My NMAT 2022 experience

On By PSIn NMAT, Strategy

I hope this finds you well! I’ve been documenting my NMAT experiences since NMAT 2020 and it has become a ritual that I look forward to every year. I recommend checking out my review of NMAT 2020 (score 291), and NMAT 2021 (score 281) as well to know more about what happened in each of these years, which will definitely help from a strategic point. I am also going to review the NMAT official mock (and its retake) which will also help you draw parallels between your score in the NMAT official mock and the actual NMAT.

I selected day 1 (Oct 10) for my attempt as it allows me to share my insights with the aspirant community and make some meaningful contribution. In terms of test venue/proctored from home choice, I always recommend a test venue attempt as one doesn’t have to worry about electricity and/or internet connection. Preparation wise, I don’t do anything during the year and my score doesn’t matter – but I make it a point to take NMAT official mock before I face the actual test. So, I ended up taking NMAT official mock 1 on the 8th and its retake on the 9th.

Review of NMAT official mock

As I was taking a full length test after a really long time, it took me a while to get to the required speed. I found the data interpretation sets to be painful – both in terms of the language in which the data is written and the numbers in the set. I wasn’t able to complete the LR section and missed the last three questions. The next day, though reluctant, I pushed myself and attempted the retake of the official mock. 

Notice how differently the scaling works and hence there is no point trying to figure out ‘what should be the maximum questions that one should do correctly to get a certain score?’ I made so many mistakes in both these tests but maybe because the questions that I got right were of higher difficulty in the second one, it scaled the score upwards.

Surprisingly, I landed up with the same percentage accuracy at the overall level. The low score in the LR section in Official Mock 1 can be attributed to my speed. If you’re unable to complete the test, it surely is going to impact your score adversely. With these scores, I was worried that the actual test may end up with a sub 280 performance. I’ve taken so many tests in my life that I am not scared of tests anymore – but I definitely get my share of jitters, every time I get up on the test day.

Test day experience:

I reached the test venue at about 11:15 for my 12-2 slot. They checked the identity proofs and directed me towards the test lab. I was surprised to see the lab full of students, quite different from my experience of last year. (After the test was done, I heard some of them sharing their scores with each other – 191, 195, 196, etc. and it left me wondering why people end up taking the test on day one and destroying their chance at NMIMS. I can understand a well-prepared candidate, walking in full swag on day 1 and doing well on the test – this, however, wasn’t true for the students I saw there.) They gave us two rough sheets. We were asked to sign a simple Yes/No kind of undertaking on COVID vaccination status and they collected it before the test. A pen was provided at the centre (I recommend carrying pens with you in any case) and transparent water bottles were allowed.

We were asked to log in at around 11:50 and go through the instructions, tutorial, and the section order selection. I retained my strategy of QA-LR-LS order because that works for me. You should choose the order that works for you and my choice need not be followed blindly. Please refer to the following video for a detailed analysis on all the sections:

Quantitative Skills

I found the overall difficulty of the questions on the higher side. Most of the questions required more than a minute to solve and there were traps in the language – I definitely figured one mistake where I marked the answer and after moving on to the next question, realised that it said the new value and not the old value. A suggestion to aspirants is to read the questions carefully. The DI sets were similar to what you see on the official guide. There is hardly any text data, too many things happening, and you need to make sense of that information. The table based set was calculation intensive but manageable. The bar graph was difficult to fathom and I sat on it for a significant amount of time. I ended up randomly marking two questions based on the bar graph in the interest of time. By the time I had reached the end of the section, I was tired of facing difficult questions one after another. Still, the last question was irritating data sufficiency and I took a half chance because I didn’t want to leave any questions. I had figured that my score was going to be on the lower side because of random marking DI questions and taking a few other guesses.

Logical Reasoning

The official mocks made me realise that I was sometimes going very fast with CR questions without reading the options properly. I made a conscious effort to avoid that during the test. I faced a painful matrix arrangement question with five dimensions which wasn’t possible to solve entirely. So, I went question by question and used elimination to answer the questions. The logic of input output wasn’t difficult but because it involved numbers + letters, converting from one form to another was time consuming. I was in control of the speed and didn’t feel the need to either increase or decrease my speed. I was able to complete the section with about 2 minutes to go on the timer.

