CAT 2015 exam notification, out in the wee hours today on July 26, 2015 in all leading newspapers has brought many firsts and changes in the scheduling, pattern and other details of the exam. Moving away from the past years, the notification shares number of surprises, changes in the process of registration, selection of test centre, conduct of test, duration of test, pattern of test, and declaration of result for CAT 2015.
Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 is the mandatory entrance exam for flagship PGP programmes 2016-18 in 19 present IIMs and other top B schools of India. IIM J&K is proposed to be added in 2016 also. CAT 2015 is convened by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad in partnership with testing agency TCS. Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay faculty and admission chairperson of IIM Ahmedabad is the convener of CAT 2015.
A month earlier Prof Tahtagata while sharing with MBAUniverse.com appeared very much concerned on the structure and content of CAT and proposed number of aspirant friendly changes in CAT 2015 to put it back to its pristine glory. Accordingly the CAT 2015 exam notification bears the reflection of all those changes.
MBAUniverse.com had already anticipated many changes and surprises in CAT 2015 with IIM Ahmedabad, the top B school of India at the helm of affairs to convene the exam. Besides, the change of guard in testing agency from Prometric to TCS in CAT 2014 has also equipped TCS with one year of experience of organizing the largest MBA/PGDM entrance exam leading to admission in IIMs and top B schools in India. It is estimated that around 200000 candidates would appear in CAT 2015 to explore admission opportunity in 20 IIMs, FMS, SPJIMR, JBIMS, NITIE, MDI, IMI, IMT, BIMTECH, TAPMI, Management courses at IITs and other top B schools. The intake in IIMs is also proposed to increase for the batch 2016-18 and it is expected that around 50000 candidates will be shortlisted by IIMs for final admission round on the basis of CAT 2015 scores and other shortlisting criteria as decided by the IIMs.
Appended are the 10 big changes that will happen in CAT 2015
Exam duration increased to 180 minutes
Duration of the CAT 2015 examination has been increased to 180 minutes instead of 170 minutes as offered in CAT 2014.
CAT 2015 to have 3 sections instead of 2
In a surprise movement from earlier CAT exams which used to have only 2 sections, CAT 2015 exam will have 3 sections, ‘Quantitative Aptitude (QA)’, ‘Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)’ and ‘Verbal and Reading Comprehension (VRC)’.
Although total number of questions will be 100 but they will be further divided in following pattern - QA and VRC will have 34 questions each, and DILR will have 32 questions.
Descriptive questions introduced
There will be descriptive questions also in CAT 2015. Some questions in each section may not be of multiple choice type. Instead, direct answers are to be typed on the screen.
Sectional time constraint re-introduced
Candidates will be allotted exactly 60 minutes for answering questions in each section and they cannot switch from one section to another while answering questions in a section.
The sectional time constraint which was applicable till CAT 2013 was removed in CAT 2014 and test takers were allowed to toggle between the 2 sections. However the sectional time limit is reintroduced in CAT 2015.
1 day CAT instead of longer testing window
CAT 2015 will be conducted in a single day testing window on November 29, 2015 in 2 sessions of morning and afternoon instead of 2 days in CAT 2014 or 20 days in CAT 2013. TCS was able to manage well the first CAT assigned to it in 2014 in the short testing window of 2 days and it is very much expected that it will be able to manage CAT 2015 in a single day without any technical glitches.
CAT 2015 will be a month late
CAT has the history of being conducted prominently in the month of October every year till 2013. CAT 2014 was conducted on Nov 16 & 22, 2014 and now CAT 2015 has been scheduled to be held even more late on November 29, 2015. Candidates will now have more days to prepare and practice well before taking the exam.
More Testing cities and sites
CAT 2015 is proposed to be held in the largest ever number of test cities and more testing labs. There will be 136 testing cities and 650 testing sites to accommodate higher number of test takers in a single day exam. There were 99 test cities and 354 testing sites in CAT 2014 while the test cities in CAT 2013 were only 40 with 76 testing sites. The difference in number of test cities and test venues was mainly due to the longer testing window of 20 test days in CAT 2013 and shorter testing window of 2 days in CAT 2014.
Similarly yet higher number of centres and cities have been planned to cope with the high number of CAT 2015 aspirants who are expected to take CAT 2015 in a single day across the country.
Shorter registration window in CAT 2015
CAT 2015 offers only 46 days registration window from Aug 6 to Sep 20, 2015 as against 56 days registration window in CAT 2014 which opened on Aug 6 but continued till Sep 30, 2014.
CAT 2015 is poised not to offer the facility of purchasing the off-line vouchers. All the CAT 2015 aspirants shall have to register themselves on line wef August 6 to September 20, 2015 by paying requisite registration fee of Rs.1600/- on-line only. In CAT 2014 the offline voucher facility was withdrawn although the dual facility of registration off-line as well as on-line was available in CAT 2013.
Choice of 4 test cities instead of 3
CAT 2015 aspirants have been offered to select 4 preferred test cities (Not testing centres) at the time of Registration. Earlier in CAT 2014 this facility was limited to 3 test cities. CAT 2015 aspirants cannot schedule their test on the preferred date as it will be a single day affair, nor can they finalize their choice of centre and session at the time of on-line Registration and filling up the application. This big facility was available till CAT 2013 but has been done away with since CAT 2014.
Out of these 4 chosen test cities the aspirant will be allotted one of the cities along with testing centre and session on random basis as per the availability after the last date for registration i.e. September 20, 2015 by the testing agency. So the choice is no more in the hands of the aspirant. Besides either of the 2 sessions can be allotted, so the facility of choosing the preferred session has also been withdrawn.
Late CAT 2015 result in 2nd week of January 2016
Instead of declaring the CAT 2015 result earlier than CAT 2014, IIM Ahmedabad the CAT 2015 convening IIM has announced that the result for the exam will be declared sometime in the 2nd week of January 2016.
CAT 2014 was the first CAT exam during past 6 years of CAT that the result was declared on December 27, 2014. Since computerization in 2009 CAT results were declared in the month of January. The same trend has again been introduced by CAT centre 2015.
MBAUniverse.com advises
The fact that registration during the 46 days’ registration window will be treated at par for all the aspirants has some catches, so following guidelines would be helpful for the aspirants-
-The testing agency TCS going to conduct CAT 2015 might allot the 1st preferred test city on first come first served basis.
-If you register at an early date, the chances are that you may get the 1st choice, else you may get 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice as the allotment will be on random basis.
- If you opt to register during the last days, more technical glitches could appear due to heavy rush of aspirants. Besides there are only 2 sessions in 1 day and 2 lacks of aspirants will throng the site which might find itself difficult to cope with the rush resulting in wastage of your time.
IIM Ahmedabad and testing partner TCS have planned to put CAT 2015 on a faster track with single day exam with number of surprises introduced, so better to get acquainted to them and plan your preparation accordingly as sectional high score would also be required.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2015
