A few questions from this test, with the answer key and the method behind it. The full set of 100 runs under a timer, and every solution is on the analysis screen once you submit.
English Language · solved example
The volume of digital retail payments in India has grown at a pace few regulators anticipated, and the instrument responsible is one that charges the customer nothing. That design choice was deliberate: a payment system carrying no fee for the payer spreads faster than one that does. It also created a problem that has not been solved. Someone must still pay for the servers, the fraud checks and the settlement guarantees, and with the customer exempt and the merchant discount rate on small transactions set at zero, the cost has settled on the banks that sponsor the system.
They have absorbed it so far because a customer who pays digitally is a customer whose deposits stay within the bank, and the deposit is worth more than the processing cost. This logic holds while volumes are concentrated in large banks with cheap deposits. It weakens sharply for smaller institutions, which carry the same per-transaction cost against a costlier deposit base. Regulators are therefore being pressed to permit a fee somewhere in the chain, and are reluctant, because every proposal so far shifts the charge to the merchant, and the merchants most sensitive to it are the small ones whose adoption the system was built to win.
Which of the following best expresses the central argument of the passage?
- ADigital retail payments in India have grown faster than regulators expected.
- BThe zero-fee design that drove adoption left the system's costs unfunded, and every remedy proposed so far falls on the very participants it was built to attract.Correct
- CSmaller banks should not be permitted to sponsor digital payment systems.
- DA merchant discount rate should be levied on all transactions regardless of size.
- ECustomers would accept a small transaction fee if the reason for it were explained.
Solution
The passage moves in three steps: the free-to-customer design spread quickly, that design left the cost with the sponsor banks, and the fixes now on the table push the charge onto small merchants and small banks. Option B is the only one that carries all three. Option A states the opening fact but not the argument built on it, and a central argument must include the tension the author develops. Options C and D are policy positions the author never takes, and D runs against the caution in the final sentence. Option E introduces customer willingness, which the passage does not discuss at all.
Quantitative Aptitude · solved example
What is the value of 35% of 640 added to 45% of 320?
- A368Correct
- B372
- C376
- D384
- E396
Solution
Work in parts rather than decimals. 35% of 640 is 10% of 640 taken three and a half times, which is 64 x 3.5 = 224. For the second term, 45% of 320 is half of 320 less 5% of it, so 160 - 16 = 144. Adding gives 224 + 144 = 368. Splitting an awkward percentage into tens and halves is faster than multiplying by 0.35, and it is the habit that buys you time across a whole section.
Reasoning Ability · solved example
Six people - P, Q, R, S, T and U - live on six different floors of a building. The lowest floor is numbered 1 and the highest is numbered 6.
T lives on an even-numbered floor.
Two people live between T and P.
R lives on the floor immediately above Q.
S lives on the topmost floor.
U does not live on floor 1.
Who among the following lives on the lowest floor?
Solution
S takes floor 6, so T, being on an even floor, is on 2 or 4. Suppose T is on 2. Two people between T and P puts P on 5, leaving floors 1, 3 and 4 for Q, R and U. The only way R sits immediately above Q there is Q on 3 and R on 4, which forces U onto floor 1 and breaks the last clue. So T is on 4, which puts P on 1 with Q and R between them. That leaves 2, 3 and 5, where R immediately above Q means Q on 2 and R on 3, and U takes 5. The arrangement is P, Q, R, T, U, S from floor 1 upward, so P is lowest.
English Language · solved example
The volume of digital retail payments in India has grown at a pace few regulators anticipated, and the instrument responsible is one that charges the customer nothing. That design choice was deliberate: a payment system carrying no fee for the payer spreads faster than one that does. It also created a problem that has not been solved. Someone must still pay for the servers, the fraud checks and the settlement guarantees, and with the customer exempt and the merchant discount rate on small transactions set at zero, the cost has settled on the banks that sponsor the system.
They have absorbed it so far because a customer who pays digitally is a customer whose deposits stay within the bank, and the deposit is worth more than the processing cost. This logic holds while volumes are concentrated in large banks with cheap deposits. It weakens sharply for smaller institutions, which carry the same per-transaction cost against a costlier deposit base. Regulators are therefore being pressed to permit a fee somewhere in the chain, and are reluctant, because every proposal so far shifts the charge to the merchant, and the merchants most sensitive to it are the small ones whose adoption the system was built to win.
According to the passage, why have sponsor banks been willing to bear the processing cost so far?
- ARegulators have compensated them for the shortfall.
- BThe merchant discount rate recovers most of what they spend.
- CThe deposits they retain from a digitally paying customer are worth more than the cost of processing.Correct
- DTheir processing cost per transaction falls as volumes rise.
- EThey intend to levy a customer fee once adoption is complete.
Solution
The second paragraph gives the reason directly: the customer's deposits stay within the bank, and the deposit is worth more than the processing cost. Option B contradicts the passage, which says the merchant discount rate on small transactions is set at zero. Option D is the kind of claim that sounds economically sensible and is often assumed, but the passage says the opposite about small banks, that they carry the same per-transaction cost. Options A and E are not mentioned anywhere. In a reason question, the trap is almost always an answer that is plausible in the world rather than present in the text.
English Language · solved example
The volume of digital retail payments in India has grown at a pace few regulators anticipated, and the instrument responsible is one that charges the customer nothing. That design choice was deliberate: a payment system carrying no fee for the payer spreads faster than one that does. It also created a problem that has not been solved. Someone must still pay for the servers, the fraud checks and the settlement guarantees, and with the customer exempt and the merchant discount rate on small transactions set at zero, the cost has settled on the banks that sponsor the system.
They have absorbed it so far because a customer who pays digitally is a customer whose deposits stay within the bank, and the deposit is worth more than the processing cost. This logic holds while volumes are concentrated in large banks with cheap deposits. It weakens sharply for smaller institutions, which carry the same per-transaction cost against a costlier deposit base. Regulators are therefore being pressed to permit a fee somewhere in the chain, and are reluctant, because every proposal so far shifts the charge to the merchant, and the merchants most sensitive to it are the small ones whose adoption the system was built to win.
The author's attitude towards the reluctance of the regulators is best described as
- Adismissive
- BsympatheticCorrect
- Cindignant
- Dindifferent
- Emocking
Solution
The final sentence does not merely report the reluctance, it justifies it: the author explains that every proposal shifts the charge to the merchants the system was built to win. Supplying the reason a position is defensible is sympathy, so B is right. A, C and E all require criticism the passage never offers, and D is ruled out by the fact that the author bothers to explain the reluctance at all. Attitude questions are decided by which words the author chooses to spend on a point, not by whether the topic is a serious one.