CAT 2019 rings a welcome bell for candidates with easier questions

CAT 2019 appears a little easier than CAT 2018, with two sections being on the easier side, and one being tougher, says an expert

Candidates, who took the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2019 on Sunday, welcomed an easier test paper, compared to last year.

Gateway to the 20 premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and over 110 non-IIM B-schools, the computerised entrance test was conducted in two sessions at 376 centres across 156 cities in the country.  The results may be announced in the second week of January 2020, said Shubhasis Dey, faculty member at IIM Kozhikode and convener for CAT 2019.

As against the total registrations of 244,169 candidates, up by 3,000 over CAT 2018, 209,926 candidates wrote the paper this year, said Dey. Carrying a duration of 180 minutes, the test was divided into three sections, including verbal ability and reading comprehension (VARC), data interpretation and logical reasoning (DILR), and quantitative ability (QA).

“Overall, CAT 2019 appears a little easier than CAT 2018, with two sections (DILR and QA) being on the easier side, and one section (VARC) being tougher,” said Ramnath Kankadandi, National CAT Course director, T.I.M.E. Candidates were allotted 60 minutes for answering questions in each of the three sections without being able to switch from one section to another, while answering questions in a section. 

According to CAT tutorial experts, the restriction in movement across sections during the test made by IIMs could prove a boon for non-engineering candidates as it provides a level-playing field for them.

As for the difficulty level, the only surprise sprung by CAT 2019 was a higher difficulty level in VARC as compared to easier levels, students and tutorial experts said. On the other hand, while QA came down a notch in difficulty level, DILR also became easier. The pattern of the test paper was also on expected lines, said Kankadandi.