CET 2006


(26th February 2006)

Note that this is an earlier CET. CET 2008 has already taken place. If you want to read the analysis of the latest CET, please read our CET 2008 analysis.

Most of our students found CET 2006 to be just another Peak Seekers Test -- So, let us call is Peak Seekers CET Mock Test 11! The paper was largely on the lines of what most Peak Seekers students solved in the 4 week run up to the exam. With minor changes, this test was a bit on the easier side. As a consequence, the JBIMS cut-off is expected to soar by a few marksthis year.

• 200 marks (No negative for wrong answers)
• No sections
• 5 answer options per question

Overall Breakup of CET 2006

Quantitative Ability

• Quant was not all that easy compared to previous year's CET papers.
• It was marked by the absence of BODMAS questions and presence of 5 Q’s on Permutations &  Combinations.
• The DI sets were on the lines of what was included in the Peak Seekers test series. There were 3 DI sets with one set accounting for 10 Q's.
• There were 10 Q's on Data Sufficiency -- all of them were manageable.
• Overall, you should have attempted around 38-40 Q's with a net score of around 32. You should have spent around 40 minutes on these questions.

Verbal Ability

• A surprising element in this years CET was the overemphasis on Vocabulary. There were 16 vocabulary based questions. Most of them could be attempted by the average English user, i.e., despite being presented in a synonym-antonym format, (just like the Peak Seekers test series questions), almost all questions were usage based with an average level of difficulty. Paragraph construction questions (10) were also relatively easy, the difficulty level being similar to that presented in Peak Seekers' tests. These 26 word based questions should have been attempted in 15-16 minutes earning about 20 marks.
• Reading Comprehension had 1 passage of around 450 words on the Electricity Board, followed by 9 questions. The language, style and topic was similar to what you have faced in the Peak Seekers tests. The passage included 2 factual and 7 inferential questions. The passage was difficult because of the subject matter -- a case of privatization of power sector put forth by Amartya Sen. It dealt with government inefficiencies and the reluctance of private players). 7 questions could have been attempted with a score of 5. Since the other English Usage sections were relatively easy, one should have given about 8–9 minutes to Reading Comprehension. As seen from the Overall Analysis table given above, Reading Comprehension was the only question type which could be labeled "Difficult" in this CET.
• The rest of the English section constituted 10 questions on Error Spotting with a judicious mix of prepositions, phrasal verbs, spelling errors, and the like. They could have been attempted in 5-6 minutes. The 5 Qs on ParaJumbles initially appeared difficult due to the length of each of the six sentences. However, because the sentences were longer, sequencing them became easier. The key was to locate statement F as the fourth sentence of the paragraph by looking at the questions and the answer options. English Usage should have earned 12 marks of the 15 questions in 10 minutes.
• Overall, it should have been possible to attempt more than 45 Qs with a score of 37–38 in 35 minutes.

Reasoning Ability

• Compared to CET 2005, the level of difficulty of reasoning was significantly lower. Most of the standard question types that encountered in the Peak Seekers tests were present. The only new question type in this test was the number coding set, where each number was assigned a code and one had to answer questions based on certain rules.
• The Visual Reasoning questions were one of the easiest in the last 5 years. And one could have actually tried around 15 of these with a pretty high accuracy.
• There were 30 questions on puzzles, inclusive of 5 questions on Alphanumeric Series and 5 on Number Series. The Number Series questions were very tricky and would have taken a lot of time to solve. Interestingly, there was a twist out here as well, not one but two numbers in the series were wrong. Apart from these 5 questions, one could have attempted the remaining 25 with ease.
• There were 2 sets of Logical Data Interpretation questions and one set on Logical Data Sufficiency. All of them were easy.
• As usual, the 30 Visual Reasoning questions were the most difficult part of the entire paper (despite being significantly easier than those in earlier years).
• Syllogisms appeared for 20 marks (as they have for each of the past 9 years) with Assumptions, Logical Set Theory, Courses of Action and Probably True Probably False (PTPF) appearing for 5 marks each. Barring the PTPF paragraph, the other 15 questions could have been attempted in 12 minutes with a score of 10.
• Overall, it should have been possible to attempt around 75 questions in 75 minutes with a score of around 60.

Overall, a score of 130+ in the written test should be managed by prepared students (without random marking). Compared to last year, this is a bit higher, as the paper was a bit easier. Considering an average score of 25 in the second stage, the cut-off for JBIMS be easily above 160 (out of 240). But, then again these are opinions, and opinions need to be discussed, right? Do visit the Peak Seekers discussion forum to discuss the CET 2006. Even if you are not a Peak Seekers student, you are welcome to visit and read the posts. Writing and discussing is open only to Peak Seekers' students. Good Luck.