Students' Speak: How many sections are there in the CMAT test paper?

By: Abhishek Desai

There is no sectional time limit, allowing the test takers to spend time in one section as per their convenience. Since almost the syllabus of the other three sections is covered by preparing for the other exams, General Awareness mostly proves to be the game changer for the candidates. 

The Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) is one of the prominent MBA entrance exams conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) every year. It is conducted in an online mode during the month of January and its scores are accepted by more than 1000 B-schools across India for their MBA and PGDM courses. In 2020, a total of 74,486 candidates had registered for the CMAT; emphasizing its importance among the several MBA aspirants.

The duration of CMAT is of three hours; consisting of a total of 100 questions spread equally across four sections. These are: Quantitative Techniques & Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, Language Comprehension & Verbal Ability, and General Awareness. There is no sectional time limit, allowing the test takers to spend time in one section as per their convenience. Since almost the syllabus of the other three sections is covered by preparing for the other exams, General Awareness mostly proves to be the game changer for the candidates.

This exam is held usually in two slots – Morning (9:30 am to 12:30 pm) and Afternoon (2:30 pm to 5:30 pm). A graduate from any background as well as a final year student is eligible to appear for the CMAT. In case of a wrong question being asked in the exam, four marks are awarded to all the candidates irrespective of them attempting that question or not.

Every test taker is provided with a rough sheet for doing calculations, which they have to submit before leaving the test center. Also, a test taker can leave once the entire exam duration is over irrespective of his/her exam getting over before.

The marking scheme in CMAT is as follows: “four marks” are awarded for every “correct” answer, “-1 mark” deducted for every “wrong” answer, and no marks given for an unanswered question. With no age restriction while appearing for the exam, there is also no limit in giving the CMAT. The overall difficulty level of the CMAT has traditionally been “medium”.  

Some of the reputed B-schools which accept CMAT scores are as follows:-

• JBIMS - Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
• SIMSREE - Sydenham Institute of Management Studies Research and Entrepreneurship Education
• IMT Ghaziabad - Institute of Management Technology
• SIMSR KJ Somaiya Institute of Management
• WeSchool Mumbai - Welingkar Institute of Management
• Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
• GIM - Goa Institute of Management
• BIMTECH - Birla Institute of Management Technology
• IFMR Graduate school of Business, KREA University (IFMR GSB), Sricity

Some prominent topics covered in each of those four sections are as follows:-

• Quants and DI: Geometry, Time and Distance, Graphs, Charts, Probability, Simple & Compound Interest, Profit & Loss.
• LR: Puzzles, Statements and Assumptions, Cause & Effect, Conclusions, Arrangements.
• LC: Para jumbles, vocabulary, passages, grammar, and idioms.
• GK: Questions asked are based on both Static and Current GK; covering various fields such as Business, Politics, Sports, History, Science, Entertainment, etc.

About the Author:

Abhishek Desai is currently pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) in e-Business from Welingkar Institute of Management. He has done his Summer Internship in the field of Market Research with 'TimesofMoney'. He's also served as 'Secretary of the Green Committee' at Welingkar.