There were 100 questions in all, out of which 60 questions were from Quantitative Ability and 40 from Verbal Ability. Each question had four options and carried four marks. There was a penalty of one mark for every incorrect answer. The duration of the exam was 120 minutes.
The pattern of the exam has undergone a major change in terms of the questions that appeared in the Quantitative Aptitude section. Unlike last year,majority of the questions that appeared in this section were fromhigher mathematics. What really bothered the students was the difficulty level of the section. The questions based on higher mathematics were complex and time consuming. The Verbal Ability section, however, came as a sigh of relief for the students. Most of the questions in this section were of moderate level of difficulty.
The breakup of the paper is given below:
| Section | No. of Questions | Maximum Marks | Difficulty |
| Verbal Ability | 40 | 160 | Easy-Moderate |
| Quantitative Ability | 60 | 240 | Difficult |
| 100 | 400 | Moderate - Difficult |
Verbal Ability
The Verbal Ability section was the easier of the two. There were two Reading Comprehension passages with 4-5 questions each. One of the Reading Comprehension passages was based on unmanned underwater naval drones and their uses. The second passage was based on development in India and the expansion of mobile phone technology in the country. Apart from this there were 4-5 Synonyms and Antonyms, 4-5 Word Usage questions, 4-5 Para Jumbles, 4-5 questions on Sentence Correction, 2-3 Analogy based questions, 2-3 Para Completion and 7-8 questions on Fill in the Blanks.
The Para-Jumble questions featured four sentences that had to be arranged to form a coherent paragraph. The word usage questions featured a word that had been used in four different sentences. Candidates had to identify the sentence in which the given word had been incorrectly used. The questions on fill in the blanks were mostly vocab based and the sentences had two blanks each. The questions on Analogy were a little tricky in nature.
An attempt of 34 to 37 questions in this section can be considered a good one.
Quantitative Ability
Most candidates found this section to be difficult. Majority of the questions were from Logarithms (4-5), Set Theory (6-7), Permutation and Combinations (4-5), Quadratic Equations (6-8), Probability (2-3), Relations & Functions (3-4) and Algebra(3-4). The section also saw a few questions from topics like Number System (2-3), Geometry and Mensuration (2-3), Profit and Loss (1-2), Trigonometry (1), Ratio and Proportion (2-3), Mixture & Solution (1-2) and Time, Speed and Distance (1-2).
Just like last year, this year’s paper did not feature any questions on Data Interpretation and Analytical Reasoning.
Though most of the questions were based on basic concepts of higher math, they were not straightforward and it required some time to arrive at the answers. There were a couple of questions from Trigonometric Identities which increased the difficulty level of the paper. Questions based on Logarithms posed quite a challenge for the students. This section also had some logic based puzzles.
An attempt of 32 to 35 questions in this section can be considered a good one.
A general category candidate who gets a net score of 190 to 200 stands a very good chance of getting a call for the next round of the selection process. For OBC category a net score of 170-180, for SC category 160-170 and for ST category 140-150 should ensure a call for the next round of the selection process.
Disclaimer: All information on cut-offs, analysis, answer key and scores are based on independent analysis and evaluation made by Career Launcher. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.
All the best
Team CL
