IRMA:
IRMA is an institute of national imp. and holds good career proposition, if interested to work in rural enviro. The entrance is not as tough to the level of CAT/ XAT, but if anybody having good preparation with a flair knowledge of English and Maths with the habit of daily Newspaper reading for at least an hour. Then he is not too far off, clearing through this.
The paper consists of 4 sections, namely;
Section I: English- verbal Ability, Comprehension, passage, Sentence correction and might some time Antonyms – Synonyms. This section was the easiest section in the entire paper. The reading comprehension and paragraph forming questions were very easy and so were the sentence correction questions. The fill-in-the-blank and passage questions required the student to know the correct usage of words which are in vogue and would have been very easy for a good student of English. A good student would have attempted almost all the questions in about 25 minutes and got a score of 25+.
Section II: Quantitative ability- Normal problem solving questions , 4-5 data interpretation and data sufficiency (graphical and tabular analysis alongwith questions based on that, Some might be lengthy N time-costing). A good student would have attempted 30 plus questions in 40 minutes and could have made a 20+ score.
Section III: Reasoning - has the usual controversial questions on Strong Argument/ Weak Argument, Implications, and Data Sufficiency in reasoning. The section had a lot of attemptable/solvable questions and the only constraint to getting marks in this section would be the time. By allotting close to 40 minutes, a good student would have attempted 30 plus questions getting at least a 20+ net score.
Section IV: Issues of social concern, unique to IRMA. This time too the paper has questions ranging from all areas of social concern including agriculture, rural economy and finance, people and places in news, WTO and the like. A person who has gone through these areas would have found this section doable. However, as expected, many students have struggled to attempt about 35 questions (though time availability was not the culprit!). A good score would be anything more than 15+ net score. The main stress of the entrance paper is on issues of social imp., Govt. welfare programmes & schemes- SGSY, NREGA, Antyodaya, Indira Awas Yojana, RTIetc, Budget and its allocation to the agri & rural devpt. agriculture scenario and production & some other basic facts, environmental news and issues; climate change , env. pollution etc.
IRMA is not known to give surprises and the paper does n’t differs from the papers of yesteryears. The paper consisted of 200 questions and the time allotted for the same was 2 hours. As usual, there were 5 choices for each question, with 1 mark given for every correct answer and -1/4 mark for every wrong answer.
à There is sectional cut offs for IRMA. last year it was 40% each for va,qa and ra and 25%for gk. The overall cut off for general category was 40%. ie 80 marks out of 200.
Expected Cutoffs
Section I - 22-24, Section II - 18-20, Section III - 18-20s, Section IV - 15-20
Overall Cutoff - 85+ for a call from IRMA but it may differ as per the level of toughness of the asked questions.
VAMNICOM: VAMNICOM is a governmental institute at Pune, and a place if you are interested in joining the co-operative sector and or agri biz, placements in terms of money are average by most standards, and the option of completing this course and joining some other industry are not much.
The question pattern of entrance is more pr, less similar to that of IRMA, but of bit easier. So, I can just say that if you prepare for IRMA / CAT, there is no need of separate preparation for VAMNICOM. (My say; If you aim sky, u would surely not fall on the ground)
Readings:
Quants: RS Agarwal/ Magical Series of BSC / Any other Maths book and DI & DS by Arun Sharma/ Arihant’s Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency
Reasoning by Kundan/ RS Agarwal
English: Normal Lewis – Word Power Made Easy, Wren and Martin’s High School Grammar
GK & Current affairs: Times of India & Economic Times (Business News, Heads of Co’s, Political & Sports updates, new Books released etc.)/ Pearson’s general Knowledge manual by Edgar Thorpe & Showick Thorpe (recent one yearly publication)
Issues of social concern: Pratiyogita Darpan's Indian Economy (Annual Publication, ask for the recent) having good detailed info. on Social and rural development programmes and schemes, Budget analysis etc., Agriculture Notes : I can send the soft copy by mail, (if needed)
IRMA previous years pattern and analysis
| 2008 | Total Questions - 200 Total marks: 200
Time - 120 minutes ( 5 choices Negative -1/4 marks)
Section 1 : English Usage - 40 Q [Easy]
Section 2 : Issue OF Social Concern : 60 questions[Aggri,NGO]
Section 3 : Logical Reasoning - 50 Q [Moderate]
Section 4 : Data Interpretation|Quantitative Ability - 50 Q[Easy]
CutOff: 85 |
| 2007 | Total Questions - 200 Total marks: 200
Time - 120 minutes (5 choices Negative -1/4 marks)
Section 1 : English Usage - 40 Q [Easy]
Section 2 : Issue OF Social Concern : 60 questions[Aggri,NGO]
Section 3 : Logical Reasoning - 50 Q [Moderate]
Section 4 : Data Interpretation|Quantitative Ability - 50 Q[Easy]
CutOff: 80 |
| 2006 | Total Questions - 200 Total marks: 200
Time - 120 minutes ( Negative -1/4 marks)
Section 1 : English Usage - 40 Q [Easy]
Section 2 : General Awareness : 60 questions[Aggri,NGO]
Section 3 : Logical Reasoning - 50 Q [Moderate]
Section 4 : Data Interpretation|Quantitative Ability - 50 Q[Easy]
CutOff: 95 |
| 2005 | Total Questions - 200 Total marks: 200
Time - 120 minutes ( Negative -1/4 marks)
Section 1 : English Usage - 40 Q [Easy]
Section 2 : General Awareness : 60 questions[Aggri,NGO]
Section 3 : Logical Reasoning - 50 Q [Moderate]
Section 4 : Data Interpretation|Quantitative Ability - 50 Q[Easy]
CutOff: 93 |
| 2001-2004 | Total Questions - 200 Total marks: 200
Time - 120 minutes ( Negative -1/4 marks)
Section 1 : English Usage - 40 Q [Easy]
Section 2 : General Awareness : 60 questions[Aggri,NGO]
Section 3 : Logical Reasoning - 50 Q [Moderate]
Section 4 : Data Interpretation|Quantitative Ability - 50 Q[Easy] |
General Knowledge:
Total number of questions: 60
Total marks: 60
Average number of attempts = 30 to 35
Expected Score: 20
Type of questions:
Tehri dam is in which state?, NABARD, Magsaysay award, Anti Narmada Dam, WTO meeting for year 2006, Swarnjayanti yogna, Janshree yogna, SAARC, FIFA World Champion, Green Revolution, UNISEC, Which day is celebrated as Farmers day?, Which day is celebrated as Environment day?, Who is the new Chairman of Gujrat Milk Marketing council?, Which of the following is a cash crop?, Who among the following is associated with white revolution?, What is the ranking of India by latest magazine edition in terms of imports and exports?, What percent of India is dependent on Agriculture?, Agriculture forms what percentage of the GDP? What is the revenue generated by Agriculture in India?, Which of the following is associated with Horticulture?, India Pioneers the production of which of the following? , Home loan rates affected by which of the following factors? Which country is the largest producer of Barley? Which country has the highest stocks of foreign exchanges? Name of plan for food for senior citizens?
More on:
http://www.careerlauncher.com/mba/news/knowledgecenter/IRMA2006.html
