Written test - Tips

Companies both in the IT and non-IT sector as well have started going on a recruitment spree
and after the long lull in recruitment, the last one year has seen a brisk activity on the
recruitment front. As discussed in our previous article on opportunities in the Corporate Sector,
recruitment process of most of the companies today involves THREE phases of screening:

• Written Test (both Aptitude & Technical)

• Group Discussion
• Interview (both Technical as well as HR)

These three phases of assessment are mandatory for most of the jobs at the Entry level
in both IT and non-IT sectors in Private as well as in the Public Sectors.

The usual posts at the entry level are

• Trainee-Programmers
• Software Programmers
• Trainee-Analysts
• Systems Analysts
Software Engineers
• Officer / Senior Officer (Mechanical / Electrical / Civil / Production, etc),
• Data and Voice Processing Executives,
• Financial Analysts, Marketing Officers / Executives (in companies like ICICI), etc.

Each of these three sections aims at assessing a particular set of skills of the
candidates. For example, the quantitative ability section assesses the basic
mathematical skills of the candidate, the speed of calculation, understanding of basic
quantifiable transactions in business, ability to interpret, analyse and draw conclusions
from data, correlate various data with respect to some specific criteria and the ability
to think quantitatively.

The reasoning ability section aims at assessing the logical and analytical thinking
skills, the ability to reason critically, the ability to assess the sufficiency of data and
information to solve a problem situation, the ability to rationally and logically allot
resources to activities, and schedule tasks, visualization ability, perception, etc.

The verbal ability section aims at assessing the basic vocabulary of the candidates,
the ability to draw similarities between contexts, the ability to comprehend a situation
and draw conclusions, the ability to understand contextual meaning of various words,
proficiency in framing grammatically correct sentences.

As is evident from the above, all the criteria / factors being assessed are directly
related to the work environment and various skills required to perform on the job
effectively. For each section that is included in the written test of Aptitude, there are a
set of skills as mentioned above, related to the job description of the particular post,
that are being measured.

Article- Written tests aptitude

Companies both in the IT and non-IT sector as well have started going on a recruitment spree
and after the long lull in recruitment, the last one year has seen a brisk activity on the
recruitment front. As discussed in our previous article on opportunities in the Corporate Sector,
recruitment process of most of the companies today involves THREE phases of screening:
Written Test (both Aptitude & Technical), Group Discussion and Interview (both Technical as well
as HR).

In this article we shall discuss the Aptitude Section of the Written Test.

Aptitude Written Test (AWT) usually consists of three sections:

• Quantitative Ability (QA)

• Reasoning Ability (RA)
• Verbal Ability (VA).

Most of the companies include a mix of questions from these three sections, while some
companies might include questions from only one or two sections.

Each of these three sections aims at assessing a particular set of skills of the
candidates. For example, the quantitative ability section assesses the basic
mathematical skills of the candidate, the speed of calculation, understanding of basic
quantifiable transactions in business, ability to interpret, analyse and draw conclusions
from data, correlate various data with respect to some specific criteria and the ability
to think quantitatively.

The reasoning ability section aims at assessing the logical and analytical thinking
skills, the ability to reason critically, the ability to assess the sufficiency of data and
information to solve a problem situation, the ability to rationally and logically allot
resources to activities, and schedule tasks, visualization ability, perception, etc.

The verbal ability section aims at assessing the basic vocabulary of the candidates, the
ability to draw similarities between contexts, the ability to comprehend a situation and
draw conclusions, the ability to understand contextual meaning of various words,
proficiency in framing grammatically correct sentences.

As is evident from the above, all the criteria / factors being assessed are directly
related to the work environment and various skills required to perform on the job
effectively. For each section that is included in the written test of Aptitude, there are a
set of skills as mentioned above, related to the job description of the particular post,
that are being measured.

Let us first look at the Quantitative Ability section.

