Analysis IRMA 18th December 2005 The pattern of the paper this year was similar to that of the last year. This year the overall difficulty level was marginally higher as compared to last year. The test had 200 questions and the time allotted was 120 minutes. There was a negative marking of ¼ and each right answer was assigned 1 mark. There were four sections. There were five answer choices for every question and maximum questions had the “e” option as “none of these” which made the task of choosing the right option all the more difficult. One can assume that, because a majority of questions, especially the passages and General Awareness questions were based on agriculture, necessity of schools, consumer rights, etc…, the IRMA test was designed to fathom the genuineness of a student to pursue Rural Management. The four- sections in the paper were as follows: 1. English Comprehension 2. Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation 3. Analytical and Verbal Reasoning 4. Issues of Social Concern
Overview of the IRMA Paper Time: 2 Hr. Total no. of questions: 200. Negative marking: ¼. Sections
Number of Questions
Difficulty Level
1. English Comprehension
40
Average
2 Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation
50
Easy
3. Analytical and verbal Reasoning
50
Average
4. Issues of Social Concern
60
Tough
Total
200
SECTIONAL BREAK – UP English Comprehension (Verbal Ability) This section constituted reading comprehension, fill in the blanks and passage building. The subjects of the two passages were agriculture and education, respectively. The passages were fairly lengthy but difficult to comprehend. The questions based on the passages were specific-detailed and hence quite easy to solve. The “fill in the blanks” questions and the “passage building” questions were also easy. The “fill in the blanks” questions were a blend of grammar and usage. Not only did one require a thorough reading of the given passage with blanks to choose the correct usage, but also have a good knowledge of grammar.
Area Tested
Description
Reading comprehension
Difficulty Level
25
Easy
1. Dairy Sector-its role and the recent changes in India
10
2. School Education in India
15
Verbal Ability
Total
No. of Questions
15 Passage Building
5
Cloze test (Fill in the blanks in the given passage)
10 40
Easy
Easy
Comment: One could have attempted 28 to 29 questions in about 25 minutes. A score of 22+ is a good score.
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation: Good speed and clarity of the fundamentals of mathematics were major requirements for securing a good score in this section.
Area Tested
No. of Questions Difficulty Level/remarks
1. Data Interpretation[5 caselets] 25
Three caselets were easy. Overall DI was Average.
2. Arithmetic: ( SI CI , Profit loss )
5
All these questions were easy but calculation-intensive.
3. Quantitative comparison
5
Easy
4. Number series
5
These questions were Tricky
(Two tabular forms, one line graph, one bar graph and one based on set theory)
These were easy questions. 10 Solving them depended solely on speed of your calculation Comment: One could have attempted 25 to 26 questions in about 25 minutes. 20+ is an achievable score in this section.
5 Simple approximate calculations(simplification)
Analytical and Verbal Reasoning This section comprised questions based on AR, Critical Reasoning, analogies, coding-decoding, Data Sufficiency and Paragraph building
Type of questions
No. of Questions
Difficulty Level
1. Cause – effect
5
Above average
2. Strong & weak argument
5
Average
3. Argumentative type questions (Definitely True/Probably false)
5
Average
4. Coding-Decoding
3
Easy
5. Strengthening & Weakening arguments
5
Average
6. Data Verification
10
Average
7. Odd man out
6
Easy
5+1
Easy
5
Average
8. Analytical reasoning 9. Analogies
Total 50 Average Comment: One could have attempted 28+ questions in about 35 minutes. 21+ is an achievable score in this section.
Issues of Social Concern
In this section, there were 10 questions which simply required you to apply your common sense, 30 questions which needed a wide knowledge about current happenings in the field of agriculture, social sciences, United Nations, Current Government policies etc.. There were 6 questions related to WTO and its effects. The remaining questions were direct and comparatively easy. Overall the section was moderately tough. Comment: One can score 15+ in this section.
OVERALL CUTOFF
As was expected, this paper carried no sectional time limit and had 1/4th negative marking. Anyone with a fair amount of preparation would have attempted 110-120 questions. With a score of 90+ one can expect a call from IRMA.