Clearing MAT with a good score is all about time management

The Centre for Management Services, a unit of the All India Management Association (AIMA) conducts the Management Aptitude Test, commonly known as MAT, four times annually. The results of this state-level test are considered for admission in various B-schools across India for management courses.

The AIMA is an apex body formed in league with the local management associations and in support from the industry and the Indian government. The very purpose of the body is to develop and facilitate management as a profession in the country.

Conducted by the All-India Management Association (AIMA) four times a year – February, May, September, and December, the Management Aptitude Test (MAT) is one of the major MBA entrance tests for Indian students. The next MAT is on September 6, 2015 (offline) and September 12 onwards (online). Till May 2009, MAT was only conducted offline. However, since September 2009, it has been conducted in both the online and offline versions. This test has five different test areas – language comprehension, mathematical skills, data analysis and sufficiency, intelligence and critical reasoning, Indian and global environment.

More than 150 institutes use the MAT score as a part of their selection process. The test comprises 200 questions with 40 questions in each section to be solved in 150 minutes. Language comprehension has a good mix of about 20 questions from reading comprehension and about 20 questions from verbal ability. A good time allocation strategy would be to spend around 30-35 minutes on this section.

The mathematical skills section predominantly has questions from the arithmetic areas like percentage, profit and loss, time and work, geometry, time and distance and averages. Most of the questions involve only the basics and those who would have done adequate practice of basic concepts find the questions quite easy. The success in this particular test area depends on one’s basic conceptual skills, and calculation skills. Students must spend around 35-40 minutes in this section.

The section on data analysis and sufficiency comprises DI (data interpretation), DS (data sufficiency) and data comparison, with DI generally accounting for 30 out of 40 questions while DS and data comparison put together accounting for the remaining 10 questions. The questions in DI are of standard types based on observation, calculations like comparison of fractions, computing the average, percentage based calculations etc. A good time allocation strategy would be to spend around 35-40 minutes.

Intelligence and critical reasoning is a mix of analytical reasoning (about 28 questions) and critical reasoning (12 questions). Questions in the area of Indian and global environment are from business, current affairs etc.