Time Factor in CAT 2014 New pattern; 5 important things to meet the expectation

Add Review

MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
August 19, 2014
CAT 2014 expects from aspirants to manage the time constraints with a well devised preparation strategy.
CAT 2014 aspirants are expected to shed the greed of solving only those questions which they like in a particular section.

Going to appear in CAT 2014 with hard and meticulous preparation based on past trends! Well, sure march on. But CAT 2014 proposes to move away from the past pattern and the test will be coming to you with many changes in its pattern.

The changes are not only in the process of registration, choosing the test centre but also the duration and pattern of test coupled with more overall but less per question time has also been changed substantially. MBAUniverse.com had already anticipated and shared many changes and surprises in CAT 2014. The most important change in the duration and pattern of CAT 2014 has to be managed judiciously in a well planned manner.

CAT 2014 expects from aspirants to manage the time constraints with a well devised preparation strategy. It’s not only one change but a set of changes in CAT 2014. In view of Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability for CAT 2014 preparation, the analysis of reasons and implications of this new attire of CAT 2014 reveals that not only CAT 2014 has been shifted from October to November, its number of sessions have also been reduced from 40 to 4.

The 20 days CAT is now 2 days CAT.  The reason is obvious that no more speculation time is granted to speculate as to what will and will not happen in next many sessions. The major implication and expectation from CAT aspirants is that they should devote themselves more on preparation and focus on the test instead of trying to make choices among various dates and sessions.

Preparation: the main Focus 

Now the aspirants are supposed to appear in CAT 2014 with greater preparation level on more topics; with well prepared strategy to manage the time duration to match 100 questions in 170 minutes and with clear understanding of managing the time while moving between the sections.

Now CAT 2014 is more or less similar to other prominent entrance tests like XAT, IIFT, CMAT with the only exception that it has no section on General Knowledge and the test is purely computer based.

CAT 2014: Game of fitness

You might ask the earlier CAT takers how they felt while coming out of the testing room after spending 140 minutes to solve 60 questions. On the top of it, reporting one hour before the test and not being allowed any break during the test also had been quite an issue. In case any technical problem emerged in between, the flow of cracking the questions also got interrupted and the testing time increased.

It appeared as if you had drained your head during the test and your patience was on the verge of giving up.

CAT 2014 doesn’t find it enough and now you are expected to be tested for more time. While 170 minutes is the testing duration other factors may or may not remain the same. So you need to keep yourself fit in all respects. How you do it has to be decided now because now you are supposed to invest much more time. It is not necessary that the test centre might be near to your residence, it may take more travel time, so include that one also. Keep your body healthy with a healthy mind which is the need till you are through CAT 2014 final admission round.

Extend your study hours: key to do more in less time

You are expected to learn the art of studying for more hours. Not only studying but also devoting more time to practice sessions especially the computer based tests, is what you have to learn. So be computer savvy. Although no one can study for 24 hours, you have to begin now and gradually improve your study hours with no breaks.

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 past CAT papers without any break and assess yourself.

Time management: Overcome the constraint

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. Earlier 60 difficult questions had to be attempted in CAT but the proportionate available time was also more. Now even in case the difficulty level remains the same you are not left with the same standard of time.

CAT 2014 expects the aspirants to improve their speed with accuracy in the testing room and this could come to you with practicing more questions of the same difficulty level and deploying efforts to reduce the time in solving them gradually in next 2 months.

 Drop the greed: May take you out of the race

CAT 2014 is coming to you with a welcome change of allowing movement from section to another. You were not allowed in earlier CAT exams to switch over or come back to and from one section to another before or after completion of time. But the facility has many riders so beware.

The freedom of moving from section to other sounds good 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. 

CAT 2014 aspirants are expected to shed the greed of solving only those questions which they like in a particular section. They are expected to maximize their attempts within the given time frame and select questions from both the sections in a balanced manner. Please remember CAT 2014 has given you freedom to switch to either of the sections but you will be weighed on balanced sectional percentile. Hence both the sections are equally important.

It is not advisable to scan the entire test paper again and again only because you have the freedom to go through it any number of times. You will be wasting your precious time as well as will be getting more confused, if you are unable to systematically solve the questions.

Be open to the test

Never enter the testing room with a thought that you will be able to solve a fixed number of questions only out of 100. 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, high percentile will be waiting for you.

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.

Related links.

Petty mistakes that create chaos in CAT 2014 Registration process; know how to get rid of

Do not miss the chance to enter IIM; CAT 2014 offers more chances this year

Speed Accuracy will be the big factor to ace CAT 2014 new exam pattern with 99+ percentile

Next 52 days of CAT 2014 Registration: What should Dr Rohit Kapoor Expect?

CAT 2014: How alarming with tricky questions will be the CAT new pattern

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