Students' Speak: Comparison between CMAT 2019 and 2018

By: Ambika Sur

Ambika talks in detail about every section and the overall highlights of the CMAT exam in the last 2 years.

Exam pattern

This computer-based online test comprises of Quantitative Technique, Logical Reasoning, Language Comprehension and General Awareness. 100 questions are asked which includes all the sections (25 questions from each section respectively), 4 marks are awarded against each correct answer but 1 mark is deducted for a wrong attempt. 3hours (120mins) is allotted to the candidates to attempt the test.

2019 Highlights

• 1^st time in 2019 CMAT is conducted in two slots - Slot I & Slot II. Slot I was scheduled in the morning from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm and later from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm, the next slot was conducted.
• The exam is conducted by NTA rather than AICTE.
• In Language Comprehension, the verbal section was comparatively hard. A passage on Steve Jobs was having a higher difficulty level and the questions from the passage were also indirect.
• General Knowledge portion was a bit tricky for the student. Static and current GK were more in the set.
• In Quantitative Aptitude, majority of the questions were from arithmetic. Data interpretation from the same section was quite time-consuming.

2018 Highlights

• In the Quantitative Aptitude section, only a couple of questions were from Data Interpretation, rest all other were from Quants. Geometry part got a share of 5 questions and topics like numbers, log, data sufficiency & function were absent.
• 2018’s Logical Reasoning questions were comparatively less time-consuming. More than 15 questions were really easy so it was expected to above 20.
• Language Comprehension is sectioned into two: Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability. 4 topics related to science & technology, management, philosophy & restaurant review were given. 25 questions were asked from RC and 10 from VA. I expected to score above 21 after analyzing the difficulty level.
• The General Awareness section was having moderate to high difficulty level so an attempt of above 15 was considered satisfactory.

Type of Questions

The test is divided into 4 sections - Quantitative Technique, Logical Reasoning, Language Comprehensions & General Awareness. The question doesn't follow any particular syllabus. In order to excel in the exam you have to gain knowledge on various topics based on the mentioned sections.

• Quantitative Technique - SI, CI, Percentage, Mixture and Allegation, Number System, Graph, Fraction and Decimals, Work and Time, Pipes And Cisterns, Charts and Graphs, Algebra, etc.
• Logical reasoning - Coding-Decoding, Blood Relations, Directions, Ranking, Matrix, Reasoning, etc.
• Language comprehensions - Paragraph Completion, Reading Comprehension, Sentence Improvement, Errors, Sentence Correction, Grammar, Synonyms, Antonyms, Jumbled Paragraph, etc.
• General awareness - Economics, Current Affairs, History, Politics, Basic Science, Constitution, Trades and Market, etc.

About the Author:

Ambika Sur is a student at Lovely Professional University pursuing her MBA with agriculture background. She is continuously working on her technical and managerial skills to achieve an exceptional career in the corporate world. She has completed a live project at Metro Cash and Carry and marketing intern at Agronxt.