ATMA MCA Books 2026: Check best books for exam preparation

ATMA is a speed-based test which is designed to assess a candidate's analytical aptitude, logical reasoning skills, and English comprehension. It may sound tough, but these are the skills which we are taught in school so there is nothing new to learn. What is required is to learn these subjects at an advanced level. All you will need is to brush up on the basics and practice the concepts on advance level problems. Students should solve previous years question papers, attempt an ample number of mock tests and be consistent to score well in the ATMA exam. Having said that, the preparation for the ATMA exam requires focus, dedication, discipline and diligence. If you can do that, despite being an average student, you can crack the ATMA exam. ATMA is one of the easiest MBA entrance exams and a good preparation strategy can help you crack the ATMA exam with a good score. Generally, the toughest section of the ATMA question paper is Quantitative Aptitude. But with daily practice and focusing on understanding the fundamentals, this section of the ATMA exam can be handled easily.

AIMS conducts the ATMA exam at least three to four times a year. This year, the exam will be conducted thrice in the computer-based test mode. Here are important topics for the exam according to the sections of ATMA question paper.

Analytical Reasoning: Every year, this section is considered to be the toughest among the others. This section contains questions mainly from Analytical Reasoning and Critical Reasoning. Some of the important topics of this section include: 

1. Syllogisms 
2. Critical Reasoning
3. Course of Action
4. Cause and Effect
5. Statement and Conclusion
6. Strong and Weak Arguments
7. Statement and Inference
8. Coding and Decoding
9. Arrangements
10. Data Sufficiency

Verbal Skills: Just like other management entrance tests, this section is divided into Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability/English Usage. There are about four to five comprehension passages while the topics of English usage are as follows:

1. Synonyms (word pair)
2. Fill in the blanks
3. Para Formation Questions (PFQs)
4. Idioms
5. Error identification
6. Grammar
7. Sentence Completion
8. Word Meaning
9. Antonyms
10. Para Jumbles

3. Quantitative Skills: This section of the ATMA question paper is also considered tough. However, the overall difficulty level can be considered to be moderate. Some of the important topics of this section include:

1. Profit and Loss
2. Percentage
3. Simple Interest and Compound Interest
4. Partnership
5. Average, Mixture and Alligation
6. Time and Distance
7. Time and Speed
8. Geometry and Mensuration
9. Time and Work
10. Permutation & Combination
11. Probability
12. Statistics
13. Graphs and Pie Chart.

Aspirants should start preparing for the ATMA exam at least six months before the test date. ATMA preparation requires planning thus one must start early. They can also join coaching institutes for focused preparation. Starting early will also help you assess that whether you need to join a coaching institute or not. Divide your preparation into three phases - 1. Covering the syllabus 2. Practicing mock tests, sample questions and 3. Revision. The ATMA syllabus includes the following topics: Verbal Skills: Parajumbles, Sentence Completion, Grammar, Comprehension Passages, Synonyms and Antonyms, etc. , Analytical Reasoning: Tables, Graphs, Pie Charts, Blood Relation, Seating Arrangement, Strong and Weak Arguments, and Syllogism Quantitative Skills: Geometry, Algebra Number System Arithmetic, Mensuration etc. You can read the following ATMA books for exam preparation: 1. A New Approach to Reasoning by BS Sijawali 2. Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT by Nishit K Sinha 3. Multi-Dimensional Reasoning by Mishra Kumar and Dr Lal 4. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis 5. How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT by Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay 6. High School English Grammar and Composition by Wren & Martin 7. How to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for the CAT by Arun Sharma 9. Class 9 and Class 10 NCERT Mathematics books 10. Quantitative Aptitude by R. S Aggarwal.

ATMA one month preparation can be done. Students can begin with ATMA syllabus and exam pattern. There on, they can focus on practicing what they have studied. The aim should be to strengthen concepts and practice time management. The remaining time should be given to taking mock tests and soving sample papers.  

Prioritize weak areas and enhance vocabulary. This condensed plan can be effective with consistent effort 

No section in the ATMA exam has the higher or lower number of questions. Each section in the ATMA exam has equal number of questions. 

The best books for Quantitative Aptitude preparation of ATMA exam are listed below. These are the recommended books by experts. 1. NCERT Mathematics books (Class 9-10) 2. Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by Abhijit Guha 3. Quantitative Aptitude by RS Aggarwal The NCERT Mathematics book is recommended for ATMA preparation because it is the best source of building or revisiting the fundamentals of Algebra Geometry, Trigonometry Mensuration Number Systems and Arithmetic. The NCERT books are extremely helpful to students from non-Engineering background. Quantitative Aptitude books by Arun Sharma, Abhijit Guha, Nishit Sinha and RS Aggarwal are the main books for ATMA preparation as well as other MBA entrance exams such as CAT. These books cover all the topics at intermediate and advanced level. They also have many sample questions of easy, moderate and high difficulty levels for practice.

There is a range of books to read for ATMA preparation. Here is a list of section wise best books for the ATMA exam:

Verbal Skills section

• Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis
• High School English Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin
• Objective General English by RS Aggarwal
• The Pearson Guide to Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning for the CAT

Analytical Reasoning section

• How to Prepare for Logical Reasoning for CAT by Arun Sharma
• Analytical Reasoning by MK Pandey
• Multi-Dimensional Reasoning by Mishra Kumar and Dr. Lal
• Logical and Analytical Reasoning by K Gupta

Quantitative Skills section

• Quantitative Aptitude by R. S Aggarwal
• Fast track objective Arithmetic by Rajesh Sharma
• Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations by Abhijit Guha
• NCERT Mathematics Books for Class 9 and 10 by NCERT publications.

There is a range of ATMA books available for preparation of the Verbal Ability section. Mentioned below are some of the most recommended books: 1. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis 2. High School Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin 3. 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary by Wilfred Funk and Norman Lewis/Simon and Schuster 4. Pearson Guide to Verbal Ability by Nishit K Sinha For English Grammar and Vocabulary, High School Grammar and Composition by Wren and Martin is the best book. For Verbal Ability preparation, practice ample number of questions of different difficulty levels and take various mock tests. The above mentioned books are the best resources of Verbal Ability and practice questions. To prepare for Reading Comprehension passages, students should regularly read books, novels, magazines, research papers, newspaper editorials, etc. Along with these books.

Analytical Reasoning section is considered one of most difficult sections of ATMA exam. Some recommended books are: 

1. Guide to Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning by Pearson Publications
2. A Modern Approach to Logical Reasoning by R. S Aggarwal
3. Logical and Analytical Ability by Ashok Gupta.
4. Analytical Reasoning by MK Pandey 
5. A New Approach to Reasoning by BS Sijawali and Sijawali
6. Multi-dimensional Reasoning by Mishra Kumar and Dr. Lal
7. Logical and Analytical Reasoning by K Gupta
8. A Modern Approach to Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning by RS Aggarwal.