Language Skill

The language section had a surprise in the form of only two Reading Comprehension passages. Earlier, they used to have three passages with four questions each. The passages weren’t very difficult to read and considering my general accuracy on RC, I think I had a decent attempt at both. The vocabulary questions were as usual arbitrary – you either know a word or you don’t and though you can make some intelligent guesswork, there is nothing beyond that. The parajumbles were pretty straightforward (except may be one of them which I took some time to crack the answer. What I generally do is solve it as if the options don’t exist and then try to locate the answer in the options. If I find it, I mark it right away but if I don’t, then I read options. Finding mandatory pair generally works pretty well and you can arrive at the answer in under a minute in most cases. The fill in the blanks questions based on prepositions were very simple. The sentence correction wasn’t difficult to spot and anyone with decent command on grammar rules could have easily managed all the questions. Overall, I think I did similar to what I was doing on the official mock and expected the score to be around the same range.

So, after finally submitting the test, in that small 5 second gap between you click on ‘submit’ and the score gets displayed on screen, my mind told me that I was going to fall below 280. I was just relived to see a 284 on the screen. It’s not the best that I could have done and I am certain that I can do better if I prepare a bit across the sections. Next time, hopefully 🙂

Quick suggestions to aspirants:

  1. Solve difficult problems of topics given in the official guide. So, when you are studying Percentages, or Equations, or Progressions, try to go a level above the questions given in the official guide. CAT material should be sufficient for this.
  2. Verbal reasoning is MORE important than traditional LR when it comes to NMAT. All the types – Assumptions, Inference, Decision Making, Course of Action, Conclusion, Syllogisms, etc. are important and you must solve questions of these to get better.
  3. Do the grammar rules, prepositions very well so that those questions can be cracked with 100% accuracy. Vocabulary can’t be predicted but make an effort to improve it, as much as possible.
  4. NMAT rewards speed and accuracy. You must work on building both to get to a high score.

Past Cutoffs:

The table shows the cutoffs of various NMIMS programs.

Use the following link to upload your scorecards. Your scorecards will be safe with me but if you wish to hide your personal details, you may only upload cropped part of the scorecard. This data will be used to find any correlation between time period when one takes the test and the score. There is a theory that the test becomes more difficult as we progress but nobody has proved or disproved the theory with any evidence. Here is my attempt to find the truth.

SUBMIT YOUR NMAT SCORECARD

Hope this effort has helped you. The analysis is to give you insights that you don’t find elsewhere. I will be very happy if this analysis pushes your score up. Thanks for reading and all the best for NMAT and the season ahead.

I would love to hear from you! Keep visiting this space for more articles and if you have any article suggestions or queries, please leave them in the comments. Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog. Share this with your friends and co-aspirants. Happy prepping! 🙂

57 thoughts on “My NMAT 2022 experience”

  2. Saurav Suman

    Hello Sir,
    I have got a score of 244 in my NMAT Exam. (LS-89, LR-82, QS-73) With a score of 73 in Quants, what are the chances to get a call from NMIMS Mumbai?

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Should be fine I think. QA was 70 last year and the only trend that I am seeing this year so far is that quant is the least scoring area and verbal is the max scoring area.

      Like

      Reply
  3. Lekshmi

    Hello Sir,
    I have an Overall score of 243 in my NMAT Attempt. But my score for the LR section is a 74 . Is that considered a risky score for NMIMS Mumbai?

    Like

    Reply
  4. Lekshmi

    Hello Sir
    I have an overall score of 243 in my NMAT attempt. My sectional score for LR is 74. Is that considered a risky score for NMIMS Mumbai?

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Last year LR was 71. I think 74 should be fine but it depends on how things go from here. Most of the students are taking the test in December so it’s a little difficult to comment on cutoffs right now.

