Announcement of CAT 2014 and proposed changes in its test pattern with more number of questions has raised various queries in the minds of CAT aspirants. One of the most prominent queries which goes on haunting the aspirants is what will be the composition of CAT 2014 test paper and what topics will get prominence in the test.
According to the CAT 2014 notification and confirmation from Dr Rohit Kapoor, IIM Indore faculty and CAT 2014 convener CAT 2014 will have 100 as compared to 60 questions in 2 sections in past years. 20 questions have been added in each of the two sections of test. Besides duration of the test has also been increased to 170 minutes in CAT 2014 from 140 minutes earlier. So CAT 2014 will have a total of 50 questions for Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation section and another 50 for Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning section.
The biggest question now!
Now the biggest question is what would be major topics which will become the source of these increase number of questions in CAT 2014. The test paper size is increased by 66% in CAT 2014 and division of questions with a view to enhancing the value of CAT in each of the sections is not an easy task. On the top of it CAT has no fixed and predefined Syllabus. Every CAT, even in its earlier size of 60 questions brought surprises for the aspirants with tremendous twist in questions on different topics.
Now with an increased size like that of CMAT/XAT/IIFT, should CAT 2014 bring with it unanticipated type of questions or should remain on its past pattern that too with moderate level of difficulty since it is the first CAT being conducted by an IIM in partnership with TCS, is a difficult puzzle to solve.
IIM and TCS are silent but experts reveal
On enquiring about the reasons behind increasing the number of questions, topic sources on additional CAT 2014 questions, CAT conducting IIM very smartly evaded the query the constraints of which MBAUniverse.com also knows well.
CAT 2014 aspirants may also not expect this information from the testing agency TCS who will live the exam pattern after a few days. The expected information on CAT 2014 site is that they will share the name & composition of sections, total number of questions in each section, time allotted, marks allotted per question, penalty standards for negative marking and some advisory by the CAT convening IIM and testing agency TCS.
Not being very hopeful of getting the information from IIM and TCS about the appropriate syllabus topics that could form the basis of increased number of questions in CAT 2014, MBAUniverse.com shared the CAT 2014 aspirants’ concern in this regard with the experts who although took some time but came out with certain expected topic sources that should form the chunk of 66% more questions in each section.
Prominent Topics on Verbal Ability
Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability preparation for CAT has brought out some important facts and shares the important topics that should form the base of additional 20 questions in CAT 2014. Going by the trends in CAT he analyses that Verbal Ability section has so far constituted two subsections consisting of 30 questions. The 3 major constituents to this section are Questions on Verbal Ability, Reading comprehension passages and Logical Reasoning.
The composition of Verbal Ability section so far
• 10 questions on core usage of English language that included questions on Error correction in sentences and paragraphs; questions on vocabulary usage which included questions on contextual usage of synonyms, similar and confused words, different usage of a word from common usage; filling in the blanks with a pair of vocabulary words; questions on randomly placed jumbled sentences and placing them in a coherent manner; completion of last sentence of a paragraph; picking the out of context sentence from a jumbled paragraph.
• 10 questions were based on Reading comprehension passages. There used to be 3 English RC passages out of which 2 had a length size of 800-900 words while one was of about 1000-1100 words. Passage with greater length was followed by 4 questions whereas other 2 passages were followed by 3 questions each. One common question asking the ‘tone of the passage’ found its place in almost all the sessions and for all the passages, implying there could be 3 questions of the same type and any CAT aspirant with a little more practice could solve them well.
• 10 questions in this section were based on Logical Reasoning. The number could vary by 1-2 questions when number of questions on core Verbal Ability were increased from 10 to 11 or 12. This asked for reduction in questions in other part of the section and LR was the obvious choice since CAT wouldn’t like to reduce the questions on RC. Prominent topics on LR have been seating arrangements; sets, blood relations, direction, assumption, premise –conclusion, team formation.
CAT getting similar to other tests
CAT 2014 is now expected to take the form like other major MBA entrance tests and may add questions on new and forgotten topics. Other online management entrance tests like NMAT, CMAT, SNAP and paper pencil based ones like XAT, IIFT have a similar composition of exam with slightly lower and higher number of questions in Verbal Ability/English or Language Comprehension or by whatever name they call it.
