Apparently, the Common Admission Test (CAT) which is used by almost all MBA colleges in India for admissions, will have a new format starting this year.

The CAT 2011 will have only two sections
- QA + DI (Quantitative Aptitude + Data Interpretation)
- VA + LR (Verbal Ability + Logical Reasoning)

Both the sections will have 70 mins each, with a total duration of 140 mins. It will be held from October 22 to November 18.

It seems that the CAT committee has taken it upon themselves to ape the GMAT in the last couple years. The CAT which used to be the toughest, the most challenging, and hence the most interesting exam, has been reduced to a simple aptitude test modeled after the GMAT in which questions are repeated every year.

More details on this soon.

via pagalguy

Apparently, the CAT 2010 -2011 results are out.

Check out this link and enter your registration number and email ID.

CAT 2010 Results Link – Google Cache

It was supposed to be released on January 12, but it seems that the CAT is out of the bag.

Good luck! May you bell the CAT.

via Pagalguy (Deleted now)

Here are some of the issues which most of the mainstream media has ignored so far – they haven’t talked about anything except VIRUS problems so far.

1. Questions repeating across slots.

This puts the students giving the exam at a later date at an advantage over those who gave it earlier. More than 5-6 questions have reportedly been repeated in different slots. Considering a marking scheme of +3/-1, this makes a difference of 15-18 marks between students of different slots while also giving the students at a later slot more time to solve other questions and scoring even more.

2. Questions (Figures and Diagrams) not appearing properly.

Some figures / charts in the DI and Quant sections don’t appear properly for some students. Except or noting down the numbers of the students, the Prometric officials have done nothing else. How they plan to award marks in such cases is a very contentious issue.

3. Questions being leaked by various channels (Orkut, Coaching Classes, Friends)

Despite the (NDA) non-disclosure agreement, there is no way to check if questions are being leaked by students who already gave the tests or not. Even if the questions weren’t repeating, this would offer a significant advantage to the students taking the test at a later date as there wouldn’t be the same element of surprise as there was for the first day students as they would already know the format and the general trend. Many coaching classes have also provided their students with questions from the previous slots.

4. Students getting extra / less time

There are some students who got less time than the stipulated 2.15 hrs due to system failure. On the other hand, many students have gotten anywhere between 15-45 minutes extra if their system had to be restarted in between, giving them extra time to solve more problems. Even the difference of a minute can mean a difference of several marks, and ultimately a seat in a good college in a highly competitive exam like the CAT. There have also been reports of students deliberately restarting their machines to gain extra time.

5. Varying difficulty levels across slots

There have been varying difficulty levels across different slots. There is no news yet on the normalization process (if any) to be used. This, added to the other problems will definitely lead to a lot of controversy when the result comes out.

Other Problems:

Besides these, there are many other problems like

- Many students whose slots had been rescheduled due to system failure or other reasons haven’t been able to give the test even after 3-4 days. Also as the maximum traffic is concentrated around the last three days, there are bound to be many more glitches then. Also, if the window extends beyond 9th Dec, many engineering students from Mumbai wouldn’t be able to take the test as semester exams will have started.

There also have been some reports of mass copying and deliberate restarting of PCs to gain extra time which haven’t been confirmed.

Non Issues some seem to be concerned about -

- Paper being easier

If it’s easier, it’s easier for everyone (atleast it should have been, see point 5). So there should be no difference in the relative percentile scores of different candidates.

- Computer Based Test

CAT, going the CBT way may be the right thing to do, only if the infrastructure exists to support such a transition. No one should complain that it’s a CBT if it is fair and carried out without glitches (which doesn’t seem to be possible in India, as of now).

The way out -

The only way out seems to be a retest. And since they can’t seem to manage a CBT, it has to be a paper-pencil based one. If they act fast, they can do one in Jan-Feb. This doesn’t seem likely but seems to be the only right way out of this mess. Also, I’m hopeful that they must have had atleast some condition or clause in the $40 mn contract they awarded to Prometric which would lead to termination of the contract if Prometric fails to deliver (which it has, so far).

I’ll keep updating this article if there are any new developments. Leave a comment below if you have something to say.

