MICAT II – January 2022 Analysis
MICAT (MICA Admission Test) is the ONLINE entrance exam for PGDM-C/PGDM from MICA, Ahmedabad. Generally MICAT is held twice for admission to the batch in the ensuing year.
MICAT II was held on January 29, 2022, from 9 AM to 11:15 AM.
The test duration was 135 minutes. MICAT II had the same structure as MICAT I held in December 2021. As per feedback received , students found the Aptitude Test Section in MICAT II a bit more difficult than MICAT I.
Test Structure and IMS estimate of good attempts:
| Section | Name | No. Of Questions | Time allocated | Good Attempts |
| A | Psychometric Test | 150 | 30 minutes | ALL |
| B | Descriptive Test | 4 | 25 minutes | ALL |
| C | i. Divergent and Convergent Thinking | 20 | 80 minutes | 11-12 |
| ii. Verbal Ability | 20 | 10-11 | ||
| iii. Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 20 | 7-8 | ||
| iv. General Awareness | 20 | 7-9 |
- 1-Minute break between different sections
- Navigation between sections not allowed
- Section C carried 1 mark per question. – 0.25 for each incorrect response.
- No Negative Marks for the Psychometric Test and the Descriptive Test
- Psychometric Test is compulsory and the performance in the psychometric test is used as a qualifying criterion for the next stage. Candidates must attempt all the questions in the Psychometric Test to ensure that their paper is evaluated. However, the marks or the assessment criteria of the test are not revealed to the candidates.
VERDICT
Students who have ‘cleared’ the Psychometric Test and secured an overall score of 32-35 in Sections C (i) to C (iv) in MICAT II can expect a call for the GE-PI round (subject to their fulfilling the other criteria specified at : https://www.mica.ac.in/postgraduate-programme/selection-process-and-timelines
For MICAT I , our prediction was that an overall score of 35-38 in Sections C (i) to C (iv) could fetch a call for the GE-PI round.
ANALYSIS BY SECTIONS
Section – A
PSYCHOMETRIC TEST
There were 150 questions in this section.
Apparently,there are no correct or incorrect responses in a psychometric test. Around 33 questions presented a situation/course of action and the test-taker had to mark either True or False. Around 117 questions were about a particular personality trait or a course of action. which required the candidates to respond with one of the following 8 options.
- Totally Disagree
- Strongly Disagree
- Disagree
- Somewhat Disagree
- Somewhat Agree
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
- Totally Agree
Given that 150 questions were to be attempted in 30 minutes, it was necessary to work fast and mark the answer quickly.
Section – B
DESCRIPTIVE TEST
This section tested the analytical and descriptive writing ability and creative skills of test-takers. The first three questions were related to each other. The topic for the first two questions was “Convenience is supreme”. Students had to write three points each, ‘for’ and ‘against’ the topic. These two questions carried 10 marks each.
In the third question, students had to write a 300 word answer. The topic was “As a manager, you want to work within your convenience and yet establish a deep relationship with your key stakeholder. Present 3 ways in which this can be done.” The instructions stated that the points for the third question should not include the points stated in the responses for the two questions. 20 marks were allocated to this question.
The fourth question in this section consisted of four pictures. Students had to write down a particular pictorial combination (A-B-C-D or D-C-B-A or any such combination) and explain it with the help of a story. The pictures were related to: “An upside down yellow mop, a man photographing a staged dead body, white spots on a black screen, a bird flying in a cloudy sky.” This question carried 30 marks.
This section was to be attempted in 25 minutes and carried no negative marking.
Section C
APTITUDE TEST
The aptitude test part had 4 sub-sections with 20 questions per sub-section. These 80 questions had to be solved within 80 minutes. This year all sections in the aptitude test saw a mix of questions with 4 options and 8 options. This was a change from the previous year.
