Since the year 2009 when CAT went green, 2013 could be recorded in the CAT history as the year of smooth and successful completion of examination during the five years as it had less disruption, less technical snags, least number of question errors, a very balanced test and above all had no surprising elements.
The Indian Institutes of Management and its CAT testing partner, Prometric have shared with MBA Universe that a total of 194,516 candidates completed testing in 76 secure test centres across 40 cities over a 20-day testing window from 16 October to 11 November 2013.
All candidates who appeared with proper documentation and on-time successfully completed their tests. In view of Prof Rohit Kapoor, convenor of CAT 2013 “This year’s testing window was conducted smoothly and we will announce results early in 2014”. Aspirants who appeared in CAT 2013 also admit that in comparison to past CAT examination, it was a smooth exercise.
CAT 2013 Results:
CAT 2013 result is scheduled to be announced on Tuesday, January 14, 2014. CAT 2013 candidates can view their results on MBAUniverse.com with their roll number, username and password. The CAT 2013 result score card will be valid between January 14, 2014 and December 31, 2014.
Five key Trends of CAT 2013:
1. Attendance in CAT 2013
The fear of facing the unanticipated in CAT 2013 probably refrained a large number of test takers from scheduling their examination in the early days of the test window and the number was as low as four to six thousand in the initial four sessions. The number gradually increased after two days.
Day three had more than seven thousand candidates while day four saw a good number of more than ten thousand. Surprisingly, on day five and six the test takers were again reduced to five and six thousand. It was day seven that again saw an increasing trend which continued to day 19 during which the number of aspirants remained from 10 to 14 thousand.
The aspirants tried to fully utilise the Diwali holidays to go for more practice on the eve of the test. Looking at the past sessions, they expected a moderate and doable examination in the middle and towards the end of CAT 2013. However, this year CAT didn’t disappoint anyone. Again moving towards the concluding sessions on day 20, there were few test takers left and as such only 5088 candidates appeared on the last day of CAT 2013.
2. Less aspirants- tough competition
Number of registered female candidates in CAT 2013 was 29 percent which was higher than the registration of females in CAT 2012. However, total number of CAT test takers in 2013 was reduced by about twenty thousand, although competition for entrance to most coveted B schools remained as tough as it was supposed to be. According to Prof S.K. Agarwal, expert and seasoned CAT trainer ‘this reduction in number is insignificant as the competition in CAT remains among the serious test takers. CAT is the most sought after MBA entrance examination and will remain like that’.
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3. A balanced CAT
CAT 2013 maintained the dignifying glory of the past. The difficulty level of the questions among the two sections was balanced from moderate to difficult. The test had either a difficult Verbal or difficult quant section. But in all the sessions during the entire CAT window of 20 days from 16.10.2013 to 11.11.2013 one or other section was comparatively less difficult and was doable and this did the balancing act. This ensured that the overall difficulty level was balanced and not skewed towards a particular section and this has been the most striking feature throughout CAT 2013.
Geometry and Algebra played more prominent role in Quantitative Ability. A few common questions in RC section of Verbal Ability like ‘tone of the passage’, ‘Main idea of the passage’, ‘what would you ask the author of the passage’ were present and constituted 60 percent of questions in this section. Two to three questions on completion of last sentence of paragraph; two questions on jumbled paragraphs and one question on picking out the out of context sentence contributed to steal the show in Verbal Ability section. Simple vocabulary words like fast, jump, stand, let figured in this section in the form of phrasal verbs.
Data Interpretation and Logical reasoning were quite simple in a few sessions and a bit difficult in other sessions. If DI was difficult, LR compensated for it; if LR was tricky and lengthy DI was better to attempt.
On an estimate, aspirants may expect similar percentile cut off during the entire CAT window which had almost equal difficulty level.
4. Surprise Element
Aspirants took a sigh of relief when they didn’t find any fresh surprise element in the CAT 2013 although the surprise of CAT 2012 in Verbal Ability section was repeated. Candidates were asked to pick out the out of context sentence from a jumbled paragraph. MBAUniverse.com in its various articles already apprised of this fact and urged the CAT aspirants to practice more on this type of questions and jumbled paragraphs which in CAT 2013 comprised 5 to 6 questions in this section. –‘How to crack surprise questions in Verbal section for CAT 2013’
The level of difficulty, as admitted by numerous aspirants, was not so high in CAT 2013 as it was in CAT 2012 which in fact will motivate more aspirants to go for CAT in 2014.
Prepare for XAT 2014, IIFT, NMAT, SNAP, IBSAT
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5. Disruption in CAT 2013
Entire test window went on smoothly and no major technical snag was reported. However, on October 28, 2013, the first session of CAT witnessed a question in Data interpretation which was followed by erroneous answer options. According to Prometric, CAT 2013 test partner to IIMs, the question would impact 2.5 percent of the candidates and fair treatment to all the affected ones has been assured. Except this CAT 2013 has been a smooth process.
Overall experience of CAT 2013, as reported from various quarters and sections has been smooth and in the coming years, we hope, it will improve further.
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