      Like

      Reply
  6. Snigdha

    Hi sir, I am a student of IMS Online. I have my NMAT slot scheduled on Dec 2nd, and just started my preparation. I am clear with the syllabus and stuff but while attempting the NMAT mocks on the IMS portal the screen is getting stuck for the RCs and constantly popping up to go through every corner. What can I do regarding the same and what is the recommended no of mocks in these 3 days?

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    Reply
  7. RG

    Hi Sir,
    I am an IMS online student. I appeared for NMAT and got a score of 236 and cleared the other cutoffs but only secured 61 in QA. Could you give some advice as to what are my options/chances with this score?
    Additionally, are there any resources for IMS students about what to do after appearing for the test and when colleges usually call students?

    Thanks!

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Hi. The QA cutoff (for SBM Mumbai Core) should be close to 70. You will have a shot mostly at MBA Digital Transformation, Indore, Hyderabad, etc. In terms of post-test process, we will have a GDPI program and the interviews are conducted from January to April.

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      Reply
  8. sb

    Hello sir, today I gave my official mock and scored 206 (
    LR-69, QUANT – 57, LS- 80) so I’m lil satisfied with my scores as of now because I took a few IMS mocks (nearly 7 ) and in that my highest score was 168. My exam is on 19th dec, so will I able to clear the cut offs with good amount of practice and taking mocks every 4th day.

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Start working on your Quant and LR as those two are on the lower end. You will need to take QA to 70+ and LR to 76+ at least looking at the last year data.

      Like

      Reply

  9. Hello Sir, I am scoring between 185-200 in IMS mocks. I have my NMAT exam on 3rd Dec, Could you give some advice as to what are my options with this score? I have not given NMAT official mock yet.

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Hi. Take the official mock today and its retake tomorrow. I think a 185-200 in IMS mock should be somewhere around 220+ in the official mock. Then depending on the sectional performance, figure out the area where you need to push.

      Like

      Reply
  10. Ansh Gupta

    Hello Sir,
    I have got a score of 232 in my NMAT Exam. (LS-80, LR-86, QS-66) With a score of 66 in Quants, what are the chances to get a call from NMIMS Mumbai?

    Like

    Reply
  11. Ansh Gupta

    Hello Sir,
    I have got a score of 232 in my NMAT Exam. (LS-86, LR-80, QS-66) With a score of 66 in Quants, what are the chances to get a call from NMIMS Mumbai?

    Like

    Reply
  12. Shaurya Vora

    Hi Sir! Just got done with NMAT. Bit disappointed with my score of 234 (LS-84, QA-74, LR-76) after scoring 260 in the official mock. Are my chances of getting a call on the brighter side?

    Like

    Reply
      1. Achuth govind

        Thank you! and I know you can’t predict it with 100% accuracy. But just wanted to get your opinion because you’ll have a better idea seeing the results in general. Hoping the quants sectional doesn’t cut me off.

        Like

  14. FD

    Hi sir I gave the official NMAT mock test yesterday and scored 210; LS-91 QS-66 LR-53 . I have scheduled my test for the 18th of December, could you please guide me further as my goal is to get into NMIMS MUMBAI.

    Like

    Reply
  15. AR

    Hi sir, i listened to the video about the nmat exam where you said that the scaling on the nmat mocks is harsher than the actual scaling. i know its never possible to know exactly how the scaling differs but a general idea of a probable marks value between the ims mocks and the actual exam would help psychologically a little bit. I gave 3 mocks got 220 224 225 so kind of 10 marks less from the cutoffs.

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Yes. It’s difficult to comment on it but the difference could be anything between 10-40. Two years back, when I got 291 (actual) my mock score was 252 so the difference could be that high. or it might just be a few marks. I think your current scores are reasonable and you just need to take care of your sectionals on that day.

      Like

      Reply
  16. FD

    Hi sir, I took the NMAT official mock and scored 210 (LS-91; QA-66 LR-53). I have scheduled my exam for the 18th of December, could you please guide me through the same so as to achieve NMIMS or better. I haven’t given any IMS mocks yet.

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      The score is pretty lopsided and you need to pick up LR and QA significantly. Start taking IMS mocks and make sure that you study the concepts/question types that are checked on the NMAT well.

