Maharastra MBA CET 2009 – Paper Pattern and Analysis

Well, the last of the MBA entrance exams have come to an end with the Maharastra MBA CET getting
conducted on the 15th of Feb 2009. This year the CET was definitely looked forward to by many students
as a last option, what with the economic downturn and loss of jobs/non availability of new jobs.

T.I.M.E. students who have been writing the All Maharastra MOCK CETs this year were thrilled after CET
2009 which was held on 15th FEB 2009. The paper pattern, the difficulty level and the types of questions
had an uncanny resemblance to the MOCK papers save couple of new types of questions that were
anyway expected.

This year’s paper was a shade difficult as compared to the last year’s paper. The cutoffs required for
getting into the top institutes therefore will go down as they did in CET 2007.

Second year in the running, the Input/Output Flowcharts were conspicuous by their absence. In addition,
what was of real relief to students was the reduction in the number of Verbal Reasoning questions that
were a nightmare to people. With T.I.M.E. students going through 18 mocks including all types of
questions, it was a relief that most of the questions that appeared were familiar and attemptable.

As expected, questions on Selection Criteria (Decision Making), Probability, Coding Decoding and
Deductions were pretty straightforward and simple. Students would be able to score well in these areas.
Not so surprisingly again, the focus of CET has been on logical ability questions and hence we once
again see very few questions in the Quant section. The bête noire of many a student has not troubled
them this time and hence most students would have been happy with their performance albeit
temporarily. There were no Arithmetic questions at all in this year’s CET.

There were some surprises in the Verbal area (Sentence Completion with 10 different choices), Reading
comprehension (instead of one passage there were three small passages) and Quant (where Permutation
and Combination questions were sandwiched between a set of probability questions).

If students had paid heed to the advice of all T.I.M.E. faculty to attempt Non Verbal at the end or give it at
least 15 to 20 minutes, then scoring 15 extra marks would have been a cinch.

Students felt that the paper was a little lengthy and in parts was shade tougher too. The MOCKS from
T.I.M.E. were an apt reflection of the difficulty levels of this year’s CET.

Students who have attended the classes and gone through the handouts or workshops of T.I.M.E. and
solved the mocks, felt that quite a lot of questions, especially in Data Interpretation and Quant were
almost exact replicas of the T.I.M.E. papers.

A quick preliminary analysis would put the required marks to get into the prestigious JBIMS at the written
stage at around 143 +/- 2 for Mumbai Home University Students and around 153 +/- 2 marks for the All
India Seats (AI).

CET 2009 Paper Pattern

Total Number of Questions : 200
Total Time allotted : 150 minutes
No. of Choices per question : 5 choices
Negative Marks : Not Present
Number of Sections : No sections – jumbled paper
Q Nos Area Type of Question Level of Difficulty
 Analytical Logical questions on Odd one, directions,
1 to 10 Reasoning coding & decoding, misc Easy
Quantitative
11 to 15 Ability Permutations and Probability Easy
Non Verbal
16 to 20 Reasoning Odd man out (seven figure series) Moderate
Quantitative
21 to 25 Ability BODMAS and Approximation Easy
Best way to rephrase the sentence
grammatically) Easy
26 to 30 Verbal Ability
Analytical Number Series (Find the next term in the
31 to 35 Reasoning series) Easy to Moderate
Non Verbal
36 to 45 Reasoning Analogies Easy
46 to 50 Verbal Ability Para Jumble Easy to Moderate
Quantitative
51 to 55 Ability BODMAS and Approximation Easy
Analytical
56 to 60 Reasoning Deductions (4 statements) Moderate
Non Verbal
61 to 65 Reasoning Visual Reasoning (Odd pair out) Very Easy
Sentence Completion from among 10
66 to 70 Verbal Ability statements Difficult
Analytical Verbal Symbols and Notations (vowels
71 to 75
Reasoning and consonants) Easy
Data
76 to 80 Sufficiency Quant based DS with two statements Easy to Moderate
Analytical
81 to 85 Reasoning Alpha numeric sequence questions Easy
86 to 90 Verbal Ability Fill in the blanks (2 blanks) Easy
Data
91 to 95 Interpretation Bar Graph - LIG, MIG, HIG Easy
96 to Analytical Mathematical Statements and
100 Reasoning Conclusions ( 4 statements) Lengthy but Moderate
101 to
105 Verbal Ability Synonyms (chose from among 3 words) Easy
106 to Analytical Series of Numbers (two rows) - Find
110 Reasoning output of the second row Moderate
111 to Reading Comprehension Passage (Health
115 Verbal Ability related) Easy
116 to Data Line Graphs - Boys and Girls of five
120 Interpretation different colleges Easy
121 to Analytical
125 Reasoning Analytical Puzzle (Seating arrangement) Easy
126 to Non Verbal
130 Reasoning Similar pair Moderate
131 to Data Table - Pass and Fail of students for Easy but with one question
135 Interpretation different classes lengthy
136 to Analytical Distribution (Seven friends and three orgn,
140 Reasoning seven departments) Easy
141 to Data Logic based (4 Q) and one Quant based
145 Sufficiency (three statements) Easy
146 to Verbal Ability Reading Comprehension Passage Moderate
 150 (Marketing Comm)
151 to Verbal
155 Reasoning Course of action Moderate
156 to Data Table - Number/Percentage of children,
160 Interpretation men, women in six games Lengthy and Difficult
161 to Reading Comprehension Passage
165 Verbal Ability (Missile Development) Difficult
166 to Non Verbal
170 Reasoning Visual Reasoning (Complete the series) Easy to Moderate
171 to Data
175 Interpretation Case let Lengthy but Moderate
176 to Verbal
180 Reasoning Cause and Effect Difficult
181 to
190 Verbal Ability Cloze passage Easy
191 to Analytical
200 Reasoning Decision Making Easy

