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MAT – 7th Sep 2008 Analysis
MAT SNAPSHOT
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No. of Questions
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200
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Marking Scheme
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1
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Negative marking
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1/4
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Number of Sections
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0
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Number of Choices
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4
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Duration
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150 Min
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MAT stuck to its structure of 200
questions to be attempted in 150 minutes. MAT did not have any clear cut
‘SECTIONS’ this time but these 200 questions were from five test areas viz.
Data Analysis and Sufficiency, Mathematical Skills, Language Comprehension,
Indian and Global Environment, Intelligence and Critical Reasoning with 40
questions in each. Each of these ‘sections’ was divided into two or three parts
and these parts were positioned at different places in the paper. One danger
with such an arrangement is that students might work partially on some sections
and miss out on other parts of the section. Hence, one should plan in such a
manner that the time is distributed over different sections for efficient
selection of easy questions from each of the sections. The suggested time for
each of the sections is as follows.
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Sl. No.
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Section
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Suggested time
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1
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Language Comprehension
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25 – 30 min
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2
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Mathematical Skills
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35 – 40 min
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3
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Data Analysis & Sufficiency
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35 – 40 min
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4
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Intelligence & Critical Reasoning
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30 – 35 min
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5
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India & Global Environment
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10 – 15 min
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Let us analyze the different types of
questions from each of the sections along with the overall difficulty level of
each of the sections.
Language Comprehension
No. of Questions: 40
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Area
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Description
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Marks
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Difficulty level
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Expected Attempts
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Good Attempts
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Vocabulary
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Analogies
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4
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Moderate
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4
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6
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Idioms
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4
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Moderate
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English Usage & Grammar
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Fill in the blanks
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4
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Moderate
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5
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8
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Para-Jumbles
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4
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Difficult
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Summary (CAT Type)
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4
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Difficult
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Reading Comprehension
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Passage based on Cricket & Other
sports in India
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4
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Easy
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6-7
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11-12
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Passage based on DTH Technology
promotion
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4
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Moderate
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Passage based on Indian Genome Project
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4
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Moderate
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Passage based on Food Crisis &
Prices
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4
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Easy
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Passage based on Carbon Sequestration
in Deep Ocean
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4
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Moderate
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Overall
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40
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Moderate
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15-16
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25-26
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This section probably was one of
the toughest for most students as it demanded good vocabulary (for the
analogies as well as for finding the meaning of Idioms), good knowledge about
English usage (for solving the fill in the blank type of questions) good
comprehension skills (for passages). In the sections, in case of vocabulary
questions where the answer choices were quite close, sequential elimination of
options would have been the best approach. The Reading Comprehension passages
were quite lengthy but the questions were easy and straight-forward. The best
approach would have been to read the questions first and then skim through the
passage to locate the answers. A good time allocation strategy would be to
spend around 25-30 min and attempt around 18-20 questions.
Mathematical Skills
No. of Questions: 40
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Area
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Marks
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Difficulty level
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Expected Attempts
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Good Attempts
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Arithmetic
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Time & Work
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6
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Easy to Moderate
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16-17
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24
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Time & Distance, Races
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8
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Percentages, Profit & Loss
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5
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Averages, Mixtures & Alligations
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4
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Mensuration
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4
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Simple Equations , Ratios
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7
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S.I and C.I
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2
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Higher Maths
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Permutations and Combinations
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1
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Moderate
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1-2
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3
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Probability
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2
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Overall
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40
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Difficult
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18
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25
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In this section, though the
difficult level of the questions is on par with any other MAT paper, there is a
slight deviation in the composition of the section with the number of questions
based on higher mathematics going down. The paper predominantly had questions
from the Arithmetic areas like Time and Work, Mensuration, Percentages, Ratios,
Averages, Mixtures and Alligations. The questions were direct involving only
the basics and most students would have found those questions quite easy. The
success in this particular section depended on one’s basic conceptual skills,
and calculation skills along with good practice of the regular topics. Overall,
the section can be classified as MODERATE. A good time allocation strategy
would be to spend around 35-40 min and attempt around 20-22 questions.
