Few turn up for CAT on Day 1

Out of the 2.05 lakh candidates who have registered for CAT 2011, only 5,690 candidates registered for the first day. The CAT 2011 testing window started on Saturday. No technical glitches were reported but considering the turnout, not many seem to have preferred the first few slots to appear for the test. 

According to students, the Quantitative Ability section was tough and the verbal ability section was easy.

Naina Gupta, who appeared for the CAT 2011 in the morning slot on Saturday, said, “The test experience was really smooth. Whatever small issues candidates faced were mainly because they were not comfortable with the technology.”

Vinayak Kudva, Product Head of IMS learning resources, a training centre for the CAT exam, said, “The low turnout was because most students would want to see how it goes with others. Also it is a common psychology among students about ‘the later the better’, hoping that they would get some more days to study.”

Nishank Jain, a fresher who is going to appear for CAT 2011 on November 14, said, “I have taken a later slot to understand the experiences of those who will appear for CAT before me.”

Ashish Sinha, CAT course Director of TIME, another CAT coaching centre, said, “The IIMs have decided not to discuss the difficulty level of the questions.”

CAT 2011 will be conducted from October 22 to November 18 and has two sections instead of previous year’s pattern of three. The examination is of 140 minutes where 70 minutes are dedicated to each section carrying 30 questions to answer. The results for CAT 2011 will be declared on January 2011.