SimCET 2 Experts’ Take SimCET 2: The Experts’ Take SimCET-2, like SimCET-1 was on the lines of CET 2014, so a score of around 125+ (which should be your ideal CET score if you are targeting the top 10-15 MBA colleges in Maharashtra under MH-CET) was easily achievable for a student. Overall, questions in Visual Reasoning, Data Sufficiency and Quantitative Aptitude were at the same level of difficulty as in SimCET-1, with Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation being marginally tougher. What we observed is that despite instructing students in the Experts’ Take of SimCET-1 to mark all 200 questions, from Q. 150 onwards, an average 25-30% of the test takers have left questions unattempted. Like we have said before: please mark answers to all the 200 Questions as there is no negative marking. This could actually make all the difference in helping you achieve your goal of getting into a top college. The following analysis gives an area-wise break up of easy, medium and difficult questions, which will help you benchmark your performance. You must spend time to work out the kinks in your performance. If you consolidate your knowledge in each area as we have suggested below, you will be able to improve your score substantially Quantitative Aptitude Questions on Quantitative Aptitude in SimCET-2 were mostly on the easy-moderate side. Except Q. 120 (the one on the rectangular sheet being converted to a cylinder) and Q. 23-25 (depending on your comfort level with Circles and Tangents) all should have been attempted. A lot of you still seem to be struggling with easy questions in areas like Geometry and Modern Math, which is reflected in the low accuracy percentage (less than 20%) in some questions (point in case being Qs. 77, 120, 160 and 163). Please do not leave out a question on the basis of area. Like we discussed earlier you could be missing a potential sitter. For example let us take Q. 163, a question that just about 10% of the test takers answered correctly. All one had to know here was basic formulae in Progressions for an A.P. and infinite G.P. If you are targeting the 10 colleges under MH-CET, then you definitely cannot afford to leave out questions like these. Another sitter most of you have missed out on is Q. 152 which was a simple problem on ratios. Barely 15% of the test takers got this one. One of the reasons could be the length of the question which makes it appear time consuming. Please do not get deceived by the length of the question. SimCET 2 Experts’ Take The overall break-up of the questions was follows: Area Easy Geometry (Circles, Quadrilaterals & Polygons, 3d 5 Objects) Medium 2 Arithmetic (Profit& Loss, SI/CI, TSD, Averages, 4 Ratios, Mixtures) Numbers - (Odd/Even, Indices) Difficult Total 7 4 1 1 2 Modern Math (Probability, P&C, Sequences &Series, 4 Factorials) 1 5 Algebra (Quadratic Equations) Equations, Simultaneous 3 3 Quantitative Comparison 6 6 Total 23 4 27 Logical Reasoning The overall level of difficulty of SimCET-2 for this area was marginally higher than that of SimCET-1, but more importantly we observed that attempts have been a lot less for questions after Q. 150 (with an average of 30% test takers not attempting these questions). By doing so, you may have missed out on questions like Odd Man Out (Qs. 174-179) and Coding (Qs. 180185) where time taken per question is generally less. Though all these questions were not necessarily easy, out of these 12 questions, one could have solved 8-9 questions in little time and this would help you solve a higher number of questions in other topics/areas. Please be judicious in your selection of questions/sets. A lot of you might find questions on Linear Arrangement, Coding-decoding, Series, etc. less time-consuming. On the other hand, questions on Circular Arrangement (with some people facing the centre and others facing outwards or multiple variables) or on Matrix Arrangement (with 4 or more variables) might generally be time-consuming. You should first attempt all the questions that can be solved quickly rather than spending time on time-consuming questions. Considering the importance of Logical Reasoning in CET (typically, 25% of the total questions in CET are on Logical Reasoning) and the fact that you don’t have to learn anything new in order to solve questions of this type, practice becomes the key. Practise as many questions as you can for Logical reasoning and in the process also identify the question types that take long for you to solve. SimCET 2 Experts’ Take The break-up of Logical Reasoning questions in SimCET-2 was as follows Area Easy LR-Matrix Arrangements 5 5 LR-Linear Arrangements 5 5 LR-Circular Arrangements 5 5 LR-Groups & Conditionalities Medium Difficult Total 6 Family Tree 6 Odd Man Out –Group/Series 2 Sequential Input -Output 6 6 6 4 6 6 Coding 6 6 Numerical Puzzle 6 6 Symbol based Logic 5 Total 34 5 22 56 Visual Reasoning There were 21 questions on Series Completion, Odd Man Out - Series, Analogies and similar Figures. The average accuracy and attempts for these questions for test takers has been good with average accuracy more than 50%. Though reflective of the actual CET questions, we could classify questions for this area in this SimCET on the easier side. There were 3 questions (Qs. 9597) in Odd Man Out - Series which seemed to have troubled some of you, where the average accuracy rate was just about 27%. Students should also be wary that sometimes questions might be a lot tougher in the actual CET and can bring down your score. The overall break-up of the questions is given below: Area Easy Medium Difficult Total Vis R -Series -6 figure 2 3 1 Vis R -Analogies-4 figure 1 4 5 Vis R -Odd Man Out -Series 4 1 5 Vis R -Similar Pair 1 4 5 Total 8 12 1 6 21 SimCET 2 Experts’ Take Data Interpretation There were four sets on Data Interpretation, (one set each on Line Graphs