Over two lakh students appear for CAT

NEW DELHI: Nearly 2.3 lakh students on Sunday sat for the Common Admision Test (CAT) exam in 23 cities across the country for admission into elite B-schools.

About 35,000 students from Delhi region appeared for the test, sources said.

Nearly 1.8 lakh students had appeared for the test last year.

There has been shift in pattern of the test as each question has more options now while the total number of questions for each of the three sections (verbal, data interpretation and quantitative aptitude) has gone down.

The process of reducing the question papers was started in 2004.

The number of questions, which was 90 in 2005, was reduced to 75 in 2006. In 2004, it was 123, while in 2003 there were 150 questions.
      
The students qualifying the test will be eligible for admission into six IIMs - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode and Lucknow.

The results of the exam will be out in December.

About 1,600 postgraduate diploma in management seats will be on offer in the seven IIMs.

This year, students can expect 120 additional seats at IIM-Bangalore and the newly launched Shillong institute.