Questions in this section can be classified into: Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry,
Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency

Arithmetic contains questions from the following topics:

a. Number System
b. LCM & HCF
c. Numbers & Ages (Word Problems)
d. Averages
e. Ratios & Proportions
f. Percentages
g. Mixtures & Alligations
h. Partnerships
 i. Profit & Loss
j. Time & Work
k. Pipes & Cisterns
l. Time & Distance
m. Boats & Streams
n. Races & Games
o. Simple Interest & Compound Interest
p. Stocks & Shares
q. Clocks & Calenders

Algebra contains questions from the following topics:

a. Surds & Indices

b. Matrices
c. Logarithms
d. Linear Equations & Inequations
e. Quadratic Equations
f. Permutations & Combinations
g. Probability

Geometry contains questions from the following topics:

a. Plane Geometry (including Lines & Angles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals & Circles)
b. Solid Geometry (involving Areas & Volumes of Cube, Cuboid, Cylinder, Cone, Sphere,
etc)
c. Coordinate Geometry (Only basic fundamentals)

Data Interpretation consists of questions based on interpretation of data given in the

form of Tabular Forms, Line Graphs, Bar Graphs, Histograms, Frequency Polygons &
Pie Charts. Most of the questions in this section would involve calculations based on
either an Average or a Ratio / Proportion or Percentage. Hence, if you are thorough
with these three topics in Arithmetic, then you will be able to score well in Data
Interpretation section. Further, you should also be able to do fast calculations.

Data Sufficiency sections consists of questions based on any of the topics listed
above. Basically, in each question, you will be required to say whether the data given
is sufficient or not to answer the question asked. So, you shouldn’t waste time trying
to calculate the answer for the question, rather, you should just be able to say whether
the data given is sufficient to arrive at the answer or whether additional data is
required.

Test Pattern of various Companies: (APTITUDE SECTION): The test pattern of a

company is usually constant, but sometimes, the pattern is being changed depending
on the geographical location and the educational profile of the students where the test
is conducted. Not all companies include NEGATIVE MARKING for wrong answers,
but some companies like SATYAM, TCS, etc do have ¼ negative mark for every
wrong answer. Some companies do specify a minimum mark to be obtained in every
section to qualify in the Aptitude Written Test.

The following gives a rough idea of the pattern of the APTITUDE SECTION of the
written test. This information has been collected from students who have attended the
Recruitment tests in different places in AP as well as outside AP. So, the pattern
mentioned here should not be taken to be rigid, and should only be used to have a
general guidance and understanding of the test as a whole.

a. SATYAM usually gives most of the questions from Analytical Reasoning. 15 questions
are given and the total time allowed is 30 - 45 minutes; 2 - 3 minutes for each
question.
b. TCS usually conducts online test, containing about 25 – 30 questions, the time allowed
is about a minute for each question.
c. CISCO gives 20 to 25 questions in Aptitude Section
d. COVANSYS gives 50 – 60 questions
e. CTS: 40 questions – 40 minutes
f. HCL: 20 – 30 Questions: one minute per question
g. HP: 50 questions: 1 minute per question
h. ICICI: 150 questions: 40 – 60 seconds per question
i. IBM: 20 questions: 20 minutes
j. I-Flex: 90 questions, 65 minutes time: about 40 seconds per question
k. I-Gate: 35 – 50 questions: 30 minutes: about 40 seconds per question
l. POLARIS: 30 questions – 30 minutes:
m. INFOSYS: 30 questions: 30 minutes
n. ORACLE: 50 questions – 50 minutes
o. WIPRO: 25 – 30 questions: 30 minutes
p. VIRTUSA: 25 – 30 questions: 30 minutes

Next week, we will look at the Preparation Methodology, Test Strategies, Tips and we
shall also discuss the approach with some solved examples from each of the
subsections.

For personalized individual career counselling and to clarify all doubts that you may
have regarding the test pattern of various companies, you may

Telephone:+91-40-23750191/92/93/94

You can also take a FREE MOCK TEST for APTITUDE and get instant score by
contacting in person. This is a FREE service offered to all candidates planning to
appear for Recruitment Tests.