MICAT II – January 2023 Analysis

MICAT (MICA Admission Test) is the online entrance exam for PGDM-C/PGDM from MICA, Ahmedabad. Generally MICAT is held twice for admission to the batch in the ensuing year. MICAT-I is held in December and MICAT-II in January for the batch commencing a few months later in June/July.

MICAT II 2023 for 2023-2025 batch was held on January 28, 2023, from 9 AM to 11:15 AM.

Test Structure and the IMS estimate of good attempts:

• 1-Minute break between different sections
• Navigation between sections not allowed
• Section C carried 1 mark per question. – 0.25 for each incorrect response.
• No Negative Marks for the Psychometric Test and the Descriptive Test
• Psychometric Test is compulsory and the performance in the psychometric test is used as a qualifying criterion for the next stage. Candidates must attempt all the questions in the Psychometric Test to ensure that their paper is evaluated. However, the marks or the assessment criteria of the test are not revealed to the candidates.

VERDICT

MICAT II was considerably more difficult than the same last year. Students who have ‘cleared’ the Psychometric Test and secured an overall score of 25 in Sections C (i) to C (iv) can expect a call for the GE-PI round (subject to their fulfilling the other criteria specified at :  https://www.mica.ac.in/postgraduate-programme/selection-process-and-timelines

ANALYSIS BY SECTION

Section – A
PSYCHOMETRIC TEST

There were 150 questions in this section.

Apparently, there are no correct or incorrect responses in a psychometric test. Around 33  questions presented a situation/course of action and the test-taker had to mark either True or False. Around 117 questions  were about a particular personality trait or a course of action. which required the candidates to respond with one of the following 8 options.

• Totally Disagree
• Strongly Disagree
• Disagree
• Somewhat Disagree
• Somewhat Agree
• Agree
• Strongly Agree
• Totally Agree

Given that 150 questions were to be attempted in 30 minutes, it was necessary to work fast and mark the answer quickly.

Section – B
DESCRIPTIVE TEST

This section tested the analytical and descriptive writing ability and creative skills of test-takers. The first three questions were related to each other. The topic for the first three questions was “Light up.” For the first two questions, students had to write three points each, ‘for’ and ‘against’ the topic. These two questions carried 10 marks each.

In the third question, students had to write a 300 word answer to ‘Lighting up inhibits organizational efficiency and productivity. Present three ways in which young managers can avert this.’ The instructions stated that the points for the third question should not include the points stated in the first two questions. 20 marks were allocated to this question.

The fourth question in this section consisted of four pictures. Students had to write down a particular pictorial combination (A-B-C-D or D-C-B-A or any such combination) and explain it with the help of a story. The pictures were related to: ‘An artwork depicting the moon, the sky and trees; a logo showing two people grappling with each other; a man standing near a tractor; a running unicorn’. This question carried 30 marks.

This section was to be attempted in 25 minutes and carried no negative marking.

Section C

APTITUDE TEST

The aptitude test had 4 sub-sections with a total of 70 questions. These 70 questions had to be solved within 80 minutes. The test this time had a mix of questions with 8 and 4 options. This was a change from MICAT I of this year which also had a few questions with 5 and 6 options. In MICAT II, out of 70 questions, about 35 had 8 options.

(i) Sub-section: DIVERGENT AND CONVERGENT THINKING

The Reasoning section comprised 20 questions including word-association, analogies, statement-assumption, family tree questions using data sufficiency, groups and conditionalities, numerical odd one out, coding, circular arrangement and visual reasoning questions.

In this section, 9-10 questions (in about 25 minutes with  90 % accuracy) would be considered a good attempt.

(ii) Sub-section: VERBAL ABILITY

This section consisted of jumbled paragraphs, word pairs, paragraph completion(cloze), choosing the grammatically correct sentence questions, and one Reading Comprehension passage.

In this section, 9 – 10 questions (in about 15-20 minutes with 90% accuracy)  would be considered a good attempt.

(iii) Sub-section: QUANTITATIVE ABILITY AND DATA INTERPRETATION

There were 20 questions in the section, out of which 16 questions were on quantitative ability and 4 questions were on Data Interpretation. The Quantitative Ability section was dominated by 6 Arithmetic questions and 6 Geometry questions, followed by 4 questions on Modern Math. Overall, the section was Medium in terms of level of difficulty and it was one notch more difficult than the corresponding section last year. One important characteristic of this section was that 13 questions had 4 options and the remaining 7 questions had as many as 8 options.

There was one calculation intensive set on Data Interpretation involving two Pie Charts and a table with 4 questions.

Following was the break-up of the questions in the Quantitative Ability section:

In this section, an attempt of about 8-9 questions in about  30  minutes with around 90% accuracy would be considered good.

(iv) Sub-section: GENERAL AWARENESS

There was a reduction in the number of GK questions in this year’s test. The General Awareness section consisted of 10 questions. Out of the 10 questions, 7 questions were based on national issues while 3 were based on international topics. Also, all 10 questions were based on current affairs. 8 out of the 10 questions were table-based. Overall, the section was more difficult than that of last year’s MICAT.

In this section, an attempt of 4 – 5 questions in about 5-7 minutes with 70 % accuracy would be considered good.