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[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

The results for the Symbiosis National Aptitude Test were declared on 12^th of January both on their website and also by individual mails to all the candidates.

The results can be accessed from this link.

The discussions regarding the results, are being carried out on this thread.

To go through the entire list of colleges offering programmes through SNAP score, you can visit this link.

The cut-offs last year for getting a call from SIBM Pune were as follows:

Section	General English	Quantitative & Data Interpretation& Data Sufficiency	General Awareness	Analytical & Logical Reasoning	Overall
Category
Open	23.75	22	8.5	39	107
SC	15.75	11.75	4.25	25.5	72.75
ST	13	7.5	3	18.5	46
KM	21.75	17	7.5	34.5	90
DA	12	7.75	4	20.5	65.75

For SCMHRD, the profile based calls were given to candidates getting as low as 93 marks while the blanket calls were given to applicants scoring above 113 marks.

The shortlist of selected candidates will be put up by SIBM-Pune on the 18^th of January and the Group Interaction and Personal Interaction of SIBM Pune will be done from the 5^th February to 9^th February, 2011. The process is done in Pune only.

For SCMHRD, the Shortlist for Group Interaction and Personal Interaction will be declared on 20th January, 2011. The Group Discussion and Personal Interview will be carried out from the 5^th of February to 12th February, 2011.

For SIBM-Bangalore, Declaration of shortlisted candidates for GD/PI will be out on January 24, 2011. The GD/PI commences from February 10, 2011 onwards and the final merit list will be displayed on March 14, 2011

For information on rest of the processes, you can visit the particular institutes website.

[laj (Lajwanti D'Souza)]

And there were those who almost topped who missed the 100 percentile score by a whisker, yet none of these regret not being one of the top of the rung toppers. In fact, they are more than pleased at being in the 99 plus percentile batch.

Shraddha Mehta from Bits Pilani Goa who scored a 99.99 is perfectly happy with her score. No way, I am happy with my score. It does not really make such a difference at the end you know. Between a 100 percentile and a 99 percentile.

Shraddha makes sense since she has already got calls from IIM A, C, S, L, R just like the 100 per centilers.

Shraddha Mehta

Like the total toppers, Shraddha also did not expect to get such a rocking score. I knew I would do well but a 99.99 was unexpected, she said. Shraddha saw her marks this morning at 7.00 am to confirm whether it was indeed 99.99 and immediately called up her mother and other family all based in Hyderabad.

Shraddha worked hard on prep work for a month before the exam. She gave a mock every day and changed her strategy everyday to suit new problems. That gave me the confidence to do well finally, she said.

As of now, Shraddha definitely wants to do her MBA and get into investment banking after that but as and when her Gujarati genes get the better of her, she will definitely venture out into her own business.

For Abhishek Bhatia, the score of 99.98 per centile was really something since he was expecting in the region of 99.5. Abhishek, for whom this was the fifth CAT attempt, checked his result at 1.00am and was overjoyed. Having seen so many CAT exams, this was truly the best of them all, he said.

Unlike other years when he prepared for CAT, this year Abhishek focussed on accuracy and that, he says, made a difference to his score. He also gave more time to VA during the exam since Quant was anyway easy for him and that also worked in his favour. .

Like Shraddha, even Abhishek is not unhappy that he did not score a 100 percentile as he has already got calls from Ahmedabad and Calcutta. In the long run, the 99.98 percentiler wants to work in a consulting firm and in the analysing department and later work as a consultant.

Arshdeep Kaur, who also got a 99.98 per centile knew she had done very well but having heard of how things have been happening in the computerised version of the exam was not sure of her results. So, when she checked her results at 12.30 am this morning, she was relieved.

It was a good feeling that it was to my expectations. The first person I told was my mother and she was very proud, said Arshdeep.

When asked what she would do if she had not scored well in CAT and not got calls, she simply said she would sit for the other exams and hope to do well in them.

The young girl already has calls from IIM A, C, L, S and R and that has given her confidence a tremendous boost... When asked what she wants to do eventually in life, Arshdeep said it is better to take things one at a time. I am, more than anything is excited to go to a b-school. I dont know what to expect from a b-school so would first like to experience b-school life and then think ahead.

Saranyan Sukumar netted a cool 99.92 percentile today and was happy since his CAT score last year was 99.22. I had no expectations. I did not take the pressure while studying either. In fact, I did not prepare much so the result really made me happy.

Saranyan is not one bit perturbed that he could have made it to the 100 per centile bracket. It is absolutely not a problem. I am happy with what I have, he said.

When asked what he wanted to do further in life, post MBA that is, Saranyan had a unique answer. I love to be with books. May be in the publishing line but definitely with books. I think there is far more talent in India than Chetan Bhagat and that is what I will explore, Saranyan concluded.

Rinkesh Yadav

Rinkesh Yadav who took the CAT exam the first day, first slot is thorougly a relieved person. After having sat for the exam the very first day and taking a lot of flak from those who told him it was a wrong decision since he would not get the benefit of knowing how other fared and prepare himself, he has proved all wrong. He has been celebrating since morning and after making time for calls and email from relatives and friends, he has decided to go for a movie later in the day. "I can't tell you how happy I am. I have already got calls from IIM C and L and have decided to make the most of every moment henceforth," he told Pagalguy.

[laj (Lajwanti D'Souza)]

While many partied all through yesterday after getting their CAT results, a few closed themselves to the world, trying to find an answer to just one question what did I do wrong? These were those who expected to do well and are generally among the brainy lot with regards to other MBA entrance exams.

Abhishek Sivarana from Pune is sad. He expected to do very well but just got in the region of a 90 percentile. The system is flawed. I was definitely expecting a better score, he said.

Today the IIMs have a monopoly. They can pick and chose who they want but candidates like us do not have so much of a choice, especially those of us who thought we deserved better scores, he added.

Having the faintest hopes of re-evaluation, Abhishek is now looking forward to converting IIT-B and IIFT calls. There are good b-schools too and will hope I am able to get in, he sighed.

Priyabrata Bisoi has got a 95.6 percentile and is at a loss explaining his score card to himself, forget his family and friends. He is sure that normalisation has got the better of him. I was in a difficult slot and I know things have gone wrong because of normalisation but what can be done.

Priyabrata has not yet decided what to do as he is in too much of a shock but will take a decision in the next few days.

Other candidates who are usually toppers but fared badly this time say that the transition from pen-paper test to the computer format makes a big difference in the final scores. Explains Shashank Prabhu, CET topper who scored a 93 percentile this time: The difference between when CAT was held on paper and now is the narrow range most of the good candidates fit into. In 2008, the difference in marks between the 100 percentiler and a 99.5 percentiler was around 60-70 marks out of 360. This year, the difference between a 100 percentiler and a 93 percentiler is more than 100 marks out of 450. With the number of questions going down from 90 to 60 and the marks per question apparently increased, the competition has become cut-throat. A mistake or two can take the score down by 10-20 marks thus taking the candidate about 2000 places back.

The lack of transparency with regards to normalisation is an issue everybody spoke about this season be it a topper or someone who fared badly in the exam. Many of those who have fared poorly say that it is obvious that normalisation has been carried out aptly for many of the slots. But for some of the slots where the difficulty level was high or when there were wrong questions, skewed sectionals have been seen, said another candidate who had also hoped to rock this years CAT exams.

Sanjay Gandhi from Pune has got a 62.87 and is almost in shock. He was one of those who first spoke about wrong questions during teh season. "Last year at least I had got a call from Wellingkar, Bangalore with 77 percentile but this year, I can expect nothing," he said.

He too blames the normalisation totally for the debacle. "At least the process should be transparent, then we would know where things went wrong," he pleads.

And Tarun Tiwari from Jamshedpur who has scored a 99.44 percentile also thinks he has been slightly wronged. Though a 99 percentiler, Tarun is down. I was expecting much more. My score is definitely not what I should have got. He has not got any calls so far but is hoping to net one soon. Taruns other worry is that his XAT exam was also very difficult. He is hoping things change for him in the coming days and weeks and he is able to convert at least one reputed college.

[laj (Lajwanti D'Souza)]

Click on the link to know how CAT authorities officially marked CAT papers. CAT authorities have recently added this link after issues like normalisation and psyhcometrics became hot topics of discussion after the results were declared on January 12, 2011. Let us know if you find the answers you are looking for.

http://www.catiim.in/dev_scorind_equityprocess.html

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

Folks, this year's edition of PaGaLGuY GD-PI Connect is now up. Those with Group Discussion and Interview Calls can start using it to know who else will be in the same slot as them.

Once you get in touch with others in your slot, you can help each other prepare better and share resources, or just become friends with them so that you are not faced with complete strangers when you land up for your GD-PI.

We will keep adding b-schools to PG Connect as their results are declared.

Link to PaGaLGuY GD-PI Connect - http://www.pagalguy.com/connect/

Here is a screen-by-screen walk-through of some of the main features of PaGaLGuY GD-PI Connect (from hereon referred to simply as PG Connect).

1. Once you direct your browser to http://www.pagalguy.com/connect/, you'll be taken to your profile on PG Connect. You can 'Add GD-PI Details' to reach a form that looks like the image below.

Be careful about entering information, though. If you don't have a GD-PI call but still enter it, someone will do a 'Report Abuse' on you and we'll be too happy to see you banned from PaGaLGuY. So don't test-drive and be good samaritans!

2. Once you add a GD-PI schedule, you'll immediately see people with the same slot. Do a 'Show all' to see the complete list.

