Maharastra MBA CET 2008 – Paper Pattern and Analysis

T.I.M.E.  students who have been writing the All Maharastra MOCK CETs this year were thrilled after CET 2008 which was held on 17th FEB 2008. The paper pattern, the difficulty level and the types of questions had an uncanny resemblance to the MOCK papers.

A couple of areas that were expected however did not appear in this year’s CET, such as Input/Output flowcharts, Decision making and Paragraph forming (parajumbles). Students who prepared extensively through the MOCKS and Material of  T.I.M.E. would have been comfortable attempting the paper.

Students who came out of the exam hall were left with a feeling that though the paper was actually easy, thanks to the length of the paper the number of attempts that they finally made may be just less than required to reach the score to get into the best institutes under CET.

Students who have attended workshops of T.I.M.E. and went through the mocks felt that quite a lot of questions especially the area in Data Interpretation and Quant were almost exact replicas of the T.I.M.E. papers.

A quick preliminary analysis would put the required marks to get into the prestigious JBIMS at the written stage at around 143 +/- 2 for Mumbai Home University Students and around 153 +/- 2 marks for the Outside Maharastra Students (OMS).

CET 2008 Paper Pattern

Total Number of Questions : 200
Total Time allotted : 150 minutes
No. of Choices per question : 5 choices
Negative Marks : Not Present
Number of Sections : No sections – jumbled paper

Q Nos

Area

Type of Question

Level of Difficulty

1 to 10 Analytical Reasoning Logical questions on height, position,coding & decoding Easy
11 to 15 Analytical Reasoning Number series (find the wrong no from the series) Moderate and Easy
16 to 20 Analytical Reasoning Misc logic questions

Easy
21 to 30 Verbal Ability Grammatical errors Easy
31 to 35 Analytical Reasoning Misc logic questions Easy
36 to 40 Quantitative Ability Simplification (BODMAS) Moderate and Easy
41 to 45 Verbal Ability Logic and Verbal Analogies Easy
46 to 60 Verbal Ability Phras Replacement ( Grammar ) Moderate
61 to 65 Non Verbal Reasoning Visual Reasoning (Analogies) Moderate
66 to 70 Verbal Reasoning Probably True/Probably False Moderate
71 to 75 Non Verbal Reasoning Visual Reasoning (Analogies) Moderate
76 to 80 Quantitative Ability Comparison (Quant based) Easy
81 to 95 Verbal Ability Reading Comprehension Moderate to Difficult (Vocab was silly)
96 to 100 Analytical Reasoning Misc logic questions Easy
101 to 105 Analytical Reasoning Alpha numeric sequence questions Easy
106 to 110 Non Verbal Reasoning Visual Reasoning ( Complete the series ) Moderate
111 to 115 Quantitative Ability Probability Questions Very Easy
116 to 120 Data Interpretation Table - No of Students Appeared & Percentage Passed Lengthy but Moderate
121 to 125 Verbal Reasoning Assumptions Easy
126 to 130 Analytical Reasoning Deductions ( 3 statements ) Easy
131 to 135 Data Interpretation Line graph - Percentage increase in profits Easy
136 to 140 Data Interpretation Table - Department based Male/Female Distribution Moderate
141 to 145 Analytical Reasoning Mathematical Statements and Conclusions Moderate
146 to 150 Analytical Reasoning Coding Easy
151 to 155 Data Sufficiency 2 statements type Easy
156 to 160 Non Verbal Reasoning Visual Reasoning (Series with ?) Moderate to Difficult
161 to 165 Quantitative Ability Quant Areas (T&W, T&D, P&C, Area of Circle, SICI) Easy
166 to 170 Quantitative Ability Simplification (BODMAS) Easy when solved with help of Options
171 to 175 Non Verbal Reasoning Visual Reasoning ( Analogies ) Moderate
176 to 180 Data Interpretation Bar Graph - Info on Men, Women and Children Easy
181 to 185 Analytical Reasoning Analytical Puzzle Easy
186 to 190 Non Verbal Reasoning Visual Reasoning (Complete the series) Moderate
191 to 200 Verbal Ability Cloze Passage (Fill in the blanks) Easy to Moderate

In Short the same can be categorized as

AREA

No. of Questions

Analytical Reasoning

55

Verbal Reasoning

10

Non Verbal Reasoning

30

Data Interpretation

20

Data Sufficiency

5

Quantitative Ability

25

Verbal Ability

40

Reading Comprehension

15


MBA CET 2008 Analysis

Of all Management entrance papers, Maharastra MBA CET is probably the only paper which gives less emphasis on Quantitative ability and maximum importance to Reasoning. Also, the Non Verbal Reasoning part occurs in very few exams and it is significant in CET.

The same was true of the CET 2008 paper. It stuck closely to last year’s pattern, as far as Quant was concerned. Critical Reasoning (Verbal Reasoning) was much easier. The number of questions was reduced, and the difficulty came down to levels which made the candidates rather happy. Visual Reasoning had only two patterns: series and analogies. In series questions, the missing figure variation was of moderate difficult level, and the next figure type questions were easy. The analogy questions here were moderate. DI had two easy and two moderate sets. Of the verbal questions, the RC was more difficult than last year, but the other questions were simple.

In short, the paper was similar to both last year’s CET and to several of our mock CET’s. The marks required for admission to top institutes are expected to be a little higher this year.

One of the key problems in CET is that the marking on the OMR sheets has to be done with a PEN. That makes it very difficult for any changes to be made. There were a number of students who made mistakes in marking the answers.

The marks required in the CET written examination alone, for a seat in the best institutes, are likely to be the following:

Expected requirement for JBIMS (Home University Mumbai) – 143 +/- 2 marks Expected requirement for JBIMS (OMS category) – 153 +/- 2 marks

Expected requirement for Sydenham (Home University Mumbai) – 140 +/- 2 marks Expected requirement for Sydenham (OMS Category) – 152 +/- 2 marks

Expected requirement for KJ Somaiyya(Home University Mumbai) – 137 +/- 2 marks Expected requirement for KJ Somaiyya ( OMS category) – 150 +/- 2 marks

Expected requirement for Welingkar (Home University Mumbai) – 137 +/- 2 marks Expected requirement for Welingkar ( OMS category) – 150 +/- 2 marks