The CET 2011 paper that was held on 27^th February 2011 was nothing short of traumatic for most of the students.  It was by far the toughest one out of the last 8 years CET papers. The question types, the paper pattern and the distribution of marks were different when compared to the last 8 years papers.  The paper had many speed breakers which shouldn’t have been attempted by the students.

CET 2011 Paper Pattern   

Total Number of Questions             : 200

Total Time allotted                       : 150 minutes

No. of Choices per question           : 5 choices

Negative Marks                            : No Negative Marks

Number of Sections                      : No sections – jumbled paper

Q Nos	Area	Type of Question	Level of Difficulty
1	Verbal Reasoning	Small passage and inference on that	Difficult
2 to 5	Verbal reasoning	Passage + 5 statements + Effect, Conclusion, Weakening , Substantiate	Easy
6 to10	Analytical Reasoning	Number Series ( Two Rows)	Moderate
11 to 17	Verbal Ability	Reading Comprehension	Easy
18 to 20	Quantitative Ability	HCF, P& C and Geometry	Moderate
21 to 22	Data Sufficiency	Quant based DS with two statements	Moderate
23	Quantitative Ability	Question on Arithmetic Progression	Difficult
24 to 27	Verbal Reasoning	Passage + 5 statements + Apprehension, assumption , Weakening , Course of action,	Moderate
28 to 33	Verbal Ability	Reading Comprehension	Moderate
34 to 39	Quantitative Ability	Quantitative Comparison	Moderate
40 to 45	Analytical Reasoning	Deductions	Easy
46 to 57	Verbal Ability	Reading Comprehension: View and counter-view	Moderate
58 to 66	Quantitative Ability	Geometry, Mensuration, Numbers, Ages, Partnership, SI, Equations	Moderate
67 to 71	Non-verbal Reasoning	Analogy	Easy
72	Verbal Reasoning	Weakening the Argument	Moderate
73	Verbal Reasoning	Inference	Moderate
74 to 75	Quantitative Ability	Geometry : Circle inscribed in a square	Moderate
76 to 77	Quantitative Ability	Geometry : Pythagoras Theorem	Easy
78 to 82	Non-verbal Reasoning	Series : Five Fig series - Find missing fig.	Moderate
83 to 92	Verbal Ability	Cloze Passage	Easy
93 to 97	Data Interpretation	Line Graph : Expenditure on Arms by different countries	Easy
98 to 105	Analytical Puzzles	Circular Arrangement : Arrangement and blood Relations	Difficult
106 to 108	Verbal Ability	Insert the missing sentence	Moderate
109 to 113	Non-verbal Reasoning	Odd man out : Dissimilar Pair	Easy
114 to 118	Data Interpretation	Table : Scores of students in QA, Verbal, Reasoning and Cut off	Very Easy
119 to 125	Verbal Ability	Reading Comprehension	Moderate
126 to 132	Analytical Puzzles	Car Parking	Difficult
133 to 137	Non Venal Reasoning	Series : Five Figure series - find next Figure	Moderate
138 to 145	Verbal Ability	Assumption, Cause, Inference	Easy
146 to 147	Analytical Puzzles	Arranging Students according their weights	Easy
148 to 152	Data Interpretation	Table : Income and Exp of Four Families for Jan, Feb and March	Easy
153 to 155	Analytical Puzzles	Circular Arrangement	Difficult
156 to 157	Analytical Reasoning	Direction Sense	Easy
158 to 160	Data Sufficiency	Logic based DS with two statements	Easy
161 to 165	Verbal Ability	Error Spotting	Easy
166 to 170	Analytical Reasoning	Coding	Easy
171 to 175	Non-verbal Reasoning	Series : Five Fig series - Find next Fig	Moderate
176 to 180	Data Interpretation	Pi Charts : Contribution of Industrial sectors to GDP in 2008 and 2009	Difficult
181 to 185	Analytical Puzzles	Seven people owing seven floors and six Business Houses	Easy
186 to 191	Analytical Reasoning	Input and Output	Moderate
192 to 195	Analytical Puzzles	Five people going for industrial visit in a week from Mon to Sun	Easy
196	Analytical Reasoning	Formation of a word from selected letters of the word	Moderate
197 to 199	Analytical Reasoning	Odd Man Out from given Five words	Easy
200	Analytical Reasoning	Analogy : Words	Easy

 

Area-wise Analysis:

AREA	No. Of Questions
Analytical Puzzles	30
Analytical Reasoning	28
Data Interpretation	20
Data Sufficiency	5
Non Verbal Reasoning	25
Quantitative Ability : Pure Math	18
Quantitative Comparison	5
Reading Comprehension	32
Verbal Ability	18
Verbal Reasoning	19
TOTAL	200

 

Analytical Puzzles :

This area had the maximum number of questions in the paper. The students were stumped to see a set on circular arrangement in which the people were facing inside or outside. The other difficult set was the one in which the student had to consider blood relations when considering the circular arrangement. The smart thing to do was to leave these sets alone and focus on the others. A good score in this section would have been around 12 marks.

