Written test (whether "pen-paper" or " online" ) happens to be the most common of all the selection tests used by the...
Written test (whether "pen-paper" or "online") happens to be the most common of all the selection tests used by the recruiters. In fact, it happens to be the first obstacle, put by a recruiter before candidates in their quest for the job. The other phases of the selection process like GD/interview follows for only those who qualify the Written Test.
So how to clear this first obstacle?
The answer is: only through practice! You can practice through these recommended books and also by practicing the previous years question papers of specific recruiters, links of which you would find in Written Test Links of section Discover yourself.
Written tests in most of the recruitment exams consist of following four test sections:
1.0 Test of General Awareness.
2.0 Test of General English.
3.0 Test of Quantitative Aptitude.
4.0 Test of Reasoning Ability.
If you study and master above four test sections, you can appear in any exam and come out with flying colours - it may be a bank recruitment exam (for Probationary Officers or Clerks), a PSU recruitment exam (such as SAIL/GAIL/BHEL/ONGC etc.), a management entrance exam (such as MAT/CAT).
All these exams invariably contains atleast one of above four aptitude test sections. To illustrate this, I am showing below the written exam pattern of some popular exams below:
Pattern of SBI PO exam:
Pattern of SBI Clerical written exam:
Written test will consists of Objective type questions in following five papers:
1.0 General Awareness.
2.0 General English.
3.0 Quantitative Aptitude.
4.0 Reasoning Ability.
5.0 Marketing Aptitude / Computer Knowledge.
SSC CPO (Central Police Organisation) exam pattern:
Management Aptitude Test (MAT) exam pattern:
MAT is a 2hr-30min test with following five sections, each of 40 marks:
1. Language Comprehension: 40 Questions, 30 mins.
2. Mathematical Skills : 40 Questions, 40 mins.
3. Data Analysis and Sufficiency: 40 Questions, 35 mins.
4. Intelligence and Critical Reasoning: 40 Questions, 30 mins.
5. Indian and Global Environment: 40 Questions, 15 mins.
All the questions are multiple-choice objective type questions.
So as you can find from above exam patterns, written aptitude test is almost universal. So what you should do is prepare for these tests section by section: first study for Test of General Awareness, than study for Test of General English and so on and so forth.
If you study and master above four test sections, I give you 200% confirmation that you can do well in the written aptitude tests of competitive recruitment exams.
In addition to above Written Test, some recruiters also conduct “Technical Test” for the engineering students, depending on the branch/departments to which a student belongs. This is being discussed in the next post.
What sort of questions are asked?
To give you some idea, following are some example of questions asked by recruiters in different sections. Can you help me with some more examples? You can post these examples by posting as comments by clicking “Post a Comment” link at the bottommost part of this post.
Verbal section:
1.0 Synonyms.
Example: Best pair of choices which expresses the same relationship as the given
APIARY : BEE ::
a. mountain : skier
b. airport : flight
c. schedule : event
d. stable : horse
Ans: (d) stables, where horses are kept, just like in Apiary bees are kept.
2.0 Antonyms.
Example: LATITUDE
a. frenzy
b. attitude
c. altitude
d. restriction
Ans: (d) restriction. Meaning of latitude is “freedom, room to move; scope”.
3.0 Sentence completion:
Example: Which options out of a), b), c) and d) fills the sentence below correctly:
After the funeral, the residents of the apartment building __________
a. sent faithfully flowers all weeks to the cemetery.
b. sent to the cemetery each week flowers faithfully.
c. sent flowers faithfully to the cemetery each week.
d. sent each week faithfully to the cemetery flowers.
Ans: (c)
4.0 Sentence correction: Which part of sentence needs to be corrected?
Example: The progress made in space travel for the early 1960s is remarkable.
a. progress
b. made
c. in space
d. for
Ans: (d). It should be “during”
5.0 Fill-in-the-blanks.
Example: __ his vacation, Ram went __ the forest and also walked __ the river.
Ans: During, to, along.
6.0 Reading Comprehension:
Example:
Line 1. A recent investigation by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey shows that strange animal behavior might help predict earthquakes. Investigators found such occurrences within a ten-kilometer radius of the epicenter of a fairly recent quake. Some birds screeched and flew about wildly; dogs yelped and ran around uncontrollably. Line 5. Scientists believe that animals can perceive environmental changes several hours or even days before the mishaps. Animals were noted as being restless for several weeks before a Tashkent, Uzbekistan, earthquake. An hour before the disaster, domestic animals refused to go indoors and dogs howled and barked furiously. In 1960, an earthquake struck Agadir in Morocco. Survivors recall that stray animals, including dogs, were seen streaming out of town before the earthquake. In a safari zoo near San Francisco, llamas would not eat the evening before a 1979 quake, and they ran around wildly all night. Line 12. Unusual animal behavior preceding earthquakes has been noted for centuries. British Admiral Robert Fitzroy reported huge flocks of screaming seabirds over Conception, Chile, in 1835. An hour and half later, dogs were seen fleeing, and ten minutes later the town was destroyed. Similar stories of chickens running around in apparent states of panic, horses trembling and dogs barking incessantly were recorded throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by survivors of earthquake destruction in India, Yugoslavia, Peru, Mexico and the Unites States. Line 18. In 1976, after monitoring bizarre animal behavior, the Chinese predicted a devastating earthquake. Although hundreds of thousand of people were killed, the government was able to evacuate millions of others people and thus keep the death toll at a lower level.
