TISSNET ANALYSIS

TISS-NET is a common screening test for all full time Masters Programmes across all the TISS campuses (Mumbai, Tuljapur, Guwahati and Hyderabad) and centres. It is aimed at short-listing candidates for Stage 2 based on differential cut-offs for different programmes depending on the number of seats, number of applicants and the scores secured by the candidates.

TISS NET 2020 was held successfully on Saturday, Feb 20th 2021 between 2.00 pm and 3.40 pm. The test was an online Computer Based Test. There were no surprises in terms of the overall structure of TISS NET this year.

Features of TISS NET

• Number of sections - 3
• Total Number of questions - 100
• Total Number of marks - 100
• Time duration - 100 min
• No sectional time limits and sectional cut offs
• No negative marks
• Each question had four options.

A break up of the three sections is given in the table below:

A detailed analysis of the sections is given below:

SECTION I – ENGLISH PROFICIENCY

This section comprised 30 questions, out of which there were 10 questions on Reading Comprehension and 20 questions on Verbal Ability, Vocabulary and Grammar.

Reading Comprehension:

The RC area had two passages with a total of 10 questions. Both passages were easy to read content wise. One of them had Critical Reasoning based Questions which were on the trickier side, the other had Data based Questions which were relatively easy.

RC Passage 1: The rise in popularity of OTT Platforms, particularly after the entry of international players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and HotStar.

RC Passage 2: Did coffee play a major role in ushering in the Age of Enlightenment?

Verbal Ability and Vocabulary:

The 20 questions in the VA/ Vocab/ Grammar areas were easy to moderate in terms of difficulty level. In Para Formation questions, the first line was kept constant, the remaining had to be arranged. Synonyms and Antonyms were asked both as stand-alone words and as underlined words in a sentence. There were Fill in the blanks with a single and with two blanks. In fact, in one FIB question, four different spellings of the word to complete the sentence were given, we had to choose the one with the right spelling. In Grammar, we had Error spotting and Fill in the Blanks that were preposition based, which were slightly on the trickier side. There were also 2 Critical Reasoning based questions. The one on Inferences was in the traditional CR format, with a paragraph and 4 options. The one on Conclusion had a Logical puzzle in the question, it was slightly on the Data sufficiency side.

The complete analysis of the English Proficiency section is provided below:

It would have been good to devote around 40 mins to this section. A good score for this could be around 22-23.

SECTION II – MATHS & LOGICAL REASONING

ONE SET OF DI-(4-5) QUESTIONS

TABLE WITH 3 VARIABLES AND CALCULATION AND OBSERVATION BASED QUESTIONS

This section was on the easier side. A score of around 20-25 would be good here, and the time allotted could have been around 40 mins.

SECTION III – GENERAL AWARENESS

This section comprised 40 questions, each carrying 1 mark. There were around 22 Current Affairs based Questions, 18 Static GK Based Questions. The areas tested were Government Policies, COVID 19 vaccines, Environment issues, Nobel Prize, Sahitya Akademi and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna winners, the Indian Freedom struggle, Books and Authors, the UN, etc. Of these, around 22-25 were easy, 15-18 were difficult. A student who was up to date with Current affairs would not have had any problem

A score of 20-23 would be a good benchmark. Attempting all GA questions would not have taken more than 20 minutes.

OVERALL IMPRESSION:

We, at T.I.M.E. propose the TISSNET 2021 cut-offs for the short-listing of candidates for 2nd stage for the M.A. (HRM) - Mumbai campus, General Category to be around 70-72.

The further timelines for the result and stage 2 are yet to be announced by TISS