Eight Pitfalls to Avoid in CMAT Exam 2025: Expert Speak
Common Management Admission Test 2026 ( CMAT )
CMAT 2025 aspirants have been working hard on various topics for past few months now. As the exam day closes in, it is time to know the common pitfalls to avoid. Steer clear of these pitfalls on CMAT 2025 exam day to score high.
By Mikin Shah
CMAT exam is not too tough to crack. It is conducted after CAT, XAT, SNAP and NMAT, which makes it more manageable as the candidates have already experienced other aptitude tests. However, if one doesn’t pay the right amount of attention, they may face unfavourable situation during the CMAT exam. One may get sweaty palms on seeing difficulty level of the questions. So, the important thing to do is, be confident and calm. Also, be aware of the exam process. As the CMAT 2025 closes in, know how to manage the 3-hours test, what to do and what not to do.
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CMAT is a MCQ based test having five sections, every section of CMAT 2025 exam will have 20 questions, which means you need to prepare equally well for all five sections. To get good overall CMAT percentile, you need to solve equal number of questions in every section. Given the exam structure and difficulty level, candidates must solve 2/3rd of the total questions in every section.
Since every section of CMAT has 20 questions in total, solving 15-18 questions in each section with 80 percent accuracy is considered a good attempt in CMAT, and it can ensure a good percentile in the exam. In the GK section, about 10-12 correct attempts will be enough. Out of 100 questions, candidates must try to solve about 70-75 questions to achieve a 99 percentile. However, candidates must aim to solve a higher number of questions with maximum accuracy and minimize negative marking. To be able to achieve this target, candidates need to prepare for the CMAT in a dedicated and disciplined manner. Candidates must set aside a minimum of three months to complete the CMAT syllabus, as they have to study five subjects and their numerous topics. If they have appeared for the CAT, XAT, and IIFT exams, then they can complete the CMAT syllabus in one month as well. However, it is advised that candidates spend at least three months on the CMAT syllabus for complete preparation.
The National Testing Agency or NTA will conduct CMAT 2025 on January 25 2025. The final few days before CMAT exam is the right time to give preparations a final push.
By now, the candidates must have completed the CMAT syllabus, practiced enough number of CMAT mock tests and are comfortably placed viz. the topic revision routine. Right now what is worth paying attention to is knowing the common mistakes that candidates make in CMAT exam and how to avoid them.
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Mikin Shah, MBA expert shared with Shiksha a few common errors made by students in CMAT exam. He listed down eight pitfalls to steer clear of in CMAT exam:
8 Pitfalls to Avoid in CMAT 2025
- Not knowing the ideal number of attempts. This is like building a house without the blue-print. You must have a fair idea of the number of attempts you are going to target. CMAT has 100 questions, so you must target about 70-75 questions.
- Being too ambitious in terms of number of attempts. For CMAT, the rule is simple - WORSHIP ACCURACY. Any student attempting more than 70-75 questions is either a potential topper or a consummate disaster. So, don't try to solve all the questions.
- Do not fret about the GK section and try to over-prepare for it. It is the most random section and your score will reflect your ingrained reading habit and general awareness.
- Appearing for CMAT exam without adequate mock test practice. You must appear for at least 10 CMAT mock tests of varying difficulty levels. This will prepare you for all kinds of situation in the actual exam.
- Having a pre-decided absolute target score (say 200). The absolute scores would depend upon the difficulty level of the CMAT question paper. What matters is your ranking and not the score. So, make a target score after going through the paper once.
- Do not study too hard on the day before CMAT 2025. Go for revision of important topics only and sleep for at least seven to eight hours.
- Do not get put off by a bad start. CMAT is a three-hour exam and there are no restrictions in terms of sectional time limit or cut off scores. So, even if you have a less than ideal start, you can easily recover if you keep calm.
- Do not over-attempt in the CMAT Language Comprehension section - especially the critical reasoning questions. Fifteen good attempts in this section would do the trick for most of the students.
Read More:
- CMAT 2025: Exam Day Guidelines and Strategy to Crack the Test
- CMAT 2025: Last Minute Tips to Ace the Test
- CMAT Exam Day Checklist: Dos and Don'ts
- Top Colleges Accepting CMAT Score
About the Author
Mikin Shah is the co-founder and director of a popular educational institute which specialises in entrance exams, MBA tuitions and finance courses such as CFA.
The difficulty level of CMAT 2025 exam was overall moderate. Interestingly, the GK questions were not tough as they usually are. Check below section wise CMAT 2025 difficulty level.