3. If you don't have a GD-PI call, you may still browse through the list of people with GD-PI calls in various schools.

4. By clicking on a b-school, you can see all the PaGaLGuY members with a GD-PI call from that school along with their venues and schedules.

So that's what PaGaLGuY Connect essentially is - a matchmaking application for GD-PI call-getters. Wish you all the best for your group discussions and interviews!

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

Now is the time of the year that your email and SMS inboxes will start getting flooded with advertisements from private business schools. For many of you, these advertisements may also uncover options that you hadn't considered or heard of. But beware, as this is also the time that b-schools go on an overdrive to fill up their seats, often making claims that are roundabout or sound too good to be true. Here are some clues that you can use to call their bluff so that you know what you are getting into.

1. Ask for explicit disclosure of the nature of the degree offered - Many private b-schools offer a 2-year fulltime course (with lectures and placements) but give you a distance-learning degree affiliated to private or state universities at the end of it. These degrees are usually correspondence MBA degrees from universities such as Sikkim Manipal University, Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Madurai Kamraj University and many more. If the b-school hasn't been explicit about the exact nature of degree it is offering, ask it. If you feel that the school is avoiding being upfront about the degree, stay away from having anything to do with the school.

2. Beware of university-affiliated PGDM - All recognized Universities and Deemed Universities in India have the legal power to offer full-fledged Master's degrees. So if any b-school is offering a Post Graduate Diploma in Management affiliated to a University, something is definitely amiss. An example is the Pune University PGDM that is offered by several b-schools in and around Pune. Unlike the AICTE-approved PGDM, the Pune University PGDM is not a full-fledged MBA-equivalent Master's degree. Its eligibility requirements clearly state that you don't even need a Bachelor's degree, either of passing class XII or having an engineering diploma is enough. So you may join a b-school that offers this degree and even get placements in the end, be aware that this degree will not allow you to pursue further studies.

3. "100% placements assistance", "Placement partners" - Even the IIMs have stopped talking about guaranteed or 100% placements, so for a private b-school to do so begs for skepticism. These days, a lot of b-schools are tying up with job consultancy companies or job-portals to find jobs for their MBA students --- something you can do independently too. Others have the audacity to list every corporate visitor to their campus as a recruiter. There are also horror stories of b-schools bribing junior HR staff of companies to take their students as trainees for a couple of months under the gard of a placement. For these reasons and more, it is best to check the placement claims of a b-school with existing students or alumni.

4. Check faculty credentials - Beware of b-schools that rely too much on visiting faculty. A b-school that is shying away from hiring a healthy amount of fulltime faculty is basically pocketing your money without giving you the rigour expected of a post-graduation program. Also, ask the b-school clearly how many of their faculty are fulltime and how many visiting. Among the visiting faculty, ask how many attend for just one lecture and how many teach for an entire course. You might end up being surprised how ill-staffed the b-school is. Stay away from b-schools that are being ambiguous about their faculty breakup.

5. Specialised MBA - Any good general MBA program offers elective courses in the second year wherein you can study advanced subjects about a particular industry sector. Which makes the specialised MBA (such as retail MBA) a scam of sorts, because you can study specialised subjects in the second year even in a general MBA. The trouble is, that a specialised MBA forces you to narrow your career choices from the word 'go'. Unless you are extremely passionate about a particular industry sector, there is no good reason to join a specialised MBA. Actually, a lot of private b-schools offer Retail Management MBA in order to hide their inability to hire anyone other than marketing faculty. Since marketing faculty are available aplenty (mid-level sales managers of companies acting as visiting faculty and making some money on the side), b-schools find a convenient way to spin off a Retail Management MBA and make some additional money from the fees. So unless the b-school has a history of commitment to a particular sector (such as Mudra Institute of Communications, National Insurance Academy, etc), chances that you'll get good education in a specialised MBA are less.

6. Direct GD-PI call - Often, you might get a call from a b-school saying that they are offering you a direct jump to the GD-PI stage. The b-school has probably gotten hold of your contact information from your coaching institute or from the database of entrance tests sold illegally in the black market. In case you do attend the GDPI and find that everyone around you is clearing the various stages, then the GDPI is clearly an eyewash. Do realise that by joining such a school you may not be satisfied with the quality of your classmates as the school gives admission to anything and anyone that walks.

7. Scholarships - In the olden days, scholarships used to be given to the very select few who had achieved something very exceptional in their past. But for several private b-schools these days, scholarship is another name for 'discount'. You may want to think why a b-school is treating education like an electronics outlet treats washing machines, and whether it in any way also reflects how it will treat the two years that you will spend in it.

Remember, b-schools that fall in the above mentioned categories may not be bad options. But if the schools aren't transparent about the limitations of what they are offering or are being ambiguous by hiding behind sweet-sounding marketese, you know you need to be careful.

Also see: 14 b-school USPs that MBA aspirants dont care about much

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

Starting with this feature, Pagalguy is starting a month-long series of articles on how to crack the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET). These are being written by Shashank Prabhu, based on his experiences of topping it last year. In case you missed the update, the Maharashtra CET 2011 will be held on February 27, 2011. Hope you all find these articles useful.

This article deals with the Reading Comprehension and Fill-in-the-Blanks questions which make regular appearance in the CET.

Both types of questions feature in almost all MBA entrance tests. But in the CET they form a bulk of the questions and are a bit easier than in other tests. The CET requires you to solve 200 questions in 150 minutes and of these the Math problems invariably take the most time to solve. So solving 'Fill in the blanks' and Reading comprehension quickly gives you a good chance at scoring a good chunk of marks in the least possible time. The saved-time can be used to solve the tougher visual reasoning and quant calculation-based questions.

Reading Comprehension

The basics remain the same. A passage is followed by a set of related questions. While most other entrance tests have 4-5 questions per passage, the CET attaches a fat 15 questions to a single passage. The passages are general and not that verbose but with the clock ticking, one becomes prone to making silly mistakes in reading the questions or comprehending them.

The passages are moderate in length and of the 15 questions, nine are based on the facts and inferences in the passage while the remaining six questions are based on synonyms and antonyms of selected words in context of the passage. The words appear in bold in the passage for easy recognition.

The thing to remember is that the synonym or antonym of words must be in context of the passage, and not of the word's absolute meaning. So if the options appear very close to each other in meaning, one can eliminate the wrong answer by judging the harshness or the impact which the word makes in the specified sentence of the passage.

The questions based on facts and inferences are pretty straightforward and a cursory glance is usually enough to spot the correct answer. A few questions might require you to make inferences and so if there are close options, it can be confusing. These questions can raise the overall difficulty level of the questions to 'above average'.

You can use many strategies here. You could first read the passage and then answer the questions, or you could read the questions first and then search for the answers in the passage, or combine both these methods by first quickly glancing through the passage and then reading the questions to find their answers. With most questions being factual rather than interpretative, the first strategy would be a better bet. However, the best strategy is the one which suits you the best. So experiment around and zero in on a strategy that works for you.

Another common question is --- at what stage of the exam should one attend the reading comprehension questions? To that I would say that if you usually take longer time to solve a passage, better to first solve a few other questions and gain confidence before attempting reading comprehension. But if you consider yourself to be very good at it, I'd suggest that you solve the 15 questions of reading comprehension within 10 minutes right at the start of the test and strive for at least 12 correct answers.

What I've written above is based on the pattern observed in the CET since several years. Just in case CET decides to change the pattern of reading comprehension questions this year and gives you two or three short passages with the questions split equally across, the basic strategy remains the same though the material to read will increase.

Multiple fill-in-the-blanks

This type of questions is also common in many aptitude tests. But while other tests center these questions around vocabulary, prepositions, conjunctions, idioms and such, the CET tests if one can get the essence of the paragraph right and fill the blanks with words which are grammatically appropriate and complete the passage from a logical standpoint.

The words are not very difficult to comprehend and are drawn from our day-to-day usage. However, confusion happens if more than one word means the same thing. At such times you have to gauge the tone of the passage --- whether it is harsh or easy going and neutral. This can help you eliminate the extreme options. Also, the word that you feel is the correct answer should fit into the blank as it is without the need to add any additional preposition, change tense, etc. If something isn't fitting as it is, it is not the correct answer. After selecting the answer, quickly read the completed sentence again and check to see if it is grammatically perfect.

There is no need to mug up word-lists at this point in time. If one has a regular reading habit and sufficient common sense, one can breeze through these questions. One strategy you can use is to first read the entire passage and then think of words you would fit into the blanks if no options were given. After that, take a look at the answer options and fill in the one that you'd thought of or the one which is closest in meaning to the word you'd have liked to fill in place of the blank. One way to not make errors is to read the passage again after filling in all the options. If it doesn't sound right, review the answers. Overall, solving a caselet of 10 questions should ideally take around 6-7 minutes.

Both the reading comprehension and fill in the blanks types of questions take around 15 minutes to complete in total and the rewards are huge. It is not that difficult to attain high accuracy on these questions and so getting 20 on 25 is certainly possible.

All the articles posted on CET 11 prep can be accessed through this link.

Cracking Maharashtra CET 2011

If you would like to suggest to me the topics and subjects I should cover in the Maharashtra CET article series, you can email me at [email protected].

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

The results of the written test which was conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (TISS) on 12th December 2010 are out on their website. You can access the results from here:

http://results.tiss.edu/

Candidates need to keep their registration numbers handy while accessing the result.

The thread for the discussion of results has been created here:

TISS 2010 results out

The thread for discussions pertaining to the Human Resources Management & Labour Relations' call getters has been opened here:

TISS HRM & LR Call getters Discussions

The cut-off for the HRM & LR programme is 45 marks out of 75.

