MICAT 1 – the examination that has been conducted just six days after CAT 2020. For the uninitiated, MICAT is the entrance examination that is conducted by Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad (MICA), Gujarat, known for its Strategic Marketing and Communications legacy. Before jumping in to the nitty-gritty of MICAT 1 though, it is important to understand how admissions to MICA takes place.
First things first
MICA offers both PGDM and PGDM-C (C stands for Communication, as evident from the name of the college itself) programmes. MICA is especially known for the latter.
The MICA selection process
Step 1: CAT/XAT/GMAT
The candidate has to write CAT or XAT or GMAT. This is non-negotiable. The scores of one of these exams – as per the candidate’s preference – would be taken into account during the selection process.
Step 2: MICAT (MICA Admission Test)
The next step is the MICAT. A candidate applying for MICA can choose to appear for MICAT 1 or MICAT 2. Now that MICAT 1 as an option is out, candidates registering hereon can opt for MICAT 2 (to be held on 30 January, 2021).
Once both the CAT/XAT/GMAT and MICAT scores are taken into account, the shortlist for the subsequent round, viz. the GE&PI round (GE, for those curious, is ‘Group Exercise’, which is the same as ‘Group Discussion’ (GD)), will be made. The CAT score will occupy a 50% weightage, and the MICAT score comprises the other 50%. MICA uses the composite score to call candidates for the further stages of the selection process.
The final shortlist
The final shortlist, after the GE&PI (Group Exercise and Personal Interview) rounds, is arrived at using the following criteria.
| Criteria | Weightage |
| CAT/XAT/GMAT | 20% |
| MICAT | 30% |
| GE | 20% |
| PI | 30% |
This is subject to the condition that the candidates clear the sectional and overall cut-off, if any, as specified by the respective examinations (CAT/XAT/GMAT).
You have told me enough and more about MICA. What about MICAT?
Good that you asked. Let’s delve into it!
First up, let us see how the deadlines look. The following is going to be a timeline of the events ensuing immediately after MICAT 1 is done with.
| Event | Date |
| MICAT 2 Registration Commencement | 26 November, 2020 |
| MICAT 1 Score | 21 December, 2020 |
| MICAT 2 Registration Closing | 20 January, 2021 |
| MICAT 2 Issue of Admit Card | 27 January, 2021 |
| MICAT 2 Examination Date | 30 January, 2021 |
| MICAT 2 Score | 14 February, 2021 |
| GE & PI Shortlist | 19 February, 2021 |
| GE & PI at MICA, Ahmedabad | 9 and 10 March, 2021 |
| GE & PI at Bangalore and Mumbai | 13, 14 and 15 March, 2021 |
| GE & PI at Delhi and Kolkata | 19, 20 and 21 March, 2021 |
| Final Results | End of March, 2021 |
Note: Candidates can write either or both of the MICATs.
MICAT examination pattern
| Section | Number of questions | Time allotted | Maximum marks |
| A – Psychometry | 150 | 30 minutes | N/A |
| B – Descriptive | 4 | 25 minutes | 60 |
| C – Divergent and Convergent Thinking, Verbal Ability, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation, General Awareness | 20 each | 80 minutes | 20 each so in total, 80 |
| 135 minutes | 140 |
That is not all. We need to pay careful attention.
I am all ears. Tell me more!
Section – A: Psychometry
Let us start with Section – A. This is a Psychometric Test. The marks would not be counted in your final score. But, this section is what MICA called a ‘qualifier’. There are 150 questions that resemble a more detailed version of a Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test.
As is evident, these questions do not test your IQ. There are no correct or wrong answers. There is no computation involved. This can and should be done in under 30 minutes comfortably.
You cannot navigate to other sections until the timer for this section runs out.
Section – B: Descriptive
This section contains 4 questions, for which the candidate is expected to write a 300-word descriptive answer. This section is akin to a WAT (Written Ability Test) a candidate would be writing in the subsequent stages of the selection process for IIMs.
Out of the four questions, MICAT 1 had three questions of 10 marks each, and one question of 30 marks. The first question gave a one-line and asked the candidate to support the stance; for the second question, the exact opposite stance was expected. In other words, it was a ‘for and against’ argument that spanned two questions.
The third question was the extension of the first two with a specific use-case.