CMAT 2025 section | Number of questions | Difficulty Level |
|---|---|---|
Quantitative Techniques & Data Interpretation | 20 | Easy |
Logical Reasoning | 20 | Easy |
Language Comprehension | 20 | Easy |
General Awareness | 20 | Moderate |
Innovation & Entrepreneurship | 20 | Moderate |
To prepare for CMAT language comprehension, candidates need to start early. Those who have a good command over English will not face problems in preparing for this section but those who are weak in English will have to put in extra effort. They will need to develop reading habit, which is why it is suggested to start exam preparation early. Start reading books and novels to strengthen English comprehension and vocabulary. Also solve practice questions on RC passages of all types. Since CMAT is a time bound exam, you will need to have a good reading speed and comprehension speed as well. This can be achieved only by solving practice questions.
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Student Forum
Anything you would want to ask experts?Answered a month ago
CMAT is one of the top accepted exams for admission to MBA-offering universities, including AURO University. As per official sources, the CMAT exam has already been conducted for the 2025 session. The exam was conducted on Jan 25, 2025 by the National Testing Agency. The exam for the 2026 session i
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
The admissions into MBA courses at Marwadi University have been concluded in the year 2025. Hence, candidates can no longer apply for admissions into the MBA course at Marwadi University in the year 2025. The CMAT exam for the year 2025 has also been concluded for this year. Candidates must now wait
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
No, candidates do not have to mandatorily appear for the CMAT entrance exam for MBA in Business Analytics at Marwadi University. Candidates can apply for MBA admissions through any of the national level entrance exam such as CAT, XAT, ATMA and more. However, during admissions into the MBA in Busines
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
Yes, it is possible to get an MBA seat at CET Trivandrum with a valid CMAT score. The institute accepts CAT, CMAT, and KMAT scores for MBA admissions. Thus, students who did not appear for CMAT or did not score well can apply via KMAT or CAT scores. Students are selected for the programme after eval
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
No, CMAT scores are not compulsory for admissions to the MBA course at Sabarmati University. Because the university accepts CMAT/ CAT or any other entrance exam accepted by the counselling body. Thus, applicants with CMAT scores can get admission to the MBA course. However, it is not compulsory. App
V
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
No, getting admission into SGSITS MBA courses is not possible without taking CUET. For admission to its MBA courses, the institute only accepts valid CMAT scores. Other than this, it is also essential that students aspiring to enrol into the programme meet the eligibility criteria prescribed by the
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
CMAT is one of the top accepted exams for admission to MBA-offering colleges in Indore, including SGSITS. As per official sources, the CMAT exam has already been conducted for the 2025 session. The exam was conducted on Jan 25, 2025 by the National Testing Agency. The exam for the 2026 session is e
S
Contributor-Level 10
Answered a month ago
GK is memory based, so all that you need to do is memorise important events and occurrences. So, candidates may not need a lot of time to prepare for CMAT GK. They can devote one or two months for it. On daily basis, they can read Year Books for one hour to memorise events. Apart from that they can
S
Contributor-Level 6
Answered a month ago
CMAT RC passages are easy. Candidates need not worry about RCs in CMAT because they are short and pretty much straight forward. Questions are fact based and generally require candidates to identify the main argument/theme/idea of the passage. Sometimes, there are a few vocabulary and idiom based que
J
Contributor-Level 6
Answered a month ago
Yes, it is necessary to attempt GK section in CMAT as unlike other MBA entrance exams, scores of GK are included in percentile calculation in CMAT. Total number of GK questions in 20 and attempting 8-10 questions correctly, can get the candidate desired sectional cut off in CMAT. So, while preparing
A
Contributor-Level 6
Yes, 6 months are a decent time duration to prepare for CMAT exam, if one does it with dedication and discipline. Candidates who have appeared for CMAT or any other MBA entrance exam before, will find 6 months more than enough to prepare for the exam. Those, who are appearing in CMAT for the first time, can also prepare in 6 months but they will have to give extra time to it. If you plan a CMAT preparation in six months, make a three stage plan. In the first stage, which will be of 3 months, complete the CMAT syllabus, in the second phase, which will be of 2 months, practice sample papers and mock tests. In the third stage, which will be of 1 months, do revision of important topics and gain control over all that you have studied before. Keep in mind to solve enough number of CMAT mock tests (30-35) for better preparation in short time. Read More: CMAT preparation in 6 months