For people who have got calls for other programmes, a thread has been created here:

TISS Call Getters (MSW and others)

Congratulations to all the call getters.

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

Being relatively new to market economy, we in India have for long centered quality measurement around accreditations with a rather low bar. Does your electrical appliance meet the minimum safety standards? Do factories have basic minimum safety conditions for workers? Do our business schools meet the minimum standards of infrastructure, faculty, number of books in the library?

This hasn't worked very well for us. Our best business schools have stagnated after climbing just a few notches above the bare minimum All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) norms, while for the remaining majority meeting that bar has been an end in itself in the pursuit of quality. Our best business schools have failed to reach much success in achieving international accreditations such as AACSB or EQUIS, and it's not like they haven't tried.

Amidst this, two private credit rating agencies have announced that they will grade Indian management institutes. Of these two, Credit Analysis and Research (Care) is yet to launch their business school rating while global rating agency Standard & Poor-owned CRISIL has already published gradings of 30 business schools. B-schools such as Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) and SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (both Mumbai-based) have received the highest grading (A***) in the CRISIL gradings while the Institute of Business Studies and Research (IBSAR) at Navi Mumbai is graded lowest (B).

B-schools that want to get graded will have to voluntarily approach CRISIL, who will then evaluate the b-school based on their industry interface, governance, student selection process, infrastructure, faculty, curriculum, research and student outcomes by visiting the school. Eventually, the b-school will get a national and a state-level grading on an eight-point scale the highest of which will be 'A***' and the lowest 'B'. CRISIL will charge the b-school a fee for the grading.

Unlike accreditations which are given if a b-school satisfies a set of criteria, the CRISIL gradings will be given for relative excellence. In other words, accreditations tell you whether a b-school is 'good enough' whereas gradings seek to portray 'how good' the b-school is.

What we liked about the CRISIL b-school gradings

1. The grading compiles standard statistical information about graded b-schools --- faculty strength and experience, class composition, ability of the school to fill its capacity, recognition, etc --- all at one place. You can get this information anyway from the b-school's website or brochure, but on CRISIL's compendium it seems to have undergone some intelligent post-processing and is presented in a uniform structure so that you can compare between different schools.

2. The grading is valid for one year --- it gives b-schools an incentive to improve and work towards a better grading next year. On the flipside, a lot of shady schools will secure a favourable-sounding grading and despite it having expired, continue to advertise it for years.

What we didn't like about the CRISIL b-school gradings

1. The eight-point scale is misleading. The highest grading that a school can get is 'A***', followed by 'A**', 'A*', 'A', 'B***', 'B**', 'B*' and 'B' which is the lowest grade. Which means that a lot of really shady b-schools will be able to get away by claiming to be 'B' grade schools, which doesn't sound too bad to someone who does not understand CRISIL's scale. This practically renders the grading impotent and unusable as far as MBA aspirants are concerned, lakhs of whom will take 'B' to be an above-average grade and stand to make skewed decisions, not knowing that CRISIL does not grade b-schools 'C' or 'D'.

It is difficult to imagine that the technical details of CRISIL's grading system will become common public knowledge, given that every year, CRISIL has a few lakhs new MBA aspirants to educate its scale system to. The ratings scale therefore is too biased in favour of the b-schools that are paying for it, than towards its largest consumers.

2. The grading system is not transparent. Several b-school grades just don't add up. Consider the following table,

	IBSAR, Navi Mumbai	Indus Business School, Pune	Skyline Business School, Gurgaon
Fulltime faculty	33	6	4
Median teaching experience	5 years	5 years	5 years
Median industry experience	7.5 years	3 years	10 years
Visiting faculty	22	20	22
Average batch work experience	14 months	6 months	Not available
Percentage of female students	40%	26%	20%
Student-faculty ratio	12:1	20:1	Not meaningful
Placements	95%	First batch yet to graduate	80%
In existence since	2005	2010	1997
Recognitions	A university which is part of the 44 deemed universities under government scanner	AICTE	None
CRISIL National Grading	B	B**	A

On all statistical grounds, IBSAR appears to have better staffed and more experienced faculty, more diverse batch, better student-faculty ratio and better placements than either Indus Business School or Skyline Business School. Yet, it gets the lowest grade on CRISIL's scale. Seems like being affiliated to a controversial university went against it (so much that it pushed the school right to the bottom). But isn't that better any day than Skyline, which runs without any recognition?

According to CRISIL, "CRISIL's Business School Gradings service does not seek to merely judge the ability of an institution to provide quality education, but to assess if students have indeed gained quality learning experiences from the management programme." If that is the case, then the grading accorded to the less-than-one-year-old Indus Business School is indeed questionable.

It would do well for CRISIL to be more transparent about the findings that result in a grading and be open about what qualitative insights led a grading to so completely defy quantitative data. Without such transparency, more such gaping anomalies may turn the CRISIL gradings as untrustworthy in the public as are the several inexplicable magazine b-school rankings in the market.

3. Some components of the grading do not reflect the segmented nature of India's b-schools. The vast majority of India's management institutes do not qualify to be business schools in the same manner as the top b-schools are. They are more like finishing schools, doing the job that undergraduate colleges ought to have done --- teaching communication skills, dressing in formals, English lessons, using Microsoft Word --- and producing individuals who could loosely fit into junior-level sales roles. Can one really grade them using the same parameters as proper full-fledged business schools?

Take student diversity for example, which forms an important component of CRISIL's grading. "CRISIL believes that for management programmes, student diversity is a critical enabler of peer learning and therefore, of an enhanced learning environment," says CRISIL in its brochure.

The reasoning is theoretically sound, except that there are no benefits of diversity if the batch isn't selected on merit. And in the vast majority of b-schools, while the student composition might look more diverse, it's not out of choice that the school ends up with a diverse class. These schools have to struggle to admit just about anyone (haven't we heard of 'direct GD-PI calls?) by throwing merit to the wind. The so-called peer-learning in a batch with widely varying intellectual abilities is therefore questionable, diversity or not. Using premier b-school parameters to gauge finishing schools is a lot like judging a car using parameters used for airplanes and pretending that everything is alright.

Another example. At least one b-school in the CRISIL gradings runs another b-school on the side which offers a distance-learning MBA degree under the garb of a fulltime program. Both b-schools share some common faculty members. Shouldn't the student-faculty ratio in such b-schools also account for the students from this side-business-school that the faculty has to also teach?

Even a b-school like SP Jain Institute of Management Research, Mumbai sends its faculty to its branches in Dubai and Singapore to teach entire courses. The student-faculty ratio in the grading does not account for this.

4. Placement data used in the gradings is questionable. The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi is graded A*** in the CRISIL gradings and is said to have had a median salary of Rs 11.5 lakhs in the 2008-10 placements, which were 100%. CRISIL does not reveal that the first figure (Rs 11.5 lakhs) also includes dollar converted salaries from international placements (IIFT releases combined domestic+international salary as a policy). Nor does it reveal that three students opted out of placements in 2010, a data point that it discloses for the Pune-based FLAME School of Business and FLAME School of Communication. Similarly, there have been opt-outs in other schools such as XIM Bhubhaneswar and SP Jain. Post-recession, only those b-schools with very small batch sizes have had 100% placements. These inconsistencies question the accuracy and consistency of the raw data used to calculate the CRISIL gradings.

I do not want to sound like I am nitpicking. But the obsession with MBA placements has been the biggest factor leading to the qualitative decay of India's management education industry, the very reason we need gradings such as CRISIL's. But if the grading is going to feed us the same hype and propagate the same myths that we need to look beyond, does the grading not lose all reason to exist?

B-school rankings calculated using objective data have succumbed to the same pitfall of inaccurate data and have lost relevance due to decreasing public trust.

For a market befuddled with the mushrooming of b-schools, a product such as the CRISIL b-school gradings has the potential to add a lot of value. But in our opinion, at this point of the time gradings at best serve to compile statistical information about b-schools while succumbing to some of the same pitfalls as b-school rankings. As far as the actual grading is concerned, CRISIL will have to devise a more user-friendly scale and a more no-nonsense data gathering capability in order to be known for a gradings that are taken seriously beyond the academic circle.

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

Both these topics are frequently encountered in CET papers and are very confusing if not downright impossible to crack. These topics (including others such as Visual Reasoning, parajumbles, etc) are where candidates lose marks in CET. Last year, the subjective questions had options which weren't close and so, were solvable by elimination. But things can be different this year.

Implicit Assumptions, Conclusions and Inferences (Critical Reasoning)

These questions used to be a nightmare for candidates before last year. In CET 2010 however, the questions were easy to comprehend and option elimination would get them to the right answers pretty quickly. This might be one of the reasons for the rise in CET cut-offs last year.

The questions can be a single stand-alone question or a short passage followed by a set of 2-3 questions asking to identify the assumptions, conclusions and inferences.

Understanding an assumption is easier as compared to the other two. An assumption is something which is at the root of an argument. It is the basis of an argument, something which is understood or is supposed to be understood by the reader. To spot the assumption, one has to understand what the crux of the paragraph is and what is the main point of the entire paragraph. The crux of the paragraph takes into account some bit of knowledge which is the assumption. Easy to spot, the answers to these kind of questions can be found by eliminating options.

The problem comes when the question asks for an inference and a conclusion. While, broadly speaking, the terms mean the same and the options would not be similar, there is a subtle difference between the two. While there has been plenty of literature written about both the terms, in CET, both the terms can be used interchangeably if the options are different. In case, the options are same with only the terms conclusion and inference being changed in the question, one can go with the fact that an inference is a partial conclusion and not the central conclusion of the paragraph. It is something which can be derived from the information given and has not been mentioned in the paragraph.

