Analysis of IRMA 2004

The pattern of the paper this year was similar to that of the last few years.
This year overall difficulty level is marginally higher as compared to last
year. This test had 200 questions and the time allotted was 120 minutes.
There was a negative marking of ¼ and each right answer was assigned 1
mark. There were four sections and there was no sectional time constraint.

Following is a description of the components of the four sections, the

number of questions in each of them and their difficulty levels:

Difficulty
Areas Tested Allotted Marks
Level
Verbal Ability 40 Average
Quantitative Ability & Data
50 Average
Interpretation
Reasoning 50 Average
General Awareness 60 Tough
TOTAL 200 Average

The sectional break-up is as follows:

Verbal Ability

Types of Questions Allotted Marks Difficulty Level

Fill in the blanks passage type) 10 Easy
Sentence completion 5 Average
Reading Comprehension 25 Easy
Total 40 Easy

In VA, There were 10 questions based on antonyms and synonyms from an

RC passage.
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation:

The difficulty level of questions in this section was similar to that of the last
year paper. Arithmetic has ruled the roost. There were 5 question based on
series which were of average difficulty level. Five questions were based on
data sufficiency. there was a caselet containing five questions based on set
theory. this caselet was easy to attempt . Unlike last year’s paper, DS was
present in both the sections, QA and Reasoning with 5 questions in each
section. On DI, there were 20 questions of average difficulty level. Overall
this section was of average difficulty level.

Reasoning:

This section contained a number of questions based on Critical reasoning,

Analytical Reasoning and Mathematical Reasoning. The section was of
average difficulty level.

Types of Questions Allotted Marks Difficulty Level

Analytical reasoning 10 Average
Data verification 5 Average
Data sufficiency 5 Easy
Critical reasoning 30 Tough
Total 40 Average

This section was quite difficult because a lot of questions were based on
Critical reasoning. Strengthening and weakening of the argument, Implied
idea (inference based) and Cause-reason (data conclusion) were some of the
question types asked in this section.

General awareness:

This section had 60 questions based on current affairs and general

knowledge. Some of the Questions were easy. But there were a lot of
indirect questions as well, which in turn made this section difficult.
Overall, the paper was of average difficulty level. As far as cut-off goes, it
should be 22-23 in Verbal Ability section. Quantitative Ability section was
mixture of DI, DS and Quant questions. Cutoff for Quant. Ability section
will be 20-22. Reasoning Section was average and cutoff for this section
should be 23-24. General Awareness section cutoff should be 18+.

Looking to the cutoff’s, minimum overall score should be 83-86.

A person who scores around 90-95 in this test can expect to get the call.