In Short the same can be categorized as

AREA No. of Questions

Analytical Reasoning 60
Verbal Reasoning 10
Non Verbal Reasoning 30
Data Interpretation 25
Data Sufficiency 10
Quantitative Ability 15
Verbal Ability 35
Reading Comprehension 15

The marks required in the CET written examination alone, for a seat in the best institutes, are likely to be
the following:

Expected requirement for JBIMS (Home University Mumbai) – 143 +/- 2 marks
Expected requirement for JBIMS (OMS category) – 153 +/- 2 marks

Expected requirement for Sydenham (Home University Mumbai) – 137 +/- 2 marks
Expected requirement for Sydenham (OMS Category) – 150 +/- 2 marks

Expected requirement for KJ Somaiyya (Home University Mumbai) – 135 +/- 2 marks
Expected requirement for KJ Somaiyya ( OMS category) – 148 +/- 2 marks

Expected requirement for Welingkar (Home University Mumbai) – 134 +/- 2 marks
Expected requirement for Welingkar ( OMS category) – 147 +/- 2 marks
 NMAT – 2008 Analysis

Exam Snapshot

Number of Questions 150

Sections 3

Marking Scheme 1

Negative Marking 0.25

Number of Choices 5

Duration 120 Min

NMAT-2008 was on expected lines with three sections testing the students in Quantitative, Reasoning and English. NMAT 2008 had
150 questions in three sections with a time limit of 120 minutes. The five choice format created problems for students in the RC
section of the paper and all in all this was a test that tested the speed of the students. Let us now look at the individual sections in
detail.

Section 1
No.of Qs : 40 (40 Marks)
Description : Language Skills

The Language Skills section of NMAT can be classified as Moderate and for those who have prepared for CAT this would have been
quite an easy outing. However it should be noted that the five choice formats makes no difference in the Quant and the Data
Interpretation section but plays a huge role in the Verbal area. The five choices in NMAT did exactly that and with two close choices
in the RC passages it wasn’t smooth sailing at all. The antonym/synonym questions based on the passage were easy but then one
needed to look at the passage to understand the contextual meaning and then find an appropriate choice. The verbal questions on
Cloze test, Para-forming questions and Grammar were of the moderate difficulty level but the questions on vocabulary were among
the easier ones.

A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 25-30 minutes. A score of 28+ should be considered excellent.
The cut-off is expected to be around 18-20.

