ET attempts to bell the CAT, here's how

The new CAT’s out of the bag, and here’s the first impression: Less questions, more time, and one more option per question; a tougher paper in English and a relatively easier one in data interpretation; four marks for every right answer, and minus one for a wrong one.

Thus went a Sunday that could launch more than a 1,000 — well, there are about 1,500 seats across the six IIMs — corner-room careers as around two lakh aspirants took the Common Admission Test ’06. Overall, as ET correspondents who fanned out across the country — and some who also took the exam — found out, CAT ’06 was a pleasant surprise.

To begin with, compared to last year, the number of questions went down from 90 to 75, while the exam duration was up by 30 minutes. Around 1.9 lakh students had applied this year, but IIM officials refused to guess how many took the test. IIM-B chairperson (admissions) Subhabrata Das added it was too early to take stock. According to sources at CAT centres in 23 cities, there was 90-95% attendance.

Anyone who is confident of scoring more than 100 out of the 300 stands a good chance to get an interview call. But, as some coaching agencies felt, competition this year may push that to the 120-mark. “On an average, the best students attempted 45-48 of the 75 questions,” said Arindam Lahiri, director of Career Launcher India, a CAT coaching institute.

“Increased time and reduced number of questions allowed us to spend more time on each section. But there were less questions to choose from this year,” said Punita Chada, a CAT aspirant.

“If CAT ’05 was the toughest CAT ever, students were treated to a pleasant surprise at CAT ’06,” said a spokesperson for Indiatimes Mindscape Test Centre. “It was a different format, but it was not unexpected, because the CATs from the last two years were also different,” said Joy Krishnan who took the test in Mumbai.

Some experts felt there were ambiguities in the question paper, especially in the English and problem solving sections. “Different people might have different right answers to the same question,” said Manek Daruwala, director of Ahmedabad-based coaching institute TIME. “The question paper speaks of changing global requirements.

While the new-age managers are expected to understand basic mathematics, they are expected to be more fluent in English,” Mr Lahiri added.

“Mathematics and data interpretation was up for grabs,” said a mathematics student from St Stephens College who took the CAT. This was neither an exclusive response nor something that is only expected of a student of Mathematics Honours. The two sections of math and logic really did come as relief for CATters with a background in economics, mathematics or even history or English.

“The English section was unexpectedly difficult,” said Mehak Sagar, a third year Economics Honour student from Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi. In English, with the added factor of increase in options that demanded more thinking, the options were also puzzling enough with the differential between them being microscopic. “Some of the options were also ambiguous,” said Mehak.