Registration for CAT 2014 came to an end just a minute before midnight on September 30, 2014. CAT 2014 aspirants who have successfully registered for CAT 2014 should now focus their preparation for the testing day. To gear up for the D day CAT 2014 aspirants must know well the key facts and changes that they are going to face in CAT 2014 test.
Successful completion of launching stage: Big achievement
The ‘aspirant friendly’ fully online registration process for CAT 2014 was launched on August 6, 2014 and remained open for 56 days except for a few hours from 8 PM on Sep 28 to 11 AM on Sep 29, 2014 when the registration site remained closed for maintenance.
However, when CAT 2014 registration site reopened on September 29, 2014 it brought with it the solutions to all the problems and confusions being faced by the CAT 2014 aspirants. http://www.mbauniverse.com/article/id/7987/CAT-2014-age-bar. All the questions and queries raised by MBAUniverse.com on behalf of CAT 2014 aspirants who were not able to register due to various confusions and glitches were responded well by IIMs.
Since new FAQs were added to CAT 2014 registration site and only one day remained for CAT 2014 registration to close, aspirants were expecting the extension of last date for CAT 2014 registration process. MBAUniverse.com forwarded this query of the aspirants to Dr Rohit Kapoor, convener, CAT 2014 to know whether there was any move to extend the last date for CAT 2014 registration process. Dr Kapoor promptly responded and advised that there was no such move.MBAUniverse.com took care to immediately publish and convey the message to all concerned about ‘No extension in last date of CAT 2014 registration’. http://www.mbauniverse.com/article/id/7988/CAT-2014-No-extension Dr Rohit Kapoor deserves congratulations for successful completion of the CAT 2014 launching stage which was more ‘aspirant friendly’ and ‘more transparent’.
5 Key facts to gear up for D day
After the successful completion of CAT 2014 registration process, now the aspirants have to focus on D day which may be November 16 or 22, 2014, depending upon the availability of preferred test city, date and time slot. Earlier aspirants could select their test date, centre of exam, time slot but this facility doesn’t exist now and CAT 2014 aspirants will be advised about the test date, test centre and session by IIMs on October 16, 2014.
CAT 2014 has proposed number of key changes in the process and pattern of conducting the CAT 2014 exam. All the aspirants are supposed to know and understand how they should gear up for the testing day.
Your Admit Card: Wait till October 16, 2014
Admit cards for CAT 2014 will be available on or after October 16, 2014. Your admit card will contain the details of your test date, test city, session and centre. CAT 2014 aspirants should check the details on admit card, download the same and take print out since the same will have to be carried to the test centre on the D day.
CAT 2014: More questions in less time
The big change in CAT 2014 is that the aspirants will have 100 questions instead of 60 as appeared in earlier CAT sessions. Although number of sections will remain two, number of testing questions in each section will be increased from 30 in CAT 2013 to 50 in CAT 2014. It means total number of questions in both the sections taken together will be 100 since CAT is divided in 2 sections vis. Quant & DI; Verbal & LR.
With the increase in number of questions, time to solve CAT 2014 also stands increased from 140 minutes to 170 minutes i.e. 85 minutes per section. Overall time is not doubt increased but per question time to solve stands reduced from 2.3 minutes to 1.7 minute which will need more practice, more speed and more accuracy.
Sectional time constraints gone in CAT 2014
Facility of navigation between the 2 test sections in CAT 2014 will be available. Till CAT 2013 candidates could not go to 2nd section of Verbal prior to completion of 70 minutes allotted to solve the 1st section of Quant nor could they come back to 1st section once they had switched over to 2nd section.
In CAT 2014 aspirants would be allowed to move from one section to another (forward-backward) during the testing duration of 170 minutes without any restriction. The removal of sectional time constraint will be more useful for those who complete one of the two sections faster than the other. Time saved in one section can be utilized in other section.
CAT 2014 practice test: Wait is not yet over
CAT has not yet shared the practice test. The same is expected to be made available by the IIMs on CAT 2014 site in mid October 2014.
In earlier CAT years, the practice test was made available with the launching of registration process. It appears that due to big changes and modifications in CAT 2014 exam pattern, practice test is getting delayed. Nonetheless, CAT 2014 aspirants will have about one month to go through the practice test after it is made live on CAT 2014 site.
Will miss the advance tutorial in testing room
The 15 minutes advance tutorial on testing pattern which used to be available till CAT 2013, will be missing in CAT 2014. All the CAT 2014 aspirants should practice the practice test available on CAT 2014 site after mid October 2014. Good practice, well in advance and before the testing day will make them conversant with the testing pattern and type of questions, number of options and their answering pattern.
Important tips
Prof S K Agarwal, Verbal Ability expert on CAT preparation shares that the changes in CAT 2014 are expected to be moderate and advises CAT 2014 takers to improve their reading speed and accuracy level to crack CAT 2014. He suggests the CAT 2014 aspirants to remember the following tips
-CAT 2014 will have no restriction and you will be permitted to solve any of the 100 questions from any section during the overall time limit of 170 minutes. With this changed pattern, you should go for revised computer based Mocks which contain 100 questions covering more topics and usage.
-Scoring pattern is expected to be slightly different in CAT 2014. So prepare and practice in the manner that you focus on the both the sections in a balanced manner. Balanced high sectional percentile is more important than overall high percentile. Therefore during your practice sessions, keep a clock with you and find out periodically how many questions from each of the sections you have solved.
-More questions may be based on more topics. So wide coverage on topics will be available to opt for and attempt
-No need to solve all the questions in CAT 2014. Focus on 60-70 questions with no constraints in navigation from one section to other. You will then have more than 2 minutes per question.
Related Links
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more preparation tips on CAT 2014
