The Joint Management Entrance Test & JMET

The Joint Management Entrance Test or JMET is traditionally divided into four sections,

• verbal communication,
• logical reasoning,
• quantitative ability, and
• data interpretation.

In this article we review the question types and some of the strategies to answer them successfully:

I. Verbal Communication

The reading comprehension section requires the candidate to read short passages and answer 3-4 questions that accompany it. Answering may involve simply giving out facts culled from the passage or inferring from the information therein. A careful reading of the passage is enough to get the right answers. Some questions would set you thinking on the tone/title of the passage or the author’s probable stance on a subject. Last year saw a good number of questions asking for the gist or the central idea of the passage. Also, there were some questions pertaining to the meaning of a word in the context of the passage. Remember that the contextual meaning could be a shade or several shades different from the literal meaning.

Verbal ability focuses almost equally on grammar and vocabulary. The grammar section includes questions that involve picking the grammatically correct statement. In addition to these questions, there are questions on punctuation that first made an appearance a few years back. The questions often involve conversion of voices from active to passive or vice versa and also, changing a statement from direct to indirect speech. There are a few questions on rephrasing a short statement/paragraph without altering its essence.

The Vocabulary section consists of fill-in-the-blanks questions, analogies, and also a few questions on correct spelling of commonly used words. The fill-in-the-blanks questions can be solved by eliminating options taking into consideration the tone and flow of the sentence even if one is not comfortable with the words in the options. Analogies might get a bit difficult if one doesn’t know the words in the question. Sometimes there are a few questions on synonyms and antonyms. The questions vary from being straightforward to extremely difficult and attempting those that one is sure of and moving ahead is the best way to go.

II. Quantitative Aptitude

Until a few years ago, this section involved higher maths of the kind that the average candidate would shudder to attempt. Math of the more accessible kind that appears in other entrance tests was not part of the test syllabus. But over the last couple of JMETs, this section has been simplified into a much easier version. With patience and presence of mind you can score fairly well in this section. Topics on which most questions are based include the following:

• Functions
• Percentages
• Probability and permutations-combinations
• Derivatives and integration
• Simple equations

III. Logical Reasoning:

The section is usually divided into the following subtopics:

1. Parajumbles: These questions consist of 4 sentences in a random order that the candidate has to arrange in a logically coherent order. Going by trends thus far, the level of difficulty is not very high.

2. LR caselets: This section involves logical reasoning. A set of 3-4 questions are to be answered based on a caselet. For the last two years, there have been obvious errors in this sections, so do not spend excessive amount of time wracking your brains over a question that is incorrect. You will be awarded full marks for all such questions.

3. Critical Reasoning: A small paragraph/caselet/conversation is given on the basis of which one must answer questions according to the assumptions made and the conclusion reached. Another variation of the question would be to paraphrase the passage keeping the central idea intact.

4. Strengthening/Weakening arguments: Again a variation of critical reasoning questions. A paragraph is given and one has to select the argument that will strengthen/weaken the position of the speaker most effectively. There might be more than one option that could be chosen, but you need to choose the one that is the most effective of them all. So, be careful and go through all the options before zeroing on your choice.

5. Syllogisms: A set of 3-4 statements is given and we have to find out other statements in the options that can be logically concluded from the given statements. Keep an eye on the keywords in the question statements, i.e., some, all, many, not all, some are not, etc.

6. Data sufficiency: Here you are required to find out whether one or both of the statements are enough to get to a unique answer.

7. Course(s) of action: Here, a statement is given and there are a few courses of action that could be followed to address the issue mentioned in the question statement. The best option has to be chosen, one that is practical, takes all possible outcomes into consideration, and doesn’t have any adverse effects.

8. Implicit assumptions: These questions require one to interpret the implied meaning. The right option would be an assumption that has affected the argument. Trivial assumptions or farfetched ones need to be eliminated in these kind of questions.

IV. Data Interpretation

Like those found in most other management tests, the DI questions present a number of tables, graphs, charts, and data. Last couple of years have seen the section become easier, and even though the questions might initially seem a bit intimidating to look at, they are pretty much easy to crack if one is persistent. In this section too an aspirant needs to be aware that some answers are nearly correct but not quite the solution. The common types of presentation of data include bar diagrams, percentage bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and tabular data presentations.

Posted in: JMET,Joint Management Entrance Test