IBSAT 2014 - Commentary after Day 1

IBSAT 2014 commenced on 10 December. As per the feedback received from the test takers on the first day, the paper seems to have followed the same pattern and is slightly more difficult compared to last year's.

Time allotted	2 Hrs.
Total no. of questions	120
Total Marks	120
Marking Scheme	1
Sections	4
Number of choices	5
Negative Marking	No

Sections	No. of Questions	No. of Marks
English Usage	30	30
Reading Comprehension	30	30
Quantitative Ability	30	30
Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency	30	30
Total	120	120

Note - The following observations have been made based on test-takers' feedback from day 1.

Section I - English Usage

The section continued to be dominated by vocabulary-related questions. As many as 20 out of the 30 questions were vocab-based. The other 10 were grammar based - identifying the grammatically incorrect part of a sentence, and replacing the underlined part of sentence with a correct phrase. The grammar questions were easy to solve, a few vocab questions can be said to be on the difficult side.

Overall, around 18-21 can be considered a decent attempt. The time to be allocated for this section need not have been more than 15 minutes.

Section II - Reading Comprehension

This section comprised 4 RC passages - of lengths varying between 100 and 500 words. There was no correlation between the length of the passage and the number of questions - the shortest passage, with 100 words had the highest number of questions (9). With the exception of a few inference based questions, most of the questions in the section were fact-based and direct.

Around 21-24 could be comfortably solved in 30 minutes in the section.

Section III - Quantitative Ability

The Quant section had a good mix of questions from Arithmetic, Numbers, Algebra, Modern Maths. Very few questions can be classified as sitters, with most questions being of a moderate to high difficulty level and at least 3 questions reportedly had typos. One or two instances of correct option missing from the alternatives was also reported.

The section had quite a few time guzzlers. When compared to last year, the Quant part is definitely a notch higher in terms of difficulty and a good student who prepared well should have been able to attempt around 15-18 questions correctly.

Section IV - Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency

The section saw table-based, line-graph and bar graph based DI sets and some of the questions were calculation-intensive while some were logic-based. Data sufficiency was dominated by Quant-based DI coupled with some reasoning-based questions. Regular questions like percentage change, ratio were seen in this section.

A good student should have been able to attempt around 17-20 questions in this section within reasonable time.

Bottom Line

Those who manage the available time in the most judicious manner will come out trumps in this test.