To help you get ready for your D-Day, MBAUniverse.com presents a first-person account of a candidate who took the CAT 2013 exam on Day 1, October 16. Candidate’s account of his CAT 2013 experience follows:
“My date with CAT was on the cool morning of the Wednesday, October 16, the first session of CAT 2013. As I walked closer to the test centre at Jaipuria Institute of Management in Noida, my test centre, the first thing I saw were the displayed banners ‘ CAT 2013 – Test Centre’ to enable the candidates to locate their designated examination centre.
I reached the centre early at 7.50. A few candidates were already there…
Candidates began to arrive even before 8.00 A.M. for fear of traffic jams and to ensure the timely arrival at the examination centre, the gates of which were supposed to be opened before one and a half hour of the beginning of the test, scheduled at 10.00 A.M. The gates for the first session could, however, be opened with a delay of ten minutes yet didn’t mark any hindrance as the turnout was low. The staff was wearing CAT 2013 marked jackets and was more than pleased to guide you to the process. Most of the candidates, who came to take the test, were the first timers who wanted to experience the difficulty level in the test, trainers or those who wished to prepare for other entrance examinations after CAT.
Vehicles, except those of test organising team and invigilators at the centre, had to be parked outside the examination venue. The friends and relatives who accompanied their wards to the centre either had to wait outside or went away as they were not allowed the entry inside the premises. Another problem that came up was to those who had helmets and couldn’t find a place to keep them. Helmets were not allowed to be carried inside the examination centres. Security check also consumed a good deal of time. There were three test centre personnel to cross examine the Admit cards and identification documents of the candidates. A queue was formed to frisk the Candidates one by one after checking their documents. Some of the candidates carried more than the required documents and found it difficult to manage them. It was also made abundantly clear on the CAT website as well as in the published article on MBAUniverse.com site ‘Last Minute Tips to CAT 2013’ not to carry any other small or big articles as apart from your Admit cards and identification documents, nothing will be allowed inside the testing room, although arrangements to keep small articles in a plastic bag was provided, away from the testing room.
Despite all the guidelines, a few candidates chose to carry with them, some articles as large as laptop bags. They had to face tough time at security check and even had to come back to the guard room at entry gates, requesting them to take care of their bags or so. Guards were also not in a position to oblige them as officially they couldn’t do it. Some of them went out to find a place to keep their belongings while those who had comparatively smaller bags, could manage through security check. Those who have to appear in CAT in forthcoming days should take note of this.
After the security check, every candidate had to go to the area assigned to deposit the articles he or she was carrying, except the Admit card and identification documents. The place was away from the testing room, a plastic bag was provided to keep the mobile phone in switched off mode, wrist watch and pen, any other type of stationery, spectacles’ case, vehicle keys and whatever else he or she was carrying. Some of the candidates were carrying very expensive mobile phones and wearing expensive wrist watches. They were hesitating to deposit such valuable items in simple plastic bags. Test centre doesn’t own the responsibility in case of any loss due to any reason nor do they give you any list of what you have deposited. A token against the bag was issued to the candidate to collect the items on completion of the examination.
As per my experience I will suggest you to read the guidelines before hand and not to carry anything which may not be required. Valuables are not supposed to be carried along. Candidates were found, rushing out to get their articles from those unsecured plastic bags, when the examination ended. Some of the candidates found their things turned upside down due to the rush, although staff members were trying their best to help the candidates. Now was the time for check in. Most of the candidates preferred to go to the rest room before proceeding for Check-in. The reason was that there was yet another queue for this check in and no one was supposed to go to the rest room, once the doors of the testing room were closed 30 minutes prior to the test.
Only the Admit card and identification documents were allowed beyond this point of depositing the articles. There were three computers and one by one, the candidates had to stand before a computer to get their image and finger prints captured. The procedure was carried out to verify the identity of the candidates.
This procedure didn’t take long and immediately after that, the candidates were escorted in the same order to the designated work station in the testing lab. There were three Test Centre Administrators (TCA) who were signing in every candidate. The image of the test taker appeared on the computer screen, when he was signed in.
There was more than 40 minutes waiting time for the examination to begin and other candidates were gradually coming inside the testing lab. Those who wanted to visit the rest room during this period, were allowed and when they were escorted back to the work station, their admit cards and identification documents were checked again, although a little quickly. The doors of the testing lab were closed before 30 minutes to the beginning of the Test; however a few candidates were still allowed to come in.
The work station was blocked on three sides and no was allowed to look around. There were instructions being issued on various do’s and don’ts during the examination. All the candidates were provided with two pencils, one eraser and scratch paper. All these were to be returned on completion of the examination.
There was tutorial available but the practice test was not there to have hands on practice. Everyone was asked to go through the tutorial before the examination. The 15 minutes tutorial was good enough to understand the navigation tools, ‘mark’, ‘unmark’, ‘review’ etc. buttons. It indicated the question numbers appearing at the top centre of the screen while the remaining time was indicated by the timer at the top right.
My test began half an hour late i.e. at 10.30 A.M. and before beginning the test a disclosure agreement appeared on the screen, which had to be clicked on ‘I agree’. The first section appeared with Quant and DI questions; 30 questions had to be solved in 70 minutes. There were 20 questions on Quantitative Ability and 10 questions on Data Interpretation. Candidates, in accordance with their learning experience, found Quant a little more difficult in the first session of CAT 2013 and DI comparatively easy but confusing. There were more geometry based questions, so the expert in this area did well. Overall this section was doable. There were no technical snags during any session and exam continued with no obstacles. A few of the candidates were not feeling comfortable with Quant and couldn’t go beyond 14-16 questions in this section. CAT doesn’t allow moving from the first section to second section, before completion of 70 minutes, assigned to it.
The second section comprising Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning took some time in loading but timer didn’t start till the first question appeared. Again there were 30 questions to be solved in 70 minutes. Questions were good in verbal section with LOD 2. There was no surprise element also. Average attempted questions by the candidates were 20-24.
The test ended at 12.50 P.M. without any major technical snag. There were some candidates who forgot to unmark their answer options, however it doesn’t matter much because CAT treats such questions as answered.
Overall experience of the first day - first show was pleasant. I would advice candidates, going for CAT in coming days to take care of all the avoidable problems, so that they may not have to run here and there before the examination.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more news and update son CAT 2013
