SA-Type Questions & MCQs in IPMAT QA Section

Difference Between SA-type & MCQ-type Questions in IPMAT-Indore

Indian Institute of Management Indore (IIM-I) executes the IPMAT examination to pick the best students for admission to its five-year integrated IPM program.

As per the past year’s trends, the IPMAT Indore 2025 exam pattern is predicted to have about a total of 90 questions across three sections which are Quantitative Ability (SA Type), Quantitative Ability (MCQs), and Verbal Ability (MCQs).

Understanding the thorough IPMAT 2025 exam format in advance assists students completely and also improves their preparation and successfully cracks the exam with excellent scores.

Below, we have provided all the information that is to know regarding the exam pattern, section-wise marking schemes, etc.

IPMAT-Indore 2025 Sections

The IPMAT is split into three sections:

I) Quantitative Ability (MCQs):

This section comprises a total of 30 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) designed on topics like time & distance, data interpretation, averages, mixtures & allegations, profit & loss, numbers, geometry, simple equations, and permutation & combination.

II) Verbal Ability (MCQs):

The VA section comprises a total of 45 multiple-choice questions filling in topics such as synonyms, prepositions, grammar, vocabulary, sentence correction, antonyms, articles, and so on.

III) Quantitative Ability (Short Answers):

This section comprises only 15 short answer questions covering the exact topics as the QA (MCQs) section.

IPMAT- Indore 2025 Important Highlights

Particulars	Details
IPMAT Mode of Exam	Online
Exam Period	2 Hours (120 Minutes)
Questions Types	Short Answer (SA) and Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)
No. of Sections	Three Sections: -Quantitative Ability (Short Answer Type) -Quantitative Ability (MCQs) -Verbal Ability (MCQs)
Distributed Time for Each Section	Forty Minutes
Marking Scheme	4 marks for each right response -1 mark for each incorrect response
Total Marks	400 Marks

IPMAT-Indore 2025: Section-Wise Questions Allotment

Sections	Questions Type	Number of Questions	Time Distributed
Quantitative Ability (Short Answer)	Short answer type of questions	15	Forty Minutes
Quantitative Ability (MCQs)	Multiple Choice Question	30	Forty Minutes
Verbal Ability (MCQs)	Multiple Choice Question	45	Forty Minutes

IPMAT-Indore 2025: SA-Type Vs MCQ-Type

IIM-Indore is the only conducting body among the three conducting bodies of the IPM exams that tests aspirants on a subjective pattern for the examination.

The exam pattern is created to evaluate the students’ abilities in different subjects. The mode of exam is online (computer-based test) that comprises three sections which are QA (SAs), QA (MCQs), and VA (MCQs).

According to the IPMAT exam format, about 50% of the paper includes the quantitative section: MCQs and SA-type.

Difference Between the 2 Formats of the QA Section

Short Answers-Type	Multiple Choice Questions-Type
Most commonly, the short answer type section is moderately difficult consisting of at least a quarter allotment of difficult questions.	Most commonly, the MCQs in the quantitative ability section is the most challenging section as half of the questions are known to be very difficult and you are required to complete all forty questions within a time frame of forty minutes.
Most of the questions are asked on logs, geometry, arithmetic progressions, probability, and P&C.	More than half of the questions are asked on arithmetic, number systems, geometry & mensuration, P & C, algebra, data interpretation, algebra, and matrices.
Numerically, about 40% of questions are asked on logarithms and sequence & series, and the exact trend has been pursued over the years.	Numerically, half of the questions are asked on arithmetic, data interpretation, and algebra.
A decent attempt would be anything around 70% to 80% with an accuracy level of at least 80% or more.	A decent attempt would be anything between at least 65% to 70% with an accuracy level of 85%. With this, you can obtain between 80 to 90 marks.
In SA, options are not provided. You are required to make your own calculations and then answer them manually.	For MCQs, options are provided. You only have to choose the correct answer from the given options.

In conclusion, short answer-type questions need more concentration since no choices are provided whereas the MCQs have the options to choose answers from but it's either risk it or take since the MCQs have negative markings.

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