Quantitative aptitude plays truant at CAT '07

For over 2.3 lakh candidates who attempted the Common Admission Test (CAT) across the country on Sunday, there were hardly any surprises in the pattern of the paper but the quant or the maths section proved to be the nemesis foxing students with unexpected questions.

Similar to CAT 2006, the test this year consisted of 75 questions in all with 25 questions in each section, where 4 marks would be given for a correct answer and minus 1 for a wrong answer.

While the actual cut-off at each Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and other management schools would only be known later, CAT coaching classes and experts opine that the cut-off for the IIMs and top schools could by anywhere between 105-115 marks.

Analysing CAT 2007, Deepak Premani, General Manager, Academics, PT Ahmedabad said that students found the English and Data Interpretation question relatively easier than last year while Maths was much tougher as it contained very little Geometry and had new problems in Algebra and Data Sufficiency. Close to 7,000 students attempted CAT from Ahmedabad.

He added that the cut-off for each section could be anything between 30-32 for the Quant section, 30-32 for the English usage and verbal ability and around 38 for the logical reasoning section.

"This time maths was difficult of all the sections. Otherwise other sections were comparatively similar to last year's CAT. I think the cut-off for quant section could easily be around 30-35, " said Aman Chawla, a final year mechanical engineering student from Ahmedabad.

His views were echoed by Abhijit Prasad, a marketing professional who attempted CAT for the second time and found English to be much easier than last year.

Results for the written test would be known in December after which short-listed students would be invited to the group discussion and later the personal interview round.

Students qualifying the test will be eligible for admission into seven IIMs this year- Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and the new one at Shillong.

Around 1,700 seats for post graduate programme in management would be up for grabs.