The positive impact which the single day 2 session Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 on November 29, 2015 would make on test takers can be understood by the fact that freshers, working professionals and the mentors all have welcomed the move alike.
No doubt whether the proactive step is going to be good for CAT 2015 aspirants or would create more problems to them became a hot debated issue after release of exam notification by IIM Ahmedabad on July 26, 2015, the experts after analyzing the pros and cons have found the announcement for 1 day 2 session CAT 2015 more aspirant friendly .
With an aim to improve the quality and efficiency of CAT 2015, Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, CAT 2015 convener and faculty at IIM Ahmedabad says about one day two session CAT “This will help in enhancing operational efficiency and quality of the test content”. Experts also agree on this point and find CAT 2015 going to be more aspirant friendly and see that the exam would reduce the operational and technical glitches to bare minimum level, will further strengthen score normalization process and the candidates will not have to remain tense while speculating and anticipating what would appear in future sessions of CAT 2015 exam.
CAT 2015: vision of future
Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation is of the view that the shortest testing window in CAT 2015 will have more positive implications as during few days between the first and fourth session in CAT keep the candidates tenses and make them speculate on irrelevant the type of questions, instead of focusing on their studies.
In fact they have already prepared well and are well equipped and fresh in their strategy how to attempt the exam. Lingering on and waiting for the few more days after first 2 sessions, may take them away from their preparation plan as they start searching for the type of questions that appeared and what could be anticipated. Some of the preparation centres also add fuel to the fire instead of keeping them motivated and cool. Accordingly the single day exam with no technical problems could prove to be beneficial in the interest of the aspirants and IIMs both.
More aspirant friendly CAT
In view of the experts CAT 2015 may prove to be more aspirant friendly than earlier CAT exams as CAT 2015 test taker is free from scheduling the test date and session selecting the most convenient test date. Since there would be only 2 test sessions on the testing day, no speculation has to be made.
The long nightmares when to schedule the test and get the best and convenient date as per the suitability during the longer testing window are over. Aspirants will get the information about their test site and session from the CAT 2015 exam centre after the last date of registration. Candidates now have to focus on preparation more while scheduling of test will be taken care of by the CAT 2015 convening IIM Ahmedabad.
Different paper set with similar type of questions
The most important benefit that CAT 2015 test takers will have with 1day exam is that although CAT 2015 will have 2 different sets of Test forms in 2 sessions but will maintain similar level of difficulty across the exam.
IIM Ahmedabad, the CAT 2015 convening IIM, proposes to ensure fairness and equity in the exam by comparing the performances of the candidates across different test sessions.
Move to eliminate score normalization issues
1 day, 2 sessions, same type of questions, same pattern and same exam composition are what CAT 2015 has in store for the aspirants. No more calculation is required to assess what appeared and when during the 40 separate sessions, what is the difficulty level through each session and how the score for each session could and each day would be normalized by CAT testing agency and IIM for such long testing window.
CAT 2015 scoring and normalization is proposed to be thoroughly transparent. The difficulty level through all the 2 sessions is expected to remain the same and the scoring and normalization of scores will hopefully not create an issue in CAT 2015 as happened in CAT 2013 which attracted court cases on normalization issue.
The scores of the candidates shall be subjected to a process of Normalization. The Normalization process to be implemented shall adjust for location and scale differences of score distributions across different forms. After normalization across different forms the scores shall be further normalized across different sections and the scaled scores obtained by this process shall be converted into percentiles for purposes of shortlisting.
For purposes of reporting, Scaled Scores for each section (Section I: Quantitative Aptitude (QA), Section II: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) and Section III: Verbal and Reading Comprehension (VRC) and Total along with the Percentiles shall be published by IIM Ahmedabad.
CAT 2015 on Sunday: No leave requirement
CAT has been a preferred test for working people as more and more working executives appear in CAT every year. No leave will be required to be applied for, by these working professionals who plan to appear in CAT 2015 as the exam is proposed on Sunday November 29, 2015. If you are preparing well and wish to bell the CAT in 2015, it’s a good opportunity as there may not be variation in difficulty level in either of the 2 sessions in CAT 2015.
No long travelling: 37 more Testing Cities
CAT 2015 will be held in 136 cities with 650 testing venues instead of 99 testing cities and 354 testing venues in CAT 2014. This will help the candidates to opt for one of the most preferred test cities and the aspirants may get the test city which may be their home town or very near to it. They may not need to travel to the test city one or two days before the exam, spend night in some hotel, find out the transportation options to the testing site a day before the exam. Not only this, candidates would save on their expenses and will have more time to devote on study instead of travelling.
Women candidates: Special arrangement
The single day CAT 2015 with 650 testing sites across the country will offer the nearest to the preferred city testing venue to girl candidates. With the aim that women candidates should not face any inconvenience on travel and waste time due to which they usually do not appear in the exam, special arrangement has been made by CAT Centre 2015 to allot the testing centre in the city to the women candidates. It will help more women candidates to register for CAT 2015 and take the exam
Single day exam: More transparency
Since its computerization in 2009, CAT has been witnessing more technical problems. As such the demand for more transparency in the exam regarding the assessment of level of difficulty throughout the testing window; technical issue in the beginning or during the exam causing anxiety among test takers affecting their performance level; Assessment of lost time when system got stalled during the exam; scoring pattern among others has been on rise. Past CAT exams due to some of these problems had to face legal complications also.
In view of the experts, it has been a good decision by IIM Ahmedabad to put back CAT to its pristine glory and keep it as single day test. It will make CAT 2015 more transparent and free from any technical glitches and other problems. With a well devised preparation plan candidates appearing in CAT 2015 may find the exam more transparent and accessible.
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