CMAT, many MBA aspirants and experts say, is relatively easier to crack than the Common Admission Test by IIM. And by ‘crack’, they mean to secure 95+ percentile. But is CMAT that easy to crack? Wouldn’t more people appear for CMAT than CAT or XAT? The answer to both the questions is both yes and no.
All competitive exams like CMAT require months of practice and hard work to secure a percentile above 95 or 96. One cannot prepare at all for CMAT and get 97 percentile at the same time.
Find out why CMAT is considered easier than other management exams below.
Is CMAT easy?
Why is it that some candidates scoring 50 percentile in CAT score 95+ in CMAT?
The CMAT paper is considered to be easier because of the following reasons.
- There are less trickier questions in CMAT than CAT or XAT.
- The questions in CMAT are less time consuming than CAT which gives a lot of time for the candidates to solve the difficult questions.
- There is no sectional time limit in CMAT paper. Candidates can move across all the sections as per their preference.
- The total number of students appearing for CMAT is much lower than the CAT or XAT. This has a direct effect on the sectional and overall percentile of the candidates.
- Even though there are four sections, there is nothing to ‘solve’ in the General Awareness section. Thus, you get plenty of time to solve Quantitative Techniques and Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning problems.
- The syllabus for all management exams is more or less the same. If a candidate is preparing for a national-level entrance test like CAT, he/ she can easily appear for CMAT (usually held after CAT) without much hard work.
There are also reasons why CMAT is not as easy as people think.
These are as follows:
- Though there are 25 questions in all sections, each section carries 100 marks.
- Each question carries 4 marks. Thus there isn’t much scope to get an answer wrong if a candidate needs 95+ percentile.
- The cut-offs of CMAT are usually extremely high. For example, the cut-off for JBIMS for CMAT is 99.89 and above.
- To score such high percentile, one cannot afford to have a weak section.
- Along with Quantitative Techniques and Logical reasoning, an aspirant will have to prepare for the GK section as well. To score well in the General Awareness section, a candidate must read newspapers every day and be aware of the events of national and international importance.
Stay connected with fellow students on PaGaLGuY for CMAT 2020 Exam
Easy Steps to Crack CMAT?
Success requires a lot of hard work. To score 95+ percentile in any management exam, a candidate must practice with a smart strategy. But there are ways of studying ‘smartly’ than studying for 10 hours a day without any result. With proper strategy and planning, one can secure more than 95 percentile in an exam like CMAT.
- Identify your strengths and weaknesses by solving the previous years’ papers. This will help you to assess how much practice you require for a very good score.
- Prepare the list of areas you need to work on if you are targeting 95+ in CMAT.
- Decide how much time you should devote depending on the weeks or months left for the exam.
- Set realistic goals to achieve your target.
- Take mock tests after some weeks or a month of practice to reassess your improvement.
- The everyday revision will also help you to remember the concepts in a better way.
Good luck with your CMAT preparation.