MICAT 2011

The test was of 2 hours and 45 minutes.

It contained 2 papers: Paper I and Paper II

The Paper I was divided into two parts: Part I (aptitude) and Part II (writing ability).
Paper I
Sections No. of Questions
A. Reasoning 35
B. General Awareness 25
C. Quantitative Ability/LRDI 30
D. Verbal Ability 30
Total Questions 120

Part II Creative Ability Tests
Essay topics 1
Story writing 1

Total time for section I and II : 135 Minutes

Paper II Psychometric Test Section 30 minutes

The marking scheme for the questions for Part I was mentioned as - 1/4 mark would be deducted for every incorrect answer and no marks would be deducted for not attempting the question.

Since there is no Verbal and Quants (YES!) section this year, just focusing on the Reasoning and General Awareness parts of Paper I..

Paper I: Section A - Reasoning:(35 Qs)
break-up in terms of topics covered:
1. Word associations: 15 Qs (level easy to moderate with a couple of tough ones.)
2. Statement conclusion: 5 Qs
3. Data Sufficiency: 5 Qs
4. Visual Reasoning: 10 Qs

Paper I: Section B - General Awareness: (25 Qs)
This section had a good mix of questions from the field of marketing, advertising, media, general
knowledge and general global awareness.
The level of the section was moderate to difficult.
Total number of questions in this section was 25 and the number of options per question was 4.


Paper I: Part II
Divided into 4 parts:
The topic for the writing ability assessment was “Trial by Media”. The candidate had to write their views both 1. for and 2. against the topic. In addition, 3. the conclusion (i.e. candidate’s own opinion) was also to be written.
It is important to note that in conclusion one had to either support or oppose the motion; not taking a stance would mean that one would no t be marked for the essay.

In another question in this part a grid of numbered (a,b,c ..) pictures was given, and the candidate was asked to order the pictures by sequence and write a story based on
them.

Paper – II
The time allotted for this section was 30 minutes. The paper was intended for the purpose of
psychometric assessment of the candidate.
The paper was divided into 3 sections, section E, F & G. One needed to answer each of the questions.
Section E : 10 Qs
This set of questions had 30 statements out of which one had to pick 10 describing one’s
personality traits without ranking them.

Section F: 26 Qs
The second set of questions asked one to choose from a set of two arguments and also to rate
them in accordance with one’s personality traits.

Section G: 10 Qs
In the third set of questions, one had to rank the various responses under given situations on a
scale of 1 to 6 (where a rating of 1 implied highest priority and a rating of 6 meant least priority).

Failing to attempt all the questions on this paper meant that the candidate’s OMR
would not be evaluated.


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Well my review->

The paper pattern was very similar to last year except a few significant changes that there was no sectional time limit. Moreover the paper was distributed within two broad part 1 and 2. First section started off with the subsection comprising their favourite word associations which was a good mix of tough to easy ones (15 questions) then there were implicit arguments statements with really tricky options (5 qs) but still 2-3 were doable, then came the data sufficiency questions which again had a few tricky options(5 qs) and finally there were visual reasoning questions(10qs) which MICA has been giving for the past few years. Overall this section was on easy to moderate. Then the next subsection was GK questions (25 qs) which comprised of a good mix of static, current and media related GK. There were quite a few match the following questions here. This section was also on a moderate side and a regular reader should be comfortable attempting it. This was followed by the next subsection which was Quant, LR and DI. I personally found this section tough. Lots of questions from probability and progressions. Although there were a few sitters too. I feel an attempt of 10-12 here should be good(30qs). Then came the next subsection of verbal and reading comprehension. Again this section was a notch higher in difficulty than previous year. Two RC passages(which I left) of 4 questions each and 22 other questions comprising fill in the blanks, sentence completion, Parajumbles etc. A good attempt should be 18-20 IMO. Then came the next section of writing section which started off with a topic “Trial by media is justified”. We had to first give our arguments in favour of the statement and then in the next essay we had to give the arguments against it. Finally we had to tell the editor of a newspaper magazine about this topic in 40-50 words. This was followed up by a series of 10 different cartoons. We had to order them and construct a story. For this whole Part 1 we had 2 hours and 15 minutes which was really demanding and in the end I had to rush through the essays so that I could complete in time. Also here 1/4th marks will be deducted for negative marking in the first section(except the written part)

Next Part comprised of the psychometric analysis and all the questions were compulsory although there were no right/wrong answers. Ones paper will not be evaluated if he/she misses out attempting any part in this section. It started off with a list of 30 statements. We had to select any 10 which best described us!! Then came the question with 6 options and we had to tick the option which we supported (very strongly/strongly/moderately) and had 26 questions. This was followed with 10 questions wherein we had to prioritize the options on the basis of our preference. For this we were given 30 minutes.

All in all I think the paper was a touch difficult than last year but was balanced with a good mix of sitters and tough nuts. The trick was to not to get bogged down by tough ones.
As MICA does not reveal sectional cutoffs nor the marks it is really difficult to predict good number of attempts but still a cool head with steady pace in today’s MICAT will get you through to the GEPI stage.