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.

Area	Description	No. of Qs	Difficulty level	Expected Attempts	Excellent Attempts
Reading Comprehension (India- A developed nation by 2010)	Reading Comprehension (based on passage)	10	Moderate	5-6	8-9
	Antonyms/Synonyms	5	Easy-Moderate	2-3	4
Verbal	Cloze Test	10	Moderate	5	8-9
	Para Forming Questions	5	Moderate	2	3
	Grammar	5	Moderate	2	3
	Vocabulary	5	Easy-Moderate	2-3	4
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.

Area	Description	No. of Qs	Difficulty level	Expected Attempts	Excellent Attempts
Quant	Simplification & Indices	15	Moderate	6-7	10-11
	Ratio Proportion, Percentages	6	Easy	4-5	7
	Partnership, Compound Interest, Equations	4
	Number Series	5	Moderate-Difficult	2	3
	Approximations	5	Moderate-Difficult	2	3
Data Interpretation & Sufficiency	Table (Enrolment of students for Hobby Classes)	5	Moderate	2	3-4
	Bar Graph (Students appearing for Engineering Test)	5	Easy	2-3	4
	Caselet (Data on company)	5	Moderate-Difficult	2	3
	Table (Data on students who passed and failed in different classes)	5	Moderate	2	3
	Data Sufficiency	5	Easy	3	4
Overall		60	Easy-Moderate	25-28	40-42

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.

Area	Description	No. of Qs	Difficulty level	Expected Attempts	Excellent Attempts
Analytical Reasoning	Alpha-numeric & Symbol based Sequence	5	Easy	2-3	4
	Deductions	5	Moderate-Difficult	1-2	3
	Symbols & Notations	5	Difficult	1-2	3
	Puzzle (Seating Arrangement)	5	Easy	3	4
	Data Sufficiency	5	Easy	3	4
	Blood Relations	2	Moderate	2	3
	Number based Rearrangements	3	Easy
	Puzzle (Distribution)	5	Easy	3	4
	Coding-Decoding	5	Easy	3	4
	Decision Making	5	Moderate-Difficult	1-2	3
	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