CAT 2014: How can aspirants adapt and accept new CAT Exam Pattern

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
August 7, 2014
Despite the perceptible changes, CAT has always been the aspirants' most favourite of all the MBA/PGDM entrance tests
In comparison to 240 questions in 120 minutes, CAT 2014 aspirants will be on much better level playing field with 100 questions in 170 minutes

Evolution of Common Admission Test (CAT), the entrance exam to IIMs and other top rated B schools has been going on since its beginning and despite the perceptible changes CAT has always been the aspirants’ most favourite of all the MBA/PGDM entrance tests conducted in the country. No other test than CAT gets around 2 lakhs registrations despite its high level of difficulty. Prof S K Agarwal, expert on CAT preparation shares the legacy of CAT changes and determination of CAT aspirants to come out with flying colours.

 

 

 

Accept the challenge of change in CAT 2014

 

CAT test takers have never shied away from accepting the challenges of change in CAT even when it switched over from paper pencil mode to an on-line computer based test in 2009, the year that saw number of technical glitches which made the test takers sit before their computers throughout the test day.

 

 

 

You adapted to updated CAT earlier; nothing new now

 

CAT aspirants have been able to adapt not only to changes in exam pattern but emerged as winners when CAT increased or decreased number of questions as well as test sections. Face of CAT that changed from multiple sections containing 240 questions to be answered in 120 minutes to 3 sections with 80 questions and with very high difficulty level although time allotted was increased, was not only accepted by the aspirants but the results showed very high scores were secured by the test takers in the respective years despite the changes.

 

The message from aspirants has always been very clear ‘come what may, we will fight to win’ and it has been happening year after year.

 

After going green CAT aspirants were again thrown before different CAT. It has only been 3 years 2011, 2012 & 2013 during which CAT continued on the same pattern. But again in 2012, CAT sprang up with surprise questions like ‘out of context sentence in a paragraph’ the challenge was again accepted by the aspirants and they adapted themselves to such unanticipated level of difficulty.

 

CAT 2014 has again announced increase in number of questions from 60 to 100 and undoubtedly, the change in pattern is again a challenge before the CAT 2014 aspirants which they will accept in the right spirit and with a few expert tips on how to modify their preparation strategy they will surely adapt to this revised pattern.

 

Normalize your heartbeats; take the bull by the horns

 

Heart beats of CAT 2014 aspirants have increased with the opening of Registration process on August 6, 2014. Now despite being busy in gathering the required information for registration to CAT 2014, aspirants are raising the query whether they would be able to cope with the changed new pattern of CAT 2014.

 

How can the aspirants adapt and accept the revised version of CAT 2014 exam is shared for the benefit of CAT 2014 test takers by CAT verbal ability expert Prof S K Agarwal.

Although CAT 2014 has not yet shared the practice test on its site, it has already shared its intention to overhaul the test pattern by bringing about substantial changes in number of questions in each section, total allotted time and testing window. The good aspect is that you have the freedom to move between the two sections and the bad news is that you will need more concentration to drain your brain for continuously 170 minutes without break.

 

But,why to worry! In comparison to 240 questions in 120 minutes, CAT 2014 aspirants will be on much better level playing field with 100 questions in 170 minutes.   CAT aspirants had belled the CAT in the decade of 1980’s and they will do it again in CAT 2014.

 

 

 

Practice the constraint of Time management

 

So far 60 difficult questions had to be attempted in CAT but the proportionate available time was also more. Now in case the difficulty level remains the same in CAT 2014 the time per question stands reduced by 1 minute and this by any standard is an alarming call for time management. Even if there is slight downward move in difficulty level, it may not be so helpful unless more and more practice on different type of questions is done.

 

The suggestion therefore is to practice more questions of the same difficulty level and try to reduce the time in solving them gradually.

 

 

 

No big changes in topics; source of questions to be the same

 

No substantial change in source topics is anticipated. The only anticipation is that more questions will be extracted from some forgotten topics or forgotten type of questions can be asked also. Besides there could be some twist in questions. This trend can mark a little different pattern which has not been present in CAT so far.

 

Aspirants are advised to practice on following topics more as they could become the source of increased number of questions.