Probably True/Probably False Questions:

Another of the confusing type of questions, these type consists of a paragraph followed by five statement questions. One has to ascertain if the statements are definitely true, probably true, irrelevant, probably false or definitely false in the context of the paragraph. The explanation is very simple for this but then, the statements are such that, it is difficult to say if the statement is probably true/false.

A definitely true statement is one which is there in the paragraph and/or can be deduced without any application of dense logic.

A definitely false statement is one, which is contradicted explicitly in the passage. Again, like a definitely true statement, a no brainer.

The probably true/probably false statements are the most difficult to differentiate between and here, you need a bit more application of logic to get through. The probably true statements are those, which are definitely not false and could have been true for sure if there were some more information given. Similarly, the probably false statements are those, which are definitely not true but the passage lacks that additional bit of information to classify them as outright false statements.

The irrelevant statements are easy to spot and go on a tangent to what is there in the passage. They might have a keyword from the passage but, the idea which they convey is totally different from what the purpose of the keyword in the passage is.

But then, these are rigid rules and what is expected from the candidate by the CET paper setters might be different from what we think. It's not the questions which are difficult but the fact that, they are open to multiple interpretations that makes them the nightmare they are.

Strategy:

As, CET focuses primarily on speed and the ability to leave a dubious question and going for the easier ones, it is better to leave these questions in the first round of attempting. At the end of the day, in CET 2009, one had to score around 135-145 marks to get a sure-shot entry into the top 5 colleges and last year, one had to get around 150 for the same in 150 minutes. That amounts to scoring a mark per minute on an average. Attempting a set from these areas doesn't guarantee marks and eats into a candidate's time. So, if you encounter a set of such questions right at the start of the paper, it would not be a bad idea to skip the set of questions and come back later in case one has time left.

All the articles posted on CET 11 prep can be accessed through this link.

Cracking Maharashtra CET 2011

Coming up will be an article on how to tackle Visual Reasoning. Any specific areas you want me to touch up on, you can drop a mail to [email protected]

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

Of the few topics unique to CET, Visual Reasoning accounts for 15% of the total marks in the paper. Perceived as difficult and the difference between getting admitted to a Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) and a Sydenham Institute of Management Studies and Research and Entrepreneurship Education) , this section has endless possibilities and no amount of practice can guarantee that one will score 25+ in this part of the paper.

Patterns:

The thing to notice in these types of questions are the changes in the elements. An element is a smaller part of the entire figure in question. The elements can change in various ways - some of the common questions are listed below: only found questions in CET use are:

1. Addition of an element or addition to an existing element: Here, either, a new element is added to the existing set of elements or an element in the original figure is modified by addition of a part (addition of a line, increasing the number of sides, increase in the angle between two lines by a certain margin, etc.)




2. Deletion of an element or deleting a part of an existing element: Here, it's the exact opposite of addition. An entire element is removed from the figure or a part is reduced/removed.




3. Change of an element: In this, the entire element is replaced by a completely new element. The new element added might not have a logical relationship with the one it replaces.




4. Movement: The movement of the element can be either in the clock-wise or the anti-clockwise direction. The movement can be through a certain angle (commonly 45 or 90 degrees).




5. Image: The new element can be an image of the original element. The images can be of two types. Water image is one wherein, the image is a reflection of the image in water i.e. with respect to a horizontal axis. Mirror image is one, where, the reflection is around a vertical axis as it would be seen in a mirror.

The questions come in the following forms:

Analogies:

This is one of the easier sub-types of questions commonly seen in the test. It is similar to the verbal analogy questions. The instructions are clear cut and one has to find a relationship between the two question figures and look for similar transitions in the answer figures.

The questions here can range from simple changes in one figure (increase/decrease in number of sides, change in direction of a single element, etc.) to complex questions wherein, there are multiple elements and each element undergoes a change. In case you have multiple elements to deal with, you can assign numbers to the individual elements and then see if there is some change in the positions of the numbers. Tracking one element at a time is easier to do than keeping in mind the changes occurring to many elements. The process takes time and that's why Visual Reasoning questions are not exactly popular amongst the candidates.

Missing image and series:

Here, there can be two types of questions. Either, the end figure might be missing or one of the middle figures might be replaced with a question mark. The basics remain the same. Spot the connection, apply it to the previous/proceeding figures and then do a bit of reverse engineering. The thing to do here to make matters easy would be to compare a small set of three consecutive 'right' figures and then see the logical connections.

Odd man out:

In these type of questions, a series of images is given out of which, one particular figure is not consistent with the others. Again the questions might be devoid of any complexity and consist of one or two elements at max or they can be complex with many elements. Again, the things to do remain the same as that in the missing image questions. Taking three figures at a time can help getting the logical connection and if some element is not following any of the above mentioned patterns, then that should be your answer option.

Interchanging two images in a given series:

There have also been questions seen wherein, when two of the figures are interchanged, they form a complete series. In this type of questions, one has to spot the two visuals and mark the option which corresponds to either the first or the second visual as instructed in the question. This is one of the difficult ones in the paper as one has to get a pattern, find two elements which do not allow the pattern to complete and then see if interchanging them indeed completes the pattern or not. Here, instead of taking three figures at a time, one has to go for two figures at a time and so, again the time taken is more compared to the other types.

Strategy:

On an average, attempting questions from this area takes longer than while attempting the other question types. So, if one is not able to crack the logic of the question within the first 15-20 seconds, it is better to leave the question for later. The good thing is, if one invests sufficient time in solving the question, one will definitely get a mark for his efforts which is not necessarily the case with the question-types I have covered earlier. If someone is uncomfortable solving it at the start, one can always keep it for the end. This is one topic where one can get better with practice. One has to have a method to tackle such questions. Once one has a solid strategy and attempts all the questions in a similar manner, s/he will find it easy to tackle the questions quickly and with a good amount of accuracy.

All the articles posted on CET 11 prep can be accessed through this link.

Cracking Maharashtra CET 2011

Next up will be an article on how to go about the series questions-both numerical and alpha numeric ones. If anyone has some interesting series questions, you can send it to [email protected]. I will try to include them in my article.

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

A series of numbers or alphabets or both, seemingly unrelated in nature but having a certain underlying logic, gives us today's topic. These type of questions are commonly seen in CET and are easy to moderate in nature. The number of questions can range from 10-20 and can be either found in a set of five questions or as a standalone question.

Series questions can be broadly divided into two types: the easily solvable and the apparently unsolvable types. With practice and exposure to various patterns, one can increase one's range and add additional questions to the first category. As seen with many other topics, the expertise in this area can be vastly improved by getting to know the various patterns. There are a few things which one has to know so as to be able to spot the logic in any series question that one encounters.

What you need to know?

This is the list of things one should be well-versed with while solving the series questions:

1. Squares and square roots of at least the first 30 numbers.




2. Cubes and cube roots of the first 12 numbers at least.




3. Commonly used fractions and reciprocals of first 12 numbers at least.




4. The positions of letters in the alphabets, both forward and reverse.




5. All the prime numbers at least till 50.




6. Factorials of numbers from 1 through 7.




7. Formulae for calculating sum of squares, cubes and values of the same for the first few numbers.

While there are infinite possibilities of designing a series question, the commonly found patterns in CET are either of the three:

1. Gradually Increasing/Decreasing: There will be a gradual increase from the first to the last term of the series. The thing here would be to find if there is a pattern in the increase and then apply the same to the missing term.

   
   

   In this type, it is advised to see the differences between the terms first and see if there is any pattern. The pattern might be a simple constant difference or an increasing or decreasing one. Sometimes, the difference can be a sum of two or more parts

   
   

   For example:

   
   

   5, 10, 23, 48, 99, ?

   
   

   Here, if you observe the difference, it comes out to be 5, 13, 25, 41 and so on. Not really a pattern, is it? But, on careful observation, we can see that, the differences actually are nothing but sum of squares of consecutive integers (1^2 +2^2=5, 2^2+3^2=13 and so on).

   
   

   5, 7, 19, 55, 135, ?

   
   

   Here, the differences come out to be 2, 12, 36, 80 and so on. Again, seems to be a completely random pattern. But, on looking closer, one can see that the pattern is of the form (n^2+n^3 with the value of n increasing).

   
   

   If one cannot get any pattern by finding the differences, one can check if there is any multiplication involved. For this, one needs to know simple reciprocals and some commonly used fractions.

   
   

   ?, 420, 360, 288, 192

   
   

   Here, the difference comes out to be 60, 72, 96 and so on. So, apparently no logic involved. But, if we see the ratios of terms, 420/360=7/6, 360/288=5/4, 288/192=3/2. So, there is a pattern involved here.

   
   

   Sometimes, there can be combinations of the two subtypes. This example was contributed by Vivek:

   
   

   2, 11, 27, 113, 561, 3369

   
   

   Here, it would be better if we took the larger terms first. We can find a relation between 561 and 3369 which is, 561*6+3=3369. Also, 113*5-4=561. So, we can see that the multiplier is getting gradually increased and the addition/subtraction element is decreasing. Also, the sign is alternating. These examples are complex in nature and are the differentiators between a serious aspirant and a casual one.




2. Alternating series: These are nothing but two series questions merged into one. As it involves thinking about two problems, it can be assumed that both the series are easy to comprehend. Once one is sure that there is no logic involved, one can go for checking for the alternating series questions. The two series can follow the same logic or two entirely different sets of logic.

