MICAT 1 2020 Detailed Analysis || How Difficult Was The Paper?

According to the MICAT aspirants, the paper was comparatively similar to last year in terms of difficulty level - some sections were easy however others were relatively tough. The General knowledge part was tough to crack. Psychometric test had 150 questions and they shortened the duration of descriptive to 25 minutes from 30 minutes. The aptitude section was for 80 minutes. The duration for this part was also reduced by 25 minutes.

Structure of the paper -

Section	Type of section	No. of questions	Time allocated
A	Psychometric Test	150	30 min
B	Descriptive	4	25 min
C	Divergent and Convergent Thinking	20	80 min
	Verbal ability	20
	Quantitative Ability Data Interpretation	20
	General knowledge	20

Important pointers to be noted

• There will be a 1-Minute break between different sections
• Students are not allowed to navigate between sections. The pattern is fixed for all the students
• In section C 1 mark will be awarded per question for the right answer but a penalty of  0.25 mark for each incorrect response
• There isn’t any negative marking for the Psychometric Test and the Descriptive Test i.e. section A & B
• Psychometric Test is a qualifier for other parts to be evaluated. Till last year, it was also compulsory to attempt all the questions. However, now the instructions have been modified: ‘No marks would be given for any un-attempted question in the Psychometric Test’. So you can skip the questions.

In-depth Analysis

Section - A Psychometric Test

This section has 150 questions. So for this section, use your gut calling to answer (intuitive senses). There isn’t any right or wrong answer. The questions are situation based and have to be answered by selecting either of the following options -

Totally Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Somewhat Disagree
Somewhat Agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
Totally Agree

You have to be super quick in reading and interpreting the situation because you have 30 minutes to answer 150 questions.

Section - B Descriptive Test

This section tests the creative and analytical thinking ability of the candidate. You get a total of 25 minutes for attempting this section. The first three questions are related to each other. This time the topic was ‘Since time cannot be stored, therefore, Time Saved is Time Wasted’.

The candidate has to write 3 points for and against the topic in the first two questions These two questions carried 10 marks each and in the third question, they have to write a 300-word answer suggesting steps by which a young manager should ensure that no time is saved. Twenty marks were allocated to this question.

(And points should not be repeated while you attempt the third question)

The fourth question in this section had is story-based. Students are given 4 pictures which they have to connect and craft a story connecting the pictures in any manner of their choice (A-B-C-D or D-C-B-A or B-C-A-D).

The pictures were related to: ‘farmer milking a buffalo, a colour illustration of seven little kids lying down on a playground in a happy mood, a single shoe with untied shoelaces, a window grill with a colourful scarf hanging’. This question carried 30 marks.

Section - C Aptitude section 

This section consisted of 4 sub-sections

(i) Sub-section: Divergent and Convergent Thinking

There were 20 questions consisting of word-association, analogies, statement-assumption, data sufficiency, coding and visual reasoning questions. Earlier, questions in this section used to have 5 options. However, this year the patter was modified slightly with 4 options.

For this section practise sample questions which are available on MICA's website

Questions from the following topics were asked

• Word Association (6)
• Statement Assumption (3)
• Analogies (3)
• Odd man out (Group) (1)
• Complete the series (Next figure) (1)
• Data Sufficiency (3)
• Coding-decoding (2)
• Arrangement (1)

(ii) Sub-section: Verbal Ability

This section consisted of jumbled paragraphs, word pairs, completing paragraphs, questions based on idioms and Reading Comprehension passages. The verbal part of MICAT is comparatively easier as compared to CAT or XAT.

Questions from the following topics were asked:

• Grammatically correct sentence (2)
• Jumbled Paragraph – 5 sentences (3)
• Single word substitute of the highlighted phrase (1)
• Reading Comprehension No. 1 (5)
• Reading Comprehension No. 2 (4)
• Meaning of Idiom (1)
• Word pair (Synonyms/Antonyms) (2)
• Phrase/Idiom-based Fill In the Blanks (2)

(iii) Sub-section: Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

There were 20 questions in total in the section, out of which 15 questions were on quantitative ability and 5 questions were on Data Interpretation. The Quantitative Ability section was majorly from Arithmetic, Modern Math and Geometry. Overall, the section was at Medium level of difficulty. If you have prepared for CAT/XAT then this section should not be a problem.

There was one set on Data Interpretation with 5 questions. The set was based on line-graphs.

Break up of this section:

Arithmetic (8)
Time-Speed-Distance (3)
Simple and Compound Interest (2)
Percentages (1)
Mixtures and Alligations (1)
Profit & Loss (1)
Modern Maths (4)
Probability (2)
Set Theory (1)
Statistics (1)
Geometry (2)
Quadrilaterals (1)
Circles (1)
Algebra (1)
Simple equations (1)
Data Interpretation (5)
Table 5

(iv) Sub-section: General Awareness

The General Awareness section had 20 questions. Out of the 20 questions, 6 were on common national issues while 9 were on international topics. 5 questions were of miscellaneous types (logos, taglines, brands etc.) And, 15 questions were of uniform type while 5 were on current affairs.

Overall, the section was touch to crack and more difficult as compared to last year’s MICAT. The questions were about business, economies, ad agencies, authors, awards geography, economics, terms, laws and acts, and logos.

Good luck for MICAT 2!