TISSNET 2019 was held successfully on Saturday, Jan 13th 2019 between 2.30 pm and 4 pm. TISSNET is the prerequisite for the admission to the M.A. Human Resource Management which is the flagship course at TISS Mumbai.

The test was an online Computer Based Test. It comprised three sections with a total of 100 questions. Each questions had four options. A break up of the three sections is given below:

The overall time duration for answering the test was 100 min. All questions carried equal marks. There was no sectional time limit and the candidates could move freely across the sections. With no sectional cut-offs expected, it was advisable for the students to maximise their overall score. There was no negative marking, so ideally a candidate should have attempted all questions by judiciously working with the options.

The overall difficulty level of the exam was marginally higher than last year’s test mainly due to a difficult General Awareness sections and a slightly tougher English section.

A detailed analysis of the three sections of TISSNET 2019 is given below:

Section I – General Awareness

This section had 40 questions. Out of the 40 questions, there were 29 static and 11 current affairs questions. The questions were from wide array of topics ranging from social and cultural issues, national policies/ campaigns, international events, literary/art/culture, sports, books/authors/ awards, constitution, science, politics, economics and history. There were 13 questions on international affairs and 27 on national events.

Since there was no negative marking, students could have attempted all the questions.

The current affairs questions would have been easier for a candidate if he/ she has followed the news. Some of the static GK questions were really difficult.

About 5-6 questions were easy, 11-13 were of moderate difficulty and about 21 were difficult.

The ideal strategy would have been to attempt all the General Awareness questions in about 22 minutes, targeting a score of 20.

Section II – Mathematical & Logical Reasoning

The section was easy in terms of difficulty level. Almost all the questions were manageable. There was only 1 Logical Reasoning question based on Letter series. There were two Data Interpretation sets with a total of 7 questions. The remaining 32 questions were quant-based questions.

The overview of this section is given below:

Since the quant questions were relatively easy, they should have been attempted first, in the order that they appeared. All Numbers and Arithmetic based questions should have definitely been attempted seriously.

The Data Interpretation area had one calculation intensive Table-based set which could have been done last. The ideal time allocation for this section would be 35 to 38 min. An attempt of at least 23-25 questions would be considered good.

Section III – English Proficiency

This section comprised 30 questions, out of which there were 10 questions on reading comprehension and 20 questions on Verbal Ability and Vocabulary.

Reading Comprehension:

The RC area had two passages with a total of 10 questions out of which 5 were easy and 5 were of medium difficult. One of the RCs was only 1 paragraph long and the other was 3 paragraphs long. Passage 1: This had only one paragraph of about 200 words. The topic was: India’s missile programme in the 1970s (Defence Research and Development Laboratory or DRDL related)

Passage 2: This passage was about 450 words. The topic was: Alan Turing's work.

The 20 questions in the VA/ Vocab/ Grammar areas were of easy-moderate difficulty level.

The overview of this complete section is given below:

A good score in this section would be around 25-26. A serious aspirant would be able to tackle most of the questions within 35 to 40 minutes.

With General Awareness being slightly tougher than last year, we expect the overall cutoff (for general category) for the MA in HRM program to slightly drop compared to last year. The cutoff is expected to be in the range of 71- 72 marks. Last year, the cutoff was 74 marks.