After much hoopla, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) conducted its first Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) today. Barring a few ‘wrong questions’ the exam was found to be fairly easy said aspirants, though the General Knowledge section was found to be a little more difficult than others.

“The CMAT paper seemed like an extension of the MAT paper to me. I found most sections, especially Data Interpretation (DI) comparatively easy. For me, the General Knowledge (GK) section was the most difficult,” said Krishna Pandey, a final year engineering student from Delhi who took the exam at a centre in Dwarka. He added that since the questions were simple, he was able to make a total of 80 attempts. “I wish more prestigious colleges were accepting CMAT scores,” he said, adding that he only appeared for the CMAT because he had filled up the form and did not want his money to go to waste.

Many CMAT takers admitted that CMAT’s first paper was ‘easier than expected.’ Nazarenu Fernandes, a final year B.E. Electronics and Telecommunication student of Goa Engineering College told PaGaLGuY, “The Quantitative section was very easy and I could solve 23 out of 25, of which I think I got only one wrong. All questions were simple and direct, just like Logical reasoning (LR). GK was a bit tricky, but then Verbal Ability (VA) was quite easy with one small passage.”

The experience was the same for two other B.E. final year Goa Engineering College students, Satyendra Kuvelkar and Tanmay Talak, both of whom aspire to get into Goa Institute of Management (GIM) through CMAT. They said, “We answered everything, and the paper was very easy. Only GK was a little tough, but Quantitative and LR section was a cakewalk.”

When PaGaLGuY contacted Aptech, the firm that is conducting CMAT, an official said, “We are pleased to inform that the first day of CMAT 2012 was concluded successfully. We had scheduled 12.9% of the total candidates on day 1 across the country and there was 83% attendance recorded at all the centre.”

CMAT takers seemed relaxed outside YMT College center, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. While most said that there were no glitches, a few were seen discussing incorrect questions. “CMAT was quite easy, compared to the other entrance tests. LR was the easiest, while the comprehension section in the Verbal Ability section was extremely time-consuming,” according to Kaustabh Kokane, final-year engineering student, at KGCE, Karjat. “Four questions were flawed, one of which was because the correct option was not provided,” he said.

Another test taker in that center, Tanmay Kothari, student of Bachelor in Accounting & Finance from Patkar College thought that ‘some questions seemed incorrect by themselves’. “As compared to the Common Admission Test (CAT), CMAT was easy. There was no section that could be termed as the toughest or the easiest, as all of them were balanced. I believe that CMAT might increase the number of questions from next year onwards, as there was plenty of time remaining, which is not the case in other entrance exams,” Tanmay said. Two, final-year Bachelor in Pharmacy, Mumbai University students, Sagar K and Priti Pawar said that LR and GK were not tough, if one compares it some other entrance exams.

In another center in Mumbai, at Durgadevi Saraf Institute of Management Studies, Malad, Varsha Ramnani, a final year B.Sc Microbiology student of Vivekananda Education Society, spoke highly of the infrastructure. “The infrastructure inside the examination hall was excellent,” she said. “All the things were explained and taken care of very well by the staff and the invigilators. The only problem was the allocation of the test centers. I stay at Vashi and I had to come all the way to Malad early morning. That was quite difficult. There was a boy in my center who had come all the way from Nagpur to write the test, since he did not get a centre in Nagpur.”

(By rail, which is the fastest in Mumbai, the distance between Malad and Vashi is anything between and hour and a half to two hours. Nagpur is a good 8-9 hours away from Mumbai).

Avez Ahmed, a final year B.Com student of National College, who took CMAT at the same centre said that the Quantitative section was ‘tough.’ “The passage in Reading and Comprehension (RC) section was too small and complicated, though LR and GK were good,” he said.

Inputs by Astha A