How to prepare for IRMA?
IRMA Snapshots
| Total Questions | 200 |
| Time | 120 minutes |
| Sections | 4 |
| Correct Answer | 1 mark |
| Wrong Answer | -0.25 marks |
|
Score Used by |
IRMA, XIMB (Rural Management) |
IRMA Examination for admission to the 90 seats for MBA in Rural Management program in the prestigious Institute of Rural Management, Anand is a different examination as compared to the rest of the B-School exams. This exam has four sections viz. English Comprehension, Quantitative Aptitude, Analytical Reasoning & Issues of Social Concern. The Question Paper break-up of the last four years is given below.
| Year | English Comprehension | Quantitative Ability | Analytical Reasoning | Issues of Social Concern | Total |
| 2010 | 40 | 50 | 50 | 60 | 200 |
| 2009 | 40 | 50 | 50 | 60 | 200 |
| 2008 | 40 | 50 | 50 | 60 | 200 |
| 2007 | 40 | 50 | 50 | 60 | 200 |
In the last four years the paper has not changed at all the sectional break-up of the paper has remained the same and the same is expected in 2011 too.
English Comprehension: This section comprises questions from Reading Comprehension, Cloze Test, Vocabulary, Grammar, Para Jumbles. There was 1 reading comprehension passage only in the last 3 years, followed by 15-17 questions.
Last three years break-up for Section -1 is given below
| Year | Reading Comprehension | ClozeTest | Fill in the blanks(Vocabulary) | Choosing Appropriate Phrases | Para-Jumbles |
| 2010 | 15 (1 Passage) | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 2009 | 15 (1 Passage) | 10 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 2008 | 17 (1 Passage) | 10 | 11 | 2 | 0 |
The pattern in the English section has not changed much in the last few years and we expect the pattern to remain similar for 2011 too.
Issues of Social Concern: This is the section which makes the IRMA test different from the other tests. This section also has the highest weight-age among the all the sections with 30% weight-age. Overall a student who scores well in this section has a better chance of making it into IRMA as this is also a section which will require less time to be spent on it.
Level of the Examination: The IRMA English, QA and Analytical Sections mostly consist of level one question which can be termed as easy, hence in the two hours it is essential to select the easy questions and finish them fast. It hence boils down to an exam of speed. Ideal attempt for IRMA would be 140-150 questions with 80 % accuracy as the paper has always been moderate to easy. With a negative marking of 0.25, ideal score would be in the range of 105-110 to get a call from IRMA and 75-80 to get a call from XIMB.
What to prepare: Issues of social concern is the key area in the paper, reading newspaper articles and magazines do help in preparing for the exam. Apart from that most of the coaching centers do come out with the IRMA GK compendiums which would also be of help. A person who has a regular habit of reading Yojana Magazine (Published by the Government of India) would find the section easier as most of the questions are based on news items featuring in these kinds of magazines. You can also visit the Yojana website and read through some of these articles or else subscribe even the past month’s issues through their website http://www.yojana.gov.in . It would also be of help to visit the ministry of rural development website http://rural.nic.in/ and read through various government initiatives. The following website will be of use
- http://www.yojana.gov.in
- http://rural.nic.in/
- http://planningcommission.nic.in/
- http://agricoop.nic.in/
- http://mofpi.nic.in/
- http://www.icar.org.in/
- http://panchayat.gov.in
- http://tribal.nic.in/index.asp
The above website can be used to find out various schemes run by the government in the rural area, their outlay and their objectives. Also some of these websites will help you understand issues in rural sector.
For rest of the test, preparation should be similar to that of CAT and it would help to go through the previous few years IRMA papers.
