NMAT registrations have come to a close a fortnight ago, and a chunk of test takers are done with their first attempt. There are a number of questions on whether an NMAT retake is required, what a safe score is to get a call from NMIMS Mumbai, and so and so forth.
In this article, we will look to cover the following aspects.
- CAT vs NMAT vs XAT
- The NMAT experience
CAT vs NMAT vs XAT
For most of us, CAT 2020 has been a draining experience. Not to suggest anything pessimistic, but the sheer volume of information we have been receiving and consuming – voluntarily and involuntarily – about CAT 2020 after the response sheet came out has been huge.
Hence, it is important to understand how NMAT is a different ballgame altogether.
CAT vs NMAT: What are the similarities and differences?
There are quite a few similarities between CAT and NMAT, especially in terms of preparation.
The similarities
1) The Quant section
This is where the bulk of overlapping occurs between CAT and NMAT. The bulk of Quant section in NMAT consisted of questions from three areas.
- Arithmetic (specifically, Profit and Loss, and Simple and Compound Interest)
- Number Theory
- Permutations and Combinations, and Probability
Your CAT preparation absolutely comes into play. If you have had a decent level of familiarity with the aforementioned topics, you should be looking to get many questions right in this section.
Combine them with Data Interpretation! You know what I mean? Those charts that were sorely missed in the CAT DILR section? Those are here. Hit a home run in those DI sets that are straightforward.
2) Timed sections
Just like CAT, the three sections here have separate time limits. You have to finish attempting a particular section before the time clicks its way to zero.
The differences
1) Ordering of sections
A test-taker is allowed to choose the order of sections they would like to go ahead with, even before the test starts. There are three sections in NMAT.
- Language Skill
- Logical Reasoning
- Quantitative Skills
You are free to choose this order right at the beginning of your examination, but once the preference for the order of sections is given, it cannot be changed.
2) No on-screen calculator
This probably tops the chart when it comes to the differences between CAT and NMAT. There is no on-screen calculator in NMAT.
What does this mean for a test taker?
There are two important things to be cautious about.
- Calculation intensive Quant sums
- Limited number of empty papers to work out calculations
Manual calculation could be a pain
If there is one thing that an NMAT aspirant has to get themselves adopted to, that is going to be getting used to doing intense calculations. By intense calculations, I mean things like multiplying 24% (just giving a number for reference; there is absolutely no spoiler here) four times.
You might think you could wade through by doing some gimmicky approximations. But the approximating technique does not come to your rescue all the time in NMAT. In many Quant questions, the options are also close; this requires you to calculate the answer meticulously.
Keep in mind that the Quant section requires you to attend 36 questions in 52 minutes. Of course, there are going to be sitters that would not take more than a minute of your time. Nevertheless, it is important to be focussed and slightly more speedy in your manual calculation abilities than what is required for CAT.
3) No skipping, no reviewing
The examination is adaptive. This means you will not be able to see the successive questions when you are on a particular question.
The other important aspect in the same regard is that you have to attend every question, irrespective of whether you think you know the answer or not.
The Instructions page at the beginning itself would clearly state that there is a penalty for leaving questions unattempted. Hence, if you are wondering whether to leave the final few questions because you do not have enough time OR to keep choosing options for all questions, the latter could be a decent choice. Not that you have to deliberately expect for the factor of luck to be on your side for all questions. But, if you do not know or are unsure about the answer, select a bubble and move on.
Once you have moved on, though, you will not be able to see the responses to your previous questions. That is also an important thing to keep in mind as you go about answring questions in NMAT.
4) No negatives
There is an obvious doubt that crops up. If you keep selecting random answers for dubious questions, would you not be penalized?
NO, you would not. NMAT does not have negative marking for wrong answers. So, fire away!
5) The types of questions
We will go section by section, and let us see the most important differences between CAT and NMAT.
Language Skill in NMAT vs. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension in CAT
These are miles apart from each other, if you are wondering what we are getting at! On to the specifics now…
CAT vs. NMAT – Reading Comprehension
CAT RCs require us to break our head, be focussed on every word. If we miss one or two statements, there is a huge chance that we missed the crux of the passage. It could also result in a couple of questions going wrong.