(i) Sub-section: DIVERGENT AND CONVERGENT THINKING
The Reasoning section comprised 20 questions including word-association, analogies, statement-assumption, data sufficiency, coding, puzzle(symbol based logic + family tree) and visual reasoning questions.Out of 20 questions, 14 had 8 options each while the remaining 6 (all non-verbal reasoning) had 4 options each.
| Topic | No. of Qs. | Overall Difficulty Level |
| Word Association | 4 | Medium |
| Critical Reasoning – Assumption | 1 | Medium |
| Analogy (Word grouping) | 1 | Easy |
| Critical Reasoning – Inference | 2 | Medium |
Following was the break-up of the non-verbal reasoning questions in the section:
| Type of questions | Number of questions | Overall Level of difficulty |
| Visual Reasoning (Total 3 questions) | ||
| Odd man out (Group) | 1 | Medium |
| Complete the series (Next figure) | 2 | |
| Logical Data sufficiency (Total 1 question) | ||
| Data Sufficiency | 2 | Medium |
| Miscellaneous (Total 7 questions) | ||
| Coding-Decoding | 2 individual questions | Medium |
| A set on networking of roads | 3 | Easy |
| A set on symbol based numerical logic | 2 | Medium |
In this section , 11-12 questions in about 25 minutes with 90 % accuracy would be considered a good attempt
(ii) Sub-section: VERBAL ABILITY
This section consisted of jumbled paragraphs, word pairs, paragraph completion, matching the antonyms, choosing the grammatically correct sentence questions, and three Reading Comprehension passages. Out of 20 questions, 12 had 8 options each while the remaining 8 had 4 options each.
| Topic | No. of Qs. | Overall Level of difficulty. |
| Replace grammatically incorrect part | 2 | Medium |
| Jumbled Paragraph – 5 sentences | 2 | Easy-Medium |
| One word substitution (paragraph based) | 2 | Difficult |
| Reading Comprehension – 1(600 words) | 5 | Medium |
| Reading Comprehension – 2(50 words) | 2 | Easy |
| Reading Comprehension – 3(100 words) | 2 | Medium |
| Cloze passage (4 blanks/5 blanks) | 3 | Medium |
| Match the Antonyms | 2 | Easy |
In this section, 10 – 11 questions in about 20 minutes with 90% accuracy would be considered a good attempt.
(iii) Sub-section: QUANTITATIVE ABILITY AND DATA INTERPRETATION
There were 20 questions in the section, out of which 16 questions were on quantitative ability and 4 questions were on Data Interpretation. There were 7 questions on Arithmetic, followed by 6 questions on Geometry. There were 2 questions on Algebra and one question on Statistics. This section was one notch more difficult than the section in December 2021 MICAT. Most questions were very lengthy and all questions had 8 options, which made option elimination difficult.
There was one set on Data Interpretation involving multiple graphs with 4 questions. Though the questions per se were not very difficult, getting relevant data from the graphs and performing calculations on the data made them more time-consuming.
Following was the break-up of the questions in the Quantitative Ability section:
| Area | No. of Qs | LOD |
| Arithmetic | ||
| Time-Speed-Distance, Averages, Mixtures-Alligations, Time and Work, Percentages, Ratio-Proportion, Work, Pipes & Cisterns | 7 | 2 Easy, 3 Medium, 2 Difficult |
| Geometry | ||
| Trigonometry, Quadrilaterals, Polygons | 6 | 2 Medium, 4 Difficult |
| Algebra | ||
| Quadratic Equation, Maxima-Minima | 2 | 2 Medium |
| Statistics | ||
| Variance | 1 | 1 Medium |
| Data Interpretation | ||
| Multiple graphs | 4 | Medium to Difficult |
In this section, an attempt of about 7-8 questions in about 30 minutes with around 85% accuracy would be considered good.
(iv) Sub-section: GENERAL AWARENESS
The General Awareness section consisted of 20 questions. Out of the 20 questions, 17 questions were based on national issues while 1 was based on international topics and 2 were based on miscellaneous topics. Also, Static GK contributed 6 questions while the remaining 14 questions were based on current affairs. Overall, the section was slightly more difficult than MICAT I. The questions were about business, books and authors, awards, economics, terms, and taglines. 2-3 questions could be classified as easy; 7-8 as medium and 9-10 as difficult. 19 out of 20 questions had 8 options each.
In this section, an attempt of 7 – 9 questions in about 5-10 minutes with 70 percent accuracy would be considered good.