HYDERABAD: With only 15 more days left for Common Admission Test (CAT), aspirants are busy preparing for the exam. After the registration closed on Thursday, the aspirants jumped into the final phase of preparations. As CAT pattern has undergone some changes ahead of the exam, the aspirants are leaving no stone unturned to do well.
“I don’t want to take any risks,” says Suchitra Rao, a software engineer, who is going to take the test for the third time. She has decided to take as many mock tests as possible before the actual test. Those who have given the test in the past had to rework the preparation strategy due to the changes in the exam pattern. “I have been preparing with two to three year old model papers. But I had to change my strategy again,” says Padeep Singh, a final year engineering student.
Experts say the changes will not affect the chances of the aspirants. They believe the extended time during the exam will be advantageous. “Candidates can answer more questions as they got an additional time of 30 minutes,” says Ramnath, CAT course director of TIME Institute, Hyderabad. “Changes in CAT pattern is not new. Minor changes are brought in almost every year.” He says taking mock tests is the best way to prepare for the exam.
CAT-2015 received 1,96,915 applications from across the country, including more than 15,000 from Hyderabad region. Conducted by IIM-Indore, CAT-2015 will be held in the city at 10 centres from November 16 to 22.
The number of test centres has also gone up from 45 to 354 across the country. The ratio of students and seats has also gone up from 15 for every 1,000 applications to 17 seats this year thanks to more IIMs coming up.