Indian Institute of Management, Indore, which is conducting the Common Admission Test (CAT) for admission to elite B-schools, has revised the exam format this year to make it "aspirant-friendly". However, there won't be any change in the syllabus for CAT 2014.
What are the revisions?
The exam duration has been increased from 140 minutes to 170. Also, each section — quantitative ability and data interpretation, and verbal ability and logical reasoning — will have 50 questions instead of 30.
Another significant change will be flexibility in solving each section. Candidates will be allowed to switch from one section to another during the exam, an option that wasn't there until now.
The window period for holding exam has also been brought down from 21 days to just two days this year, ie on November 16 and 22 only in forenoon and afternoon sessions. The exam will be conducted in 99 cities comprising 354 test sites. Last year, there were only 45 test sites.
Why were the revisions made?
While CAT authorities insist the changes have been brought in to make the test more candidate-friendly, experts feel another reason could be (an attempt to stop) the fall in the number of candidates appearing for CAT since the past couple of years. Demand for management education is also dropping across the country since the economy got a push after a slowdown till 2011-12, generating more jobs. A surge in B-schools admissions was observed in the slowdown period as graduates were finding it difficult to get good job offers. The number of candidates registered for CAT 2013 were only 1.95 lakh as compared to CAT 2012 (2.14 lakh).
What do aspirants feel?
Aspirants, however, don't feel the new format is candidate-friendly. "The only difference is that you will have 100 questions to be solved in 170 minutes instead of 60 in 140 minutes which is challenging," said Mohit Dave, an aspirant.
Officialspeak
When contacted, CAT chairman Rohit Kapoor said, "I am busy preparing for a lecture now. Please call me later." Kapoor, however, wasn't reachable later despite several attempts.
All about CAT 2014
The CAT 2014 registration will remain open for 56 days, from August 6 to September 30. Students will be able to download admit card from October 16 till exam date. The results will be declared in the third week of December. Ousting Prometric, the erswhile partner, IIMs have roped in Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) this time for registration and conducting the exam.
What's new?
Exam duration has been increased to 170 minutes from 140. CAT 2014 exam syllabus will remain the same
Candidates have been given the flexibility to switch between sections at any point of time during the exam. Thus, they now have the option of devoting less or more time to a particular section as per their choice
The number of questions per section has been increased to 50 from 30
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