanced diet with tasty dishes which were easy on the system is how we can define this paper.

The section wise analysis of the paper can be such:

 

- Quantitative Aptitude: The section has not changed much as compared to last year. It was a nice buffet with 25 questions with expectable spread of questions across Arithmetic, Algebra, Modern Mathematics and Geometry. With hardly 1-2 difficult questions, the overall section can be described as easy to moderate. There were some 14-15 questions that can be termed easy and non-time consuming. The remaining 7-8 lay in the moderate area. With around 22 odd attempts with close to 19-20 correct, a student can look at receiving a rank among top 500. 2 DI questions with a Pie Chart and a Table which can be termed as easy. Overall, it was a comfortable section for the prepared student. The section did mean to give a relaxed feel to a student, which would boost the confidence and increase attempts. Interestingly, it had a TSD question which had all options wrong – could have been missed.

-  Verbal Ability: Quite different from September 2013 CMAT. Definitely From the unusually insane levels of 17-18 questions of Critical Reasoning last year and 7-8 questions in the Sept’13 edition of CMAT, this one had only 1 question each of Logical Continuation and Fact, Inference, Judgement, and nothing else. And adding to the surprise was the increase in the RC questions – 5 passages of 3 questions each. The topics ranged from “Island of Hawaii” to “Mental Disorders” to “Artistic Sensibility” So RC went from 9 questions to 15 questions. Probably, last year was the only exception where they comfortably omitted the Reading Comprehensions. Very good for all those who really prepared on these lines. Apart from the heavy weightage on RC and low weightage on CR, the distribution was quite expected – 1 parajumble, 3 questions based on vocabulary, 3 questions based on grammar and so on and so forth. Options were not very close and hence it would make the section easy for the students. With good reading and decent knowledge of vocabulary, a good attempt would be 20-22 questions with 85-90% accuracy.

-  Analytical Reasoning: Nothing much ever changes in the pattern of AR section because everything is expected to be different. Again, an interesting spread covering – 1-2 questions each from Blood relations, Direction Sense, Syllogisms, Cubes, True-False statements, Clocks and Calendars, Statement Conclusions etc. The maximum number of questions covered the arena of Conditional Reasoning and Arrangements, with 8 and 5 questions respectively.  2 questions were on Data Sufficiency, which ranged from easy to moderate. Only a question or 2 could be termed difficult. The overall difficulty level of this section can be considered as moderate. 21-22 questions with good accuracy would fetch a good rank.

- Current / General Awareness: Like Always, after a good three course meal, it feels better if we end with a good spread of dessert. Though we don’t always eat all the dessert – it was a spread of different questions, which cannot be categorized into a “type”. Mix of Static and Dynamic GK questions – overall moderate.

Overall take: Nothing much has changed in the paper as a whole, they have maintained the variety and spice. Some change in the verbal section – not shocking though! Like in September 2013 CMAT, the student would be able to attempt a good number of questions and get them right, but it would fill up the time because of the length of questions with just a few minutes to share. Attempts might go up by 10% as compared to September 2013 CMAT. The cutoff as compared to last year will go up by 5-10 marks.

This analysis is strictly indicative. This however forms a base in terms of the preparation agenda and a rough pattern on how to go about attempting the paper.

About the author:

The author Parasharan Chari is an alumnus of SP Jain and is currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Endeavor Careers and is also associated with the design and development of its online testing portal www.CatGurus.com