The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : CAT format surprises students

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 17, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

CAT format surprises students

Staff Reporter

Number of candidates who took the test up by 36,000 this year

Total number of questions was increased to 90
Overall cut-off predicted at 118 to 124 out of 360

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Light moment: Students who appeared for the Common Admission Test, coming out of the examination hall at one of the centres in Bangalore on Sunday.

BANGALORE: Candidates, who appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2008 here on Sunday, had a surprise in store for them.

The total number of questions increased from 75 to 90, tipping over the balance in favour of the section on Verbal Ability.

Although the CAT has always witnessed changes in pattern or content, for the first time in 10 years, the question paper was divided asymmetrically in terms of the weightage given to each of its three sections.

Those who went in with their line of attack all chalked out, were forced into last-minute revamps in schedule and strategy. Both Quantitative Analysis (QA) and Logic and Data Interpretation (LDI) were moderately difficult, students and experts agreed.

Tricky questions

The final verdict: the paper was no doubt tough compared to the two previous years and the increase in the number of questions was unexpected. Over the past decade, the CAT has only seen a steady decrease in the number of questions from 180 to 75.

Emerging from the examination hall, Ashok Rajan, an engineering student, said several questions were tricky. “I can’t wait to crosscheck with the answer keys (available on the Internet). The English section was a surprise and those who are good at basic grammar and comprehension surely stand to gain,” he said.

Nilesh Watwani, a software engineer and a veteran hoping to get third-time lucky, agreed: “This may tip in favour of freshers, for whom English and even high school mathematics are still fresh.”

Experts said the increase in difficulty level was inevitable considering the sheer numbers.

The overall cut-off has been predicted at 118 to 124 out of 360, compared to 110 out of 300. “CAT percentile is about comparative performance. The reasoning component in DI (making it less calculation-based) and the mathematics section in QA were the most challenging,” said Ajay Arora of the Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME).

This year alone, the number of candidates has increased by nearly 36,000.

A total of 2.76 lakh candidates in 23 cities will jostle for entry into the Postgraduate Programme in Management offered by the seven elite Indian Institutes of Management in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong.

Bangalore alone had about 26,000 students slated to appear across 24 centres in the city. IIM, Bangalore, was also in charge of conducting the examination in Hyderabad (with 19,000 applicants) and Pune (nearly 15,000 applicants), an IIM-B official said. The number of other institutions using the CAT score for admissions has also increased by 50.

Absentee rate

At Baldwin Girl’s High School, one of the centres, there was an absentee rate of 12 per cent. This was more or less consistent with the absentee trends last year, the IIM-B official told The Hindu.

At St. Joseph’s Boys’ High School, eight aspirants were sent back for turning up late. Two of them were from Chhattisgarh.

Confusion

Vivek Agarwal, one of those turned away, said they had confused the venue with the other eponymous institutions.

Authorities closed the gates and pointed to their admit cards which stated that no candidate would be allowed to enter the examination hall after 10 a.m.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section