NMAT 2013 vs CAT 2012 – A Qualitative Comparison

Having appeared for NMAT and CAT in the space of 3 days, I felt that a good way to analyse both exams
would be compare their entire experience at one place so as to give students a suitable frame of
reference. Here, I have looked at the two exams, their structure and difficulty level, their exam players,
the experience etc while appearing for the test and even hours after the test.

I appeared for NMAT on 11th October in the 9:00 a.m. slot and CAT on 13th October in the 10:00 a.m.
slot. I cannot disclose actual questions or chapters due to the respective non-disclosure agreements.
However, I will try and give you a feel of both exams.

However, please note that some of my views here under “Recommendations” are purely personal and
you may have to apply them in your exam keeping your preparation level in mind.

Area CAT NMAT Recommendations

1) Where I suggest carrying 2 ID cards
1) Admit Card Mail 1) Confirmation
for CAT, I would recommend carrying
+ 1 Valid ID card Mail + 2 Valid ID
3 for NMAT. It helps to have an extra
needed cards needed
ID
2) Biometrics 2) Biometrics
2) Try to carry an ID that shows your
includes includes
face AND sign clearly. The CAT
photograph and photograph and
authorities will accept an ID only if it
Check-in fingerprint signature on a
shows your face clearly. Also, the
Process 3) Bags and digital pad
NMAT authorities check your sign on
valuables not 3) Bags and
biometrics vs ID card. They made me
allowed in the valuables not
sign on the digital pad thrice because
test lab. Only a allowed in the
they could not match my signature
wallet allowed. test lab.
with the one on my PAN card.
4) Lenient in terms 4) Very strict in
3) Carry only as much stuff as you really
of frisking terms of frisking.
need
1) 5 minutes – 1) Both the non-disclosure agreements
1) 2 minutes –
after the tutorial more or less say the same thing.
NDA before the
and just before Make it a point to read them quickly
tutorial and test
the test and accept them at the earliest
1) Both the tutorials give you an
overview of the screens and features
that you will encounter during the
exam. An added advantage of the
NMAT tutorial is that at the end of
Tutorial 1) 15 minutes 1) 13 minutes the tutorial, you can try the
functionalities of the review screen
using the slides of the tutorial. Since
time saved in the tutorial does not
get added to the exam, utilize this
time to go through the tutorials well
 1) 3 sections with a
choice in
selecting section
order
2) There is a
1) NMAT has been more student-
separate screen
friendly in the sense that it has
that allows you
allowed the student to decide first-
to pre-determine
hand what order he/she wants to
the order in
attempt the sections in.
which you will
2) There is a section order screen which
attempt all 3
has a time limit of 3 minutes. This
sections.
screen gives you 6 combinations: VA-
3) The screen gives
QA-LR, QA-LR-VA, VA-LR-QA etc. You
1) 2 sections with you 6
Section can select any combination that you
no choice in combinations of
Order and want. The sections will be displayed
selection. section orders
Selection as per your selection
and you have
3) If you do not select within 3 minutes,
click on the one
the system selects the default option
that suits you the
i.e. VA-QA-LR
best.
4) Also, once you select the section and
4) If you do not
start the test, you cannot change the
select the section
order midway. So, if you select VQ-
order within 3
QA-LR and during VA, you feel you
minutes, the
want to attempt LR second, it will not
system
be possible.
automatically
starts the test
using the first
section order
given.
1) Unlike CAT, since you know the
structure in terms of subject area
1) Section 1 – QA + 1) QA – 48 beforehand because of the breakup
DI – 30 questions – 60 given by the NMAT authorities, you
questions – 70 minutes can plan and prepare accordingly. In
minutes 2) VA – 32 CAT, you won’t know how much time
Sections
2) Section 2 – VA + questions – 22 to spend on DI and how much on QA
LR – 30 minutes 2) However, this year, the DI and LR
questions – 70 3) LR – 40 questions breakup and questions types in
minutes – 38 minutes section I and II have been similar to
last year, so you can plan some part
of your attempts beforehand.
1) CAT clearly wants a focus on accuracy
and attempts based on whether you