      Like

      Reply
    1. PS

      Hi Harsh. The sectionals will be clear but the problem is the overall score. NMIMS Mumbai core is mostly out of range. Others should work out. Please refer to the cutoff table.

      Like

      Reply
      1. Shivali

        Hello sir,

        My Nmat score is 230 ( Qs -65, LR -80 and LS -85), what are the chances of getting a call from NM BANGALORE, TAPMI, KJ?

        Like

  18. Hello sir!
    Got 234 in NMAT with 85 in LR, 82 in LS and 67 in QS.
    I got higher in the official mocks but somehow QS went down in the actual one.
    Is there any chance to get a call from NMIMS?

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Hi. I don’t think the QA cutoff will go below 70. So getting a core call looks difficult. Other campuses + some of the non-core programs at Mumbai should work out.

      Like

      Reply
      1. Shivali

        Hello sir,

        My nmat score is 230 with ( Qs – 65, LS -85 AND LR – 80), what are the chances of getting a call from TAPMI, NM BANGALORE?

        Like

  19. VS

    Hello Sir, I scored 236(QA:73, LR:82, and LS:81) in my NMAT exam. I am clearing last year’s cut-off but not clearing QA 2020 cut-off. Are we expecting a hike in the cut-offs this year? Should this score be enough for a call?

    Like

    Reply
  21. Ansh Gupta

    Hii Sir, I have got a score of 232 in my NMAT Exam. (LS-86, LR-80, QS-66) With a score of 66 in Quants, what are the chances to get a call from NMIMS Mumbai?

    Like

    Reply
  23. patwarymaumita1

    Hi Sir,
    My Nmat Scores are:
    QA-54,
    Lang- 89
    LR-78
    Total-221.
    Is there any decent college which I can get with this score?( I know I messed up QA badly)
    Also, while applying for colleges under NMIMS university, I had selected only NMIMS Mumbai, Bangalore and Navi Mumbai. Is there any chance to add hyderabad? Because I am unable to edit the form now.

    Should I apply for K. J. Somaiyya and TAPMI with a total score of 221?
    Would really appreciate your response.
    Thank you

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Not sure if you will be able to edit the option. Can reach out to NMIMS and check with them. KJ was 225 last year so looks borderline. TAPMI is accepting NMAT for the first time so a little difficult to comment on the cutoff. Can try for SDA. All the best!

      Like

      Reply
  24. Yash Parmar

    Hello sir!
    I scored 251 in NMAT (LS- 93, QA-79, LR-79)
    I will most definitely get a call from NMIMS Mumbai. My main question is that what are my chances of conversion?

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Hi. Decent chance. Please note that the conversion depends a lot on your interview so a high score doesn’t guarantee a convert – the same way a low score doesn’t translate to a reject.

      Like

      Reply
  25. Aditya Pandey

    Hello Sir
    I gave my NMAT yesterday and scored 234 overall (63 Quants, 89 verbal and 82 LR). What are my chances to get a call from NMIMS, Mumbai for their core program?

    Like

    Reply
    1. PS

      Hi Aditya. Last year the cutoff was 70 and I don’t think it will change this time. So NMIMS Mumbai core looks out of reach. The other programs should work out – please check the cutoff table of last year once.

      Like

      Reply
  26. Satyam Prakash

    Helllo Sir, I gave NMAT today, I scored 248 Overall with 94 in VA, 86 LR and 68 in Quants, I know the cut off last year was 70 for quants, based on any data that you have, is there any chance of clearing nmims mumbai core cut off with this score ?

    Like

    Reply
  27. harshil patel

    Hello sir,

    I scored 230 on the first attempt. Sectionals are 75 in QA, 78 in VA and 77 in LR. should I expect a call from Mumbai? I am a GEM, work Ex of 1 year in marketing.

    Like

    Reply
  28. varun

    Hello Sir,
    Can we get a rough idea about the cutoff of NMAT from the ppl who have submitted their scores to the link you provided. Will the sectional cut off will be higher than last year?

    Like

    Reply

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