FMS 2004 Pattern

Total Number of Questions : 175
Number of Sections : Nil
Marks for Correct Answer : +4
Marks for Incorrect Answer : -1

Expected Cutoff for a call from FMS - 264 - 288 net marks

FMS 2004 Analysis

FMS 2004 was definitely a bit of a surprise to those who have gone through the previous year's papers. Not so much in terms of the areas or the number of questions, in fact the number of questions were same as that was last year and the absence of GK(save 2 questions) was all the more welcome as usual for those who haven't spend too much time on the same. However, the quantitative section was much unlike the FMS quant and the reasoning section was easy but laborious. This coupled with the long RC passages that FMS has made it's wont, the paper was definitely not as easy as it was expected.

On the whole, students coming out of the examination hall would have struggled to attempt around 100+ questions. Very good students would have touched 120 attempts with a strike rate of around 80+%. But it is expected that the cutoff will be much lower than the usual FMS papers as the traditional easy section (quant) was difficult this time round. Maybe the CAT nightmares are returning as we go closer to the CAT date!

Verbal Ability

This area was the easiest of all the areas given in the paper. And with 35 odd questions in the same, the number of questions that can be attempted in this area would have been close to 30 in about 20 minutes. Hence a student could have scored the maximum marks in this area.

Reading Comprehension

As has been said, the RC passages of FMS papers are long. But the saving grace is that the questions are almost always very easy. Case in point, one RC passage on Fourier - this would have made almost no sense when one reads it the first time, however, the questions accompanying this passage were very simple and direct. So were the other RC passages and the questions. A good student of RC should have attempted about 30 out of the 40 questions in this area.

Quantitative Ability

For once, some of the questions returned the memories of CAT quant. Some of the questions were of course easy and the ability to pick these easy ones from the 50 questions would not have been such an easy task. A good student could have attempted 25 to 30 questions in as many minutes.

Reasoning/DI

This area had almost all questions as individual questions. The advantage of cracking a reasoning puzzle wherein students can get 3 to 4 marks was not available. Each question had to slogged for and hence the time taken to solve would be very high. The 6 questions in DI were of moderate difficulty followed by 2 GK questions. All in all students could have attempted around 25 questions in 30 minutes.