The Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (Mah-CET) 2012 held on March 11, 2012 surprised many who took it. After a difficult paper in 2011, candidates had hoped that the last of the CET would be easy, however that was not the case. According to candidates who appeared for the test, Logical Reasoning and Visual Reasoning questions were ‘kind of twisted’ and the paper was lengthier than expected. Not everyone could even make their way to the last question.

As a result, the cut-offs this year for top b-schools under the CET are expected to drop to below 135, say coaching institutes.

Visual Reasoning

The VR section which was expected to be tough kept up its reputation by being the hardest to crac among all sections. Hardik Thapar, a final year engineering student said that VR was the trickiest and time-consuming as well. Suraj Rajshivraman, another candidate said that he found questions in this section so confusing that he kept the section for the last and eventually attempted only a few questions.

Logical Reasoning
The Logical Reasoning section wasn’t any easy either. Candidates said that LR tended to either make or break a persons final CET score and this years difficulty level indicated that it would bring down scores. Test-taker Monik Shah said, Logic took most of my time in the paper. I am still not sure if my answers are correct but since there is no negative marking, any bloopers shouldn’t affect my score. Another student Karan Goradia said that a cursory glance at the section in the beginning of the paper indicated to him that this was one tough paper.

Romal Arora, a biotechnology student who appeared for CET was disappointed. LR was the worst section in all. The framing of questions was so bizarre that it ultimately confused me and took most of my time and patience, he said.

Yet, some candidates begged to differ. “The paper was quite good, even though it was lengthy. The Verbal Ability (VA) section was easy for a change, in which the reading comprehension questions were a cakewalk. The analytical puzzles in the Logical Reasoning (LR) section were tough,” said Reena Jagtap, an engineering graduate from Bandra’s Father Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering.

Quantitative Aptitude
Quant was easier than in CET 2011, said most test-takers today. Nikhil Bhambri said, I solved a major chunk of quant questions and left a few questions for the end and finally guessed the answers on the remaining ones as time was running out. Most of my time had been wasted on logic. I couldnt manage my time in the paper, he said.

CMAT vs CET
Test-takers who had also taken the CMAT last month said that they clearly preferred the CMAT. Romal Arora said, CMAT can be the next CET provided it eases on its general knowledge section. Another Mah-CET test taker Monik Shah said that the CMAT was way better than CET except for the negative marking feature of the CMAT.

Ruchi Shah, another candidate said that this year’s Mah-CET had created a difficulty benchmark which would be hard for the CMAT to match.

What the coaching institutes thought

“It was one of the toughest Mah-CET question papers ever. The cut-off this year will descend to 135, in contrast to 145 in 2011 and 160 in the year before that,” said Rav Singh, director, CETking. “Plenty of questions in the data comparison in the QA and puzzles and input-output in the LR section were similar to last year, he added. Singh added that according to hearsay, there were incidents of invigilators not being present in the examination hall even till 2:15 pm at a center in Pune, while at one exam center the question paper was distributed at 2 pm, which was 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled time. In two other centers, there was rampant cheating going on, where students were discussing answers, or even consulting books for the purpose,” he said. Singh cautioned however that the above information had not come from confirmed sources.

“The paper was definitely tougher than the last year. While DI, LR and QA sections were tough, VA was doable,” said Patrick D’Souza, director, Quoin Academy. “There were two or three questions based on line-graphs and profit percentage in the Data Interpretation (DI) section that were incorrect. The cut-off is expected to come down to between 125 and 130, whereby students who score in this range have a good chance of making it to the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS),” he informed. JBIMS tends to be the most preferred b-school among those who appear for the Mah-CET.

Around 85,000 candidates were scheduled to appear for the Mah-CET on March 11, 2012. The actual turnout would however have been lesser.