Observations: NMAT 2012

Verification Process: Students appearing for NMAT had been asked to carry the printout of the confirmation mail sent to them and 2 ID cards (in original) for the exam. However, we would recommend that you should carry the photocopies of your ID cards as well. Some students reported that the staff at the test center did not allow them to take the test without collecting the photocopies of the 2 ID cards. Though it was not mentioned anywhere that students need to carry photocopies of their IDs, it may be safer to carry the photocopies with you in order to avoid getting into an argument right before your exam.

NMAT: The major change in NMAT 2012, as announced, is the introduction of timed sections. The three sections are:

• QA – 48 questions – 60 minutes
• VA – 32 questions – 22 minutes
• LR – 40 questions – 38 minutes

The good thing is that NMAT 2012 allows the student to decide the order in which they want to attempt the sections. A section-order-screen appears after the tutorial which shows all the six possible permutations: VA-QA-LR, QA-LR-VA, VA-LR-QA etc. A student has to select one of the six and then the sections are displayed as per the selection. Once the selection is made, it cannot be changed at a later stage.

Since there is no negative marking in NMAT 2012, you should mark all 120 questions. The last 1-2 minutes in each section can be reserved for reviewing the “Incomplete questions” and marking them randomly. If you finish a section earlier than the allotted time, you can move on to the next section. However, since the time saved in one section does not get added to the next section, it is advisable not to submit the section earlier and revise the questions instead.

There are two major issues in the testing interface of NMAT 2012:

• The “Review” button, which is provided to check the unattempted and flagged questions, appears only at the end of a section. So, for e.g., if you are attempting the QA section, you cannot use the Review button before clicking the “Next” button at least 48 times. This reduces the utility of the Review button massively. For e.g., if you finish 24-25 questions in QA in around 30 minutes, you will still not know if you are on the right track since there is no way to check what’s in store towards the end of the section. Therefore, it is advisable to keep a buffer and skip any time-consuming questions in the first round and attempt them in the second round if time permits.

 

• In a group question, you cannot see the number of questions in that particular set on the first screen. So if you want to see if the set is worth attempting, you will need to click the Next/Previous buttons a few times and then check. This is quite irritating especially in a speed test like NMAT.