The time to get yourself tested has arrived. MBAUniverse.com brings the important do’s for the D-day, shared by Prof. S.K. Agarwal, expert and seasoned CAT trainer. It will be quite helpful to visit the CAT website to familiarise yourself with the rules and regulations and how to attempt the CAT 2013 in the examination hall. Please attend to the following guidelines, before getting ready for the examination.
Familiarise yourself to CAT
Prior to the examination day, you should devote half an hour to go through the Tutorial and Practice Test available on CAT Website. Please note that this practice Test will run only on those computers that are equipped with Internet Explorer 7 and higher and Mozilla Firefox version 3 and higher. So before moving ahead with it, please get your browser upgraded to these versions.
It is very important to become well versed with the navigation tools, so read and understand the guidelines given in the tutorial. How to use all the buttons like, ‘Mark’, ‘Unmark’, ‘Review’, ‘Next’, ‘Previous’, must be conceptually clear to you . Just like the real examination, you will find the timer clicking on the right hand upper corner of your screen in the practice test also. It will be the reminder to the time constraints in the test. Practicing this test before hand many times, will make you more confident and will save your time in the examination hall as well.
Required Documents
Keep the documents ready as they will allow you to enter the examination hall- your admit card, photo id and address proof as advised on the above referred site. If you have none, relax, it won’t take much of your time, go to a notary near your place with one passport size photograph and a non judicial stamp paper worth Rs. 10/-; get the affidavit prepared ( Amount may vary from state to state to get the Affidavit prepared) and the job is done. Affidavit format is available on CAT website under the sub-heading ‘Reporting for the test’; ‘candidate’s identification affidavit’. In addition to this, if SC/ST and/or DA documents are required, make sure they are with you as per the instructions in the above website.
To do list before arriving at Examination Centre
You are supposed to report at the examination centre 90 minutes before the scheduled time of examination i.e. if your examination begins at 10.00 A.M., you should arrive at the centre by 8.30 A.M.
Check the distance, mode of conveyance and time to cover this distance, to reach the examination centre. You are supposed to be absolutely clear on this aspect, so plan your travel accordingly. If you are an outsider, reach a day before and stay as near to the centre as possible. Guide map to reach the test centres may be found on the CAT website.
Security check at the Examination Centre
The check-in process will start one and a half hour before the examination. Keep your Admit card, identification documents and other required document ready for examination. You will be allowed to take only these documents inside the testing room.
If you are carrying any other small articles, like watch, mobile phone, stationery of any type, they will be kept and stored away from the testing room in small plastic bags. It is advisable not to carry bags or valuables to the testing centres as there may not be any facility to store them.
Inside the Testing Room
Entering the testing room, you will find a series of computers. You will have to sit before one of the computers to get yourself examined. It is called the Biometric check-in process where the candidate’s digital image and finger prints are captured in order to verify the identity in future course of selection process
On completion of this check-in, you will be guided to your assigned seat. Since other candidates are in the queue, you may have more waiting time. The doors of the testing lab (examination room) will be closed 30 minutes before actual beginning of the test.
It is advisable to go to the wash room before the doors are closed. Please note that, after the doors are closed and during the test period, you may not be allowed to go to the rest room.
A 15 minutes time will be given to go through the tutorial and practice test. Utilise it and refresh yourself.
Make optimum use of the pencils, eraser and scratch paper that will be provided to you for calculation and rough work during the examination. While going through the Reading comprehension passages note down important words and sentences, this will enable you to answer most of the questions based on RC passages.
During the Examination
Please remember not to look around when the examination begins. Your work station will be blocked on three sides, hence any activity to peep at other candidates will be captured on surveillance cameras and may render the candidate disqualified for the test.
Your first test section will be of ‘Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation’ with 30 questions to be solved in 70 minutes. Take more attempts and try to answer the questions with higher accuracy level. You have more than 160 seconds per question to answer, so just relax and maintaining your cool, improve your attempts. Don’t waste more time on one question. If time permits you may review it afterwards.
Please remember you cannot go to second section of the examination before the expiry of 70 minutes devoted to first section or if there is some technical snag, until the first section ends nor you can go back to first section once the time for it ends.
Second section of Verbal Ability and logical Reasoning will also have duration of 70 minutes. You are supposed to complete the test within that time. If you complete the examination before 70 minutes you should review the various answered you have selected. Please remember you will not be allowed to move out of the Testing-lab although you might have finished the test. It is therefore advisable end and quit the Test just 3 minutes before the time ends. You will have the timer ticking on your computer screen, so nothing to worry.
What to study on a day before CAT?
Most of the candidates try to read and practice more mocks etc. on the day before their examination, thinking it will help more. However, in view of the experts it sometimes becomes detrimental to your confidence level. Prof. S.K. Agarwal, expert in Verbal and seasoned CAT trainer suggests the candidates to refresh themselves and avoid any hard hitting practice sessions. Thorough reading of other published articles by him in Verbal series on types and tricks to solve CAT questions in Logical Reasoning ; Error correction in paragraphs and sentences ; Tips to solve 6 Vocabulary questions and How to score more in Reading Comprehension are of great help to the aspirants on preparation strategy during the next few days of their CAT examination.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more news and updates on CAT 2013
