Getting Ready for MAT

I am a Product Manager by profession, a gadget freak by passion and a cheat foodie by compulsion. Currently, I make and manage various online and mobile products. How did I get into this field? Well, I chanced upon and took the big step of sitting for the MAT. Life, as I know, has never been the same ever since then. I am what I am today for my decision that I took years ago. And it is still standing by me in good stead.

So for all you fellow MAT takers, I want to share my experience with you. It may apply to a few and may contradict with others, but this is what got me going, this is how I cracked it…

The Management Aptitude Test (MAT) was my second choice. Just like many of your age, I was a part of the herd of sheep who wanted to bell the CAT. But this was a crucial time of my life and I didn’t want to goof it up. So I thought of taking the September MAT just to get a ‘feel’ of giving an all India level entrance exam. So I took the September MAT, then CAT and then the December MAT.

Both my CAT and December MAT scores were fairly good, and so I was spoilt for choices. Needless to say, I had done a fair bit of R & D on my own earlier, so I was naturally picky (call it arrogance)! Where to study, which subject to opt for, were primarily the topmost questions in my mind. I scouted for MBA colleges accepting CAT scores and I was in for a shock. The colleges charge a bomb in the name of tuition fees! There was a time when I even considered if it was worth the pain (I didn’t want to bear the brunt of such a huge loan in a sea of uncertainty).

So I started looking at colleges that gave admission basis MAT score. And I was happily surprised! I got a course of my choice, at a location of my choice, without burning a hole in my dad’s pocket! So there I was, at the beginning of newer horizons in my life, just deciding to make a call. I did eventually select a college of my liking (of course, I spent hundreds of hours glued to the internet, talking to alumni/ friends of alumni about course, placements etc) before my decision. And see how that turned out to be!

Anyways, that’s another story! I’m sharing my MAT exam-taking experience.

Taking MAT exam

Students have options to take MAT in either online mode or paper based mode. As per the information provided by AIMA, around 15% students take MAT online and rest opt for paper based test. To save time in answering questions many students have started to move towards online MAT as in a paper based test, it takes considerable time to mark an answer.

There are many online MAT tests available nowadays which one can access to get used to of the online format. Regular practice of such online test, drastically helps in improving the speed of answering during online MAT exam.

MAT Paper Answering Strategy

Out of all the sections present in a MAT exam, QA is the most difficult section, followed by reasoning, DI and LC. GK score isn’t used in final calculation of composite score and percentile and hence should be given least preference while answering the questions.

One should try to start with solving QA section, followed by reasoning, DI and LC. Try to solve out easy questions from each section first and then do a cyclical attempt to solve harder questions in each section. Save few minutes time at last to solve some GK questions, as some b-schools give some weightage to GK scores as well.

In terms of time management, one should try to limit their time for solving questions in each section according to their difficulty level. QA should be given at least 40 minutes to solve most of the problems followed by 30 minutes each for reasoning, DI and LR. 10-20 minutes at last is good enough to solve some GK questions.

If one can attempt 100 – 110 questions and more than 90% of it comes out correct, then scoring around 800 is easy. A score of around 800 is supposed to be good one for getting into the best colleges participating in MAT exams.

For preparing for QA one must get hold of fundamental arithmetic like numbers, percentage, profit and loss etc.

Getting hold of basic Algebra chapters also helps, as solving some questions of Algebra really helps in differentiating your final score with others.

Language Comprehension in MAT exam is considerably easy and if one has good hold over Basic English grammar can score heavily in this section. Reading a lot of good English newspapers helps a lot in preparing for the final exams.

Solving questions of reasoning and DI is comparatively easier if one has good control over number and basic calculations. It’s a heavy scoring section, if one has really good control over solving number based questions with accuracy and better speed. MAT questions for reasoning includes questions from Critical Reasoning (assumption based) and Visual Reasoning (diagram based)

A regular practice of MAT papers online and offline in a simulated environment weeks before MAT exam, really helps you to answer easily and smoothly and thus score heavily in MAT exams.

Conclusion:

There are many online mock tests available for students planning to take MAT for practice. One should keep solving such MAT questions and get hold of basic concepts before the exam.

MAT has easier set of questions as compared to management exams and one should try to work on speed and accuracy towards answering as many questions as possible.