MICAT examinations are conducted for the admissions to the PGDM-C/ PGDM from MICA, Ahmedabad. MICAT is conducted twice a year in December and January for the batches which are to begin in June/ July 2022. The MICAT - 1 2021 Exams were conducted on December 4, 2021, from 9 AM to 11:15 AM. Students who have appeared for the MICAT 2021 exams can check below the complete analysis of the exams from experts at IMS. The Exam Analysis by experts will give students an understanding of the examinations and what to expect in terms of the Cutoff.
MICAT 2021 Exam Analysis
This year, like last year, the test was of 135 minutes owing to the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Test Structure and IMS estimate of good attempts:
| Section | Name | No. Of Questions | Time allocated | Good Attempts |
| A | Psychometric Test | 150 | 30 minutes | ALL |
| B | Descriptive Test | 4 | 25 minutes | ALL |
| C | i. Divergent and Convergent Thinking | 20 | 80 minutes | 11-12 |
| ii. Verbal Ability | 20 | 11-12 | ||
| iii. Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 20 | 9-10 | ||
| iv. General Awareness | 20 | 8 – 9 |
- 1-Minute break between different sections
- Navigation between sections is not allowed
- Section C carried 1 mark per question. 0.25 for each incorrect response.
- No Negative Marks for the Psychometric Test and the Descriptive Test
- Psychometric Test is compulsory and the performance in the psychometric test is used as a qualifying criterion for the next stage. Candidates must attempt all the questions in the Psychometric Test to ensure that their paper is evaluated. However, the marks or the assessment criteria of the test are not revealed to the candidates.
Overall analysis
Students who have ‘cleared’ the Psychometric Test and secured an overall score of 35-38 in Sections C (i) to C (iv) can expect a call for the GE-PI round
MICAT 2021 - Sectional Analysis
Section A – Psychometric Test
There were 150 questions in this section. There are no correct or incorrect responses in a psychometric test and around 33 questions are situation/course of action and the test-taker had to mark either True or False. Around 117 questions were about a particular personality trait or a course of action which required the candidates to respond with one of the following 8 options.
- Totally Disagree
- Strongly Disagree
- Disagree
- Somewhat Disagree
- Somewhat Agree
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
- Totally Agree
Given that 150 questions were to be attempted in 30 minutes, it was necessary to work fast and mark the answer quickly.
Section B – Descriptive Test
This section tested the analytical and descriptive writing ability and creative skills of test-takers. The first three questions were related to each other. The topic for the first three questions was “Cultural diversity is celebrated while individual efforts are made to assimilate the differences into the mainstream. Then why should we desire diversity?” For the first two questions, students had to write three points each, ‘for’ and ‘against’ the topic. These two questions carried 10 marks each.
In the third question, students had to write a 300-word answer to ‘Suggest steps by which a young manager can ensure creativity and innovation keeping in mind homogenous cohorts.” The instructions stated that the points for the third question should not include the points stated in the first two questions. 20 marks were allocated to this question.
The fourth question in this section consisted of four pictures. Students had to write down a particular pictorial combination (A-B-C-D or D-C-B-A or any such combination) and explain it with the help of a story. The pictures were related to: ’A fire extinguisher, a horse in an open field, a QR code, a mason tiling the walls.’ This question carried 30 marks.
This section was to be attempted in 25 minutes and carried no negative marking.
Section C – Aptitude Test
The aptitude test part had 4 sub-sections with 20 questions per sub-section. These 80 questions had to be solved within 80 minutes. This year all sections in the aptitude test saw a mix of questions with 4 options and 8 options. This was a change from the previous year.