and Pie Charts and two sets on Tables). The break-up of DI sets was as follows Area Easy Pie Charts Line Graphs 2 Tables Total 2 Medium Difficult Total 5 5 3 5 10 10 18 20 Here we would again like to point out some interesting facts. The last 2 sets on DI-Tables (Qs. 153-157 and Qs. 169-173) were not attempted by about 30% of the test takers, whereas we feel that out of these 10 questions at least 6 (Qs. 153, 154, 156, 157, 172 and 173) could have been each solved in a minute or less using approximation, ratios and observation skills. To start with, both sets had minimal data to analyse. Q. 153 asks us the maximum percentage by which production exceeds consumption for Australia. By looking at the column under Australia, it is only for 2006 that the ratio of production to consumption exceeds 3, so we directly take that ratio (124003400)/3400 =9000/3400 * 100 or 90/34*100. The value 90/34 would be somewhere halfway between 2 and 3 and the required answer should be close to 250%. Now if we look at the options, than except for option [1] no option comes close to this. Remember it is not always necessary to calculate the exact value. Use the options to your advantage to save on time. Another thing: you may observe in this table that all values end in 2 zeros (00). So for simplifying calculations in this set for all questions we could have ignored the last 2 zeros. In set 169-173, even if some of you have found the first 3 questions slightly time consuming, the last 2 could have been solved in less than a minute each. Q. 171 could have been solved by taking the percentage ratio of China and Japan (15/9)-1 =6/9=0.67 or 66.67%. Also the last question could have been solved by observation as indicated in the solution. It is not necessary to solve each and every question in a set. In MH-CET, generally in a DI set of 5-6 questions, even if the set is perceived to be difficult, 2-3 questions will always be solvable in about a minute. Data Sufficiency There were ten questions on Data Sufficiency: 5 on quantitative DS (evenly spread across all topics) and 5 on logical DS (mostly on Arrangements). All of them were on the easier side and have been attempted by most students (average attempt of around 90%). However in case of 2 SimCET 2 Experts’ Take questions, Qs. 142 and 145 on Arrangements, the accuracy has been in the range of 10-15%. Most of you have probably not taken into account all possible cases while solving both these questions. Verbal Ability The 30 Verbal Ability questions in this test were about equally divided among easy and medium ones, with only one really difficult one. However, most students do not seem to have seriously attempted the easiest questions – the two Cloze sets. There are some strange patterns in attempts and accuracy in this SimCET. For one thing, students are simply not attempting as many questions as they should. In a test with no negative marking, ideally you should attempt all questions. By ‘attempt’ we don’t mean ‘solve’, but rather, mark any answer even if you don’t have the opportunity to even read the question. Some students do seem to be following this method, which may explain the low accuracy scores among the later VA questions, such as the two sets of Cloze questions at the end (Qs. 186-190 and 196-200). All except 1 of these 10 questions was easy, yet the accuracy for nearly all is less than 25%. These are sitter questions – if you had solved them, you would have probably gained at least 8-9 marks, and spent very little time. Don’t leave out questions or answer them blindly just because they are at the end – look through the paper to see which are the easiest and attempt them accordingly (viewing the entire paper in ‘Question Paper Mode’ should be helpful in this regard). The overall break-up of the questions was as follows: Area Easy Medium Difficult Total Synonyms & Antonyms 1 3 Incorrect Words 1 4 5 Grammar – Highlighted Phrases 2 3 5 Cloze (2 passages, 5 blanks each) 9 1 10 Grammar – Sentence Combination 1 4 5 Total 14 15 1 1 5 30 SimCET 2 Experts’ Take Verbal Reasoning The 26 Verbal Reasoning questions in this SimCET were more on the easier side, though there were a few medium and difficult questions there as well. We are pleased to note that nearly all students attempted the easiest batch of questions, the Syllogisms, and a respectable proportion got them right. Accuracy levels dropped off sharply after that, unfortunately, as did the number of attempts, just as in the VA questions. The overall break-up of the questions was as follows: Area Easy Medium Difficult Total Critical Reasoning 2 1 3 1 1 Course of Action Jumbled Paragraph 1 2 2 Syllogisms 6 1 7 Critical Reasoning (a set of 2 questions) 1 1 2 Incorrect Sentence in Context 2 1 Strengthen/Weaken the Argument 2 1 Total 14 8 2 5 5 3 4 26 Reading Comprehension Just like in SimCET-1, there were two Reading Comprehension sets with 5 questions each, making a total of 10 RC questions. The questions ranged across the difficulty levels, with as many as 4 being tough. The first passage was slightly tougher than the second one, though neither was particularly easy. Accuracy levels for the RC questions are very low: around 20% or less, i.e. the level you are likely to get based on chance alone. So students have probably been skipping solving RC questions, with most simply marking the answers. That’s understandable, as RC usually takes a significant amount time to solve, and effective time management is key in a test with 200 questions. However, don’t write off RC entirely – sometimes a short, simple passage with direct questions might gain you some quick and easy marks. SimCET 2 Experts’ Take The overall break-up of the questions was as follows: Area Easy Medium Difficult Total Passage – Sustainable Development 1 2 2 5 Passage – History of Lifts 2 1 2 5 Total 3 3 4 10 All the best for SIMCET 3!