MAT September 2015 Exam Analysis

MAT September 2015 was on September 6, 2015. The exam was conducted offline across the country for admissions to MBA/ PGDM at various B-Schools. The exam took place for 150 minutes where test-takers were to answer 150 questions. There were no changes or surprises in the exam. Mat September 2015 was on the similar tracks like that of the previous one.

As usual, there were five sections namely:

1. Indian and Global Environment
2. Language Comprehension
3. Data Analysis and Sufficiency
4. Mathematical Skills
5. Intelligence and Critical Reasoning

There were 40 questions in each section. The exam was overall a package of mixed questions ranging from easy- moderate- difficult. Minimal number of questions stood in the category of difficult, rest all ranged from easy to moderate. The exam was easy and one can expect a good percentile on smart selection of answers.

The MAT September CBT 2015 is schedule to be held from September 12, 2015 onwards. View all important dates here.

Let’s take the section-wise overview of the exam:

Language Comprehension

The section was a mix of Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. There were 40 questions in total in this section. There were five reading comprehensions comprising of four questions each. The passages were about 500-600 words long. The verbal ability tested the grammar usage and English understanding of the test-taker. Topics which were covered under this section were:

Fill-in-the-blanks	Odd-one-out	Antonym	Jumbled words
Para-jumbles	Synonym	Grammatically correct	Reading Comprehension

Intelligence and Critical Reasoning

Testing the intelligence of aspirants, the section comprised of questions based on Analytical and Critical Reasoning. The mix and match of Logical Reasoning (LR) and Verbal Reasoning (VR) stayed in a ratio of 3:1 i.e. there were 30 questions based on LR while 10 were based on VR. The topics that appeared in the exam were:

Cause and effect	Analogies	Calendars	Blood Relations	Verbal Analogies
Family tree	Assertion and reason	Distribution Qs	Sequences	Arrangements (matrix, linear and circular)

Mathematical Skills

The section was based on basic Mathematics aptitude. An inclination towards Arithmetic portion was observed in the exam. There were a few difficult questions in this section. The section was overall between moderate and difficult. The topics that were covered in this section were as follows:

Arithmetic	Time-Speed-Distance	Ratio & Proportion	Pipes and Cisterns	Percentages	Averages and Probability	Equations
Mixtures and Alligation	Time and Work	Profit & Loss	Simple & Compound Interest	Geometry, trigonometry, mensuration	Permutation and combination	Heights and distance

Data Analysis and Sufficiency

This section was a mix of Data Sufficiency, Data Interpretation and Data Comparison. There were about 30 questions based on Data Interpretation and the rest were based on Data Sufficiency and Data Comparison. The section ranged from easy to moderate level of questions. Following were the main topics covered under this section:

Quantitative Comparison	Bar Charts	Tables
Line Graphs	Pie Charts	Caselets

Indian and Global Environment

Current affairs and General Knowledge covered the most of the questions. Other topics such as business, famous personalities, etc. formed the questions for this section.

Overall Exam Analysis Summary

Number of Questions		200
Marking Scheme		1 mark per question
Negative Marking		0.25 marks per question
Number of Sections		5
Duration		150 minutes
Sections	Number of questions	Level of Difficulty
Indian and Global Environment	40	Easy
Language Comprehension	40	Easy - Moderate
Data Analysis and Sufficiency	40	Moderate
Mathematical Skills	40	Moderate - Difficult
Intelligence and Critical Reasoning	40	Moderate