Know the structure of the CMAT exam to crack it with ease

By: Nimisha Sharma

Knowledge of the complete exam pattern is essential for students preparing for various competitive exams. The exam duration, marking scheme, major sections, and so on helps in formulating a plan to crack the exam.

Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) is a national-level MBA entrance exam whose scores are accepted by more than 100 top B-schools across the country. Every year more than 60, 000 candidates appear for the exam. CMAT is a computer-based online test comprising of four sections, i.e. Language Comprehension, Quantitative Techniques, Logical Reasoning-Data Interpretation, and General Awareness. The total number of questions is 100 which are equally divided into four sets. Every question carries four marks and one mark is deducted for every wrong answer marked. The time duration for the test is three hours (180 minutes).

Generally, CMAT has a lower difficulty level than CAT, XAT, and IIFT. Hence, the cut-off required for the admissions into top B-schools is high as compared to other exams. Usually, candidates who appear for CAT also appear for CMAT as the preparation content of both the exams is same, except for the General Awareness section. In CMAT, the General Awareness section is divided into two categories - Current GK and Static GK. The candidate should develop the habit of reading English newspaper, magazines, articles and novels regularly to get a good command on language which in turn would improvise the problem-solving ability of the candidate.

In CMAT, the language section comprises Reading Comprehensions, Para Jumbles and Critical Reasoning as broad topics. The Logical and Analytical Reasoning Sections include questions on Linear Arrangement, Blood Relations, Family Tree, Coding-Decoding and Syllogisms to name a few and the level of difficulty of this section fluctuates every year. The candidate could only get command over this section by practising more sample questions regularly.

The difficulty level of the Quantitative Aptitude Section is moderate to difficult, therefore, the candidate should develop a habit of using short-cut of every concept/technique than depending on the calculator. The section includes topics such as Profit Loss, Geometry, Mensuration, Probability, Number System and Average, etc. The candidate should also work on enhancing their speed by solving questions in the minimum time possible using simple calculations.

The top B-schools which accepts CMAT scores are:

• JBIMS - Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
• Great Lakes Institute of Management
• K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research
• Institute for Financial Management and Research
• Goa Institute of Management
• KIIT School of Management, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology

Apart from these top B-schools more than 400 colleges in Maharashtra which follow the DTE Maharashtra’s selection process also accept the CMAT scores.

About the Author:

Nimisha is a second-year student at IMI, Bhubaneswar. She is currently a member of the Corporate Relations team at IMI Bhubaneswar wherein she deals with campus placements. She has also presented a research paper at an international conference.