September MAT Analysis

The first test of this examination season- MAT – conducted by the AIMA was held on 7th September 2008. The test had a mixed bag of questions without any sectional division and the questions ranged from easy to moderately difficult ones. Most of the questions of a particular area were clubbed together. Only the questions on General Knowledge were placed separately – in batches of 30 questions and 10 questions.

The test booklets were of different series – A to M.

Overall Test Structure

Area Wise Test Structure

1. Problem Solving
This was an area having the highest weightage in the entire paper. Arithmetic questions were found to be significantly more as compared to other areas. There were many questions on work, ages, profit & loss and partnerships. Questions from other areas were few and far between. Apart from a few questions of probability, questions were straightforward and anyone having good grasp over basics should have sailed through this section.

The detailed analysis of this section is given below:

2. Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency
After PS this was another area with a very high weightage in the paper. All the set consist of 2-3 diagram based data sets This can also be classified as a lengthy section as there were as many as 10 sets on Data Interpretation with total 39 questions and 2 sets on Data Sufficiency with total 8 questions. Data sets were conventional with simple calculations and direct questions. The table on “Trains from Howrah” was lengthy and time consuming and should have been avoided. The Venn diagram Set about “Asians professional males and females” was based on simple observation. It was a must attempt in this section as it carried 5 marks. Data Sufficiency questions were simple and the set on number comparison should have been attempted. Overall it was a simple section but judicious selection of sets and questions was critical.

3. Verbal Ability & Verbal Reasoning
The proportion of reasoning based questions was more in the paper. Most of the questions were reading intensive, for example, Jumbled Paragraph, Summary, Implicit Assumption. There were no grammar-based questions.
A detailed analysis of the types of questions is given below:

Analogy
The four questions in this set required one to identify a pair that had a similar relation to the stem pair. The questions dealt with very easy relations like that between ‘mosaic’ and ‘tiles’, ‘author’ and ‘manuscript’ and ‘saunter’ and ‘stroll’. Only one question that dealt with the relation between ‘libertine’ and ‘immorality’ required one to know the meanings of the words to arrive at the association.  Barring one question, the other three could be solved quite easily.

Course of Action
In these questions, one small situation was given followed by two possible courses of action and one had to decide the validity of the courses. One should have read the directions carefully before marking the answers because marking [1] would mean either of the courses is valid, marking [2] would mean only the second course is valid, marking [3] would mean only the first course is valid and [4] would indicate that none of the course is valid.  A student with an average reasoning ability would have found this set quite solvable.

Implicit Assumption
There were 4 questions in this set where one statement was given followed by two assumptions and one had to decide whether the assumption was implicit in the statement. One had to read the statements carefully in order to arrive at the answer. This set was moderately difficult because one would tend to get confused between implicit assumption and implicit statement. 

Fill in the Blanks (paired)
This set was quite easy because the options were not too tricky. In each case, the appropriate word for one of the blanks stood out so clearly that arriving at the correct answer was quite easy. The sentences were also not too intricate so understanding the context was quite easy.

Jumbled Paragraph
This set was moderately difficult because he sentences were lengthy and the options were deceptive. This was a time-consuming set, but once the link between two sentences could be established, arriving at the correct answer was quite easy.

Meanings of Idioms
Students with good vocabulary would have found this set quite easy. Four idioms were given and one had to select the appropriate meaning of the idiom from the options. The idioms that featured were: take umbrage, tempt providence, get down to brass tacks and ride hell for leather.

Syllogisms (three statements)
Each question had three parts A, B and C where each part had three statements. One had to identify the group where the information given was logical, i.e., where the third statement logically followed from the first two. In some cases, drawing Venn diagrams would have helped in arriving at the conclusion. This was a bit tricky set based on hardcore logic.

Syllogisms (identifying diagrams for the given sets)
In this set four diagrams were given followed by three questions where different sets were mentioned and one had to identify the appropriate diagram for each set. The sets were quite simple like birds, parrots, mice and teacher, student, college and nitrogen, ice, air.

Summary
All the four passages along with the options had appeared in CAT 2004 paper; hence the difficulty level of this set was far higher than the other questions in the MAT paper. The passages were loaded with information and the options were very close. Therefore, arriving at the correct answer was a tough job.  For an average student, this set would have taken a lot of time.

4. Reading Comprehension
This was a lengthy set because there were five passages and none of the passages were too short; most of them were at least one page long a one passage (one on DTH technology) was extremely lengthy.

The passages were easy to read but were quite lengthy. There was only one word based question in the whole set where one had to identify the meaning of the word ‘ineluctable’ from the context. Most of the questions were direct ones, i.e., they were clearly mentioned in the passage.
Many questioning the RC set had ‘all of these’ as the fourth option. The difficulty level was not at all high and the best strategy for this set would be to read the question first and them skim through he passage for relevant information instead of spending a lot of time in reading the passages.

5. Logical Reasoning
This area had a total of 11 questions. There were 2 sets and 4 independent questions in this section. The sets were on linear arrangement and input-output sequencing. These sets could have been avoided as they were time consuming and tricky. Ideally one should have attempted the 4 independent questions and moved on from this area. Of the 4 questions 2 were on blood relations and 2 on alphabet series.

6. General Knowledge
There were 40 questions in total and the dealt with very current news. There were four questions exclusively on Beijing Olympics 2008. There were questions on different awards like Magsaysay Award 2008 for community leadership, Rashtriya Krantiveer Award, Agricola medal, etc. There were questions on economy, science, business, politics, infrastructure, etc. A regular reader of newspaper would have found this set quite easy.

Overall, one could attempt 115 + questions in this paper and a key to success would be a judicious selection of questions coupled with good accu