   
   

   The common questions here involve the alphabetical questions where in sets of three alphabets are given. In this, each letter is logically related to the corresponding letter of the next set. The logic can be any of the various ones we've covered.




3. Abstract series: There is no mathematical logic involved in few of the questions. There is some pattern which is to be discovered in such types.

   
   

   1, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, ?

   
   

   This is one series many might be aware of. Here, there is no mathematics involved. It just states the number which precedes itself. One, one one, two-ones, one-two one-one and so on.

   
   

   Another one:

   
   

   BC, EG, KM, QS

   
   

   There isn't a pattern here mathematically. The thing you can notice here is that, the letters used represent the prime numbers (2-3, 5-7, 11-13, 17-19).

Strategy:

Series questions are not that difficult to solve. They do take longer than say some of the other types like the calculative ones or the reasoning sets. But then, these questions bring with them sure-shot marks.

The questions can be either based on completing a series (either the end element or one of the intermediate elements) or spotting a wrong term in a given series. The latter one is more difficult to do as one cannot be sure if the set of numbers one is considering is the one with the error or not. In such a case, one can compare the adjacent numbers to see if there is any logic involved and then relate it to the next set of numbers.

The time taken to solve these questions entirely depends on how difficult the logic is which in turn depends on whether you have encountered such a pattern earlier. Once you know the logic, it only boils down to your calculation speed and the answer should be ready anywhere in 30-45 seconds. Knowing the things I've mentioned at the start will also help in solving other standalone logic questions. If one is unable to find the logic even after giving it a thought, one can leave the question and proceed to the next one. Also, there might be a mental block, which I had experienced many a time, wherein, if one cannot solve one of the questions, one finds it difficult to spot the logic in the next one. If this happens, one can take some time off the set of series questions and come back to it at a later stage.

Armed with these concepts, one should be able to tackle most of the series questions comfortably. The rest, well, it depends on the amount of hardwork you've put in.

All the articles which have been made under the title of 'Cracking CET 2011' can be accessed from here:

Cracking Maharashtra CET 2011

The next post would feature the mathematical questions which appear in CET (concept based and calculation intensive). If there is anything specific you need to know, please mail me to [email protected]

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

(Image courtesy: Luis Argerich)

Quantitative ability and data interpretation questions make CET a speed game. Getting a good accuracy in this part of the paper is not that difficult a task, doing it quickly is. The time saved while solving these kind of questions can be utilised for solving other questions which require some thought (Visual Reasoning, Parajumbles, etc.). With a weightage of around 25-40 questions, time saved here can help you get a better accuracy and also, help you solve a few more questions than you normally would.

There are various methods you can use to save time. All of these cannot be defined and are based primarily on instinct. A few which are tangible and used commonly in entrance tests would be:

Option elimination

This is an age old technique which almost all of you would be familiar with. Looking for the last digit of an equation, calculating the approximate values et al are the tricks to be used.

For example, say you are asked to find 3257+568944-69963-9863+56, you can calculate the last digit to be 1. If there is only one option ending with 1, you mark that one. If there are two options which end with the same digit but are far apart, you can use a bit of approximation. Now, 569000+3000-10000-70000 would be around 492001. So, you can mark the closest option. The original answer in this case would be 492431.

Approximations

There is a set commonly seen in CET papers, where in, you have to solve an equation and then calculate the approximate value. In such kind of questions, you have to use approximations right from the start. Say for example, one of the parts of the equation contains square root of 225.06, you have to take it as 15 and proceed with the equation. The answer options are fairly distinct and so, taking an approximation would not affect your choice by much.

Is it necessary to learn Vedic Maths now?

Well, knowing Vedic maths and being comfortable with it is an asset for sure. It might save you the extra 3-4 seconds. But it is better to know Vedic maths properly than just in bits as incomplete knowledge can get you into more trouble. In fact, with such high stakes, you might actually end up solving the same thing again just to cross-check if whatever you have done by your newly learnt method is indeed correct. The thing here would be to stick to the method you are comfortable with. A comfortable method would be one which you've been using for the last few months, if not years consistently. There is little use learning a new technique in these last few days.

Equating various operations

In these type of questions, there will be five operations provided, four of which, will give the same result and one will be different. The candidate is expected to spot the odd one out. It is not required to solve all the five options. Once you get two different resultant values, you can spot the easiest equation, solve it and eliminate the other option without even checking for the other two options. It is not necessary that the first two options you check should be different but, this strategy gives you a better chance of reaching the answer faster.

The things you need to know for this type of questions are:

1. (a+b)^2=a^2+2ab+b^2




2. (a+b)(a-b)=a^2-b^2




3. (a+b)^3=a^3+3ba^2+3ab^2+b^3




4. a^3+b^3=(a+b)(a^2-ab+b^2)




5. a^3-b^3=(a-b)(a^2+ab+b^2)




6. (a+b+c)^2=a^2+b^2+c^2+2(ab+bc+ac)




7. a^3+b^3+c^3-3abc=(a+b+c)(a^2+b^2+c^2-ab-bc-ca)

Data Interpretation caselets

These are usually not the difficult ones, compared to those in the other entrance tests they figure in. Most of the time, there would be a single graph to be interpreted and calculated. The numbers are whole numbers most of the time and the options are unambiguous. So, all these things make DI sets a cakewalk for the aspirants. There is little to differentiate between two candidates in these questions. Almost everyone attempting these questions will get them right. Again, the emphasis would be on the time taken to solve these questions.

There can also be basic table-based DI sets to be solved. In these questions, you have to be careful about what is asked. It is advised to solve the questions carefully and not lose marks due to carelessness. The options would be carefully placed so as to entice candidates into committing errors.

The topic-wise questions commonly seen from the following areas are:

Permutations and combinations and probability

Singlets are rarely seen in these type of questions. The questions can be on linear or cyclic arrangement and are straightforward if you have practised enough.Things to know are basic formulae for finding the number of permutations and combinations. Also, there might be questions on finding probability of mutually exclusive events and collectively exhaustive events. Just practise these type of questions from mocks and it would help you get familiar with the topic.

Time, speed, distance and Time and work

Again, easy topics and easy questions. Nothing out of the ordinary is asked. Relative motion might be asked in time, speed and distance type. Time and work is again of a very basic level. The only thing you have to be careful of is to read the question carefully. There can be a few traps designed into these questions.

Sets and Venn diagrams

Nothing different from what is commonly asked. The only major formula to remember would be

n(A U B)=n(A)+n(B)-n(A n B)

A basic knowledge of how to work around with Venn diagrams should be enough to tackle these type of questions. Also, you need to be well-versed with the usage of complement of a set.

Averages, mixtures and alligations

Simple questions on averages which can be designed in any format can be asked. Similar goes with mixtures and alligations. If you have done your basics well, you can easily crack these kind of questions.

Simple interest and compound interest

Again, knowing the formula and being comfortable with the various sub-types would help solve these questions. The calculations aren't that difficult and you can get a cent-percent accuracy in these questions.

Percentages

If not individual questions, there can be questions which are word-based and require finding the answer. In order to tackle such questions, you have to be well-versed with the basic percentages and fractions.

Ratio and proportion

These questions can again range from direct questions to word-based questions. Commonly-asked questions would be on profit shares based on investment and similar types.

Calendars and clocks

Here, you have to be thorough with the concept of leap years. Also, you can easily calculate the particular day of the week based on the concept that, the 365 days of a year would give 52 weeks and 1 day. So, the day corresponding to the same date would be pushed by one in a normal year and by two in case of a leap year.

For clock based questions, you have to be clear about the speeds of the hour and minute hands and the distance (in degrees) travelled by both of them in the course of a minute and an hour.

Strategy

The only strategy here would be to crack the logic of the question in the first attempt and following a predetermined course of action. Cracking the logic of a question comes with experience. The second part too needs practice. You have to have a definite method to crack a question and be so well-versed with it that you can solve the question subconsciously. These things can help build up a good speed. Also, you need to be a bit careful while solving the questions and be sure of what is asked. Accuracy is never a problem in these questions but speed is. Once you get exposed to many types of problems and if you have a method, you can solve questions a lot more quickly, than in normal circumstances.

All the articles posted on CET 11 prep can be accessed through this link.

Cracking Maharashtra CET 2011

Any suggestions for what the next article should focus on are welcome. You can mail me on [email protected]

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

It's interesting to observe how sections of the latest ranking results resemble those in the PaGaLGuY Rankings of 2008. The economic recession came and went, and in many ways the last year's (2010) PaGaLGuY Rankings reflected the challenges b-schools faced in placing their batches during hard times.

With MBA recruitments back on an upswing, the PaGaLGuY Rankings reflect trends similar to those held before the economic crisis. Some of the clear highlights of the rankings are,

• At rank 1, IIM Ahmedabad remains the topmost preferred b-school.


• IIM Calcutta trumps IIM Bangalore to reach the second position. WIMEI (well-known institute of management in east India) has lately been having boasting of placements that rival and in many ways, surpass those of IIM Ahmedabad and that seems to have helped boost its perception.


• ISB Hyderabad is back to 4th position. The b-school had taken a hit in the 2010 rankings, after facing rough weather finding jobs for its 400+ strong batch during the economic crisis. But with recruitment in corporate India back to a surge, the school has reinstated its image and is back to number 4, just after the top three IIMs.


• SP Jain, Mumbai breaks into the top 10 to number 8. With admission processes of institutes in its range under fire from the applicant community, SP Jain appears to have gained due to its image as a school with a sound profile-based selection process.


• IIM Indore, which has traditionally been ahead of IIM Kozhikode in our previous rankings seems to have taken a hit this year due to public knowledge about the difficulty it has faced in placing an increased batch size. Yet it remains in our top 10, one rank behind IIM Kozhikode.


• VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur and IMI Delhi are back in the rankings after facing disqualification last year. VGSoM has been ranked at 25 (3 ranks better than its rank in 2009) while IMI Delhi stands at 32, just one rank lower than its rank in 2009. It's interesting to see that the rankings of schools in the 15-30 range have not really been affected by the introduction of four new IIMs in the last one year.


• Respondents have ranked three new IIMs at Ranchi, Raipur and Rohtak at 33, 36 and 37 respectively. Trichy was not included in the survey as it hadn't been formally announced when our survey was launched. Back in 2008 when we published rankings for the first time, IIM Shillong had debuted at 27. Four years later, it remains at 25, showing that despite the IIM brand name, it is going to be very tough for the new breed of IIMs to dislodge some of the older and established b-schools.

Women's rankings

Comparing the women's rankings to the overall rankings, we find that women have tended to vote up b-schools that are either located in metros, or ones with affordable fees compared to other schools in their cluster. Apart from voting up b-schools such as MICA Ahmedabad (Overall 22, Women 20) and TISS Mumbai (Overall 19, Women 17) as they always have in PaGaLGuY Rankings, women have also shown a clear preference for schools with lower fees such as FMS Delhi (Overall 7, Women 6) or the IIT b-schools.

Only in very rare cases does a Delhi or Mumbai-based b-school rank lower in the women's rankings compared to the overall rankings, indicating a preference for well-established cities which are well-connected to their hometowns.

IIM Kozhikode, which admitted 30% women last year is one rank higher up in women's rankings ( compared to its overall ranking (9).

(Thanks to Neha Chavan for helping us figure out some of the trends in the women's rankings)

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

(Image Courtesy: Ranaji Deb)

One of the more sought after tests of the season, the MICAT conducted by the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) was held today across the country. A brief overview of the test by Anand Jhunjhunwala and Nishant Khanna, who took the test yesterday.

Pattern of the test:



The paper pattern was very similar to last year except a few significant changes that there were no sectional time limits. Moreover the paper was divided broadly into two parts-1 and 2.

First section started off with a sub-section comprising of word associations which were a good mix of 15 easy and difficult questions. There were 5 implicit argument statements with really tricky options but still 2-3 were doable, then came the 5 data sufficiency questions which, again had a few tricky options and finally there were 10 visual reasoning questions which MICA has been giving for the past few years. Overall, this section was of an easy to moderate level.

Then, the next subsection was of 25 General Knowledge questions which comprised of a good mix of static, current and media related GK. There were quite a few match the following questions here. This section was also on the moderate side and a regular reader should have been comfortable attempting it.

This was followed by the next sub-section which consisted of Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation. There were a lot of questions from probability and progressions. Although there were a few sitters too. An attempt of 10-12 here should be good out of the 30 questions on offer.

According to Nishant, there were a few wrong questions like cylinder and cone question which had no correct options will lead to a lot of wasted effort. This section was very tough and this was not what any one was expecting

The next subsection consisted of Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension(RC). Again this section was a notch higher in difficulty than that of last year. There were two RC passages of 4 questions each and 22 other questions comprising fill-in-the-blanks, sentence completion, Parajumbles etc. A good attempt should be 18-20 questions.

The second section was the writing section which started off with a topic Trial by media is justified." One had to first give arguments in favour of the statement and then in the next essay give arguments against the same statement. Finally, one had to tell the editor of the newspaper magazine about this topic in 40-50 words. This was followed up by a series of 10 different cartoons. One had to order them and construct a story.

For this whole Part 1 we had 2 hours and 15 minutes which was really demanding and in the end I had to rush through the essays so that I could complete them in time. Also here it was mentioned that 1/4th marks would be deducted for negative marking in the first section (except the written part)

Next Part comprised of the psychometric analysis and all the questions were compulsory. There were no right/wrong answers in this section. Ones paper will not be evaluated if he/she misses out attempting any part in this section. It started off with a list of 30 statements. One had to select any 10 which best described us!! Then came the set of 26 questions each having 6 options and we had to tick the option which we supported (very strongly/strongly/moderately). This was followed by 10 questions wherein one had to prioritise the options on the basis of our preference. For this we were given 30 minutes.

Overall Analysis:

All in all I think the paper was a touch more difficult than last year but was balanced as it had a good mix of sitters and tough nuts. The trick was to not to get bogged down by tough ones.

Nishant holds a similar opinion, when he says, Much along the expected lines in terms of sections, the removal of time gap between Creative section and Section A,B,C and D created a lot of time issues. The paper was no doubt lengthy and time consuming. Psychometric also was longer than expected.

As MICA does not reveal sectional cut-offs nor the marks it is really difficult to predict good number of attempts but still a cool head and solving the paper with steady pace in todays MICAT will get you through to the GEPI stage.

All the help for this review has been provided by the amazing guys and gals on the MiSpirants Group. Thank you people.

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

Image courtesy: shutterhacks

Below are a few topics which are unique to CET and account for 15-20 marks in the paper. With these, I would have covered almost all the major topics on CET prep.

Parajumbles

The paper might contain a solitary set wherein, you have to re-arrange a jumbled paragraph. The first sentence of the paragraph might be fixed so as to help you form a link. The questions are similar to those found in many other entrance tests but there is a slight twist to it. While in other papers, you get various versions of the formed paragraph out of which, you have to choose one, in CET, there is absolutely no help that can be taken from the options. The questions will be of the type:

Which option is the SECOND/THIRD/FOURTH sentence in the completed paragraph?

So, you have to have a complete paragraph formed before you start attempting the questions. Also, you cannot make a solitary mistake in the paragraph. If you miss the position of one sentence, you automatically mess up another sentence. So, the marks earned need not be proportionate to the time invested in solving these kind of questions. The questions take time and the accuracy is low.

In such questions, what you can do is read the first sentence and comprehend it thoroughly. With the help of pronouns, acronyms and connectives, you should be able to find a sentence which follows the opening sentence. Also, basic rules of solving a parajumble apply here. You can see for the various connectives which would be there. You can always find a link of two or three sentences and can then go for the entire question.

Courses of Action

In this type, there will be a question statement followed by two courses of action to be taken in response to the incident in the question statement. The options are generally contradictory 'yes/no' types. One of them will be in support and the other one will oppose the central idea. However, there might be cases when, both the options are in favour of or against the statement.

The thing you have to do is to choose the logically sound option. While choosing the answer, you will have to take into consideration all the implications that that action will have. Another pointer would be to avoid extreme and irreversible effects as far as possible.

Cause and effect

In this type, there will be two statements provided and you will have to determine whether one of them is a cause of the other. In this, you have to first find out which of the statements is a cause and which one is an effect. It can happen in some cases that both the statements are effects of a common cause. The cause has to be a direct one i.e. it should have a direct effect which is stated in the other statement.

In these questions, care has to be taken so as to find out whether the cause is immediate or far-fetched. An aspirant could lose marks here because of 'overthinking' about the statement. Keeping things simple and going just one step above or below the statement should help getting a better accuracy in this question-type.

Grammatical errors/ Sentence correction

These questions are similar to those you may have come across in other management entrance tests. The errors are pretty easy to spot and if you have a good command over the language, you can get the entire lot of five marks. The errors are mainly based on checking whether you have an eye for parallelism, subject-verb agreement and idiomatic/prepositional usage.

To crack these questions, you have to carefully read the entire statement. One mistake people make is that, they tend to mark the answer as soon as they feel they have spotted an error. While there can be typos and grammatical mistakes in the paper, the error might be at the end of the sentence. So, reading the entire sentence before marking any option is a must. This, along with a basic knowledge of the common errors committed should suffice. The level of difficulty of these kind of questions is low and if you have to score big in the test, these questions have to be cracked.

While two of these topics have a formula and aren't based on perception (Sentence correction and Parajumbles), the other two are based on how you interpret the situation and how you think about a solution considering all the aspects.

For parajumbles, not taking too much time is important. Putting in too much thought into solving the question does not necessarily translate into good marks. If you are not very confident, it is better to leave it for later than persist with it. You might take 3-4 minutes to get the entire thing right but then with 5 marks on stake, it would be a chance worth taking if you have time on disposition.

For the sentence correction/spotting errors in sentence questions, you have to read the sentence properly, disregard any minor typos and punctuation mistakes and look for the more technical mistake present. Solving these questions would not take much time and will get you good marks.

For the courses of action and the cause and effect questions, a single reading is enough to understand what is being said in the statement. You can decide if there is a logical connection between the two statements and then mark the answer. Even these questions won't take more than 30-35 seconds to crack.

All the articles by me on CET 11 prep can be accessed through this link.

Cracking Maharashtra CET 2011

Next up will be an article on strategy. We will also have a special FAQs piece at the end of the week. If you have questions, please mail them to [email protected] and mark 'CET question' in the subject line, before February 25.

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

(Image Courtesy: alicejack2002)

The Maharashtra MBA CET, is an out and out speed test. The one who persists with nailing the questions one after another, as opposed to spending time just reading them all, will survive the test. The attitude to solving the test should be that of a charging bull who knows nothing more than demolishing anyone who comes in his path. But is there a method to this madness? Can there be atleast a rough plan of how to go about things? Can one go with a mindset? Let's find out.

The mindset

As is the case with any entrance test, one cannot and should not go into the examination room, thinking of a predetermined number of attempts, marks, cut-offs. But this does not mean one cannot go with a strategy. One can always prepare for a few topics to be attempted at the end and a few topics to be solved at the start. Also, there can be a predetermined number of questions one can plan to go through in a given time. Going through the questions doesn't necessarily mean that one has to attempt them.

