Selection Process (Written Test + Final Selection):


The MAT contains 200 objective type questions to be solved in a time span of 150 minutes. Historically, the test was divided into five sections of 40 questions each. The five sections were Language Comprehension, Mathematical Skills, Data Analysis & Sufficiency, Intelligence & Critical Reasoning and Indian and Global Environment. From December 2006, the pattern has shifted to a paper of 200 questions without any sectional categorization, although the sectional breakup has remained the same.

The questions have four answer choices. One mark is provided for each correct answer with 25% negative marking for each incorrect answer. In calculating the overall score, the scores in the Indian and Global Environment section are not considered. Scores are given as percentile below and also as a composite score out of 800.

The final selection procedure to an Institute differs from one institute to the other and comprises some or all of the following: Group Discussions, Personal Interviews, Presentations, Psychometric Evaluation, Essay Writing, Role Plays etc.

Tips and Strategies for the Written test

The Language Comprehension area contains questions on Reading Comprehension, Antonyms, Synonyms, Analogies, Sentence Correction, Sentence Completion, Para Jumbles, Fill in the blanks etc. with easy to moderate difficulty level. It is essentially a Vocabulary heavy section, and to do well, a student is advised to develop a good command over words. Most of the Vocabulary based questions can be answered with a sufficient knowledge of roots, prefixes and suffixes. In fact, starting with these questions makes a lot of sense as a sizeable chunk of marks can be scored here in double-quick time.

The Mathematical Skills area mostly contains problems from Arithmetic, Business Maths and Geometry. Those of who have developed a “fear-psychosis” after the CAT / IIFT mathematics would find solving these questions a much easier task. The questions involve direct applications of concepts and formulae, and none of the complicated and convoluted reasoning of the CAT! Students are well advised to revise the basic formulae and concepts of Maths and solve as many questions as is possible from the aforementioned topics in the run-up to the MAT.

The Data Analysis and Sufficiency area contains sets of questions on Tables, Bar / Line graphs, Pie chart and Data Sufficiency. Questions here, would again be calculation intensive but easy enough to find the answers to. Knowledge of multiplication tables, square and cube roots, fractions to percentage conversions and other calculation short-cuts and approximation techniques would be of immense help to the students in reducing the time taken to solve the questions.

In the Intelligence and Critical Reasoning area the questions are normally seen from the various Logical Reasoning topics like Direction Sense, Blood Relations, Coding and Decoding, Data Arrangement, Input/Output analysis, Series and Sequences and Critical Reasoning. These are topics that require plenty of practice and the students are well advised to solve as many questions as are possible from these areas.

The Indian and Global Environment section contains questions from General and Current Awareness. Topics and events about a year old would be most expected to be faced in this area. Business, politics, sports, awards and distinctions, books – anything could be a part of this section. Students who have had a decent reading habit in the past one year or so of their MBA entrance examination preparations, would not find too much of difficulty in attempting questions from this section.       

To summarize, out of the 200 questions, an excellent score would entail attempting around 125+ questions with 85-90% accuracy. Sectional break ups are important, so do not contemplate leaving any one section completely. Not even the questions from Indian and Global Environment, as you would not know what kind of subjective impact such an action would leave.

Any score in the range of 670+ (out of 800) would be considered as ‘GOOD’ and would get you a call letter from one of the better B-schools allied with the MAT. The MAT score is valid for one year, although many B-schools consider the score for that particular session only.

So go ahead and crack the December MAT. Take care of your ‘Speed’ as well as ‘Accuracy’ and you will definitely taste success. For more study material and solved Dec 2007 , Feb 2008 papers click here