NMAT 2017 - Analysis (7th Oct - 2pm Slot)

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	24-26
2	Quantitative Skills	48	60	Moderate	35-40
3	Logical Reasoning	40	38	Easy	30-32
	Total	120	120	Easy-Moderate	95+

Logical Reasoning

The Logical Reasoning section was easy.

The Analytical Reasoning questions were from predictable areas. The questions were either very easy or calculation intensive. Some questions didn’t have the exact answer as an option and you should have marked the best possible answer. The two LR sets were moderate and slightly time consuming. Students would have done well to work with options rather than solve the sets from scratch. The singlets were pretty easy. In a slight change from day 1, even the input and output questions were easy to solve if one worked with options.

There were 16 questions from the area of Verbal Logic. The six Critical Reasoning questions were of moderate-advance level of difficulty. One of these questions which was on strengthening the argument was pretty vague. In couple of the questions the options were very close and a student would have needed a thorough understanding of the concepts of Critical Reasoning to attempt these correctly. The two course of action questions were structured like decision making questions, which are common in XAT. These were mostly ethic based and the answers could be found by using one’s common sense. There were two syllogism based questions and these were very easy. The remaining questions in verbal logic ranged from easy to moderate level of difficulty.

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	3	Moderate- difficult
Blood Relation	2	Easy
Critical Reasoning	5	Moderate- difficult
Statement-Argument	2	Moderate
Statement Conclusion	3	Easy- moderate
Course of Action / Decision making	2	Easy- moderate
Statement-Assumption	1	Easy
Syllogism	2	Easy
Logical Reasoning(matrix)	8 (2 sets, 4 questions each)	Moderate-difficult
Input/output	4 (1 set)	Easy-moderate
Diagram Based (Find the missing number)	2	Easy
Mathematical Puzzles & Direction	2	Easy
Singlets (Contained Visual Reasoning and Set theory based diagram)	4	Easy-moderate
Total	40	Easy

Quantitative Skills

The Quantitative Skills section was of moderate level. Number System dominated the section. Arithmetic, too, made its presence felt. The Data Sufficiency questions were from diverse topics such as Numbers, Geometry, Algebra and Profit and Loss. There was also a set of 4 questions on functions and graphs. These questions were difficult as they were very lengthy. However, one could have solved these by just using the basic concepts. The questions from Modern Maths (P&C, Probability, and Set Theory) were very easy and anyone, even without any Maths background, could have solved these. The TSD questions were time consuming. The Time and Work questions were easy.

There were 4 DI sets which included pie-chart, combination graph, bar graph and a set comprising two tables. Two of these sets were calculation intensive. The remaining 2 were easy. A well prepared student would not have had much difficulty in going through this section. 35 – 40 proper attempts were certainly possible.

Topic	No. of Questions	Level of difficulty
Profit & Loss	1	Easy
Percentages	2	Easy-moderate
Ratio & Proportion	2	Easy-moderate
SI	1	Easy
Time, Speed & Distance	1	Easy-moderate
Work & Time	2	Easy-moderate
Number System	4	Moderate
Progression	2	Easy-moderate
Logarithm	1	Easy-moderate
Functions and graphs	4 questions ( 1 set)	Moderate-difficult
Polygon	1	Easy-moderate
Geometry	1	Easy-Moderate
Mensuration	2	Moderate
P & C / Probability	1	Easy-moderate
Data Sufficiency	5	Moderate-difficult
Set Theory	2	Easy-moderate
DI	16 (4 sets, 4 questions each)	Moderate
Total	48	Moderate

Language Skills

The Reading Comprehension passages made all the difference in this section. Unlike day 1 only 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 passages were from anthropology and sports. Some other candidates reported passages from different genres. In 1 of RC passage the options to all questions were tricky. The five vocabulary questions were of easy-moderate level of difficulty. The Fill in the blank, and Para Jumble questions were moderate to difficult. The options were, as usual, very close in the Para Jumble questions. The spot the error questions in Grammar covered mostly Tenses and Parallelism. There was 1 question which tested u on “ít’s”. There were the three 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 moderate level of difficulty keeping in mind the time constraint. An overall attempt of 26-28 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(3-4 sentence, 1 – 5 sentence)	Easy
Error Spotting	5	Easy-moderate
FIBs (Prepositions)	3 (1 blank each – 3 sentences)	Easy
FIBs (Vocabulary)	2 (2 blanks each)	Moderate
Synonyms	3	Easy
Antonym	2	Difficult
Analogy	1	Moderate
Cloze Test	4 (vocab based)	Difficult
Total	32	Moderate

The overall difficulty level of the paper was moderate and guess work would not have been needed for more than 20% of the paper. Option c did not seem to be the answer in most of the cases thus, marking all guesses as option b or d might have worked better.

TEAM CL