CET Analysis

CET 2010 Analysis

Maharashtra CET, held on 21 February 2010, was easier as compared to last year’s test, though
some questions were time-consuming and lengthy. There were no major surprises in the pattern
or the types of the questions. IMS students who had taken all the SimCETs would have found the
test quite familiar. Especially SimCET 8, 9 and 10 were very close to this CET 2010.

Overall, a good score in this test would be 148+. Ideal no. of attempts should have been
175+.

Overall Test Structure

Total Duration of the exam (minutes) 150 minutes

Total number of questions 200
Total Marks 200
Marks per question 1
Negative marking No
Mode of marking the ovals Black Ball Point Pen

Area Wise Test Structure

Sections Area No. of Suggested Ideal Good

questions Time Attempt
(in Minutes)
1 Problem Solving 15 15 10
2 Data Interpretation 20 15 15
3 Verbal Ability & Verbal Reasoning 61 40 47
4 Reading Comprehension 15 10 12
5 Logical Reasoning 54 45 40
6 Visual Reasoning 30 20 20
7 Data Sufficiency 5 5 4
  Total 200 150 148

Problem Solving
Some of the BODMAS questions were time-consuming. Also, one question from mensuration
was challenging. Rest of the questions were fairly easy. Also there were problems on topics
Time-Speed-Distance, Profit Loss, Geometry, Ratios and Permutation and Combinations. One
set problems on approximation based calculation. Unlike previous years, questions from
probability were missing.

No. of
Type of question Easy Medium Difficult
questions
Arithmetic (calculations and
10 6 4 0
approximations)
Time-Speed-Distance, Profit Loss,
Geometry, Ratios, Permutation and 5 4 1 0
Combinations
Total 15 10 5 0

Data Interpretation
There were four sets of 5 questions each. This year, most of the questions were observation
based and required simple calculations.

Type of question No. of questions

Table 5
Mixed Table 5
Line graph 5
Bar graph 5

Students should have attempted all the questions, with at least 75% accuracy.

Data Sufficiency
This year there was only one set of 5 quant-based questions. Questions were of very easy level.
Students should have got 3-4 questions right easily.

Logical Reasoning
Overall, questions were slightly easier as compared to the questions from previous years. Both
the sets on arrangements were quick-shots. There was an easy but lengthy set of 10 questions on
Selection criteria. There were 5 questions on alphanumeric series and 5 questions from
conditional coding, all of which had easy to moderate difficulty level. There were 5 questions
from word arrangement machine (input-output type) were easy but slightly time consuming. 5
questions on number series were moderate to difficult.

Type of question No. of questions

Input – output 5
Alphanumeric series 5
Number Series 5
Conditional coding 5
Linear and Circular Arrangement 8
Symbol based Comparison 5
Selection criteria 10
Miscellaneous 11
Total 54

Visual Reasoning
There were 10 “series completion” questions, 10 “wrong element in the series” questions and 10
“dissimilar pair” questions. One set of series completion was slightly difficult. There were no
questions on analogy.

No. of
Type of question Easy Medium Difficult
Questions
Series Completion 10 [5*2] 8 2 0
Dissimilar pair 10 8 2 0
Wrong element in the
10 7 3 0
series

Verbal Ability & Verbal Reasoning

Verbal Ability and Verbal Reasoning questions were slightly more difficult than average. Some
new question formats featured in the paper. A detailed analysis of the types of questions is given
below

Types of Questions No. of Questions

Anagram 1
Fill in the Blanks (paragraph) 10
Jumbled Paragraph 5
Sentence Correction 5
Mark the Error 10
Critical Reasoning 11
Fill in the Blanks (paired) 5
Syllogisms 5
Course of Action 5
Cause and Effect 4

Anagram
There was only one question on Anagram. One had to identify how many meaningful words
could be formed with all the letters YRLEA, using the letters only once.

Fill in the Blanks (paragraph)

The paragraph was based on Global Warming and its effects, and its affect on sea level. A quick
and easy read, with the clue words in the paragraph guide you to the right option. There were 10
blanks and the correct option almost stood out in most of the cases. All the options were easy and
had options like affects, melts, key, hotter, obliteration, sensitive etc. One could have easily
solved this set.

Mark the Error

This set was very easy. It contained subject verb error types, incorrect modifiers eg continuous
used instead of continuously, tense errors like 'attends' instead of 'attended', use versus ‘used’,
idiom usage like 'flocked on' instead of 'flocked to', 'account of' instead of 'account for', etc.

Jumbled Paragraph
In this type of jumbled paragraph in which one single set comprising 6 sentences was given and
all 5 questions were based on the correct sequence of these sentences. This was a simple set
because identifying the correct sequence was easy to solve.

Sentence Correction
This set contained 5 statements wherein a part of each statement was highlighted followed by 5
options of which the fifth one stated 'No correction Required'. This was again easy with mostly
tense based questions where no correction was required and usage based questions and required a
knowledge of idioms like 'sit up and take notice', 'catch up with', and 'went through the ceiling'.

Fill in the Blanks (Paired)

This set was again very simple and tested basic grammar skills. Elimination was possible and
that could lead to the correct answer. Words like watched, groove, leads, framed, considered etc.
were featured.

Syllogisms
This set had 4 statements and 4 conclusions. It warranted a careful reading of the question which
stated that the conclusions were to be based on the given statements, that meant that the
conclusion could follow from a single statement.

Course of Action
The format of this question differed slightly from the standard type that have been appearing in
CET in previous years. It had one statement followed by 3 courses of actions and 5 options.

However, the course of action to be decided for commonplace problems such as traffic control,
glitches in online entrance tests, criminals escaping, and government action on excessive
quarrying affecting nearby buildings were easy to solve. The only skill necessary was a good
reasoning ability.

Cause and Effect

This set also contained a change in the usual format. It contained a given statement , either a
cause or an effect. The student had to determine which of the given 5 options were the cause or
effect, as required.

Critical Reasoning
There were 3 passages with 3 questions each testing the students' ability to recognize
conclusions, assumptions and inferences. The passages were on The Comeback of Merchant
Bankers, Investment Schemes for those Nearing Retirement and The Central Government's bid
to sell its wheat reserves. The questions were easy, however the section was a bit time
consuming.

 There were also 2 questions that contained statements and were followed by 5 options wherein
the student had to identify which one would either support or contradict the argument of the
passage as required. These questions were simple and not time consuming.   

Reading Comprehension
Unlike, CET 2009, but like CET 2008 and 2007,  this year there was only one RC passage of
approximately 700 words. The passage was about the phenomenon of Migration to OECD
countries, the benefits of the same to the host countries, the challenges faced by the home
countries to bring back the migrants and the government's role in this regard.

The passage was easy to comprehend and solve and contained 15 questions. There were 8
questions based on direct and indirect type. 7 questions were direct and 1 was indirect testing the
students' ability to select the most appropriate title. There were  7 word based questions which
were very simple. Synonyms of words like potential, capturing, harsh and distinguish were
asked. Antonyms of words like key, attractive and satisfying were asked.