Data Analysis and Sufficiency
No. of Questions: 40
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Area
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Topic
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Description
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Marks
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Difficulty level
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Expected Attempts
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Good Attempts
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Data Analysis
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Line Graph
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Arrival, Departure of Trains
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3
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Moderate
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13-14
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18-20
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Table
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Statistics of 5 players
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3
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Easy
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Pie Charts + Table
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Distribution of Candidates
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3
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Easy
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Venn Diagrams
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Asian Professional - Males & Females
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5
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Easy
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Pie-Charts
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Financial Investments
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3
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Difficult
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Table
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Train moving from Howrah to other
stations
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3
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Difficult
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Line Graph + Bar Chart
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Distribution of Tax
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3
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Difficult
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Table
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Train & Distance per Trip
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3
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Moderate
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Stacked Graphs
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Distribution of Expenditure of 2
families
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3
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Easy
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Line Graph
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Set on 3 Variables
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3
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Easy
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Data Sufficiency
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Data Sufficiency
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Two statements & Comparisons
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8
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Easy
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3
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5
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Overall
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40
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16-17
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23-25
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As shown in the above table, this
section comprises of DI and DS, with DI accounting for 80% (32 out of 40) and
DS accounting for the remaining 20% (8 out of 40) of the questions. This was
probably the most difficult section of the paper on account of the 10 DI sets
and the extremely lengthy nature of the questions. Considering this factor D.I
in this paper is not as scoring as one would have expected it to be. The DS
questions were on the easier side. Overall, this section can be considered to
be Moderate-Difficult. A good time allocation strategy would be to spend around
35-40 min and attempt around 15-18 questions.
Intelligence and Critical
Reasoning
No. of Questions: 40
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Area
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Detail
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Marks
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Difficulty level
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Expected Attempts
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Good Attempts
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Analytical Reasoning
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Family of six persons
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4
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Easy
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10-12
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16-17
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Puzzle – Six paintings on a wall
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4
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Moderate
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Deductions
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4
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Moderate
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Venn Diagrams
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5
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Moderate
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Venn Diagrams
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3
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Easy
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Input Output
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4
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Difficult
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Critical Reasoning
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Courses of Action
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5
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Moderate
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2
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4
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Statements & Assumptions
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3
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Moderate
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Individual Questions
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Blood Relations, Letter Series, etc.
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8
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Easy - Moderate
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3
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4
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Overall
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40
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14-15
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24-25
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As shown in the above table, this
section is a mix of Analytical Reasoning and Critical reasoning questions. The
sets on Analytical Reasoning were of the moderate difficulty level and students
having done enough practice on puzzles would have found this section
manageable. Overall the section can be classified as MODERATE. A good time
allocation strategy would be to spend around 30-35 min and attempt around 16-17
questions.
India and Global Environment
No. of Questions: 40
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Area
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Marks
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Expected Attempts
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Good Attempts
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General Awareness
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40
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10-12
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18-22
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Business And Economy
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Sports (Olympics)
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Overall
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40
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10-12
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18-22
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A total of 40 questions were asked in
this subject area. As much as 5 questions were based on Olympics. There was an
even distribution of the number of questions across sub-topics like Indian
economy, Global economy and Current affairs. Some of the questions were related
to
1. Human development index
2. Number of companies being awarded Navratna status
3. G – 8 nations
4. India’s rank in gross national income
5. Olympics venue
Overall the section can be classified as Moderately Difficult. A good time
allocation strategy would be to spend around 10-15 min and attempt around 16-18
questions.
EXAM SUMMARY
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Attempts
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Expected Accuracy
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Marks
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Expected Percentile in Composite Score
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90 +
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70% +
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56 +
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90 +
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120 +
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70% +
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75 +
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99 +
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Info on MAT institutes
The following information regarding
some of the better B-Schools under MAT is collated below. All Data is as per
the information disclosed by the respective colleges. We advise you to verify
this information through other sources as well.
The data lists out the program offered, the number of seats in it, the cutoff
percentile/score used last year and the average salary at the institute. Please
note that the colleges are not in the order of merit.
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Institute
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Program Offered*
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Seats*
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Cut-off Percentile/Score*
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Average*
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Alliance
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MBA
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120
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80
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8.25
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Christ
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PGDBM
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120
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50 (600+)
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4.2
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Amity
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PGDM
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150
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650
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4
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Apeejay
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PGDM
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120
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NA
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3.15
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Asia Pacific
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PGDM
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120 (80% through MAT)
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MAT -600; CAT-50%ile;
XAT-75%ile
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4
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Badruka
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MPIB
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60
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NA
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1.5
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IILM
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PGP
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600
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NA
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NA
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VJIM
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PGDM
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60
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349
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3
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Siva Sivani
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PGDM
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120
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40%
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2.1
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St. Joseph's - Bangalore
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PGDM
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120
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50%
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3.3
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EMPI - New Delhi
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PGDBM
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NA
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50%
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2.85
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