'CAT' walk prompts speculations of higher cut-offs this time

In what is being termed as a 'cat-walk' by most MBA coaching experts and Common Admission Test (CAT) enthusiasts in the country, this year may see a dramatic increase in cut-off percentages owing to a relatively easier test this year.

This year, over 1.9 lakh students appeared for CAT on Sunday to secure admissions to the six IIMs and 80 other management institutes in the country.

Talking to Business Standard, Gautam Puri, managing director of Career Launcher, a CAT training institute said, "This year, the CAT paper was much easier than last year. However, the English paper was difficult as no questions were asked on grammer, vocabulary or filling the blanks which are easy to attempt as well as checks the language ability of a students. "

With the increase in answer options, the negative marking has also increased as earlier there was four choices that had a 1/4 negative mark, this year five options were given probably lowering the negative marking to 1/5.

It is being speculated across the MBA coaching circles that this year a call to any of the IIMs in the country will have a minimum cut off score of 110 as compared to last year's cut off of around 44.

Whereas for other top institutes like MDI, Gurgaon, SP Jain, NITIE, MICA, IMT and IMI the cut off could be anything between 85-100. During CAT 2005, the likely cut-offs for these institutes was estimated to be between 38 to 44.

In the break-up of topics, there were three sections this year, as opposed to five last year and a total of 75 questions this year as compared to 90 last year. The estimated overall cut-off is pegged to be around 105-110.

Devashish Chakravarty, 34 and a second year PGP student of IIM-A who along with three of his classmates had launched a website to help aspiring MBA students believed the CAT was simpler this year.

"From being a game of speed last year, the half an hour addition to the total time duration has led to this year's CAT becoming a game of accuracy,".

Around 6,000 students from Gujarat appeared for the test from 11 centres in the city. Results will be out by the first week of December.