Negative 1) Yes, but are confident of what you know.
1) No
Marking undisclosed 2) NMAT obviously wants you to
attempt all questions (like MHCET)
because of the no-negative marking
 policy.
3) For questions where you are not sure
in NMAT, “flag” the question and in
the last 2-3 minutes, randomly mark
those questions. Don’t waste time on
those questions initially.
1) Unlike CAT, if you finish your section
slightly earlier than allowed in NMAT,
you CAN end that section and move
to the next section.
1) Not allowed 1) Lapse of 2) However, your time saved in this
Termination before the schedule time section does not get added to the
of Section scheduled time 2) Completion of subsequent section.
lapses questions 3) So, in case you save time on, say,
Verbal Ability, it is a better idea to
review your questions. You will
anyways lose the spare time by
ending.
1) For CAT, it makes sense to take your
water and toilet breaks well in
advance.
2) For NMAT, though the Pearson
1) Breaks allowed authorities were slightly more lenient
1) No breaks but they are and allowed people to take water and
allowed 30 timed. Any time toilet breaks even 10-15 minutes
Breaks minutes prior to that you use in before the exam, it may not be wise
and during the the break gets to take a chance.
exam deducted from 3) In NMAT, if you manage to end
that section section 1 or section 2 with more than
5 minutes to spare (unlikely), you
could use it to take a break.
4) In NMAT, you are allowed breaks, but
you do lose time. Keep that in mind.
1) As is evident, CAT scores more than
NMAT in this regard. In NMAT, when
you start a group question, you don’t
1) Number of know how many questions that set
questions in the 1) Number of has. This makes “attempt planning”
set declared questions in the virtually impossible.
beforehand set NOT declared 2) For each question, you need to use
Group
2) All questions beforehand the “Next” and “Previous” buttons.
Questions
seen one below 2) Each question This harms you if the latter questions
the other on the seen on a fresh of a set are easier or multiple
right hand side page questions are related to each other
of the screen e.g. if calculating data for question 1
can help solve question 4 as well.
3) In CAT, since you can see all
questions together, you can decide
 whether you want to attempt all the
questions or some or skip the set
altogether.
4) Also, one disadvantage of the NMAT
player is that if the data in the
question extends either horizontally
or vertically, you cannot move to the
next question till you scroll the bar in
the required direction. One set in my
paper had a data bar that was
redundant to the questions in the set,
but I had to scroll the bar each time
to “see” that bar and then move to
the next question. It may not waste
too much time, but is surely an
irritant.
1) Since highlighting is not allowed in
the NMAT RCs, finding relevant data
Highlighting 1) Not allowed in
1) Allowed in CAT may become slightly more difficult.
in RCs NMAT
You may need to practice NMAT RCs
accordingly.
1) Since NMAT gives only one warning
1) 5 minutes
i.e. 5 minutes before the section is
before the end
1) 5 minutes before scheduled to end, you will have to
Section End of each section
the end of each keep a tab of when approximately 2
Warnings and 1 minute
section minutes are left. This will help in
before the end
marking the questions you haven’t
of each section
attempted
1) I found CAT 2012 more challenging
compared to last year with a better
1) Challenging quality of questions and a couple of
Difficulty
compared to 1) Same as last year innovative sets in LR.
Level
last year 2) I felt NMAT 2013 was similar to my
NMAT 2012 exam in nearly all
respects.
1) 25 in section I
with
approximately
21-22 correct (I 1) 42 out of 48 in
1) For CAT, I would suggest anywhere
assume) QA
between 19-21 attempts with 17+
2) 30 in section II 2) 36 out of 40 in LR
correct in section I and 25 -26
Attempts with 3) 32 out of 32 in
attempts in section II with 22+ correct
approximately VA
2) For NMAT, try to attempt all 120
26 correct 4) 116 out of 120 in
questions
(Again. all
Assumption)
3) 55 in all
Please note that the last two points above (in RED) depict my personal performance and opinions and as
such, should not be taken very rigidly. Please look at your actual exam and then take a decision. You can
use these as a guideline.

Wish you all the very best!