So far CAT has been the only test with fewer questions to be solved in more time. There were 60 questions in all and 20+10 questions on Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning respectively in past CAT years. On the other hand, other management entrance exams have a pattern of not less than 100 questions with total time allotted to solve the test in a range of 120 minutes to 180 minutes. While CMAT places 100 questions, IIFT 125+ questions, XAT 100+ questions and all these important tests have 25 to 35 questions on Verbal Ability (English comprehension). Besides none of these tests restrict the aspirants from moving to and fro among any sections. Candidates are supposed to solve the entire test in the given time slot for the test.
The announcement for CAT 2014 is going in same direction- 100 questions in 170 minutes. So the issue on managing the time in CAT 2014 will more or less be the same as in other tests. Since the weightage to sectional percentile also exists in other tests it will be there in CAT 2014 too.
Expected major topics on Verbal for additional questions in CAT 2014
With the expected similarity of CAT 2014 to all these exams, should the composition of Verbal Ability questions also be expected on the same lines in CAT 2014? Now we have to gather some facts and figures and based on its analysis can at least predict a few major topics that could constitute the source of additional questions in this section.
Whether the increased number of questions would maintain the same ratio of topics in Verbal Ability or change it, may not be known unless CAT 2014 is attempted. Despite this fact the expected composition could be understood with simple calculation
7-8 questions on RC may increase
Ratio of questions based on Reading Comprehension questions in all the leading examinations with 100 or more total questions is more than half of the verbal ability questions. So far there are 10 questions on Reading Comprehension in CAT constituting 33% part of this entire section and half of the Verbal Ability questions.
With the increase of 20 questions in this section an increase of around 7-8 questions on RC could be there. To increase this number it’s possible that 2 more RC passages are added in this section or the length of RC passages are substantially increased to form more questions on them.
2 more questions on error corrections
There have been one or two questions in past CAT sessions on correction of errors in sentences and paragraphs. It is expected that a few more such questions may be added to Verbal Ability section in CAT 2014.
3 More Vocab questions may have different pattern
There could be 3 more questions on usage of vocabulary. Apart from the regular question types that have been making their presence so far in CAT, aspirants may expect different types of questions on usage of synonyms and antonyms, phrasal verbs, proverbs, figures of speech and other contextual usage.
Expect 2 more questions on paragraphs
Questions on jumbled paragraphs may have a twist and along with ‘out of context’ type questions there may be questions on different types of jumbled sentences. The questions may take smaller shapes also with an increase in their number. Aspirants may also expect questions like picking out the first sentence of a paragraph along with the last sentence of the paragraph.
7 more LR questions in CAT 2014
10 questions on Logical reasoning may increase to 17 if the ratio of LR questions remains the same in 2nd section of CAT 2014. It’s better to prepare on different topics of Logical Reasoning as all the above cited topics are important and questions can be based on any of them.
Expected prominent topics on Quant
Till CAT 2013 composition of this section used to be of 20-22 questions on Quantitative Ability and 8-10 questions on Data interpretation. With the increase of 20 questions in this section, Mr Ankit Jindal, expert on Quant, shares the prominent & probable topics that might contribute more to the changed and enhanced number of questions in Quant section in CAT 2014.
35 questions can be expected only on Quant, out of which around 10 questions will be of easy to moderate difficulty level. Rest are expected to be moderate to difficult . But those who are clear with the concepts will be able to solve these. In CAT 2013 questions on remainder theorems were not there in most of the sets. This year we can expect questions from each chapter of the quant.
Majority number of questions are expected from number system, time speed distance, geometry, permutation combination and probability. We can also expect questions from indices surds, logs, progression, averages and profit loss.
15 Questions on Data Interpretation
In DI, we can expect 15-18 questions distributed over 4-5 sets. Sets can be based on Venn diagrams and pie charts and rest will be based on calculation. While 2 sets will be easier and rest will be slightly more difficult and calculation intensive also.
Experts suggest
In the opinion of experts aspirants should go through all the questions and pick the easy questions first as they will be distributed at random basis. So make sure that you don't leave any easy question. After this go through the moderate ones and at last pick the difficult ones.
Related Links
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How to get the best out of CAT 2014 exam changes, tips for CAT 2014 aspirants
CAT 2014 Exam Date: CAT exam will be held on two Days, Random selection of CAT test Centre
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more preparation tips for CAT 2014