Important Articles -

TIME – Open Letter to the IIMs

Career Launcher’s Letter to the IIMs

PagalGuy on the Paper Retest option

If there was a problem during your CAT test, you can post it here -

PagalGuy – CAT Problems

Official CAT 2008 Answer Key

The wait is over. The results of CAT 2008 will soon be out. To check your results online, the best ways would be:

CAT Results Online:

The results of CAT-2008 will be available from 9th January 2009 at http://results.catiim.in. The scores can be accessed by keying in the Test Registration Number and either the Date of Birth (preferred) or the Cat Application Number.

CAT Results by SMS:

CAT-takers can also access their CAT-2008 scores by using SMS facility of mobile phones. For SMS, candidate can type CAT Test Registration Number Date of Birth (DDMMYY) or CAT Test Registration Number Application Number For example: CAT 5370082 030482 or CAT 5370082 123456 and SMS to 57333.

CAT Results by Email:

Candidates who wish to get their results by e-mail should register themselves between October 24, 2008 and November 30, 2008 by sending an SMS to 57333 as follows: CAT Registration Number Date of Birth (DDMMYY) Email Id Please note that only one e-mail id will be registered against a test registration number. Example:If TR No is 1234567 & DOB is 20-Feb-1986, then the Message format will be: CAT 1234567 200286 abc@rediffmail.com

Good luck to all CAT aspirants!

The  CAT 2008 – the premier MBA entrance examination in India was held today. I will try to post a detailed analysis and the answers / solutions here.

The CAT 2008 Solutions are expected to be out by 5 PM.

The CAT this year has 90 questions in all.

25 Quant
25 DI
40 Verbal

The DI section was a bit complicated and very calculation intensive, while the Quant section was relatively easy. The Verbal section, as always was unpredictable and no one seems to know how they fared. As there were 40 questions in the VA section, it will play a major role in determining the chances of getting into the IIMs.

Solutions:

TestFunda.com has started uploading CAT 2008 solutions and answer keys:

http://cat2008a.testfunda.com/CAT_Answer_Key_Answers_Solutions_Analysis_CAT_2008_Score_ANSWER_KEY.aspx

http://hitbullseye.com/user/key2008.php

http://www.ch-india.com/CAT08_sol/cat08_anskey.htm

http://www.ch-india.com/CAT08_sol/cat08_sum_ana.htm

Check out this PagalGuy’s score card for answers:

http://www.pagalguy.com/scorecard/

>> Career Launcher CAT 2008 Analysis

CL’s Take on the CAT

Overall, the CAT’08 paper was of a moderate difficulty level. The paper was more balanced than previous years, primarily because of more choices in the English section. There have been an increase in the total number of questions – from 75 to 90, with English section accounting for 40 questions (an increase of 15 from last year) and Quant and DI having 25 questions each.

The Quant section was less difficult than last two years, though not in an absolute sense.

DI, however, proved to be a tougher nut to crack this time around.

The English section, with more choices, was easier to handle.

Expected cut-offs:
Quant: 30-32
VA: 46-48
DI: 28-30
Overall: 125+

IMS CAT 2008 Answer Key

>> IMS India CAT 2008 page

IMS’s Take on the CAT

CAT 2008 was easier compared to tha CAT in the last few years. The Verbal section, especially, offered a lot of scoring opportunities to the students. This would mean an increase in the verbal cut-offs. The DI section had quite a few sets with only 3 questions each, thereby increasing the effort required to score higher. Logical reasoning made a come back while Data Sufficiency was out of the DI section. Finally, the PS section was quite easy, and students who had rigorously solved and analysed the SimCATs would have sailed through this section.Overall, an easy CAT with cut-offs that would probably go higher than last year, especially in PS and VA.

Quant Cutoff: 32-35

DI Cutoff: 32-35

Verbal Cutoff: 46-49

Overall Cutoff: 120 – 140

TIME’s CAT 2008 Answer Key

>> T.I.M.E CAT 2008 Analysis

TIME’s take on the CAT:

* QA was similar to CAT07 but of a higher difficulty level. This section had fewer questions on Arithmetic.  Cutoff -> 18 ± 2

* L & DI was of a similar level of difficulty as CAT07. This was a classical DI paper with sets on DI as well as Logic puzzles. Cutoff-> 32 ± 2

* Verbal was less subjective than last year. Level of vocabulary was higher. Cutoff-> 42 ± 2

Overall Cutoff -> 125 ± 3

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Note: This post will be updated dynamically as more information comes out.