The E-litmus test is one which can be used by freshers and professionals alike to look for a job. If you are familiar with the existence of AMCAT or Cocubes, then understanding what exactly E-litmus is shouldn’t be much of a problem, as the E-litmus test is very much similar to them, but only in terms of purpose and functioning, such as a medium through which one can find a job by giving an exam, known as the e-litmus test.

Who can use the E-litmus service?

Anyone can use e-litmus’ services to get a job. The people are:

• College students who are in their final semesters (or a semester before the final one). Sometimes internships to pursue during the final semesters are also available via e-litmus for the college students. However, the students will require to obtain explicit permission from their respective colleges to pursue the internships. The companies requirement for a permission letter is mandatory.
• College graduates, A.K.A. freshers. E-litmus is on par with AMCAT and Cocubes with respect to popularity amongst freshers, who may have gotten a job via campus placement, or may be looking for a much more satisfactory job, such as one with higher pay, for example.
• Experienced professionals may also use E-litmus to look for jobs. However, the number of jobs available for people with experience within their respective fields is much lower than the ones available for freshers.

Degree holders of which fields may use E-litmus?

Jobs offered pertain to engineering-related fields only. The e-litmus service is primarily for recruitment for entry level engineers. (And sometimes, experienced ones as well.)

What are the packages like of jobs obtained via E-litmus?

The packages are pretty good compared to jobs obtained via AMCAT or Cocubes. In fact, when it comes to the salary, the comparison of packages between the three platforms gives us this :

E-litmus > Cocubes > AMCAT

Hence, E-litmus is one of the best platforms in India through which one can look for a job, especially if you’re looking for one with good pay. (Who isn’t?)

How does the process of E-litmus work?

E-litmus services require you to take a test called as the pH test, also known as the Hiring Potential test. The scores obtained from this pH test play a vital role (along with other important factors) in deciding whether you will be called by companies for interview(s).

Which factors decide whether a candidate is called for an interview by a company via E-litmus?

here are several factors:

• Total college aggregate of your recent degree. If you are still pursuing the degree, then your aggregate till the most recently completed semester must be provided. In case of M.Tech students, B.Tech scores may be considered as well.
• Your most recent pH score.
• Extra-curricular activities performed in college.
• Any significant projects undertaken by the prospective candidate.
• Internships.
• Scores of Xth and XIIth grade are also taken into consideration by a few companies.
• Certification courses pursued by the candidate.
• Previous experience of the candidate. (In case of experienced professionals.)

How difficult is the pH test?

The difficulty level of the pH test is highest amongst all job assessment tests. Comparison gives us :

E-litmus > Cocubes > AMCAT

As the packages offered companies via by E-litmus are the highest in comparison, the difficulty level is also the same. The pH score is valid for 2 years only.

Where can I give the test ?

The test is conducted in test centres at various locations throughout India. The test is conducted on Sundays only. The schedule for the test (and the respective locations) for the next few weeks can be obtained from their official website, www.elitmus.com

Will any documents be required for the pH test?

Yes, documents are a must. The documents required will be:
• College marksheets. A college graduate may carry his Certificate of Passing and his or her final year’s marksheet. Current students may carry the most recent marksheet available., but carry all of them just to be on the safe side.
• Xth and XIIth grade marksheets.
• ID proofs, with the candidate’s photo on the respective IDs. ID proofs accepted are PAN Card, Driving License, Passport. (Aadhaar Card has not been mentioned by any officials so far.)
• pH test Admit Card. The Admit Card will be sent to the candidate via e-mail 2-3 days before the date of the pH test. The candidate must stick his or her photograph on the printed Admit Card within the box provided. Photograph is a must.

NOTE : All documents (including any ID proof) to be provided during the test must be originals. Candidates with photocopies are not entertained whatsoever, and only originals are to be shown. Photocopies of documents are not required at all.
When a candidate enters the exam hall, he or she must only carry the documents and any stationery that is required (only pens, pencils, and erasers as it is a pen and paper test; it is not online) to write the test. Candidates are requested to keep folders in their bags. So, a pH test taker needs to be extremely careful lest he or she loses or accidentally damages their respective documents.

When will a candidate get the specific location of the pH test?

After the test has been booked, the candidate does not immediately receive the address within the city for which the candidate has booked the date. The address is obtained only 2-3 days before the test, which is relayed to the candidate via e-mail. The address for the test (as of October 2018) is written on the top left corner of the Admit Card, which is sent via e-mail 2-3 days before the test. Having a proper e-mail, with proper access to the same is extremely essential.

What are the fees for the pH test?

As of October 2018, the total fees for the pH test are 1003 Indian Rupees (including GST.) Once paid for the exam, the fees are non-refundable. A person can also pay for the pH test online.

