CMAT Exam Pattern

Section No.	Section Name	No. of questions	Marks per section
1	Quantitative Techniques and Data Interpretation	25	100
2	Logical Reasoning	25	100
3	Language Comprehension	25	100
4	General Awareness	25	100
Total		100	400

There is negative marking for wrong answers, For each correct answer,4 marks are awarded. For each wrong answer 1 mark would be deducted.

Duration of exam will be 180 minutes.There is no time limit for each section - a candidate can move across the sections.

Important Dates

  - Registration - 20-10-2017 to 18-12-2017

  - Admit Card Download -05-01-2018

  - Exam Date -20-01-2018

  - Result declaration - To be announced

Eligibility

Applicant must be a citizen of India.

Graduates in any discipline can apply for CMAT exam.

Final year students of Graduate Courses (10+2+3) whose result will be declared before commencement of admission for academic year 2018-19 can also apply for CMAT online exam.

The section on language comprehension,comprises 25 questions, most of which have a bend towards Critical Reasoning,at varying levels of difficulty. So, it is best advised to revise concepts pertaining to Critical Reasoning (especially on identifying argument structure and argument elements, and inference based questions), The Critical Reasoning questions have been part of the course for the CAT students. For questions based on Arguments, students should refer to questions from CRHOs and CRPEs. For the rest of the English Language part, it would be advisable for students to revise concepts pertaining to RC, Sentence correction, and Vocab based questions. Questions in these areas have been very doable, and effective revision would help students cash in on these questions. The RC passages in CMAT have been short (a paragraph usually) and quite easy to read. Students have time to read carefully and analyze the content, and must do so, since the choices are, sometimes, close.

There are approximately 9-10 passages,drawn from varied subjects such as social sciences, business, arts and humanities, current issues etc.

The student should focus on the following with respect to RC:

1. Central idea and the supporting ideas in the given paragraph
2. Tone of the author
3. Recognising phrases, idioms,and figures of speech in reading practice.
4. Summarising/ restating the paragraph/drawing conclusions
5. Identifying missing data/ interpreting indirect information
6. Seeing from the author's perspective

What is primarily required is an active participation in the reading of the text, which does not stop with just reading and understanding, but goes beyond the peripherals, and asks /answers questions that are related to the text. The student should be wary of underestimating the passage due to its short length or simple language as the options, as mentioned earlier are quite close.

For the section on Quantitative Techniques and Data Interpretation, a good preparation for CAT should be more than sufficient, though it would be advisable for a student to focus more on areas like Co-ordinate Geometry, Trigonometry (Basically Heights & Distances), Statistics, Quadratic Equations, Progresions, Permutations & Combinations, Probability and Number System apart from topics mentioned in the basic study material.

For the section on logical reasoning one has to prepare on all the reasoning topics like linear arrangement, circular arrangement, selections, distribution puzzles, comparisons, binary logic, cubes, Venn diagrams, deductions and connectives. These areas have been covered during your CAT course. The question pattern is slightly different from the CAT pattern. Unlike CAT here one would find individual questions in all the above topics. Sometimes data may not be sufficient to figure out the complete solution, but would be sufficient to answer the given question.

The other areas of reasoning including number series, coding and decoding, symbols and notations, blood relations, direction sense, input-output, calendars and clocks should also be prepared.

For preparation on General Awareness, in addition to reading newspapers regularly, it would be advisable for a student to prepare from the following sources:

• Also, in the various issues of MBA Education & Careers magazine, focus on features like Business GK, Current Issues & Events, and Current Event Chronicle (this feature captures important tid-bits). In addition to the above, please run through the GK Model Papers feature titled, Improve your GK.
• Go through the GA Note (Study Material) booklet for stock GK (like history and geography). Also use the GAT papers, each with 50 questions.
• Manorama & CSR Year Book - it helps in preparation for stock type questions
  In Manorama Year Book and CSR, please focus on the following chapters.