MICAT 2017: Selection procedure, important dates, paper pattern

1. Selection procedure:

Each candidate has to take at least one of the three exams— Common Admission Test (CAT), Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) and Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). Apart from taking one these exams, all applicants are required to appear for MICAT.

2. MICAT dates:

MICAT is a computer-based test (CBT) and will be conducted twice for selection of the PGDM-C 2018-20 batch. The following are the dates on which MICAT will be conducted.

– MICAT 1- December 17, 2017
– MICAT 2- February 17, 2018

Candidates can appear for both the papers and the higher score from either exam will be considered during the selection process.

3. MICAT paper pattern:

There are six sections to MICAT. These include:

1. Psychometric test
2. Verbal ability
3. Quantitative ability
4. General awareness
5. Divergent-convergent reasoning
6. Descriptive test

4. Psychometric Test, verbal ability, reasoning:

The Psychometric test is a scientific method used to measure individuals’ mental and behavioural capabilities. Psychometric tests are designed to measure candidates’ suitability for a role based on the required personality characteristics and cognitive abilities. While answering the psychometric test questions the test takers should read the questions carefully and they should answer them honestly and quickly.

For the verbal ability section, a thorough CAT preparation should be more than sufficient. The questions posed in the quantitative ability section are usually pretty simple.

With respect to preparation for divergent-convergent reasoning section of MICAT, it would be advisable for students to revise concepts pertaining to critical reasoning, visual reasoning, and data sufficiency. Apart from this students should also prepare for phrase formation, idiomatic usage, meanings and usage, homonyms.

5. Descriptive test:

For the Descriptive Test students also need to prepare for essay writing and creative writing (story writing).

Usually, test takers are made to write three essays on the given topic, one supporting the topic, one opposing the topic and in the final essay, the test taker needs to mention his/her personal opinion. One needs to bear in mind that an essay is an organised collection of thoughts on a particular topic.

While writing an essay it would be advisable to include the following three segments:

1.The introduction
2.The body
3.The conclusion

The introduction and the conclusion, although pretty important are usually very short (usually one paragraph each). The main body deals with the major ideas that support the statement. Each main idea should be mentioned in a separate paragraph and should be supported with reasons and justifications.

For the story writing part, the test takers are usually provided with 4 photos or cartoons (which are numbered from 1 to 4), they need to write a story based on these 4 photos and they should use them in the same sequence as mentioned (numbered). While writing the story, test takers should begin by quickly thinking about a possible premise in 3-4 minutes.

The basic premise should display the creativity of the writer and should also provide the writer with the possibility of including these 4 pictures in it. Once the basic idea has been generated, one needs to quickly expand the idea into a story. One should spend a couple of minutes of checking the story for any grammatical/spelling mistakes.

6. General awareness:

For preparation on general awareness, in addition to reading newspapers regularly, it would be advisable for a student to prepare from Manorama Year Book, CSR and CBSE high school social sciences textbooks. While preparing for this section, it would be advisable for students to focus more on:

– Major business-related events, heads of corporations, History of major corporations
– Advertising Industry related information (Advertisement campaigns, Slogans, Logos etc)
– Basic inputs about Indian geography, history and economics

Finally, it would be advisable to practice a few mock MICAT papers before appearing for the examination.

The article is authored by Asim Akhtar, DGM (Operations), T.I.M.E