TANCET - M.B.A 2014 Analysis

TANCET-2014 was conducted on 22nd March, 2014 from 2 p.m. to 4 : 30 p.m. Every year, Anna University has been conducting this exam on behalf of the Government of Tamilnadu.

Exam Snapshot

Number of Questions	100
Number of Sections	5
Marking Scheme	1 Mark for every correct answer
Negative Marking	1/5 Mark for every wrong answer
Number of Choices	5
Duration	120 Minutes

TANCET is known for its surprises. This was evident in the 2012 test paper with the introduction of new areas like Venn Diagrams, Network representations, etc. In 2013, the change was seen in the split up of the questions between the two sections ABS i.e Analysis of Business Situtaions (30 questions) and RC, i.e., Reading Comprehension (10 questions). This time the surprise element is that the ABS Section had a new set of directions and a focus on 10+2 level areas in the Maths part. TANCET-2014, on the whole, was well mixed and well designed paper.

Let us now examine each section individually :

Reading Comprehension, Analysis of Business Situations and Grammar

There were 60 qeustions from these three areas with 20 questions in each area.

There were quite a few changes in the ABS Section of TANCET examination in the last two-three years. Till 2012, in TANCET test paper, two sets of passages were given, in each of the ABS and RC sections, with ten questions per passage. In 2013, though, there were only two passages in ABS section, the number of questions in the first ABS passage was 20 and the number of questions in the second passage was 10.

This time there was only a single passage having 20 questions. But the more significant change was that the directions were completely new and most of the test takers had to spend considerable time in understanding these.

The passage was about setting up a jewellery store in Velachery by a woman who did not have any experince in business because of which she had to take the help of a private firm for market survey. The passage was very clear regarding the business goals, plans, strengths and weaknesses, etc,. There were no difficult words in the passage.

Even in Reading Comprehension Section only one passage was given in contradiction to the convention of giving two passages. The passage is regarding a company's past records, their plans for the future, etc. The passage was lengthy and it contained a lot of data based on statistics. Even small pieces of information were vital in answering the questions.

Grammar based questions were of easy to moderate difficulty level. Though most of the questions were simple and easy, the rest of the questions were not as easy since the focus was more on errors including errors in the use of pronouns, punctuations, etc.

On the whole, we can classify these areas as moderately difficult. A score of 39-42 marks can be considered as very good.

Quantitative Aptitude and Data Sufficiency

These two areas together had 40 questions with 20 questions in each area.

Most of the test takers faced a difficult situation, especially when they were attempting the Quantitative Aptitude part of the TANCET exam. The reason being the shift of the focus of the examination from arithmetic based questions to 10 + 2 level maths questions. The majority of the questions were from the areas - Permutations & Combinations, Parabola, Correlation, Probability, Co-ordinate Geometry, Surds, Logarithms, Progressions, Numbers, Limits, etc. Though there were occassions where 10 + 2 level maths questions were given in the earlier TANCET Exams, the focus was very low.

This time, even in Data Sufficiency, the focus on 10 + 2 level maths questions was significant. There were questions based on Standard Deviation, Direction Sense, Arrangements, etc,--definitely new to any test taker. Apart from these there were questions from Percentages, Time & Distance, Mensuration etc., but they required a little bit calculation before arriving at the conclusion. Even after leaving the questions from the new areas, a majority of the questions could still be answered.

A score of around 21-23 can be considered as very good.