No. of Difficulty Expected Excellent

Area Description
Qs level Attempts Attempts

Reading Reading Comprehension

10 Moderate 5-6 8-9
Comprehension (based on passage)
(India- A
developed nation Easy-
Antonyms/Synonyms 5 2-3 4
by 2010) Moderate

Cloze Test 10 Moderate 5 8-9

Para Forming Questions 5 Moderate 2 3

Verbal
Grammar 5 Moderate 2 3

Easy-
Vocabulary 5 2-3 4
Moderate
 Overall   40 Moderate 18-21 30-32

Section 2
No. of Qs : 60(60 Marks)
Description : Quantitative Skills, Data Analysis & Sufficiency

The Quantitative Skills section of NMAT was on predictable lines with a plethora of questions on speed math concepts
(simplification). This section had questions on Arithmetic, Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency and had the highest weightage
amongst the three sections in NMAT. This implies that there would have been a fair number of questions that anyone could attempt
based on their strong areas. The Quant questions focussed on Simplifications and number series with very few pure arithmetic
topics being included. A student who is strong in speed maths would have found this section to be a breeze and would have ended
up with a high score. However some of the simplification, approximation based questions involved lengthy calculations and one
could have easily ended up making mistakes if not careful. A few of the questions that appeared quite daunting could have been
solved quite easily without calculations by approximating and simple observation. The Data Interpretation questions focused lesser
on ‘interpretation’ and more on ‘calculations’. The set on the bar graph pertaining to students appearing for ‘CEET’ was a sitter and
so were the sets on ‘Hobby classes’ and ‘Pass and Fail students’.

A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 50-55 minutes. A score of 40+ should be considered excellent.
The cut-off is expected to be around 24-26.

No. Difficulty Expected Excellent

Area Description
of Qs level Attempts Attempts

Simplification & Indices 15 Moderate 6-7 10-11

Ratio Proportion,
6
Percentages
Easy 4-5 7
Partnership, Compound
4
Quant Interest, Equations

Moderate-
Number Series 5 2 3
Difficult

Moderate-
Approximations 5 2 3
Difficult

Table (Enrolment of
5 Moderate 2 3-4
students for Hobby Classes)

Bar Graph (Students

appearing for Engineering 5 Easy 2-3 4
Data Test)
Interpretation
& Sufficiency Moderate-
Caselet (Data on company) 5 2 3
Difficult

Table (Data on students

who passed and failed in 5 Moderate 2 3
different classes)

  Data Sufficiency 5 Easy 3 4

Easy-
Overall   60 25-28 40-42
Moderate
Section 3
No.of Qs: 50 (50 Marks)
Description : Intelligence & Logical Reasoning

The Intelligence and Logical Reasoning section in NMAT-2008 was of the Moderate difficulty level. This section was more in line with
various ‘Bank PO’ exams that are conducted from time to time and those who have prepared for such exams would have had a
distinct advantage. There were quite a few puzzles which would not have posed a challenge to most students as they were very
easy. The questions on deductions and decision making would have been slightly trickier on account of the novelty factor and the
fact that they were not in line with the regular questions. The questions on Coding-Decoding, alpha-numeric series and the number
based rearrangements were quite easy and should have been attempted.

A good time allocation strategy for this section would be around 35-40 minutes. A score of 32+ should be considered excellent.
The cut-off is expected to be around 20-22.

No.
Difficulty Expected Excellent
Area Description of
level Attempts Attempts
Qs

Alpha-numeric & Symbol

5 Easy 2-3 4
based Sequence

Moderate-
Deductions 5 1-2 3
Difficult

Symbols & Notations 5 Difficult 1-2 3

Puzzle (Seating Arrangement) 5 Easy 3 4

Data Sufficiency 5 Easy 3 4

Analytical
Blood Relations 2 Moderate
Reasoning
2 3
Number based
3 Easy
Rearrangements

Puzzle (Distribution) 5 Easy 3 4

Coding-Decoding 5 Easy 3 4

Moderate-
Decision Making 5 1-2 3
Difficult

Miscellaneous 5 Easy 2 3

Overall   50 Moderate 21-25 35

Sectional Scores and Overall Cut-Off

NMAT being the test for only one institute i.e. NMIMS, would have sectional filters and an overall filter to help eliminate the
thousands and thereby have a smaller pool for the interview and Group Discussion phase. However if NMIMS decides to ‘interview’
a larger pool of students than last year, the cut-offs are bound to fall lower than what is given in the table below.

Section Good Score Estimated Cut-Off

Language Skills 28+ 18-20
Quantitative Skills, Data Analysis & Sufficiency 40+ 24-26
Intelligence & Logical Reasoning 32+ 20-22
Overall 110+ 88-92