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Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) conducted the 2009 Entrance exam on the 8th of November. Just as the people in rural areas live a simple life the paper too followed a similar trend - simple and easy to attempt. In keeping with the IRMA tradition to build and sustain a partnership between rural people and committed professional managers most of the questions were based on agriculture and developments made in agriculture.
 Overview of the paper:
- The paper was lengthy giving the student very little time to think and ponder over the time consuming caselets and Data Interpretation tables.
- The English section had 40 questions which were not time consuming and could have been attempted in 30 to 35 minutes with ease.
- The Analytical Reasoning section with 50 questions posed a few puzzlers giving the student a hard time to finish it with satisfaction.
- The Quantitative Ability section should have been the first attempt as all the 50 questions were only calculation based and with a straight forward approach.
- The stickiest part of the IRMA paper ‘Issues of Social Concern’, ISC was easy on the eye but yes, with 60 questions to be attempted in a time span of 25 to 30 minutes, unless one knew their GK thoroughly, with special emphasis on government schemes and yojanas, and current updates on the Indian agricultural front, completing this section with a decent score was tough.
Section-wise Analysis
 General English
One Reading Comprehension with approximately 14 questions. Topic was ‘Organic Farming and the Green Revolution’ with the theme being ‘losing fertility of soil - prevention and cure’. Simple language and easy answer options made the reading comprehension easy to attempt.
Verbal Ability comprised ‘synonyms’, ‘antonyms’ and ‘jumbled sentences’. Vocabulary based questions came in the form of ‘fill in the blanks’. The question on ‘inserting the right phrase’ in the blank provided was also based on topics related to rural development. The cloze test had about 10 questions each, again the topic was on rural India.
The absence of verbal reasoning questions was conspicuous.
| Area |
Description |
Marks |
Difficulty level |
Expected Score |
Good Score |
Reading Comprehension |
Passage on Organic Farming and the Green revolution |
15 |
Moderate |
5-6 |
9-10 |
Verbal Ability |
Para- Jumbles |
5 |
Easy-Moderate |
4 |
8 |
Verbal Ability |
Appropriate phrase in sentence |
5 |
Moderate |
2 |
3-4 |
Verbal Ability |
Fill in the Blanks (2 blanks) |
5 |
Easy-Moderate |
2 |
4 |
Verbal Ability |
Cloze Test |
10 |
Easy-Moderate |
2 |
4 |
Overall |
|
40 |
Easy-Moderate |
15-16 |
28-30 |
Quantitative Ability
First ten questions were based only on basic fundamentals of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The next few were formula based problems an absolute delight for most of the students as this boosted their scores in this section. The data interpretation problem based on a table with grain output as against their price in consecutive years was also very easy to infer and reach a solution. A few problems on approximation, time and work, L.C.M., probability, and geometry summed up this section.
| Area |
Description |
Marks |
Difficulty level |
Expected Score |
Good Score |
Venn Diagram |
Caselet (men, women and children in a village ) |
5 |
Moderate-Difficult |
2 |
3 |
Arithmetic |
Permutations & Combinations, Probability
Percentages,
T&W, T&D, Numbers, PPL, SI/CI, Partnerships, Ratio Proportion, Mensuration |
15 |
Easy-Moderate |
5-6 |
10-11 |
Data Sufficiency |
Arithmetic based |
5 |
Moderate |
2 |
3 |
Data Interpretation |
Line Graph (Investments of 3 farmers) |
5 |
Easy-Moderate |
6-7 |
12-13 |
Pie Charts (Children going to school in villages) |
5 |
Moderate |
Table ( People participating in an annual fair from different villages) |
5 |
Moderate |
Table (Prices of Food grains) |
5 |
Easy |
Speed Maths |
Approximations |
5 |
Easy -Moderate |
3 |
3 |
Overall |
|
50 |
Easy-Moderate |
18-20 |
32-34 |
Reasoning Ability
Many students felt that the reasoning based caselets were not tough but puzzling! A certain condition if when fulfilled was not giving the correct answer option especially in the caselet where “eight people were seated around a table and all conditions to be satisfied to reach a logical conclusion were not being met”. Many students spent precious time trying to reason with this caselet and hence lost out on time. There was another reasoning question based on “wheat is a rain based crop and is also a rabi crop then how is sugarcane different from wheat” which also seemed unreasonably illogical to many students. But the overall feel of this section was reasonably “easy to attempt”.
| Area |
Description |
Marks |
Difficulty level |
Expected Score |
Good Score |
Reasoning |
Miscellaneous (Odd man Out, Analogies etc.) |
10 |
Easy |
3-4 |
7 |
Critical Reasoning |
Courses of Action |
5 |
Moderate |
2 |
3-4 |
Critical Reasoning |
Cause & Effect |
5 |
Moderate-Difficult |
1 |
3 |
Critical Reasoning |
Statements & Assumptions |
5 |
Moderate |
2 |
3 |
Critical Reasoning |
Definitely True-Definitely False |
5 |
Moderate-Difficult |
1 |
3 |
Data Sufficiency |
Reasoning based |
5 |
Easy |
2 |
3 |
Decision Making |
Selection Criteria |
10 |
Easy-Moderate |
4 |
7-8 |
Analytical Reasoning |
Puzzle on Seating Arrangement |
5 |
Easy |
2 |
3 |
Overall |
|
50 |
Moderate |
17-18 |
32-34 |
Issues of Social Concern
A very interesting section and also invigorating because of the high one gets when the answers are correct. There are no two answers for such type of questioning. Here are some of the sample questions which figured in this section:
- Where are the headquarters of WTO located? (Geneva)
- Who amongst the following is an economist as well as a Nobel prize winner? (Amartya Sen)
- According to the annual budget 2009-10 what is the government’s aim for agricultural growth? (6%)
- Which Indian award was conferred to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation? (Indira Gandhi Peace Award)
- Co-operative farming was successfully implemented for which crop by the Maharashtra state government? (Basmati Rice)
- Which among the following is a GM crop? (Bt Cotton)
- Which scheme from the following is for development of farmers? (NREGS)
- A network of 12 lakh optical fibre lines will be executed through which project? (NREGA)
- Which amendment of the constitution enacted Panchayat Raj? (Amendment 73)
- Is Nuclear Energy a conventional source of energy? (yes)
A good score in this section would be in the range 20 to 25. Expected score is 15+
A retrospect of this paper leaves us with this conclusion “There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them”.
So, if this MBA Entrance has not been up to your expectations then for the next entrance exam you have to do some serious thinking and make it a fruitful one!
Disclaimer:
The information on this page is relevant to educational
and instructive learning along with the understanding
of the statistics and facts of the various management
entrance exams being conducted across the country.
‘To err is human to forgive divine’. The
data reproduced here is true, valid and to the best
of our students’ knowledge but our students too
are human. |
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