Ten days of the all-important Common Admission Test, the qualifying examination for admission to the Indian Institutes of Management, are now behind us.
On the first nine days, around 80,000 candidates had already appeared for the CAT, with the remaining 1.2-odd lakh students set to write the exam in what remains of the 20-day testing window. With no surprises in format, apart from the changes that were announced prior to the examination, the CAT has been a smooth affair. A few technical glitches that were reported, in one centre in Bangalore, were tackled smoothly with candidates not facing too many issues with their testing experience.
While candidates who had appeared for the exam in its previous editions found it challenging to adjust to having to answer sections within a specified time slot (the number of sections also went from three to two, with topics being re-grouped), most students The Hindu spoke with said that the changes barely affected them.
“The good thing is that there are no surprises. In previous editions of CAT there have been last-minute changes, increase in the number of questions and marking schemes. Now that everything is decided beforehand, the task at hand for candidates is simpler,” says a trainer from a prominent coaching centre. He says that the feedback from students has been positive, and more importantly, more or less consistent.
Since the examinations started, there has been a lot of speculation online. While some have shared the kind of questions (specific questions cannot be shared due to strict non-disclosure agreements) that are appearing, others have even given pointers as to how to go about managing time. Suresh Talunkar, a candidate who appeared for CAT this week, said that the questions appeared to be uniformly of moderate difficulty. “The feedback from everyone is more or less the same. On the day I wrote the examination, the quantitative ability questions were a tad tough, I thought,” he said. He is appearing for the CAT for the third consecutive year.
A trainer from a Bangalore-based coaching centre said that the best tip for students is to read the questions thoroughly. He feels that some of the questions, particularly in the verbal section, were quite tricky. “Often students read the questions before reading the comprehension package, and end up losing time on it.”
Another advice he has for students is to not believe the rumours doing the rounds, online or offline. “The questions are the same, and there is no difference in the difficulty levels. Rumours that the day you write your test will tip your fortunes are all based on speculation,” he said.
