The guidance of 15 minutes duration pre exam tutorial just before the start of main examination will not be available to CAT 2015 test takers. Sharing with MBAUniverse.com Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, convener CAT 2015 has confirmed this fact and said “No tutorial will be available. Before the test begins the candidates will be given 15 minutes to go through the test related instructions on the console”
The instructions on the console will in fact relate to the navigation tools and other important operational matters to take CAT 2015 but nothing will be there to refresh you about the type of questions you are going to face in real exam.
The short tutorial was available earlier till CAT 2013. In the testing room the tutorial not only pacified the anxiety of CAT aspirants who had come to the examination centre after a long travel and had to go through a rigorous verification process before getting entry to the testing lab, but also reassured them on their level of preparation for CAT. The tutorial was also absent in CAT 2014.
IIM Ahmedabad after changing the testing pattern for CAT 2015 has also not enabled the pre test tutorial. It is also expected that the CAT 2015 practice exam may be delayed as happened in CAT 2014.
Barely a month and a half is left for the CAT 2015 examination day which will be conducted on November 29, 2015 in 2 sessions. There are many angles on which CAT 2015 aspirants have to work upon before their actual exam.
With the availability of practice test, the prospective CAT 2015 takers shall have to focus on right strategy of preparation. All the practice exercises, mocks shall be based on such published exam pattern and practice test on CAT 2015 site. This process begins many months before the CAT examination. With delayed availability of practice test and non availability of the tutorial before the start of exam, already worried CAT 2015 aspirants due to changed pattern are getting anxious and are trying to make out how to prepare and attempt the exam.
Aspirants clueless
CAT 2015 new pattern of exam is going to have number of firsts and different type of presentation of questions in the 3 sections instead of earlier 2. Candidates will now have Quant as first section with 34 questions; DILR as second section with 32 questions and Verbal & RC with 34 questions as third section.
Although CAT 2015 will have 100 questions divided in 3 sections, there will be sectional time constraint of 1 hour to solve each section.
Last year CAT despite having 100 questions had removed the sectional time constrain and the test takers were freely allowed to move from one section to other within the overall time limit of 170 minutes.
CAT 2015 has also increased the time limit by 10 minutes and the overall allotted time in CAT 2015 will be 180 minutes. But with the time constraint the utility of this increased time is limited for the last section as the candidates will not be allowed to come back to earlier 2 sections even if they have surplus time.
No reason for doing away with the 15 minutes tutorial in CAT 2015 has been shared by CAT Centre 2015 or IIM Ahmedabad either in FAQs, Press release, CAT 2015 advertisement or on the website.
With all the aspirant friendly features introduced in CAT 2015 like more time to solve the exam, introduction of non-MCQs without any negative marking for wrong answer, increasing number of test cities and venues to 650 and offering choice of 4 preferred test cities, facilitating the registration fee payment after completing the application form, allowing candidates with 2 years UGC recognised bachelor’s degree to appear in CAT 2015, IIMs have not shared the reasons for taking away the practice tutorial before the start of CAT 2015 examination.
Greater need of the tutorial in CAT 2015
There are perceptible changes in CAT 2015 exam pattern. Aspirants are already worried about the pattern and type of questions in the exam. Number of questions, time duration, everything stands changed.
In such a situation the need to have as much practice material to get familiarised about the test pattern, level of difficulty of questions, the way of their presentation and above all, more practice on the prescribed pattern is very much required. The tutorial before the start of CAT 2015 which was earlier provided to the candidates always was of great help to them. For CAT 2015 aspirants are still running hither and thither trying to take clues from all the available sources except from the most authenticated one i.e. the CAT 2015 website as the same is not available there till date for practice nor it will be available just before the start of examination.
Prof S K Agarwal, mentor on CAT 2015 preparation and expert on Verbal Ability shares that the expected type of questions in CAT 2015 new exam pattern in MCQ and Non-MCQ format may give surprise to the test takers for which CAT Centre is famous.
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