The national level management entrance exam CMAT 2018 was successfully conducted on Saturday, January 20, 2018. Around 70,000 candidates appeared for the test from 73 cities across India. The exam was conducted in two slots. The exam pattern remained unaltered this year. Overall difficulty level was easy to moderate.
The duration of CMAT is three hours. Each question carries 4 marks and for each wrong answer, there is negative marking of 1 mark.
CMAT Exam Pattern
| Sections | Number of questions | Total marks |
| Quantitative Techniques & Data Interpretation | 25 | 100 |
| General Awareness | 25 | 100 |
| Logical Reasoning | 25 | 100 |
| Language Comprehension | 25 | 100 |
| Total | 100 | 400 |
Quantitative Techniques and Data Interpretation
The Quantitative section was the toughest in both first and second slots. Almost all the areas pertaining to the Quantitative section were covered including Arithmetic, Algebra, Mensuration, and Geometry. Arithmetic was given higher weightage.
| Topics | Questions | Area |
| Simultaneous Equation, Inequalities, quadratic equations | 6 | Algebra |
| Number series and basic properties | 4 | Numbers |
| Time Speed & Distance, Profit & Loss, Ratios, Averages | 9 | Arithmetic |
| Mensuration, Circles, Triangles | 5 | Geometry |
| Pie Chart | 1 | Data Interpretation |
General Awareness
The questions were divided between static and current affairs. The overall level of difficulty in General Knowledge was moderate to tough as several questions were based on current affairs. Questions from History, Geography, Mythology, Banking, Politics International Business, Sports and Economy were designated in the General Awareness section.
Logical Reasoning
The overall difficulty level of this section was easy to moderate. The questions were from puzzles, conditions, grouping questions, coding-decoding, direction sense, alpha-numeric-symbolic series, cubes, Venn diagrams, family tree, matrix arrangements (distributions).
| Questions | Area |
| 8 | Puzzles - 3 variables |
| 8 | Groups and Conditions |
| 3 | Family Tree |
| 3 | Data based |
| 1 | Strengthen/Weaken Argument |
| 1 | Syllogism |
| 1 | Statement/Conclusion |
Language Comprehension
The Language Comprehension section carried questions from Reading Comprehension and English Usage. The difficulty level was easy to moderate. The Verbal Ability segment consisted of ten questions that included questions on Synonyms, Antonyms, Analogies, Fact-Inference-Judgement, Figures of Speech, Meaning of words and their usage in sentences, Fill in the Blanks, Idioms, and Sentence Correction.
There were four Reading Comprehension passages and a total of 15 questions. Three of the Reading Comprehension passages had merely one or two paragraphs and had three questions each. The fourth passage was relatively long and had six questions in it.
| Area | Questions | Specifics |
| RC | 15 | 4 passages |
| Cause/Effect and Fact/Inference/Judgement | 2 | 2 questions |
| Synonyms | 1 | Synonym of stand-alone word ‘Zealot’ |
| FIB – 3 single and 1 double | 4 | 1- Idiom based 1- preposition-based 1- word that would fit a single blank 1- words that would fit double blanks |
| Idiom-based | 1 | Meaning of the idiom given in a sentence |
| Grammar | 2 | 1 - Identify the correct sentence |
| 1 - Arrange the jumbled words into a sentence |