Leverage CAT prep and crack NMAT

The NMAT is one of the most popular MBA entrance exams in the country. The exam delivery is scheduled from Thursday, October 14, 2021 to Monday, December 27, 2021. The topic at hand today, is making the most out of your CAT Preparation. I hope most of you are aware of NMAT. You’ve been preparing for CAT, for quite a few months now. let us help you gain the maximum value from this.

CAT v/s NMAT

CAT and NMAT are similar in many ways in terms of time, sections and syllabus for the same. Of course the difficulty level slightly varies, NMAT being a bit easier and amicable thanks to the no negative marks for wrong attempts.

Exam pattern

Section	No of Questions	Time(In minutes)
Language Skills	36	28
Quantitative Skills	36	40
Logical Reasoning	36	52
Total	108	120

Syllabus of CAT and NMAT

Syllabus of CAT

As per the latest notification, the CAT exam pattern 2021 is divided into three sections and has a total of 76 questions. There will be 26 questions in the VARC and QA section and 24 questions in the DILR section. According to CAT 2021 pattern, the duration of the CAT will be two hours (120 Minutes) and for each CAT section, the time limit will be 40 Minutes.

Sections	No of Questions	Difficulty level
VARC	26	Moderate – difficult
DILR	24	Difficult
QA	26	Moderate – difficult

Syllabus of NMAT

In NMAT, you have 108 questions with 3 sections  namely Language skills, Quantitative skills & Data interpretation and Logical Reasoning.

Sections	No of questions	Difficulty level
Language skills	36	Easy-moderate
Quantitaitive skills & DI	36	Easy-moderate
Logical Reasoning	36	Easy

As you can see from the tables mentioned above, the difficulty levels of both exams are very different. NMAT is way easier than CAT, and most of the candidates who prepare for CAT can easily attempt NMAT. So, if you are well prepared for CAT, NMAT should not be an issue. Apart from some minor topics, most topics also remain the same for both the exams. However, the only point of distinction is that NMAT is a speed-based test, while CAT is not.

Types of question

The types of questions that come in CAT and NMAT are also pretty different. In CAT, you have a mix of TITA (Type in the Answer) and MCQ (Multiple choice questions) style questions, and you will find more TITA style questions in the VARC section. Now the good thing about TITA is that you don’t get a negative score for attempting these types of questions. However, there are no TITA styled questions in NMAT, only MCQs.

The table below shows the differences in the sectional question pattern of CAT vs NMAT:

CAT	NMAT
VARC – 26 Questions TITA – 8 Questions MCQ – 18 Questions	VA – 36 Questions (All MCQs)
DILR – 24 Questions TITA – 6 MCQ – 18	LR – 36 Questions (All MCQs)
QA – 26 Questions TITA – 8 Questions MCQ – 18 Questions	QA – 36 Questions (All MCQs)

Marking scheme

CAT	NMAT
CAT awards 3 marks for each correct answer. So with 76 questions, the total marks add up to 228.	In NMAT, you get 3 marks for each correct answer. With 108 questions, you get a total of 360 marks
CAT has a negative 1 marking scheme for every wrong answer (except for TITA questions).	NMAT has no negative marking for wrong answers which is a blessing!

In CAT, you have to carefully select your questions and answer them, every mark counts! This is a huge difference in CAT vs NMAT that aspirants need to consider while forming their strategy to crack these exams.

How to prepare for NMAT- Section-wise Preparation Strategy

Language skills

In this section, you must solve 36 questions within a time span of 28 minutes. The difficulty level of the questions is easy to moderate. You can easily attempt 20-23 questions These questions mainly require speed solving as it has a greater number of questions than the allotted time.

Topics	Number of Questions
Reading Comprehension	8-10 (2 or 3 passages of 400 words each)
Vocabulary based questions (FIB, Analogy, Antonym and Synonym)	8-10
Propositions and confusable questions	7-8
Parajumbles and sentence correction	7-8

Preparation strategy

• There are 36 questions in the language skills section, which must be attempted in 28 minutes. Also, out of these will be 10-12 questions based on vocabulary, which can easily be attempted in 10-20 seconds.
• The sure-shot way of excelling in this section is to develop an extensive reading habit. This helps you improve both your vocabulary as well as comprehension. Pay special attention to the editorial section in newspapers. 
• Reference to an authentic ‘wordlist’, giving the meaning and usage of words, will be conducive to handling questions on synonyms, antonyms, and analogies, which are popularly tested in this section.