NMAT RC does not require that bit of diligence. This also ties in well with the fact that the Language Skill as a section has a total of 28 minutes, and you are required to attend 36 questions. That comes out to be less than a minute per question!
The passages in RC are more fluid in the sense that the transition between paragraphs is obvious. With a decent reading skill, one would be able to spot the flow of the passage, and what is being discussed as the overarching theme/idea.
Vocabulary questions
There are a bunch of synonyms/antonyms-based questions asked in the form of A:B :: ?:? One cannot prepare for these types of questions at the last moment, if CAT prep is all that one has with them. On the other hand, if there is a GMAT/GRE aspirant out there, they might find these types of questions aiding them (probably).
There are a bunch of questions in the form of ‘Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words’. These questions had two blanks, out of which at least one could be easily found from the options. This is applicable to at least 75% of these questions. In the rest, it might boil down to two out of the five options. Plugging them in the paragraph would most likely eliminate one of those two options.
The parajumbles were much easier than those we found in CAT. Since they are multiple choice questions as well (FYI, all the questions, irrespective of the sections or level of difficulty, are MCQs in NMAT), you could try out each option and find out the right coherent order. In almost all parajumble questions, the opening and closing sentences were easy to spot, and the rest could be found by means of working with the options.
CAT vs. NMAT – Logical Reasoning
First of all, CAT has DI and LR combined into a single section (of course, the fact that there was virtually no DI-based set – in the conventional sense, i.e. charts, graphs, etc. – at all in at least two of the three slots in CAT 2020 is a story for yet another day).
NMAT combines DI with Quant (just like XAT), and you have LR as a separate section.
Even in Logical Skills, you do not have ‘sets’. Rather, these are mostly individual questions. Some of the types of questions that formed the lion’s share of this section are:
- Statement and underlying/implicit assumptions
- Statement and Inferences
6) Time limit and proceeding to subsequent sections
In CAT, you had to sit through the section even if you finish attempting all the questions early (we are not getting into the debate of how it is even remotely possible to complete a section before the stipulated time).
In NMAT, you need not wait for the clock to tick to zero before you move to the next section in NMAT. If you complete, let’s say, the Language Skills section in 30 minutes, you are free to submit and move on to the next section. However, the time remaining WILL NOT BE CARRIED OVER to the next section.
XAT vs. NMAT: the similarities and differences
The similarities
Right on top, we have the Logical Reasoning section of NMAT plotted against XAT BDM (Business Decision Making) section. There are questions in the Logical Skill section of NMAT, which ask for the ‘Course of Action’ to be taken, given certain problems and bottlenecks. These are exact doppelgangers of the XAT BDM questions.
Furthermore, there is a slight overlap with the Critical Reasoning questions of XAT. The statement-assumption questions and the statement-inference questions bear resemblances.
The differences
As should be obvious, there are certain differences that can be inferred straightaway.
1) Time limit
XAT has no sectional time limits, whereas NMAT does. Since there is no time limit in XAT, there is no need of ordering the sections based on our preferences right at the start.
2) No General Knowledge section
XAT has a section that deterines who sails through in case of a tiebreaker – the General Knowledge section. NMAT does not have anything of that sort.
The NMAT experience
Before we get into how the examination itself went for us, it is important to understand the examination itself. There was a tangible difference in the way a candidate who wrote NMAT before CAT approached the examination, and the one(s) who attempted NMAT post-CAT.
NMAT 2020 vs NMAT 2019
The overall feedback about NMAT 2020 seems to be that it has been easier than NMAT 2019. So, the cut-offs required to get a call from, say, NMIMS Mumbai need not remain the same as last year. More clearly, a 215+ need not necessarily guarantee you a call.
Aim higher, attempt with gusto and come out with flying colours!
Stay safe, and best wishes.
Written by Giridharan Raghuraman, with inputs from Prem Sundar
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