IIM Calcutta officially announced CAT 2011, the entrance exam for the 13 IIMs and over 150 B-schools in India, on 25 July 2011. CAT 2011 will be held in a 20 day window between October 22, 2011 and November 18, 2011.
This year there are some changes in the pattern of the paper. CAT 2011 will have only two sections instead of the erstwhile three sections. The first section will focus on Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation; the second on Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning. There will be total 60 questions in the paper, 30 in each section. The duration of CAT 2011 will be 140 minutes.
These two sections will be implemented sequentially with separate time limits. The examination will be for 140 minutes. Candidates will have 70 minutes to answer 30 questions within each section which will have an on-screen countdown timer. Once the time ends for the first section, they will move to the second and will no longer be able to go back.
Prof. Janakiraman Moorthy, CAT 2011 Convener and Professor of Marketing at IIM Calcutta in an interview with MBAUniverse.com had said, “The reason why we have reduced the number of sections from three to two is because we want proficient students at our IIMs, who would be equally competent in both Quantitative Ability as well as Verbal Ability. Till last year we have seen many students who had skewed efficiency.”
According to top experts the new pattern is a welcome move. Arun Sharma, CAT expert, author of best selling CAT prep books, and IIM Bangalore alumnus, mentions that this new development will balance the sections.
“Previously, CAT was more like an engineering test and candidates from engineering background had the advantage. Now it will be balanced, as Quantitative Ability is clubbed with Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability section is clubbed with Logical Reasoning. This will also make attaining the cut-off easier as instead of three you need to attain the cut-off for only two sections.”
Gautam Puri, Vice Chairman, Career Launcher says that it will be an advantage for the test takers as they don’t have to think much about time allocation and strategizing. “Students should find it easier to solve the paper as they have to spend 70 minutes in each section. This will not lead to a skewed performance like giving maximum time to one’s strong sections and minimum time to the weaker sections leading to a skewed sectional percentile.”
According to Tony Xavier, Head Academics, IMS Learning Resources, this step is good for both the test takers as well as the test conductors point as it will help to filter out the actual competent candidate. “CAT 2011 will be able to filter out students who are equally better in all the sections,” he said.
To gauge the reactions to the change in CAT pattern for the 2011 exam MBAUniverse.com has recently raised the question: “New pattern of CAT 2011 exam is better than CAT 2010”. Till now, 57% respondents say that the change is welcome, whereas 32% are not in favour of the new pattern.
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