A New CAT up Your Alley

The introduction of descriptive questions is perceived to make the popular exam a level playing field for students from all backgrounds

With Common Admission Test (CAT) scheduled for November 29, there have been some changes announced in the pattern for 2015 — one of them being the inclusion of questions on current affairs — in a bid to make the exam a level playing field for non-engineering students as well. Descriptive questions have been added to address the criticism that the existing multiple-choice format favours those from engineering backgrounds.

​“The pattern for CAT 2015 is a welcome change. With the introduction of descriptive questions, students from non-engineering backgrounds will get a fair chance to score high, as most engineers are comfortable with MCQs and description of answers might be a challenge for them, whereas it could be a cakewalk for students from Arts and Humanities. This change will also benefit recruiters at B-Schools, as they will get to hire managers from diverse backgrounds and with varied opinions and conditioning,” opines Prof DP Goyal, Dean-Graduate Programme, Management Development Institute-Gurgaon.

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s a management professor, Goyal anticipates that the change will also impact classroom learning in B-Schools, as the sessions are now likely to see  diverse outlooks and approaches to problem solving.”

In the new pattern, Section I is Quantitative Aptitude, Section II, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, and Section III: Verbal and Reading Comprehension. The total along with the percentiles will be published in the results.

Here are some preparation strategies from Prof Goyal.

• As CAT (an online test since 2010) exam doesn’t allow candidates to switch between sections, you will have to approach the exam with more focus. It is not advisable to attempt one section while your thoughts are on another.
• Decide which section you want to take up, going by your confidence/mastery over the section. Only a focused approach in every section will help mitigate negative marking.
• Alter your preparation technique to tackle descriptive questions. Read a lot on general issues. Intelligent guessing strategy used for MCQs will not help with this section. Thus, instead of trying to zero in on the correct answer, keep eliminating the wrong ones.
• Details at www.iimcat.ac.in. Register by September 20.

— shilpa.vasudevan@newindianexpress.com