In an online chat with readers on August 23, Aziz Manva, head, TestFunda.com fielded queries on the CMAT exam and offered advice on how to optimise preparation for success.

Conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), India, the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) 2012 is an online computer based test held twice a year that will help qualify admission to post graduate management programmes at all institutes approved by the AICTE.

The CMAT is scheduled between September 27, 2012 and October 01, 2012.

For those who missed the online chat, here's the unedited transcript:

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Indian asked, what is the standard of VA when compared to CAT ??

Aziz Manva answers, at 2012-08-23 16:00:28The overall level of the verbal ability section in CMAT is lower than CAT. however, keep in mind that CMAT in February had a lot of Critical Reasoning questions which ranged from medium to difficult. So, as far as critical reasoning is concerned, it was similar to CAT. However, the remaining questions were simpler than CAT

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paresh asked, how to make strategy for general awareness? I had appeared for CMAT 2011 and it's too difficult to score high in this section.

Aziz Manva answers, You do not need to attempt all 25 questions in the General Awareness section. Keep in mind that you should try and score as highly in the remaining 3 sections and then attempt only those questions in GK where you are more than confident of getting the right answer. Don't blindly bluff in this section as the negative marking may end up affecting your score. GK is often the differentiator between students

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paresh asked, Sir I have difficulty in verbal ability how to score more in reading comprehension and general awareness in cmat?

Aziz Manva answers, For VA, focus a lot on Critical Reasoning and practise them as much as you can. Also, focus on RC and grammar rather than too much vocabulary. For GK, focus on current affairs (both Indian and global) over the last couple of years

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raj asked, Best method for verbal ability increase?

Aziz Manva answers, First identify the questions types that you are most comfortable with and try to attempt those. Once you have done those, move on to questions where you are comfortable but where you take a lot of time as time is not very critical in CMAT. In VA, practise Reading Comprehension and Critical Reasoning as far as possible

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indrajeet asked, hi i am appearing for cat exam .previous yr i also appeared but score was 90 percentile ,no call i had. My DI section score was very poor how 2 improve it

Aziz Manva answers, As far as CAT is concerned, focus on accuracy rather than speed. Whenever you solve a DI set, look at how your solution differs from the official solution and where you could have improved it in terms of steps and speed. If you do this regularly, you will observe that your DI speed and accuracy will both go up.

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surajpandey asked, hi i am suraj pandey from mumbai .I have been preparing for cmat since last 1 month and i am almost done with di section .My question to you is that my aggregate is very low in rengineering would that affect my chances of getting into good colege despite scoring well in cmat

Aziz Manva answers, Not really...the good thing about CMAT is that it gives you a merit list and if you have done well at CMAT written test, you have a good chance of getting into a good B-school. However, be prepared for questions on your academic performance at the interview stage

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OMONA asked, math is also difficult..what to do ?

Aziz Manva answers, The quant section in CMAT is the simplest of the four sections. To do well in this sections, solve a lot of arithmetic, numbers, P & C, probability etc and you should be more or less done with Quant

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OMONA asked, sir..my GK is low. how should i prepare for CMAT?

Aziz Manva answers, For the GK of CMAT, focus mainly on the current affairs in India and globally from 2011 and 2012. Apart from that, if you keep reading newspapers and current affairs magazines, your GK knowledge should improve.

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guddu asked, my gk is not good. what strategy should i follow?

Aziz Manva answers, As i have been mentioning earlier, if you focus on current affairs over the last couple of years and keep up a regular reading habit of newspapers and current affairs magazines, you should be more or less fine.

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Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

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surajpandey asked, i am using arun sharma for(qa and di ) preparing for cmat ?Can you advice me a good book for(qa,di and va for cmat )

Aziz Manva answers, You can refer to any standard reference book. For that matter, to completely prepare for CMAT (including GK), you can also refer to our CMAT Funda courseware.

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bababadhazmi asked, what is the format of the question paper?

Aziz Manva answers, The CMAT exam is a 100 question exam, divided into 4 sections of 25 questions each. The 4 sections are Quant + Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, Verbal Ability and General Awareness

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sNakepRo asked, hi Aziz, What percentile is required to get into top 10 institutes in CMAT?

Aziz Manva answers, Rather than percentile, try to get a rank in the top 200 or so. If you can do that, you have a very good chance of getting into the top 10 colleges under CMAT

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bababadhazmi asked, what are the top 5 colleges that consider cmat scores for admission?

Aziz Manva answers, Some of the good colleges that accept CMAT scores are: Goa Institute of Management K J Somaiya Mumbai Welingkar Great Lakes Sydenham

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bababadhazmi asked, typically how many candidates take the cmat every year?

Aziz Manva answers, There has been only one CMAT conducted so far. Roughly 70000 students appeared for the same

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bababadhazmi asked, If i take the CMAT in february next year, will i still be applicable for admission in 2013-15 MBA batches in the major colleges like GIM?

Aziz Manva answers, Yes, you will be eligible for admission to the 2013-15 batch if you take CMAT in Sep 2012 or Feb 2013

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hardeep asked, Which one in your view will be more advatageous to give, Cmat Sep'12 or Feb'13 one?

Aziz Manva answers, In my opinion, you should take both, Sep 2012 and Feb 2013, because the best of your 2 scores will be considered for admission.

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guddu asked, what strategy should i follow in verbal ability

Aziz Manva answers, Solve more of RC and Critical Reasoning to score more in Verbal Ability

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cmat asked, sir, can you tell me how i can benefit if i take the exam in february?

Aziz Manva answers, If you take the exam, you get 4-5 months extra to prepare. However, in my opinion, you should try the exam right now to get a feel of the exam and then take it seriously in Feb with adequate preparation. Anyways, that will not harm you as the best of these two scores will be considered for admission

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cmat asked, ok.. i also plan to appear for CAT next year... can you share some advice on how to prepare for multiple exams since I will be appearing for the first time

Aziz Manva answers, The preparation for CAT and CMAT will be somewhat different as CAT will test application of core concepts. What you should do is to focus exclusively on CMAT right now and then move on to CAT after that. For the first couple of months after CMAT, work on strengthening you basics of Maths and your reading ability. After that, move on to the CAT level materials and start solving questions from there.

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sNake asked, Aziz, Do we get questions in CMAT like Namita is my(X) mother and Poonam is sister of Namita(Y) so how is X related to Y?

Aziz Manva answers, Yes...you do...you could expect a couple of questions of this type in the exam

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monga asked, Sir can you suggest some material to prepare for GK except the regular newspaper and magazines...

Aziz Manva answers, Apart from these, read material like Competition Success Review or Pratiyogita Darpan

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rajesh asked, pls give names of top 10 institutes in mumbai/pune

Aziz Manva answers, the prominent colleges in Mumbai/Pune that accept CMAT scores are Somaiya, Welingkar, PUMBA, Sydenham, Chetna, MET, N l Dalmia, MIT, Kohinoor, Indira Institute of Management etc

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Aziz Manva says, Thank You for participating in the chat! Hope to see you again in the next chat. All the Best for CMAT!

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Illustration: Uttam Ghosh