The final question was a story that had to be written using 4 clues in the form of pictures. Those who are used to the idea of writing Flash Prompts would have been able to romp home in this section.
Again, there was no possibility of navigating to the subsequent section(s) until the timer for this section ran out.
Important note: Each question had to be answered in less than or equal to 300 words. There is a word limit, as well as a time limit. It was important to prioritize effectively and not ramble on and on for a particular question.
Section – C:
This section spanned a total of 80 minutes, and had the following four sub-sections.
- Divergent and Convergent Reasoning – 20 questions
- Verbal Ability – 20 questions
- Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation – 20 questions
- General Awareness – 20 questions
The candidate could dabble between these four sections according to their whims and fancies; there was no fixed timing for each sub-section within Section C. Every right answer fetches 1 mark, and a wrong answer attracts a penalty of 0.25 marks.
Divergent and Convergent Reasoning:
Those who are familiar with CAT can misconstrue this section of MICAT to be a doppelganger of the Logical Reasoning part of CAT.
No, that is not the case!
First of all, this section consists of individual questions, and not ‘sets’ of 4 questions (or 6 questions, for that matter. One has to be careful these days, for we never know how many questions a DILR puzzle set can contain in CAT). Secondly, a CAT aspirant might not be able to tune themselves to this level of difficulty (it is actually far simpler than CAT, but requires some adjustments).
Questions of the kind, “Find the next image in the pattern/sequence” might not be at the cusp of a CAT aspirant’s repertoire. These kinds of questions definitely require prior practice.
Verbal Ability:
This section consisted of one RC passage of 5 questions, and the rest (15 questions) were all “VA questions”, in CAT parlance. One could regard this section as relatively closer to GMAT than CAT.
Some of the question types in this section were:
- “Choose the word that relates to all the given four words in the question”
- “Which of the assumptions/arguments is/are implicit in the given statement?”
- Find an idiom/word that replaces the idiom/phrase
The RC passage and the accompanying questions were as tricky as those that were given in CAT 2020. CAT 2020 had double negatives and vague passages; the passage in MICAT 1 was readable but the questions had options that were close to each other. Working through elimination was not an easy task as well.
Check out Bharath’s Curated Reading List for your Verbal requirements and daily dose of knowledge!
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation:
It has been a long time (thanks to CAT 2020) that we got to see a DI chart that is standard in every aspect of it. This section of MICAT 1 contained one DI set of 5 questions that could be solved using one chart.
The Quant side of this section was almost exactly at the level of CAT, with Arithmetic and Permutations and Combinations taking the lion’s share. One had to be on time, because some of the questions involved calculations. THERE IS NO ON-SCREEN CALCULATOR. This means if you find a Compound Interest question, you had to calculate manually. The approximations that a CAT aspirant is so wont to doing, did not work here, as the answer options were mostly close to each other.
General Awareness:
Without question, a CAT aspirant who has not been in the habit of following current affairs in the newspapers would have suffered big time wading through these 20 questions. While a person preparing for other competitive examinations – say, in the banking horizon – could have easily knocked this section off, the CAT aspirants would have found it to be a bit challenging.
Overall roundup about Section – C:
This was markedly different from CAT. Apart from Quantitative Ability, a CAT aspirant might have been in for a surprise in the other three sections.
Those who had/have the habit of skimming through newspapers and following a bit of pop culture (latest book releases, latest releases on OTT platforms) would find it a not-so-vague section.
In addition, if one is decently good at trivia (remember those school quizzing days?), this section could prove to be a cakewalk.
Final thoughts:
MICAT 1 can be a precursor to a lot of other entrance examinations. And there are different takeaways for different aspirants.
For XAT:
MICAT could prove to be a sampling exercise to attend an examination like XAT. How so? The Section – C of MICAT especially does not have sectional time limits, which is the case with XAT as well.
For IIFT, SNAP and NMAT:
Though MICAT penalizes wrong answers, it could more or less be used as a speed test preamble towards IIFT, NMAT and SNAP.
And of course, if you are writing MICAT for a seat in MICA, then it is a no-brainer. Go for it with full gusto, as Rajesh likes to say.
Stay Safe, and Best Wishes!
Written by Giridharan Raghuraman
Leave a Reply