First two minutes

Although one needs to save every possible second one can during the test, it is always a good idea to see the paper once, just take a glance at the types of questions asked and plan a strategy as to how to go about the paper. The important areas to see would be the Visual Reasoning questions if they look easy, the Quant questions if they are lengthy or straightforward, the Reading Comprehension questions if the pattern is similar (15 questions, 1 RC), and any other new type of question which one has not come across earlier.

No Negatives

While attempting, one has to remember that there is no negative marking in CET. So, even if one is half-sure of an answer, one can mark an answer and move forward in case there is no time left.

Round 1 and Round 2

If someone is attempting the questions from 1-200 without any particular preference, one can try to solve the entire paper in two rounds.

In the first round, one can attempt all the questions one is comfortable with or those which can be done quickly and leave the other question sets for another round. This strategy would help to get some confidence under the belt before attempting the difficult ones and also with more time in hand to solve those.

Well begun is half done

Many a time, I have been asked about the drop in intensity levels as the paper progresses. People tend to rock the first hour, then, hit an imaginary hurdle and barely manage to go through all the questions. The reason might be inability to maintain concentration throughout the entire duration of the test. This can be improved by practice. It is tiring to solve the entire paper at a stretch for few, in which case, we can use another strategy.

Divide and conquer

If one is not comfortable with the 'solve everything at one go' strategy, one can use another strategy commonly used by people, who want to improve their speed. One can break the paper into five parts of 40 questions each, solving and marking the OMR sheet for each part in 30 minutes. What this will do is help one keep a track of the time and also, form an illusion that it is not one big paper of 200 questions but 5 short papers.

Not getting stuck

As soon as you feel that you are getting nowhere with the question, it would be a wise idea to leave the question and go for the next one. One cannot afford to get stuck at any point in time during the test. The time which one can invest in a question before leaving it can be somewhere around 25-30 seconds. If after 30 seconds, you are not sure of what is asked and how are you going to go about the question, it's better to leave it.

When to mark the OMR sheet?

You can mark it page-wise, in bursts of 40 questions or the entire thing at the end. The marking is to be done by a black ball point pen and so, is irreversible. So, you have to be careful about what you mark.

What about the wrong ones?

Last year, there were a couple of questions which were printed wrongly. There is nothing said if marks will be awarded to all the people who attempt those questions or if the questions would be discounted for the entire test-taking population. In case you feel there are wrong questions, you can mark the closest option or a random option if there is some gross misprint.

All the articles posted on CET 11 prep can be accessed through this link.

Cracking Maharashtra CET 2011

Next up will be the last article addressing the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). If anyone has any particular query pertaining to any topic/strategy, it would be answered. You can send across the queries to [email protected]

[guest_writer (Guest)]

India's latent entrepreneurship potential lies untapped because of life skills that aren't taught and social expectations that aren't set right. By addressing these problems in India's bright youngsters through their curriculums, b-schools could lay the seed for innovative businesses that scale to become billion dollar companies, says Vijay Anand, Head of IIT Madras's Incubation Center and Founder of popular startup event 'Proto.in'.

Lets face it: Throughout the world, and even in the Silicon Valley, MBAs carry a negative connotation when associated with startups. Venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki --- known for his book 'The Art of the Start', goes out to say that there are two categories of people that startups need to avoid --- first the consultants, and secondly the MBAs.

But my opinion of the cadre is not so bleak. Nor is the world so black and white. But there are avenues for change, and a need for an ambience in b-schools that could nurture the entrepreneurial spirit that seems to be getting India adrenalized.

Let's look around and understand the context: Saying that there is a lot going on in India would be an understatement. The elephant that is our country, with its billion voices, opinions and aspirations has started to move, and even jiggle a dance move or two, and that is leading to a rush of entrepreneurial opportunities for those who have the eye to spot it, the will to build a business and the ability to mobilize resources to turn that dream into reality. If some of these are skills that one can learn as a result of being in an environment, then how can b-schools impart them into their students, is the question.

1. The need to groom starters

If building an enterprise has to find an analogy, it would be in a relay race. B-schools have traditionally groomed people who can enter into an enterprise after the models have emerged, and can take it to scale thereafter. In our analogy, they'd be the 'sprinters'. India is a country bubbling with opportunities, needs and wants where one needs initiative to build that zygote of a billion dollar idea. Most MBA graduates aren't equipped to handle that. It's an oversight, if the MBAs of today are not able to participate in the tremendous avenues to build value from scratch but are bystanders and spectators. We desperately need sprinters who are agile, can spot the right timing and can adapt. That'd be the cornerstone of my argument for change.

2. You are the product. Build real value

Gone are the days when one will pledge loyalty to a company for a lifetime. These days, employments are just stages that one goes through to get to the final goal of achieving and honing one's skills --- hopefully not towards a pay cheque alone, but in being the best that one can be at something. If that is the case, then instead of business plan competitions --- where everything is dreamt up in vacuum, it makes a lot more sense for b-schools to actively engage the startup and SME communities and let students get a hands-on experience of building value in terms of the offering of the company and not just manipulate Excel values.

3. Understanding the value of money

As a society, I sometimes wonder if we teach the next generation the actual value of money. Colleges are phases in an individual's life during which they turn to become the biggest consumers of entertainment and lifestyle, rather than producers or creative individuals, thanks to the support of the parents. The greatest opportunity loss for a nation is the time a student spends in university shielded from financial burdens. Young students are in the prime of mental and creative form, but haven't found an avenue nor the inspiration to put it to use.

4.The ability to mobilize resources

Walk into any college or university and the best example of entrepreneurship is the way they run the college events --- if it's not funded by the college. Brands are created, values are defined, money is raised on the promise of service and quality and a team comes together to pull the whole event off. It's not surprising then to hear that time and time again, employers prefer to hire students who have spearheaded large scale events while in college and learned skills required to mobilize people, money and resources. How do you merge these skills to become part of the curriculum, where one learns how to analyze resources in hand, where one needs to be, and can draw the path to achieve the projected outcome?

5. Hands-on, Not theory

The basis of our growing pains as a country comes from the fact that none of our talented workforce is trained for the job at hand --- and that is not the fault of anyone actually. New businesses are emerging and most of the time, even businesses that are part a larger foreign operation, operate in a different tune and rhythm here in India. As someone elegantly put --- we are requiring talent to be trained on technologies and processes that are yet to exist in India. By the time needs are identified, curriculums are set and people are trained, the platform has moved to another level. The only way then to shoot this duck --- so to speak --- is to aim for where the duck would be next, and not where it is right now.

6. The need to cross-breed

We are a nation full of pure-breeds when it comes to academia. As Robert Kiyosaki of 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' fame, writes --- Most of us are one skill set short of making it big. Most of us are uni-talented and vertical focused. It's when business meets technology and technology meets design and design meets biology that new models emerge, and the spark of innovation gets unleashed. There is no written book on entrepreneurship --- nor will there ever be. The best answer for most questions on entrepreneurship --- atleast the bit where it's a journey into a new space, is unchartered. Sadly one often bumps into an entrepreneur or two who flaunt the skillset they possess and are even more proud to say that they don't understand anything else --- that's a recipe for disaster. Uni-talented people make great entry-level staff. If you want to grow beyond that, then buckle up and dive in into something you've never heard of before.

A wiseman once told me that life is a balance between many things. In life, it's the balance between commitment and passion --- you have an obligation to your family and those around you which tie you down and then there is your passion, the thing that makes you feel alive. In business, there is a fine balance of creativity and processes that can make an organization scale. The art of adapting our levels according to the situation --- which is the key to what Jim Collins calls as the 'Genius of the AND' --- is something we need to nurture, not by education alone but also as a personal agenda for our own sake. Indians, I believe, are by nature entrepreneurial. In a country where most of life is not defined and we have to survive by instincts and unsaid rules, entrepreneurship comes naturally --- but the pity is that it's un-honed and not one that carries the confidence of scale.

An apprentice learns operations on the floor of the shop and by being part of an existing organization. But the mindset to really start a new enterprise and to make the leap to build empires is not born by working under someone, but by the conversations that go around the dinner table at home. If as a country we aren't producing enough entrepreneurs then our homes and our second homes and the schools we are educated in are at fault. If only b-schools could do something about it that the country's next decade of growth would be debted to.

Vijay Anand is a Serial Entrepreneur and currently heads the Incubation Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and is also the founder of various initiatives in the Startup landscape in India, Including The Startup Centre, Proto.in etc. He is known popularly as The Startup Guy and tweets at @vijayanands.

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

(Image courtesy: Jilligan86)

In this article, which is the last on CET prep, I have answered some of the questions posted to me in the last few weeks.

I have found DI very difficult to crack during mocks. Sometimes, I need more than three operations to crack a set. How should I go about it?

The Data Interpretation caselets were very easy last year. In many of the questions, not even a single operation was required to be performed. Just looking at the graph could one get the answer. But, things can change this year. There might be questions which could be more difficult compared to last year. But, from what I know of, mocks are a bit higher on the difficulty level as compared to the actual test. And then, if a question is difficult for you, it would be the same for everyone else taking the test. One has to have a flexible strategy if one has to maximise one's score in the test.

My strategy is that I attempt almost 120-125 questions in 1 and a half hour and after that I mark them on the OMR sheet. One reason behind this is that, I get exhausted and need that break. After I am done with it, I deal with the difficult areas. I mark them in bunches of 5 questions. What is your take on this strategy?

