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The MAH-MBA/MMS CET is one of the most sought after entrance exams to gain admission to the top B-schools in Maharashtra. In 2007, 60,000 students and working professionals tried their hand at this entrance test in order to make their way to the top B-schools in Maharashtra. It consists of 200 questions to be solved in two and a half hours.
These questions are from various topics and genres including Problem Solving, Logical Reasoning, Data Sufficiency, Verbal Ability, Reading Comprehension and Visual Reasoning. As is evident, it is a test which focuses completely on SPEED and ACCURACY. These two are the most important factors that one must consider at all times; during preparation as well as while writing the test.

Preparation for a speed-based exam, the likes of CET, FMS, SNAP, NMAT, etc., is quite different from the preparation for an 'application-based exam' like the CAT / XAT. It really helps if one has his basics sorted. Being quick with calculations really puts you ahead of the others as far as CET is concerned (and NO... Vedic Maths isn't necessary or sufficient). While preparing for this test, it is important that one focuses on the underlying concepts and their meanings rather than just concentrating on the procedure to solve the questions. Procedures to solve problems will just increase the time taken to solve a particular question. If you can 'question' the procedure and understand it, then you can definitely skip a substantial number of steps to solve a problem which is very instrumental in developing your speed.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is that one need not slog it out to prepare for these tests. Remember that the quality of the time you put in is more important than the quantity of time you put in. For example, one doesn't need to put in 5-8 hours a day to prepare, even a quality preparation of 2 hours will do, provided in those 2 hours, you study in such a way that whatever you were able to touch in those 2 hours, you should not have the need to go back to it again... then it just becomes a question of solving more and more problems, which will take care of the speed. Again, one needs to understand that since the focus is not too much on questions involving a lot of depth in concepts, the preparation practice should involve fewer types of problems but many riders of each type.

The preparation for the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension sections can be quite tricky. The more you try to prepare, the more you will want not to prepare. Pundits in the arena recommend that for the CET and other such exams, Speed Reading, Skimming and Scanning are of utmost importance, but I have a totally and diametrically opposite opinion.

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* Contributed by -
Shreyash Shah,
(CET 2007 Topper),
MMS - I,
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.