Test Pattern

The pH test consists of 3 parts:
• Quantitative Ability
• Problem Solving
• Verbal Ability

Number of questions: Each section consists of 20 questions each, making it a total of 60 questions altogether.
Duration of the test: 2 hours only.
Maximum Marks : 600
Marks awarded for each correct answer : equal (irrespective of section, all questions hold equal weightage)

Preparation

E-litmus does not have any source material for preparation. And as far as their official website is concerned, a proper source for the syllabus isn’t provided as well. However, considering the opinions of a large number of previous test takers, there exist two sources for the syllabus that can be trusted:

• Prepinsta
• Geekmonkey

The syllabus for the e-litmus pH test changes (sometimes a few new topics are added) every year. So it is crucial that one checks the syllabus articles on the websites of the above respective sources only of the year in which they plan on attempting the exam. For example, if a student plans on attempting the pH test in 2019, then he or she ought to refer to a syllabi article of 2019 only. If such an article is missing, then a 2018 article may be referred to by the student. Most websites do not update any changes that may be present in the syllabus and there is misinformation, so only the above two sources may be used as reference.

1. Verbal Ability

The verbal ability section is by far the easiest section of the pH test. One can score the highest in this test if he or she has fairly decent command over the English language. The difficulty level is at most, moderate. The verbal ability section does not need much preparation on a future test taker’s part. But if a person has poor English language skills, then it is of utmost importance that he or she practices well for the verbal ability section. Easy though it may be, the section ought to not be taken lightly, or it may prove to be detrimental to the test taker’s score.

Preparation for the same can be done via any available source of preparation for verbal ability, such as those that exist for other assessment exams. The questions present in the verbal ability section such as :

• Reading Comprehension
• Fill in the blanks (Tenses)
• Paragraph Jumbles

are quite generic. One can easily find preparation material for the same by perusing through other assessment exam prep material. The verbal ability section allows one to boost his or her pH score by a significant amount.

2. Problem Solving

This section can be considered to be of intermediate difficulty, much higher than the verbal ability section, but comparable to the Quantitative Ability section. This section much, much more preparation on a candidate’s part. Questions often seen in this section are:

• Arrangement-related
• Cryptarithmetic
• Data Sufficiency
• Data interpretation
• Logical Reasoning

NOTE: The above information may be subject to change by e-litmus officials. Do not consider this as a proper syllabus source.

Of all the question types mentioned above, the one that holds most importance is the cryptarithmetic type questions. These questions boost your percentile (more on this later) by nearly 30-40 percent in the problem solving section if you get them right. The number of questions present in the problem solving section on this topic are 3-4. However, questions on this topic are difficult and do require significant amount of preparation. Many questions of the cryptarithmetic type need to be practiced before one becomes adept at solving such type of questions.

Logical Reasoning is slightly less difficult than cryptarithmetic, but such type of questions need to be practiced all the same. Solving such questions gives an idea of the general structure of these kind of questions, thus reducing the time spent on them. This allows a candidate to spend more time on the quantitative ability section, which is very much required.
Logical Reasoning questions usually consist of certain data presented to you in a rather cryptic manner, and you need to put it all together to form a proper conclusion to answer the questions that follow. It can be considered analogous to a puzzle.

Arrangement-related questions are difficult. Requirement to answer these kind of questions is a strong foundation in Permutations and Combinations, with a small mix of logic reasoning in between. Permutations and Combinations are required in the Quantitative Ability section also.

Data Sufficiency questions are, as the name states, based on deciding whether the two or more sentences (of data) provided are sufficient or not to answer the question that will follow. Again, mastery of such a type is done only through practice.

3. Quantitative Ability

This is the hardest section of the pH test. It is the most difficult, and requires intense preparation. Questions in this section are comparable (difficulty-wise) to those seen in the CAT Exam. Sometimes, they are even similar. Hence, it is highly advised to use CAT preparation books to prepare for this section. A popular one suggested by many previous test takers is:

“How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT” by Arun Sharma

Most people consider this as a good resource to prepare from for the quantitative ability section, but only to form a strong foundation for solving such questions. Actual mastery will only come from solving more of such questions from different sources.

Source Material

No official source material for the pH test exists. However, there are a quite a few non-official ones:

• Prepinsta (contains paid study material, including previous year papers)
• Geekmonkey (contains paid study material, including previous year papers)
• Testpot (has good timed-tests for quantitative and problem solving sections; free)
• Google Drive uploads (some of them have a few previous year papers as well; good luck finding these!)
• TCYOnline (has paid material, which includes timed-tests including verbal section)
• Few popular books for CAT preparation for quantitative sections.
• M4Maths (this website has a lot of solved previous e-litmus questions, posted by people who remember the questions after the test)

pH Test Scores

The pH test scores are usually released within 13-18 days of the test date. The notification of release of the scores is intimated to a candidate via e-mail. The candidate can check his or her scores on the e-litmus official website by logging into their account from which they applied for the test.

The scores are provided in two ways. One is the actual score, the other is in a percentile manner. Percentile denotes how well you have done compared to other test- takers. For example, a 72 percentile in a section indicates that a candidate has done better than 72% of all the candidates who have attempted the test at the time. However, the companies do obtain your actual scores when viewing your application.

The e-litmus test is hard. Much harder than the test for employability assessment present on AMCAT or Cocubes. But acing (or getting a great score) on such a test opens up opportunities for interviews into jobs that are on a much higher payscale. The e-litmus’ pH test requires months of preparation and determination to do well and get a great score. All the best!