CMAT is one of the few management entrance examinations that favour students who are weak in mathematics. This is because pure quantitative aptitude in CMAT is only about 25questions in all. The difficulty level of these questions is much simpler than the ones asked in any other MBA entrance examination. Also, on an average you get to devote more time per question in the CMAT. Because of all the aforementioned factors, an attempt of 20 to 23 is very common in the Quantitative Aptitude section of the CMAT . These questions can be classified into three categories:

1. Pure Mathematics
2. Data Interpretation
3. Data Sufficiency.

Although it is difficult to give the exact break-up of questions in an online examination like the CMAT (an examination having multiple testing windows), pure math questions take the lion’s share accounting for approximately 20 to 22 questions. Data Interpretation and Data Sufficiency questions account for the remaining 3 to 5 questions.

Pure Mathematics Questions:

These are questions based on different topics of mathematics like Number System, Ratio Proportion, Percentage, Speed, Algebra, Geometry, and Permutation-Combination. There is no clear trend across different slots about the importance given to any one topic in particular and all of them accounted for almost the same number of questions.

Here are some representative types of questions that one can encounter in the CMAT:

1. A bag consists of 8 red balls, 5 blue balls and 4 white balls. Two balls are drawn at random. What is the probability that both of them are blue?
2. What will be the circumference of a circle with area equal to 98.56 sq.m?
3. What will be the compound interest accrued on an amount of Rs.2,750/- @ 14.p.c.p.a.at the end of 3 years?
4. A 280 meters long train crosses a platform thrice its length in 50 seconds. What is the speed of the train in kms./hr.?
5. If ‘n’ is the LCM of first 15 natural numbers, find ‘n’.
6. 80 oranges and 54apples cost Rs.483. If the average price of 1 apple is Rs.4.50., find the average cost of 1 orange.

Data Interpretation:

The first edition of the CMAT (February 2012), had the Data Interpretation questions completely missing in majority of the slots. However, the second edition (September 2012) saw 2-3 questions in almost every slot. The difference between the Data Interpretation (DI) questions asked in the CMAT and the other examinations is in the number of questions following every set. While in other examinations, every DI set is followed by 3 to 5 questions,, in the CMAT it is followed by only 1 question. This makes the DI questions a little time consuming compared to the rest. You need to interpret an entire set of data only for the sake of 1 question. However, from what was seen across all slots was that the DI sets was easy to interpret and a couple of simple calculations led you to the answer.

Data Sufficiency Questions:

Data Sufficiency has a weightage of about 1 to 2 questions in the CMAT and is found to be extremely tricky. One needs to be very careful in solving these questions or else there is a possibility of accuracy taking a beating.

The following questions should give you a good idea about how the Data Sufficiency questions in the CMAT are:

Each Data Sufficiency problem consists of a question and two statements labeled I and II, in which certain data is given. You have to decide whether the data given in the statement/s is/are sufficient for answering the question. Read both the statements and give answer:

1. If the data in statement I alone but not II alone or the data in statement II alonebut not I alone is sufficient to answer the question;
2. If the data in both the statements I and II together are necessary to answer the question;
3. If the data either in statement I alone or in statement II alone is sufficient to answer the question; and
4. If the data even in both the statements together are not sufficient to answer the question.
   1. She has scored 40%, 50% and 60% in the three subjects respectively.
   2. All the tests carry equal maximum marks.
   3. The average of b and c is 73.
   4. The average of a and b is 74.

1. What is the average percentage marks scored by Khushbu in the three exams taken by her?

2. x, y and z are three consecutive integers (not necessarily in that order). What is the value c?

To sum up, as compared to the other exams, the quantitative aptitude section of the CMAT is unlikely to give you jitters. The trick to clear, however, is to finish this section as soon as possible, so that one can focus on the other sections of the paper. Since the questions here are very easy, it is not accuracy, but speed at which you solve the questions in this section ,that will determine how you fare in the overall paper.

Author:

Manish Salian
Academic Head & Faculty – Robomate MBA Entrance (MT Educare’s CPLC )