Analytical Reasoning :

This was the easiest section in the paper. There were no surprises at all as fas as the types of questions were concerned. However, the presence of Input Output questions prima-facie would have made the student to jump to attempt them but once into the questions they would have come across a surprise. The method used is quite different from the traditional methods. It would have taken the students a lot of time to understand the pattern. This was a high scoring area and a good score would have been around 26 marks.

Data Interpretation :

This section also remained true to expectations and the sets were easy to attempt. There was a set consisting of 2 pie-charts which was difficult.  The remaining sets were easy to understand and involved moderate calculation.  A good score would have been around 16 marks.

Data Sufficiency :

DS Questions were easy.  Quant based Data sufficiency questions could have been solved if one knew the basic concepts of Numbers. Logic based DS questions were based on concepts like coding. 

Non-verbal Reasoning :

After finding a few difficult questions in Analytical puzzles, the wise move was to solve Non-verbal Reasoning. Analogy and similar pair questions were easy and one could have scored 7 out of 10 . Remaining 15 questions were based on series. The key to solve these questions was to work on options and eliminate the options to get the final correct answer. Someone who was familiar with the basic concepts of series type’s questions could have easily scored 8 marks. Hence, a good score would have been around 15 marks.

Quantitative Ability:

Almost all the students were turning the pages eagerly to find BODMAS and Approximations questions. But there was not a single BODMAS question in the paper against students’ expectation of 10 questions.  Many students panicked on seeing 8 questions on Geometry.  But out of these 8 questions 5 questions were easily solvable using concepts like Area and circumference of circle, Pythagoras theorem, Area of square. The questions on other topics like Numbers, Ages, Partnership, Simple interest, Equations were quite manageable.

Quantitative Comparison : 

Though the format was different, students were familiar with these types of questions. A score of 4 will be a good score.

Reading Comprehension :

Any student who had hoped to skip RC in the exam would have been dismayed to find that it dominated the verbal section with 4 passages and 32 questions. This is more than a 100% jump, from 15 questions till last year to 32 questions this year. The nature of questions also underwent a shift, from direct ones to inference and partially inference types. But, the passages on Financial reforms and UMC were easy to attempt. The one which stunned the students was the passage which presented both, the view and the counter-view on a topic. It was lengthy, difficult to understand and not something the student would have encountered before. And to add to all these, it had 12 questions which tempted to students to have a go at it.

Verbal Ability :

This section provided some relief to the students as it did not spring any surprises. The cloze passage was very easy, as were the sentence correction and paragraph completion questions.

Verbal Reasoning :

“What have I done to deserve these questions?” This was the lament heard all around where verbal reasoning was concerned. The questions were only 19 in number, but since they were scattered throughout the paper, they seemed more than 19. Such questions have never before been seen in the CET. However, a student who had focused on the concepts of assumptions, conclusions and inferences would have found these questions manageable. A calm approach and a careful reading of these questions would have surely helped the students attempt this section with confidence instead of bemoaning their fate.

Overall, the paper can be classified as a difficult one. And what all the students need to remember is that it was difficult for everyone. Everyone is sailing in the same boat. Please do not get despondent about your performance in the paper as CET is a relative exam. What is more important is how you fared in comparison to the other aspirants. So, keep your chin up and start preparing for the next round, i.e., the GD and PI round.

After yesterday’s CET 2011 paper, the one question on everybody’s mind is “What will the cut-offs be ?” The average number of attempts has fallen this year and this will reflect on the cut-offs as well. Also, the students need to keep in mind that, because of the no negative marking, almost all the aspirants have attempted 200 questions. Hence, the questions which have been answered randomly will also carry some weight this year. We have calculated the cut-offs keeping these factors in mind and after assuming that the student will score 30 out 40 marks allocated to GD/PI, Past Academic Record and Work Experience.

Expected Cut offs for Top 10 colleges (Out of 200):

College Name Open OBC SC AI   Jamnalal Bajaj 135 119 112 129  Sydenham (MMS) 130 116 105 124  Sydenham (PGDMB) 126 115 105 122  K. J. Somaiya 123 NA NA 120 Welingkar 121 114 102 118  S.I.E.S. 118 NA NA 114 N. L. Dalmia 115 NA NA 112 PUMBA 115 110 102 110  MET 113 105 97 103  Bombay St. Xavier College 112 NA NA 103     All the best of luck to each and every one of you!