MBA Entrance Exam 2011: Taking CAT 2011, XAT 2012, IIFT 2011...?

When you aim for MBA, you dont aim for a particular exam, but you dont aim a particular MBA entrance exam but all the major exams. The exams which are most popularly taken by the MBA aspirants include CAT, XAT, IIFT, FMS, NMAT and SNAP. This article of MBAUniverse.com will give you the particular paper patterns of the major MBA entrance exams on the basis of last years exams.

The common sections of CAT, XAT, IIFT, FMS, NMAT and SNAP are Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning. CAT 2010 The overall difficulty of the paper was Moderate to Difficult. In the initial days, the Quant section was tough but in the later days, DI & LR section became more difficult and calculation intensive in nature which gave tough time to the test takers. The VA section however maintained the similar pattern and the questions were of moderate difficulty level. XAT 2011 The sections of XAT exam are Data Interpretation & Quantitative Ability, Analytical Reasoning & Decision Making and Verbal & Logical Ability. As you can see, XAT exam clubs two sections such as Data Interpretation and Quantitative Ability, Analytical Reasoning and Decision Making, Verbal Ability and Logical Ability. XAT also has a question on Essay Writing of 20 minutes duration.

The difficulty level of XAT 2011 was very difficult and carried lot of surprises. Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation The difficulty level was very tough. Verbal & Logical Ability The questions were on Verbal Ability, Verbal Reasoning and Reading Comprehension. The section was tough. Analytical Reasoning & Decision Making The nature of the questions was tough. XAT 2011 saw Analytical Caselet instead of the Essay Writing topic. IIFT 2010 The sections of IIFT exam are Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and General Awareness. The last section differentiates IIFT entrance exam with CAT, XAT and other exams. IIFT 2010 exam had 135 questions in total. The overall difficulty level was moderate to difficult. Quantitative Analysis The difficulty was moderate to difficult. Verbal Ability This section was divided into two parts, EU and RC. The difficulty level of the section was Moderate but it was tougher than the last year. Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning There were 15 questions on Data Interpretation and 20 questions on Logical Reasoning.

The Logical Reasoning part was easier compared to Data Interpretation part. General Awareness The questions were from traditional as well as dynamic GK. There were questions from business, Country-Capital-Currency-Parliaments, Current Affairs, Locations of International Organizations and Economics etc. Overall, the section was of moderate difficulty level. FMS 2011 The sections of FMS entrance exam are English Comprehension, Verbal Ability, Quantitative Ability and Analytical Ability. The difference between the sections of FMS exam and the other MBA entrance exams is that, Comprehension and Verbal Ability are different sections and not merged into one section like that in CAT, XAT, IIFT etc. FMS 2011 had 200 questions. The difficulty level of the paper was moderate to difficult. Compared to FMS 2010, the paper was easier in nature. English Comprehension The section was quite easy. Verbal Ability The difficulty level of the paper was moderate to tough. Quantitative Ability The Quantitative Ability section was of moderate difficulty level. Analytical Ability The difficulty level was moderate to difficult. NMAT 2011 The sections of NMAT are Language Skills, Quantitative Ability and Logical Reasoning. The difficulty level of the paper was easier than CAT 2010 and other exams.

Talking specifically about the sections, the Verbal Ability section has been the easiest section by far. Whereas, the other two sections, i.e. Quantitative Ability and Logical Reasoning have been slightly above than that of Verbal Ability section in terms of difficulty. SNAP 2010 The sections of the SNAP exam are General English, Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency, General Awareness and Analytical & Logical Reasoning. Like IIFT, SNAP also has a section on General Awareness. And similar to XAT, the Quantitative Ability section is merged with Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency. The difficulty level of SNAP 2010 was on the easier side. General English The difficulty level of the section was easy to moderate. Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency The difficulty level of the section was easy. The DI set based on bar chart was quite difficult in nature. General Awareness The difficulty level of the section was Moderate. Analytical & Logical Reasoning The difficulty level was easy and the questions were easy and the section was quite easy.