MAT 2016 December exam: 10 Last minute tips for the test day; time management - key to success

MAT 2016 exam is on December 11 in paper pen format and on December 17 as computer based test. The paper based MAT will be held in more than 60 cities in India while computer based test will be held in 11 cities.
With hardly 2 days left for MAT 2016 December paper based test you must understand the gravity and importance of MAT exam which will provide you a good opportunity to get MBA/PGDM admission in 400 B-schools in Maharashtra and other parts across the country.

Top B-schools JBIMS, SIMSREE, K J Somaiya, PUMBA, N L Dalmiya, BIMTECH among others can offer admission in 2017 on the basis of MAT Dec 2016 exam. If you could not do so well in CAT 2016, you have the opportunity to improve your scores through MAT 2016 December exam.

Management Aptitude Test (MAT) preparation experts Prof Arks Srinivas CEO VistaMind, Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability share key tips to crack MAT with high scores. In view of the experts while MAT exam will offer good admission opportunity, the exam is much easier than CAT and by using the CAT 2016 experience, very high scores in MAT can be obtained.

Adhere to suggested time limit by experts
The basic pattern of the MAT 2016 December exam will have a total time limit of 2 and half hours to solve 200 questions. There will be 5 sections in MAT 2016 exam and number of questions per section will be 40. The answer choices per question are 4 and marks awarded for every correct answer is 1 with penalty of negative marks for each wrong answer.
The suggested time limit to solve each of 5 sections and expected attempts per section, according to the experts should be as follows

Sno
Section
No of Qns
Ideal time (in min)
Expected attempts

1
Language Comprehension
40
25
30+

2
Intelligence and Critical Reasoning
40
40
30+

3
Data Analysis and Sufficiency
40
35
25+

4
Mathematical Skills
40
40
25+

5
Indian and Global Environment
40
10
15+
200
150
125+

It is important that you give time to each of the sections and not get bogged down by any one section.

Reach the last question
You must try to ensure that you come to the end of the section in the allotted time and this can only be done when you take decisions on solving or not solving questions in the first 15 seconds of reading the question. There may always be easy questions and hence you should have a cut-off time for each question.

Strategy for sectional attempts
Two things which the test taker should remember during the exam are - execution is more important than knowledge and Stick to basics.

Dont waste time
As given in the table on time management, it is important that you have a clear plan for the entire 150 minutes.

GK- an important area
Leaving out the GK area (India and Global Environment) is not a good idea. The best institutes look at the score of this section too while giving you a final selection.

Learn to skip a question
It is extremely important that you leave a question if you are NOT able to crack the question in 1 minute.

Spend 30 seconds to 1 minute on a question
The cut-off time for Verbal would be even lesser than say a Logic question or a Math question. Typically, for Verbal ability area, you should leave the question within the first 30 seconds if you are not able to get the answer. Only questions on parajumbles and such can be given about 1 minute each

Smartly choose the answer
You dont have to solve every question. The choices can be used to eliminate the wrong answers if one looks at them intelligently. You need to have the fundamentals in place to do the above.

Plan as per your Strengths and Weaknesses
Although the above Time Management strategy is given for a candidate, it may not be generalised as it is important for you to look at what your strengths and weaknesses are and accordingly you may change the plan.
You are supposed to take MAT 2016 December test with concentration avoiding getting stuck to one or other question and wasting your time. The tip is to move on and choose the questions which you are comfortable with in your first attempt followed by more difficult ones.

MAT is an entrance exam to PGDM institutes in India. The scores of MAT are considered to be taken as the written test marks in selection by more than 600 B-schools in the country. MAT is typically conducted 4 times a year and the MAT exam in December 2016 is the important MBA entrance test for admission in 2017.