If you are comfortable doing it, you should stick to it. Doesn't seem bad, though the exhaustion part should not happen. Also, taking 90 minutes to solve the easiest 120-125 questions without marking means that you need to be a bit more quicker - 30 minutes 40 questions is the average speed. For the easier ones, you should be able to touch 45-50 questions in the same time.

Does one need to look at chapters like Quadratic Equations, Number System, Trigonometry, Functions and Graphs, etc.

Regarding Quadratic equations, there might be questions on comparing two items. There, a bit of knowledge about factorisation, sum of roots and product of roots would be enough. Trigonometry, functions and graphs can be skipped. CET maths is more inclined towards calculation speed and cracking the concept required and not on the depth of knowledge.

I am attempting around 180 questions but getting only 120-125 correct. How can I improve my accuracy? What was your strategy regarding the intelligent guesses?

There are two aspects of any test. Speed and accuracy. If you can touch 200, you can make do with an accuracy of around 75-80 % depending on the difficulty level of the paper. If you are attempting fewer questions, the accuracy needs to be right up there. You have an accuracy of 70% which needs to be improved. Do it more carefully. You can go for 170 attempts and be more accurate and score around 140-150 out of them. Coming to your next question, ideally there shouldn't be any intelligent guesses. But, if you have to, you can zero down to two options and then mark the one you feel is correct. Random marking is very risky and your score would move by 5-6 marks on an average. If you aren't lucky with your guesses, you might lose badly.

I have a doubt about the syllogism questions when the option is some A maybe B because according to some mock papers it follows, according to others, it does not and another is whether a restatement is a conclusion or not?

The basic thing to do in syllogism questions is to negate the condition in the answer option. If you can form a diagram which negates the data in the option and fulfils the question statements, you can eliminate that option. You should have a basic idea as to how to form the diagram once you see the statement so as to make these negations in a faster manner. If they say: All cups are saucers, it can be interpreted in two ways:

1. All cups are a subset of saucers and some saucers might not be cups




2. All saucers are cups

If you consider the second one only, you might overlook some conditions which might be true. For example: There is another statement which says that some dishes are saucers. The option statement would be something like: Some dishes are cups. Now, if you consider the first version, you can say that some dishes need not be cups. This would be indeed the right answer. But, if you consider the second version, you can say that some dishes are cups which would be a wrong interpretation.

Likewise, you should have an interpretation ready for all kind of statements which can be asked. What you mentioned was Some A maybe B. Now, this can very well mean that some A are not B and also, no A is B. This is an ambiguous statement and doesn't really mean anything. The most confusing statement which can come in this type is of the type: Some cups are not saucers. Now, this can be interpreted in two ways as:

1. Some cups are saucers


2. No cup is a saucer

While solving questions following this statement, you have to consider both the cases and then proceed along both the scenarios.

Regarding the second query, a restatement is not a conclusion or an inference.

In CET 2010 there was a question on input-output. How do we go about such questions?

Input-output questions are basically, based on series or arrangements. If it is a series question, you will have 5-6 similar series to work with and hence, crack the logic similar to how you do in series questions. Things to remember here would be sum of digits, product of digits, sum of squares of digits, reversing the number, multiplying the number by a specific number, etc.

For the other type, you have to see how the series changes from one step to another. There can be many types of arrangements here. Few of them can be on the basis of: number of letters, alphabetical order either conventional or reverse, alternating series, last letters of words arranged alphabetically, etc.

What is the difference between an inference and conclusion for the same passage?

As I had mentioned, there is not much of a difference in the two terms and it will boil down to the options as to how different they are from the others. In case, the options are same with only the terms conclusion and inference being changed in the question, one can go with the fact that an inference is a partial conclusion and not the central conclusion of the paragraph.

What to do to score well in verbal ability questions like assumptions which are not one of my favourites?

They aren't the favourite of many of those appearing for the test. It would be wise not to focus on accuracy in such questions and attempt them as quickly as possible. Investing time in such questions doesn't necessarily mean that you would score good marks in such questions.

In Decision making, it is mentioned, for example, "In case a candidate satisfies all the conditions given above EXCEPT"

condition (1) ALONE,

condition (2) ALONE,

etc..

In such a scenario, only one of the given should be violated and we should look for an exception for that condition ALONE. How to go about such questions?

In these questions, it is very important to read the statements completely. Also, one should not make any assumptions while attempting these questions. There are errors sometimes in the solutions and answers the coaching institutes provide. But that might not be the case with CET. If they say that the candidate can flout one criteria if he fulfils some other, then all the other basic conditions must be satisfied.

Suppose I dont have any time left for say 20 questions. Since there is no negative marking, what would the best thing I could do?

Best try would be to solve as many questions genuinely as possible. If you don't have enough time, you can go for marking random options. What people do is mark the same option for all the questions. Going by probability, you should get 1/5 correct on an average. If you feel you can get more than 4 questions right out of 20 in the time remaining, you can go for solving them. Else, random marking would do.

Can you please share the "exact way" you solved your paper?

I started from question 1 and went till 200. I had planned to leave out the parajumble, tough visual reasoning questions and the assumption, inference, conclusion ones if I found them very difficult. But the paper was easy and I could solve those questions in the first round itself. I was not able to solve 4-5 questions out of which 1-2 were incorrect. But I had plenty of time at the end and so, could crack the others.

Thus comes to end the Cracking Maharashtra CET 2011 series. I hope you would have benefited from the articles. Keeping a calm head and being consistent throughout the 2.5 hours would make the test an enjoyable experience. Hope to see many of the readers cracking the test.

The entire series can be accessed from here.

All the best for the test.

[shashank3012 (Shashank Prabhu)]

The Maharashtra MBA CET 2011 held today surprised quite a few test takers. After an easy paper in 2010 which saw records being shattered and soaring cut-offs, CET 2011 struck back with one of the more difficult papers in recent years.

The questions werent straightforward, there were plenty of Analytical Reasoning caselets and short Reading Comprehension passages made their presence felt. And to add to it were the familiar and rather confusing Visual Reasoning questions.

Quantitative Aptitude:

No questions on approximations, no questions on pure calculation. Only a set on number series where, the operations had to be performed a maximum of five times to get to the answer. At least three of the questions were high on difficulty level and difficult to crack for many.

There were many single questions which were of a moderate difficulty level. There were a few sitters interspersed in between from basic geometry, percentages, averages, share of profit, ratios, etc. Most of these were doable but would require some time to crack. There was a question on finding the circumradius where, two sides and the altitude was provided. The question looked difficult but was a sitter.

Few of the questions were very high on the difficulty level and could have been left for later. Many would have guessed the options with time running out.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning:

Last year, the data interpretation sets were straightforward and were cracked with minimum effort. This year saw some calculation intensive sets. The one based on two pie-charts depicting distribution of revenue across various sectors was difficult. The one based on the four families and their incomes was easy to crack. The one based on the students scores in eight mocks was a sitter. The one based on A, B, C line graphs was moderate to do and involved a little bit of calculation. There were quite a few questions based on unit conversion (options like 19.25 million, 192.5 million, 1925 million and the likes) which one had to be careful about.

Logical reasoning was the part which made life difficult for a candidate. The questions involved multiple logic (arrangements and directions combined in one) and involved lengthy and tedious rough work. The set based on circular arrangement involving the family of eight was a scorcher and not many would have cracked it (not that they needed to as it would have eaten up into a large share of the test-takers time). The one based on 7 floors was moderate. The one based on arrangement of 12 cars was difficult. The set based on the days of the week was moderate. Another one based on circular arrangement was moderate in nature. One set was based on the input-output type which was easy but lengthy. Another was on coding which was again lengthy. There were plenty of questions on data sufficiency which were moderate to difficult. One set was based on comparison of weights. Another set was there which required candidates to compare two items a and b. There was also a set of four questions where it was required to find the odd man out.

Overall, this part of the paper could make or break a person. One who was quick to attempt/leave these questions probably had valuable time to solve other questions. One who didnt attempt many must have got stuck somewhere in these sets.

The logical reasoning singlets were easy to solve and will help in building a good score. The questions on syllogisms were easy to do.

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension:

CET shrugged off the traditional 15-question RC in pursuit of multiple short passages and accompanying questions. There were also plenty of questions on critical reasoning. A new type of questions, these involved a short paragraph of 2-3 lines followed by five statements. One was required to find out which of them was an inference/assumption, which strengthened the paragraph, which one was a course of action and so on. The question type though novel, these were the questions which were seen in CET in a different format before.

There were questions on spotting the grammatical errors which were straightforward and could have been solved easily. The questions on fill in the blanks were of moderate difficulty level with around 6-7 out of 10 being doable. Parajumbles were conspicuous by their absence. The verbal part focused more on logic than actual verbal knowledge and was easy to moderate in difficulty level if one was able to solve it.

Visual Reasoning:

The set of questions unique to CET and feared by most of the candidates was on similar lines of last few years VR section. There were questions on analogy, series completion, odd man out. The level of difficulty was moderate to tough and with most of the questions involving a multiple number of elements, cracking the section was going to take up time.

None of these:

A significant number of questions had answer option as none of these. This was a tricky area in the paper and one had to be brave enough to mark this option.

Overall:

The paper was definitely more difficult than that of last year and according to few, one of the more difficult ones to come out in recent years. The lengthy LR sets and plenty of questions involving application of thought will translate into not-so-high-scores. At first glance, a score of 140 looks good. 145 should have a decent shot at JBIMS and 150+ should make it comfortably into JBIMS. The overall cut-off out of 240 could be somewhere in the higher 170s or lower 180s at most.