NMAT 2017 (9am-11am – 17th Oct) continued to be on the same lines as in the previous slots and did not throw any surprises. The level of difficulty and the pattern of the paper remained similar as observed in previous slots. There were three sections with no negative marking. A student had the choice of deciding the sequence of sections. The exam experience was smooth without any technical glitches.
Compared to last year, the Language Skills and Quantitative Skills section were on the easier side while the Logical Reasoning section was of slightly moderate level of difficulty.
As per the previous NMAT exams this year, in this slot also a well-prepared candidate should have attempted 95-100 questions while guessing the remaining in the allotted time. Those who are aiming for a 99+ in CAT should have ideally been able to solve 105+ questions. Anyone with poor reading speed would have faced a tough challenge due to the strict sectional time constraint.
Basis our experience, irrespective of the level of difficulty of the NMAT paper, the cut-off is expected to hover around 207-209 marks due to normalization. Suggested attempt strategy would be Logical Reasoning followed by Quantitative Skills followed by Language Skills.
The pattern of the paper was as follows:
S. no |
Section |
No. of Questions |
Time (in Minutes) |
Difficulty Level |
Serious Attempts |
1 |
Language Skills |
32 |
22 |
Easy-Moderate |
27-29 |
2 |
Quantitative Skills |
48 |
60 |
Easy-moderate |
35-38 |
3 |
Logical Reasoning |
40 |
38 |
Moderate |
30-32 |
|
Total |
120 |
120 |
Easy-Moderate |
92+ |
The Logical Reasoning section was Moderate
The section was mix bag of easy to difficult questions. The section was dominated by verbal logic questions. There were 17 questions from the area of Verbal Logic. The five Critical Reasoning questions were of moderate-advance level of difficulty. In a couple of the questions the options were very close and students would have needed a thorough understanding of the concepts of Critical Reasoning to attempt these correctly. The remaining questions in verbal logic ranged from easy to moderate level of difficulty.
One set of logical reasoning questions was easy but the other set was on moderate to difficult side. Coding-Decoding questions were on easy side where as input – output questions set was moderate.
Overall, as compared to last year, this section was easier. An attempt of 30-32 with 85% accuracy was achievable.
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Level of difficulty |
Coding |
5 |
Moderate-difficult |
Blood Relation |
2 |
Easy |
Critical Reasoning |
4 |
Moderate- difficult |
Statement-Argument |
4 |
Moderate |
Statement Conclusion |
4 |
Easy- moderate |
Course of Action / Decision making |
2 |
Easy- moderate |
Statement-Assumption |
2 |
Easy |
Syllogism |
1 |
Easy |
Logical Reasoning |
8 (2 sets, 4 questions each) |
Moderate-difficult |
Input/output |
4 (1 set) |
Easy-Moderate |
Diagram Based (Find the missing number) |
2 |
Easy-moderate |
Mathematical Puzzles & Direction |
1 |
Moderate |
Singlets (Contained Visual Reasoning and Set theory based diagram) |
1 |
Moderate |
Total |
40 |
Moderate |
This section consisted of easy to moderate level of questions. the section was dominated by Arithmetic and Numbers questions. There were 4 sets of DI with 4 questions in each set. Some test takers also reported 5 DI sets. Two of DI sets were calculation intensive and questions were straight based on calculation.
The paper had 6 DS questions which were of easy- moderate level of difficulty. A well-prepared aspirant could have attempted 35-38 questions with 80%+ accuracy.
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Level of difficulty |
Profit & Loss |
2 |
Easy |
Percentages |
1 |
Easy-Moderate |
Ratio & Proportion |
3 |
Easy-Moderate |
SI & CI |
3 |
Easy |
Time & Work |
2 |
Easy-Moderate |
Number System |
7 |
Easy-Moderate |
Progression |
2 |
Easy-Moderate |
Set Theory |
1 |
Easy-Moderate |
Quadratic equation |
1 |
Easy |
Geometry |
1 |
Moderate |
Mensuration |
1 |
Easy |
P & C / Probability |
2 |
Easy |
Data Sufficiency |
6 |
Easy-Moderate |
DI |
16 (4 sets, 4 questions each) |
Moderate |
Total |
48 |
Easy-Moderate |
In RC passages 3 out of 8 questions were inference/idea based thus, the RCs were overall much easier than on day 1 and could have been solved in 8-9 minutes combined. The five vocabulary questions were of easy level of difficulty. The Fill in the blank, and Para Jumble questions were easy to moderate level of difficulty. The options were, as usual, very close in the Para Jumble questions. The spot the error questions in Grammar covered mostly Tenses. There were the four usual FIB with prepositions questions. The Cloze test was based on Vocabulary and had very close options.
The pattern of this section remained on predictable lines. Overall, the section was of easy-moderate level of difficulty keeping in mind the time constraint. An overall attempt of 27-29 with 80% accuracy is realistic. The other questions could have been educated guesswork.
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Level of difficulty |
Reading Comprehension Passages |
8 (2 passages of 4 questions each) |
Easy-moderate |
Para Jumble |
4 |
Easy-moderate |
Error Spotting |
4 |
Easy-moderate |
FIBs (Prepositions) |
4 (1 blank each – 3 sentences) |
Easy-moderate |
FIBs (Vocabulary) |
2 |
Moderate |
Synonyms |
2 |
Easy |
Antonym |
3 |
Easy |
Analogy |
1 |
Moderate |
Cloze Test |
4 (vocab based) |
Moderate |
Total |
32 |
Easy-moderate |
The overall difficulty level of the paper was easy-moderate and guess work would not have been needed for more than 20% of the paper.
TEAM CL