NMAT 2018 (Day 2, - 5th Oct, 11 a.m. Slot 1) mostly stuck to a predictable pattern with hardly any surprise. The paper pattern remained the same: three sections with no negative marking. A student had the choice of deciding the sequence of sections. There were no technical glitches and the experience was quite pleasant. Compared to last year, the one major change in the Language Skills section was the fewer number of vocabulary questions.
If this paper is taken as a good indicator of this year's NMAT exam, the cut-off will likely remain in the same range (208-210 for Mumbai Campus) as that of last year. An advice for students would be to start with the Logical Reasoning section and end with the Language Skills section.
The pattern of the paper was as follows:
S. no |
Section |
No. of Questions |
Time (in Minutes) |
Difficulty Level |
Possible |
1 |
Language Skills |
32 |
22 |
Easy-Moderate |
27-29 |
2 |
Quantitative Skills |
48 |
60 |
Easy-Moderate |
35-38 |
3 |
Logical Reasoning |
40 |
38 |
Moderate-Difficult |
28-31 |
|
Total |
120 |
120 |
Easy-Moderate |
85-94 |
The Logical Reasoning section was easy to moderate.
Most of the questions were from predictable areas. One would have to move fast to complete this section. It would be wise to first attempt singlets and then pick up the sets. One LR set was easy while the other one was on a slightly moderate level of difficulty. The singlets were pretty easy. As compared to day 1, input/output set of 4 questions was slightly on the moderate level rather than easy while coding decoding questions were fairly easy.
There were 15 questions from the area of Verbal Logic and these were of moderate level. And not a well prepared student would have faced trouble in these LR questions. An attempt of 28-31 with 90% accuracy was achievable.
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Coding |
3 |
Blood Relation |
2 |
Critical Reasoning |
8 |
Statement-Argument |
1 |
Statement Conclusion |
1 |
Course of Action / Decision making |
3 |
Statement-Assumption |
1 |
Syllogism |
1 |
Logical Reasoning(arrangement and puzzle) |
8 (2 sets, 4 questions each) |
Input/output |
4 |
Missing number and visual reasoning |
3 |
Mathematical Puzzles |
2 |
Singlets(Contained venn diagram, set theory and series based) |
3 |
Total |
40 |
The Quantitative Aptitude section was no different than last year. The questions ranged from easy-moderate level of difficulty. Arithmetic and DI dominated the section. The DI sets were of moderate to difficult with only one 1 set on a easier note. A well prepared student would not have had much difficulty in going through this section. 35 – 38 proper attempts were certainly possible. Again a wise attempt would have been to first complete the singlets and then move onto the DI sets.
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Profit & Loss |
3 |
Percentages |
1 |
Ratio & Mixture, Proportion |
1 |
SI & CI |
1 |
Averages |
1 |
Work & Time |
1 |
Number System( HCF/LCM and units digit based) |
4 |
Progression |
3 |
Logarithm |
2 |
Geometry |
2 |
Probability |
2 |
Permutation and Combination |
2 |
Data Sufficiency |
5 |
DI |
20 (5 sets, 4 questions each) |
Total |
48 |
Following yesterday's pattern, vocabulary questions remained limited. There were only three synonym/antonym based questions which were easy.
The two Reading Comprehension passages made all the difference in this section. Out of 8 questions, almost 4 were inferential and 4 were factual. Out of these 8 questions 2-3 questions were slightly difficult.
The pattern of this section continued to remain on predictable lines. Overall, the section was of easy-moderate level of difficulty keeping in mind the time constraint. A well prepared aspirant should have been able to attempt all questions. It was a wise move to not get stuck on one question and approach should have been to read and mark and move to the next question. No time to be wasted on mulling over the options. A lot of questions were solvable through elimination approach. An overall attempt of 27-29 with 95% accuracy is realistic. The other questions could have been educated guesswork.
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Reading Comprehension Passages |
8 (2 passages of 4 questions each) |
Para Jumble |
4( 4 sentence) |
Error Spotting |
3 |
FIBs (Prepositions) |
2 (1 blank each -3 sentences) |
FIB (Preposition based) |
1 (2 blanks) |
FIBs (Common Confusables) |
2 (2 blanks each) |
FIBs (Vocabulary) |
1 (2 blanks) |
Synonyms |
1 |
Antonym |
2 |
Analogy |
4 |
Cloze Test |
4 |
Total |
32 |
TEAM CL