(i) Sub-section: DIVERGENT AND CONVERGENT THINKING
The Reasoning section comprised 20 questions including word-association, analogies, statement-assumption, data sufficiency, coding, puzzle(symbol-based logic + family tree), and visual reasoning questions. Out of 20 questions, 8 had 8 options each while the remaining 12 had 4 options each.
| Topic | No. of Qs. | Overall Difficulty Level |
| Word Association | 3 | Medium |
| Statement Assumption | 2 | Medium |
| Analogies | 2 | Medium |
| Statement Conclusion | 2 | Medium |
Non-verbal reasoning questions in the section
| Type of questions | Number of questions | Overall Level of difficulty |
| Visual Reasoning (Total 3 questions) | ||
| Odd man out (Group) | 1 | Easy |
| Complete the series (Next figure) | 2 | |
| Logical Data sufficiency (Total 1 question) | ||
| Data Sufficiency | 1 | Medium |
| Miscellaneous (Total 7 questions) | ||
| Puzzle | 3 | Difficult |
| Binary Logic | 2 | Medium |
| Coding | 2 | Easy |
In this section, 11-12 questions in about 25 minutes with 90 % accuracy would be considered a good attempt
(ii) Sub-section: VERBAL ABILITY
This section consisted of jumbled paragraphs, word pairs, paragraph completion(cloze), choosing the grammatically correct sentence questions, and three Reading Comprehension passages. Out of 20 questions, 11 had 8 options each while the remaining 9 had 4 options each.
| Topic | No. of Qs. | Overall Level of difficulty. |
| Grammatically correct sentence | 2 | Medium |
| Jumbled Paragraph – 5 sentences | 2 | Medium |
| One word substitution (passage) | 2 | Difficult |
| Reading Comprehension – 1
(Classic mythological hero – 500 words) |
2 | Medium |
| Reading Comprehension – 2
(Bitcoin and decentralized finance – 200 words) |
2 | Medium |
| Reading Comprehension – 3
(Extension and effects of the human sense – 450 words) |
5 | Difficult |
| Cloze (5 blanks) | 3 | Medium |
| Word pair (Synonyms) | 2 | Easy |
In this section, 11 – 12 questions in about 15-20 minutes with 90% accuracy would be considered a good attempt.
(iii) Sub-section: QUANTITATIVE ABILITY AND DATA INTERPRETATION
There were 20 questions in the section, out of which 16 questions were on quantitative ability and 4 questions were on Data Interpretation. The Quantitative Ability section was dominated by 12 Arithmetic questions and then followed by 3 questions of Geometry and 1 question on Modern Math- Numbers. Overall, the section was Medium in terms of the level of difficulty. and it was one notch more difficult than the corresponding section last year. One important characteristic of this section was that only 5 questions had 4 options and the remaining 15 questions had as many as 8 options.
There was one set on Data Interpretation involving a bar graph with 4 questions and a singular question online graph.
Following was the break-up of the questions in the Quantitative Ability section:
| Area | No. of Qs | LOD |
| Arithmetic | ||
| Time-Speed-Distance, Mixtures-Alligations, Time and Work,
Percentages, Ratio-Proportion, Profit & Loss |
12 | Medium – Difficult |
| Geometry | ||
| Triangles, Coordinate Geometry | 3 | Medium |
| Modern Math | ||
| Permutation & Combination | 1 | Difficult |
| Data Interpretation | ||
| Bar Graph | 4 | Medium |
In this section, an attempt of about 9-10 questions in about 30 minutes with around 85% accuracy would be considered good.
(iv) Sub-section: GENERAL AWARENESS
The General Awareness section consisted of 20 questions. Out of the 20 questions, 11 questions were based on national issues while 9 were based on international topics. Also, Static GK contributed 8 questions while the remaining 12 questions were based on current affairs. Overall, the section was more difficult than that of last year’s MICAT. The questions were about business, ad agencies, books and authors, awards, geography, economics, terms, laws and acts, and logos. 4 questions could be classified as easy; 8 as medium and 8 as difficult. 19 out of 20 questions had 8 options each.
In this section, an attempt of 8 – 9 questions in about 5-7 minutes with 70 percent accuracy would be considered good.