Q:What prediction may be made by observing animal behavior?
a. An impending earthquake
b. The number of people who will die
c. The ten-kilometer radium from the epicenter
d. The fact that an earthquake has occurred.
Ans: a).
Quantitative section:
1.0 Questions involving Venn diagram.
Example: If in a class 80 people speak English, 42 speak French, 65 speak Hindi, 12 speak both English and Hindi, 17 speak both French and Hindi, 13 speak both English and French and 6 speak all three languages, how many people are there in all?
Ans: 133 people as shown from following diagram:
2.0 Time and Distance
Example: A truck departed from Newton at 11:53a.m. and arrived in Far City, 240 miles away, at 4:41 p.m. on the same day. What was the approximate average speed of the truck on this trip?
a. 16/1,200 MPH
b. 40/288 MPH
c. 1,494/240 MPH
d. 50 MPH
Ans: d.
Distance: 240 Miles. Time: 4 hr & 48 mins = 4.8 hrs. (48 mins=48/60hrs=0.8 hr).
Average speed: 240/4.8 = 50 MPH
3.0 Problems on ratio/percentages:
Example: If the ratio of women to men in a meeting is 4 to 1, what percent of the persons in the meeting are men?
a. 20%
b. 25%
c. 33 1/3%
d. 80%
Ans: a). 20%
4.0 Geometric Formulas:
Example: If the measures of the three angles of a triangle are (3x + 15), (5x - 15), and (2x + 30), what is the measure of each angle?
a. 75
b. 60
c. 45
d. 25
Ans: b. 60
Sum of all angles in triangle=180. Therefore, 3x + 15 + 5x – 15 + 2x + 30 = 180, x= 15.
With x=15, measure of the angles, say 3x + 15 = 60. Check same for others.
5.0 Ratios :
Example: A and B undertake to do a work for Rs.56. A can do it alone in 7 days and B in 8 days. If with the assistance of a boy they finish the work in 3 days then the boy gets Rs.--
a. 11
b. 45
c. 43
d. 21
Ans: 11
6.0 Puzzles :
Example: You are given two candles of equal size, which can burn 1 hour each. You have
to measure 90 minutes with these candles. (There is no scale or clock). Also u r
given a lighter.
Ans: First light up the two ends of the 1st candle. When it will burn out light up one end of the second candle. (30+60=90)
LOGICAL Section:
1.0 Blood relation:
Example: Pointing to a man Carl said, “He is the son of brother of my mother’s husband.” How are Carl and the man related?
Ans: Paternal Cousin
2.0 Data sufficiency:
One sentence is given below. Mark the answer according to the following:
A- If only FIRST sentence is required to verify the sentence
B- If only SECOND sentence is required to verify the sentence
C- If both FIRST and SECOND sentence are required to verify the sentence
D- Cannot be verified even if both sentences are considered
Example:
Two trains are traveling towards each other. When will the two trains meet? If -
1. Train A is coming at a speed of 20km/hr
2. Train B is coming at a speed of 30km/hr
Ans: D
Following was the criteria decided by the selection committee of Indian Cricket Board:
1) Player’s age should be 18-28 years
2) He must be the captain of any cricket team for at least 2 years
3) He must be a Ranji Player for at least 2 years
4) He must have taken at least 20 wickets or made 1000 runs in a calendar year in Ranji
If 1st condition is not fulfilled … referred to chairman
If 2nd condition is not fulfilled … he must be an all rounder with at least 500 runs and 15 wickets
If 4th condition is not fulfilled … referred to VP
Now choose correct option based on following conditions:
Rahul was born on dec.10,1979 and is a captain of Ranji team since Feb 2005. He won man of the tournament last year for taking 24 wickets last year. He is:
a) Selected b) Rejected c) Referred to Chairman d)Data Insufficient
Ans: a
3.0 Symbol change:
Example: If * means +, + means -, - means / and / means *, then what is the value of-
8+4-9*7/12+3
Ans: 8-4/9+7*12-3 = 88.55
4.0 Matching comparisons:
A- If all the three options match
B- If FIRST and SECOND options match
C- If FIRST and THIRD options match
D- If none of the three match
Example: KKTUJNGDFTSR KKTUJHGDFTSR KKTUJNGDFTSR
Ans: C
Above are just some examples so that you get the feel of what sort of questions are asked. Can you help me with some more examples? You can post these examples by posting as comments by clicking “Post a Comment” link below.
COMMENTS