Belling CAT easier, as testing window starts today

With around 205,000 candidates across the country set to take the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) 2011 from tomorrow onwards, the change in paper pattern has divided candidates and coaching institutes. The CAT 2011, say experts, is a test of knowledge and no longer qualifies as an aptitude test. Till last year, students taking the test had to answer 20 questions each in three sections over 135 minutes. Also, there was no time limitation on any section.

The test is being conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) with the help of Prometric and its partners across 36 locations in the country.

The format of the test this year has been changed. Students have to now answer 30 questions each in two sections over 140 minutes. All the same, the time has to be equally proportioned between the two sections — students cannot use time held over from one section in the second.

The move has its critics. “CAT has traditionally been about testing time management and prioritisation skills, where students were tested not just on knowledge,” says Career Launcher MD Gautam Puri. “This year on, however, the thrust is on the knowledge skills, because even if one has time saved, it cannot be utilised for the next section.”

CAT, on its part, says the pattern has been designed to offer ease in taking the test. “Time management is something that the selected students can learn at our campuses,” says Janakiraman Moorthy, Convenor, CAT 2011. “What is more important right now is that the IIMs get quality students.”

Concurs TIME, another national-level CAT coaching centre. It feels the changes in pattern will be to the advantage of the candidates taking the test. “The changes are definitely to the advantage of the students; it will help them show their skill and ability without worrying about issues like time management and cutoffs,” says Ramnath Kanakadandi, course director, CAT, TIME.

He notes that the students can now look at compensating for a weak test area with another area from the same section. “For example, if a student is weak on Quant and strong on DI, (s)he may try to make up for his not so good performance in Quant by doing well in DI. Hence, it has helped increase the confidence of the students. This change has been made apparently to increase the diversity at IIMs, of more non-engineering students.”

IIMs, after a two-year fall in those taking their computer-based CAT for entry, have recorded a 0.5 per cent increase in the number of registrations this year. The CAT 2011 registration window, which ended on October 4, saw 205,000 aspirants registering, a marginal rise from last year’s registrations of 204,000. In 2008, around 276,000 aspirants appeared for CAT, which fell to 240,000 in 2009.