MAT is a national-level exam devised to test the candidate's potential for management education. It is conducted by AIMA for admission to 600+ associated B-schools and many others. MAT is considered easier compared to other popular MBA entrances like CAT, XAT, etc. However, the candidates still need to prepare well for every section so as to clear the sectional cut-off marks.
MAT has five sections of 40 questions each and every question carries one mark. Intelligence and Critical Reasoning is one of the most scoring sections of MAT and comprises a mix of easy and slightly tricky questions. Yet, most of the reasoning questions are manageable and can be solved with good accuracy.
In this article, we will analyze the intelligence and critical reasoning section of MAT and assist you in formulating a strategy for scoring well in the exam.
MAT: Intelligence and Critical Reasoning
In this section of MAT, the majority of the questions appear from areas like analytical reasoning, alphanumeric series, blood relations, direction-based questions, verbal reasoning, etc. Besides these, there are questions based on cubes, coding-decoding, membership and its diagrammatic representation, etc. You are advised to revise the concepts of all these areas in a careful manner. Let us have a look at some of the reasoning questions, which were asked in the previous MAT exams:
Q.1. "Showing a photograph to a friend, Mahesh says, "She is the grand-daughter of the elder brother of my father". How is this girl related to Mahesh?
- Niece
- Sister
- Aunt
- Sister-in-law
NOTE: In order to answer this question, the basic knowledge of blood-relation questions is sufficient. These analytical reasoning questions, which usually appear in a set of 2 - 4 questions, have been an integral part of this section.
Q.2. Five Indian cities namely 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' and 'E' are famous for their lovely gardens, fancy jewellery, educational institutes, blue pottery and scents, but not in the same order. Each city is famous for one of the five important features mentioned above. Given below are some facts related to these cities:
- 'A' and 'C' are not famous for either educational institutes or gardens.
- 'B' and 'E' are neither famous for jewellery nor scents.
- Scents and jewellery have nothing to do with 'A'
- 'D' and 'E' are not famous for gardens and jewellery.
- 'D' is not famous for educational institutes.
NOTE: This set involves the basic understanding of the concepts of analytical reasoning. You have to make a table for city and the features for which the city is popular. Such a set is accompanied by 3-4 questions. As the area covers around 25% questions from the section, this is something you must be proficient in. Some of these sets may appear a bit hard to crack, so you can skip these and move on to the next question. Tricky questions are best attempted at last.
The level of difficulty of intelligence and critical reasoning section varies from easy to moderate. The questions based on alphanumeric series are of quite an easy level. An alphanumeric question from one of the previous papers is given below:
Q.3. "5G7, 7H10, 10I14, 14J19, ?" In this case you have to find the next term.
Conclusion
The questions asked in this section involve only the basics and those who have done sufficient practice will find these questions to be easy to handle. While all areas of reasoning need to be covered, a careful study of the previous papers reveals that some topics are more important than the others. Thus, it is recommended that you cover the entire syllabus with special focus on the areas mentioned above.
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