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PUNE: Close to 17,000 students appeared for the Indian Institutes of Management’s (IIMs) Common Admission Test (CAT), which was held
simultaneously at 28 exam centres in the city.

The candidates included those from outside the city who preferred Pune over 22 other cities where the test was conducted simultaneously. The number of students appeared for IIM-CAT from Pune previous year was 14,500.

The CAT is known to spring surprises each year. This year too, it was no different as the total number of questions went up to 90 from 75 last year. But the B-school aspirants had nothing much to complain about. They found the paper “easier, compared to what CAT 2007 had offered”.

In the past few years, the number of questions in the examination had gone down from 123 in 2004 to 90 in 2005 and 75 in 2006 and 2007. At the same time, the difficulty level had gone up. The paper this year was expected to maintain a higher difficulty level.

The striking change that candidates had to tell about the paper was the increased weightage (40 questions) to the verbal ability (VA) section that tests the language proficiency of the examinee. Students found this section relatively lengthy, compared to the quantitative ability (QA) and the data interpretation (DI) sections, which carried 25 questions each.

Speaking to TOI, moments after writing the paper, Anjali Vartak, an IT professional, said, “Overall the paper was pretty good. It was better than the past two years with a slight change in pattern. The questions on QA were little tough but the other two sections, VA and DI, were pretty managable.”

Navraj Rawat, who recently completed his post-graduation said, “We were hoping that there won’t be any major change in the paper pattern and the total questions will be restricted to 75 as was the case last year. But, that is what the CAT is known for---expect the unexpected.”

Quantitative problems given in CAT measure a candidate’s mathematical skills while DI problems assess the candidate’s ability to analyse and interpret information in graphic or tabular form. Problems in the VA section assess the candidate’s ability to understand and comprehend written English through reading comprehension, verbal reasoning and english usage questions.

“Anybody who would have studied even little of CAT could have solved VA and DI questions, it was that easy. However, QA questions were slightly tough as far as I am concerned. We were expecting about 150 questions but the paper contained only 90 questions overall with more questions on verbal ability,” said Sagar Joshi, a final year engineering student.

Yogesh Thakkar, a software professional said, “Although the VA section was lengthy, it was simple. On the other hand, DI was more concept based and QA was slightly tougher than the other two sections. However, I sat for the exam last year as well, and this time it was much easier.”

Shrikant Joshi, a full-time radio jockey, had similar views and said, “I found QA slightly difficult than other sctions. though, there was more weightage given to verbal ability, the questions were better than the other sections. I am a first-timer at the exam and did not really prepare for the exam, since I only wanted to get the feel of it, over all I found the paper pretty O. K.”

CAT has attracted a mind-boggling 2.76 lakh candidates this year from across the country who will be vying for approximately 2,000 seats in seven IIMs. An acceptance offer this year will go to just one in 138 candidates against one in 120 last year, making CAT one of the toughest competitive tests in the world.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pune/17000_candidates_from_city_appea...