Date:17/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/17/stories/2008111757290300.htm

New Delhi

CAT springs new surprise in the paper pattern

Staff Reporter

- Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Students after appearing in the Common Admission Test in New Delhi on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: Over 2.5 lakh candidates appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT) conducted for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Management and other business schools on Sunday at 23 centres across the country. As is the case every year, the exam lived up to its reputation of springing a new surprise in the paper pattern.

However, this year the surprise element was the English section which saw a marked increase in the number of questions from 25 last year to 40. The other two sections of data interpretation and quantitative aptitude accounted for 25 questions each as was the case last year.

Director of Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME), Delhi, Ulhas Viragkar, said: “This year marked a significant departure from the exam paper pattern of the past 10 years where equal number of questions were asked from each of the three sections. In that case, students were simply advised to distribute their time equally between the three sections. This year with one section having more questions than the other sections, students found it a greater challenge to divide their time equitably.”

“Moreover, in the English section there were more questions in reading comprehension than in verbal ability which again is a departure from the old pattern which comprised equal number of questions under both. This has come as a pleasant surprise,” he added.

Elaborating on other surprise elements in the paper, Mr. Viragkar said: “The reading comprehension passages this year were shorter in length and not very obtuse making them easier to read and understand compared with the past two year’s English section which was very tough.” According to Mr. Viragkar, the expected cut-offs for quantitative aptitude, data interpretation and English would be 18, 28 and 42 respectively and the overall cut-off score required to qualify for at least one IIM call would be 120. The exam on the whole was conducted smoothly in the Delhi-Lucknow section, according to Prof. Saji Nair, a member of the CAT group which is conducting the examination and is managing the Delhi-Lucknow section.