 

Source Topics on Reading Comprehension- Read and practice more topics on Philosophy, Business, Economics, Analysis of national and international events. 6-7 questions may increase on RC alone. Unless you practice more on RC you may lose a great chunk of marks

 

Source Topics on Fundamentals- Understand the concept of various parts of speech, tenses, long word formation, phrasal verbs. Around 3-4 questions are expected to increase on them

 

Source Topics on Quant- Learn well the remainder theorem, number system, time speed distance, geometry, permutation combination and probability. We can also expect questions from indices surds, logs, progression, averages and profit loss. There are 13-15 more questions expected on Quant in CAT 2014

 

Source Topics on Data Interpretation-5-8 more information rich bar diagrams, graphs and pie charts can be expected in CAT 2014. Improve your calculation and comparison speed and practice it more to remain consistent with the revised CAT 2014 pattern.

 

Source Topics on Logical Reasoning- 5 to 7 more questions on prominent topics like seating arrangements; sets, blood relations, direction, assumption, premise –conclusion, team formation are expected  in CAT 2014. All these topics have earlier appeared also, so the aspirants shouldn’t mind practicing them further but with the focus on time management

 

 

 

Be adaptable to question twists

 

Another big change in CAT 2014 is anticipated in the form of twist in questions. No doubt CAT has been asking questions on more or less similar pattern with one or two surprise elements in one or other year.

 

But why to expect a monotonous exam? Shouldn’t CAT ask you some twisted questions  like ‘Find out the first sentence of given paragraph’ instead of ‘Last sentence of Paragraph’; ‘finding out the contextual sentence’ instead of ‘out of context sentence’ in a paragraph; ‘finding the incorrect part out of 5 parts in a sentence’ instead of asking ‘correct the underlined part of the sentence’ or ‘finding the correct/incorrect sentences in a paragraph’

 

If you know the concept, if you can solve one type of question you can solve the other type too. The need is to know the topic and the process how to solve.

 

Aspirants, at least for CAT 2014, should prepare for different type of questions on all the old and new topics and should practice as much as possible. Please do not take it for granted that this year in CAT 2014 difficulty level will be low and questions will be on similar pattern.

 

Learn the art of sitting for long hours

 

CAT aspirants especially who may not sit and study continuously for long hours, need to develop this habit and should start studying at least for 3 hours in a row. If they find it difficult, they should gradually improve but the target should be 4 hours. If you focus on it, you may end up finally with 3 hours. It will be better to take 2 past CAT papers without any break and assess yourself.

 

 

 

Have an open mind

 

Don’t think that you will be able to solve a fixed number of questions only out of 100. If you are afraid of some particular type of questions, try to improve on them now. If you are unable to overcome your weakness, don’t waste your time and focus on other topic questions.

 

 

 

Cracking all 100 is not required

 

With the increased number of questions all the CAT aspirants are feeling apprehensive. So you are not alone. Out of earlier 60 questions, when candidates could crack 20-23 in each section they had the probability to score very high percentile. Now with the reduced time, if you can crack 35 correct in each section, you will be on same standard. In nutshell the piece of advice is make more attempts and solve maximum questions with accuracy.

 

 

 

Avoid the free ride!

 

Freedom of moving from section to another appears sounding musical but it could be a trap also. If you go on solving questions only from one section, it’s quite possible that you miss many such questions from other section that you could have solved. This will reduce your sectional percentile. Low sectional percentile may result in not getting shortlisted for final admission round.  So beware of the free ride and manage between both the sections.

 

 

 

Keep yourself physically and mentally fit

 

No work or over work- both are not good. Whatever you can do to keep yourself physically fit, please do whether it is your diet plan, morning or evening exercise schedule. A healthy body with a healthy mind is the need till you are through CAT 2014 final admission round.

 

No one can study for 24 hours (exceptions are of course there but with side effects) nor do we want any side effects that could deteriorate our preparation tempo. Hence begin now and gradually improve your study hours without compromising your physical health.

 

 

 

Key idea

 

-For More questions, more topics from within the syllabus will be included in CAT 2014. Go for the last 10-15 years past CAT papers, check what has not appeared for quite some time and prepare the same also.

 

-Updated and revised Mocks should be taken after a fortnight or so. Don’t forget to solve all the questions of CAT 2014 practice test going to be live in a few days.

 

 

 

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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more preparation tips on CAT 2014