On the whole the level of the test was moderate to tough. The test contained many moderate and difficult questions and hence the important factor was selection of appropriate questions to attempt. Quant section was tougher than reasoning section. Verbal section was moderate. The key to getting a good percentile was time management and selection of questions.
The first passage (1-4) highlights the dangers of idolizing ‘national’ figures fanatically, as it fosters the authoritarianism and provincial mindset. According to the author questioning the relevance of ideologies of these heroes is not same as attacking that hero itself; it in fact broadens our horizon of critical thinking. The level of difficulty of this passage was easy to moderate. In the second passage (5-8), author elucidates some reasons behind the great recession and American economic dysfunction. According to the author it’s the ‘short- termism’ and lack of capital investments that jeopardizes a company’s ability to generate long- term returns. Author mentions more such reasons in the passage. This passage was easy to moderate in difficulty level. The third passage (9-12) focuses on the importance of diversity and equal opportunities to put forward different ideas, in a team. To prove his point, author has cited Mr. Syed’s arguments in favor of assembling a team of people with different perspectives and intellectual backgrounds; and the eventual success of their ventures. This passage was moderate in difficulty level. The fourth passage (13-16)highlighted the ironic reality of the medical science’s claim of improving life expectancy; when in fact, according to the author, it is improved sanitation, access to water and increased food supply which accounts for better life expectancy. Shunning the over-enthusiasm of improved medical services, author also informs us about possible regression of life expectancy in future. This passage was easy to moderate in level of difficulty. Questions (17-19) were based on para-jumbles and these questions were of difficult level. Questions (20-22) were para-summary questions and were moderate to difficult- level questions. Questions 23 and 24 were based on ‘fit the sentence appropriately’ in the paragraph. This included one easy and one difficult level questions. Overall, the verbal section of this mock was more on moderate level of difficulty with an expected level of 85% of accuracy with 90+ percentile if a candidate attempts around 16 to 18 questions.
The difficulty level of DI was Hard. There were 2 easy, 12 medium and 6 difficult questions in this section. The second block (Traffic flows from point A to point H) was easiest and was must do and by attempting a couple of questions from rest of the blocks, one could have fetched a very good percentile. In this section, one could have fetched 90+ percentile by attempting 4-6 questions with approx. 80 % accuracy.
Students found this section easier than DI this time. The Quantitative section had 0 easy, 9 medium and 13 difficult questions. Selection of questions was important to crack this section. There were questions from varied topics like Geometry, Basic Numbers, Basic Algebra, Progression and Series, Arithmetic (Percentages/Time and Work/Mixtures/Percentages/SI-CI/Ratios). A good student could have scored 90+ percentile by attempting around 4-6 questions with approx. 80% accuracy.
The overall feel of the paper was moderate to tough, though for the students who knew how to manage the time available to the best i.e., not wasting much time in lengthy and difficult questions, could easily manage an overall good attempt. Quant section was tougher than reasoning section. Verbal section was moderate. Most of the questions in quant section were from Arithmetic, Algebra, Number system and Geometry. For verbal section, one should have good reading skills as there were 4 RC’s and also a few questions based on paragraph summary. One must focus on contextual vocabulary as well to understand and score well in RC passages. Questions such as sentence rearrangement and best placement require analysis and knowledge of tricks to answer the questions. It is not advisable to spend too much time on TITA questions especially in the verbal section.
