CMAT 2020 Analysis

Common Management Admission Test, usually known as CMAT, is a national level entrance examination conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) every year. It is a three-hour computer based online test to check the candidate’s ability across various segments like Quantitative Techniques and Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, Language Comprehension and General Awareness. This test helps institutions to select suitable graduate candidates for admission in all management programs. All AICTE-Approved Institutions/University Departments/Constituent Colleges/Affiliated Colleges accept CMAT score.

Maximum Marks per right answer : 4

Negative marks for each wrong answer : -1

CMAT 2020 was conducted on January 28, 2020, in single slot from 9:30 am-12:30 pm. There were no surprises in the exam this year except one in verbal section . The difficulty level was moderate. The Verbal section was comparatively more difficult and Data Interpretation was lengthy in comparison to last year. GK questions were tricky with a mixture of static and current affairs. The cut offs should also remain like last year.

This section had questions based on conventional areas. There were questions from Geometry and Mensuration, and the rest Quantitative Technique questions were from Arithmetic. Few questions were from Ratio, Percentage, Interest, Time and work. The level of difficulty of this section was moderate.

Data Interpretation questions were lengthy, time taking and individual in place of blocks. Roughly there were 7 questions each on Arithmetic and Number System, 4 on DI, 2 on Geometry and Mensuration , 4 on Permutations, Combinations and Probability and 1 on Algebra. A candidate who attempted around 21-23 questions in this section can expect a good score. CMAT Logical Reasoning Analysis

CMAT Logical Reasoning section was quite easy and manageable as compared to previous year’s paper. 25 questions were asked in the section out of which about 7 questions were from verbal reasoning. LR section had most of the questions from topics –Symbol based logic, Coding-Decoding, Relations, Series, Venn Diagram etc. a few questions were asked from Blood Relations, which were of moderate level of difficulty. Apart from a few, most of the questions were straightforward and doable. Aspirants who attempt 21-23 questions can expect a good attempt.

This section had one passage insteadd of four passages earlier , so this was one major change this year.  Most of the questions were either tricky or inference based. A few questions based on critical reasoning reasoning featured in RC. Verbal ability questions were again of easy to moderate level and were from areas such as Vocabulary   (antonym, synonym and contextual), Sentence Correction   , Grammar Part error ,  Para Jumble  and Sentence Completion, spellings, & one word substitution .  Overall the verbal section was dominated by vocabulary.Candidate who attempted around 22-23 questions would be expected to score well.

Around 2-3 questions were from current affairs and if one reads the newspaper or has a good knowledge of what’s going on in the world could have attempted around 6-8 questions quite easily.Static GK questions dominated the paper and questions were from Awards, Science, Politics,International events etc. A candidate who attempted around 15-17 questions could expect to score well. Basically, a candidate who attempted around 86-88 questions with decent accuracy can expect to fetch a good score.

CMAT is a popular MBA entrance test for admission into many reputed AICTE approved institutes in the country. Every year, top MBA colleges use CMAT Cut Off scores to shortlist the candidates for Group Discussion and Personal Interview rounds and for the final selection. Following is a list of CMAT cut-offs for various institutes.

*Data is indicative as some cut-offs are not officially declared

CMAT Cut offs are the first criteria based on which the colleges screen the students for the subsequent rounds. Clearing the CMAT cut-off is very important because unless a certain minimum score is achieved, the candidate will not get a call for interview. Post the written exam, the applicants are screened based on their CMAT test score and other criteria. After this they are called for the GD/ PI round by the affiliated institutes.

Different colleges have different criteria for selecting candidates. Generally, it includes the CMAT score, candidate's academic record, work experience in months (if any), quality of work experience, etc. The next step after clearing the test cut offs in the Group Discussion and Personal Interview round. This process also varies from institute to institute. Some institutes have GDs based on current or abstract topics while others have an essay-writing round as well. Also, you need to be well prepared for the Personal Interview as many of your qualities, mainly: confidence, self awareness, communication skills and leadership skills are being evaluated in an interview.