Quantitative Skills

In this section, you must solve 36 questions within a time span of 40 minutes. The difficulty level of the questions is easy to moderate. You can easily attempt 20-23 questions These questions mainly require speed solving as it has a greater number of questions than the allotted time.

Section	Number of Questions
Arithmetic, Number System	10-12
Geometry	3-4
Logarithms and Progressions, Permutations and Combinations, Probability	3-4
Data Sufficiency	3-4
Data Interpretation	12(4 Sets)

Preparation Strategy

• You will get 36 questions in the Quantitative Skills section to be completed in 40 minutes; which is approximate ~1 minute per question.
• The four important areas in this section are – Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, and Modern Math.
• Begin with the basics and ensure concept clarity on fundamental properties, formulae and number operations, such as odd and even, prime numbers, LCM and HCF, etc. before graduating to advanced concepts.
• Practice DI sets across various concepts like table, line, bar, pie, caselets, etc.
• As we mentioned before, NMAT is essentially a speed test and thus having a good mental calculation ability has to be given importance. Familiarity with multiplication tables, squares, cubes, common fractions and their percentage equivalents is desired.

Logical Reasoning

In this section, there will be 36 questions that a candidate needs to solve in 52 minutes. The questions based on NMAT Exam 2021 Syllabus topics in this section will be asked to draw inferences from the statements, choose between strong and weak arguments, identify assumptions hidden within harmless-looking statements and even arrive at decisions considering the given information. Here is how you can prepare for NMAT 2021 Logical reasoning

Section	Number of expected questions
Arrangements, selections	8-10 (2-3 sets)
Critical reasoning	5-6
Family tree, blood relations, directions	4-5
Coding Decoding, Input Output	3-4
Statement Assumption Conclusion, course of action	3-4
Set theory, Puzzles and visual reasoning	6-7

Preparation strategy

• You will get 36 questions in the Logical Reasoning section to be attempted in 52 minutes, giving you about 1.5 minutes per question.
• The two important areas here will be- Verbal and analytical reasoning. 
• Critical reasoning is a major section in reasoning. Practice a lot of questions on different topics to master this section.
• While preparing for this section, remember never to assume or use any information that is not provided in the question.
• Develop a knack for identifying the questions to be done and the ones to leave. We can’t stress the importance of strong basics for the same.
• Understand that logical reasoning skills cannot be developed overnight. The only way to succeed in this section is to practice different question types from varied sources.

• The more you practice, the better you get!

Important points to keep in mind

• With 108 questions to be solved in 120 minutes, NMAT is a test of speed. The number of questions you need to attempt cannot be pre-determined as it is a function of the level of difficulty. Just keep a fine balance accuracy and speed.
• The NMAT allows you to choose the order of attempt. Hence, make sure you attempt your strongest section first, even while attempting mock tests. This will help build your confidence for the remainder of the test. It is recommended to attempt the more demanding section in the middle as concentration levels tend to peak at that time.
• The test is adaptive in nature, which means that the order in which the question appears depends on the accuracy of attempts so far.
• Sectional timings are present. One cannot move to the next question without attempting the current question.
• One important thing to note is that in NMAT we have to compulsorily answer a question to move ahead to the next question unlike CAT where you skim through and find easy questions to attend first and then hit the medium ones and end up trying the hard ones depending on the time available.
• Keep in mind that this time NMIMS considers only first attempt score so take it with a bit more seriousness, preferably my suggestion will be to take it prior to the CAT as it will give you an actual exam feel before hand, but if you are someone who wants to finish the big thing being CAT before anything else, then you can give NMAT post CAT itself.
• My personal suggestion is to make sure you use the official NMAT mock provided by the GMAC portal on priority and then you can try the other test series.
• 2 – 5 NMAT mocks depending on your preparation and time available is more than enough to get yourself into the NMAT mode.

Best wishes!!

Prem Sundar, NMIMS Mumbai, batch of 21-23