Top 10 tips to crack CMAT

CMAT or Common Management Admission Test is conducted by AICTE or All India Council for Technical Education so that the students aspiring for MBA or management programmes can secure a place in the top B-schools of India. From 2016-2017 academic year onwards, the number of times CMAT is conducted, has been reduced to one from two. This means that while initially, the students had two chances in a year to secure a place in the management programmes, this year onwards, there shall be just one chance. How can you make use of this once-in-a-year chance to crack CMAT 2017? Here are a few tips that will help you in the process.

1. Preparation Strategy: Understand the exam pattern and nature of each section

The students should first of all, know about the CMAT exam pattern. Following table will help you know this pattern well:

2. CMAT Data Interpretation and Quantitative Techniques Section: Preparing well for the thrust areas

There are a few specific areas in this section that will demand more attention. It is important that the candidates appearing for CMAT focus on the following thrust areas in Data Interpretation and Quantitative Techniques sections:

• Time, Speed and Distance
• Time and Work
• Standard DI Tools
• Geometry
• Equations
• Interest
• Ratios
• Averages
• Mixtures
• Profit & Loss
• Percentages
• Numbers

3. CMAT General Awareness Section: Tips to prepare well

General awareness is considered as the most unpredictable section. The most important tip to focus here is that you should not “study” a lot for this section. The CMAT score in General Awareness section largely depends upon your reading habits. It is only important to remain attentive through vital events in economic and business environment, primarily. While attempting questions in this section, focus on the ones that are easy to attempt. Leave the rest and move to next section ASAP.

In this area, the important areas to focus upon include:

• Awards
• Books & Authors
• Sports
• Art & Culture
• Geography
• Polity
• Science
• History
• International affairs
• Currents events and happenings

4. CMAT Logical Reasoning Section: Which areas to focus?

Logical reasoning requires a lot of practice so that you can identify the similar questions that you seen. This will only happen when you practice across similar set of questions. Identification of such questions then becomes easier. Once you know the trick to complete logical reasoning section fast, you can score well here.

The important areas where you should focus include:

• Symbol-based problems
• Coding and decoding
• Cause and effect
• Series problems
• Statements and assumptions
• Strong – Weak arguments
• Critical reasoning
• Inferences
• Assertion-Reasoning
• True and False Statements
• Assumption-Premise-Conclusion
• Linear arrangements
• Sequences and series

5. CMAT Language Comprehension: Thrust areas to pay attention

In this section, you should pay much attention to your speed. This is said to be the easiest section to lose marks. Because of being language-based, it is time-consuming as well. You need to pay attention on following sections for scoring well in Language comprehension section of CMAT:

• Rearranging sentences
• Vocabulary
• Questions based on antonyms and synonyms
• Grammar
• Sentence Correction
• Reading Comprehension

6. Which section to start first in CMAT exam?

You can ace the CMAT exam, provided you know which route to follow. A systematic and sequence-wise approach can help you qualify CMAT exam. Follow this route to qualify CMAT:

7. Be accurate than speedy

In CMAT, it’s not the question about speed. It’s more about being accurate. Because of ample time, you might feel like attempting a question until you get through it. However, the right strategy is to answer accurate questions first and then stress over the questions that are close enough to accuracy.

8. Which topics are most important in CMAT? Tips to study the most important sections of CMAT

If it was CAT, we would have said that a few strength areas should be focussed upon. However, since this is CMAT, one should largely focus his/her attention upon almost all the vital sections. In CMAT entrance exam, a student should pay attention to all the sections and develop a level of comfort in every section. This is mainly true for Quantitative section because over the past few years, it has been observed that exotic topics like advanced trigonometry, conics and geometry have become a regular approach.

9. Tips for candidates who have already appeared for CMAT, but haven’t been able to qualify it/ Tips for candidates aiming a certain score in CMAT

For your convenience, we have created a following table to help you understand the criterion better and target a reasonable score in CMAT:

10. Other vital tips and suggestions to crack CMAT

Here is your staple diet to crack CMAT easily:

Make rules for yourself– A few rules that will keep you aligned to CMAT preparation will not harm. While you keep yourself strict during CMAT prep, make sure that you also create a few rules for stress relieving. A few activities and YouTube videos that will act as your brain tonic will be good to give you some boost.

Know your CMAT syllabus in and out- CMAT syllabus is huge. It is important for the candidates to know about the syllabus and exam pattern as well. Follow these tips for better grasp:

• Catch up the general awareness topic often
• Read important journals, newspapers and news magazines
• Focus on reading habits
• While preparing for CMAT in group studies, make sure that you indulge yourself in intelligent discussions

Practice, practice and practice, A LOT- Daily practice will help you recognize a lot of things. Work on SWOT basis. Identify your strength and weaknesses. Largely focus on weaknesses, while making the strong section even stronger.

Catch up the books that are good- Online and offline books for CMAT will help you in preparing well for your CMAT entrance test. Here are a few books that can assist you in preparing well for CMAT:

• CMAT: A Complete Manual for Common Management Admission Test
• The Pearson Complete Guide to the CMAT (with CD-ROM)
• CMAT (Common Management Aptitude Test) Guide

Time management- The total time that you get to complete CMAT question paper is 180 minutes. Attempt many CMAT sample papers to ensure that you get a hang of things in a better manner. Follow a proper time management and time tracking strategies to crack your exam faster and better.

Healthy body will give you a healthy mind- Remember that an entrance exam will only be cracked better if you have a healthy body and mind. In order to make sure that you have a steady routine, eat healthy and sleep well. Remember that a stressed out and unhealthy body will bring down your productivity and learning capability by a considerable amount.

Chatting, good exercise, sound sleep and proper diet will allow you to prepare well for your CMAT entrance exam. One must know that the road ahead is a longer one. There are several candidates aspiring to join the same B-school as you. In order to ensure that you win the race and get that seat, follow the tips given here. Strategize your CMAT preparation and get a seat in the best B school of India.

There are some of the well known business schools in India that can make your management career superb. In order to make sure that you have the best of it all, focus on the right preparation techniques, remember everything correctly and have a strategy that will hit the bull’s eye correctly.

With all these tips, tricks and strategies, we wish you all the luck for your next CMAT entrance examination.