CAT 2016 exam may throw more surprises than anticipated as the aspirants are still in dark about the total number of questions in the exam as well as about their sectional division. It appears IIM Bangalore may change the test structure and question content alongwith number of questions in each section in CAT 2016.
The move is closely watched by the CAT 2016 aspirants- from Engineering as well as from Non-Engineering background candidates since the CAT 2016 convener Prof Rajendra K Bandi in his exclusive interview with MBAUniverse.com has already shared that IIMs need academic diversity in their class rooms. According to Prof Bandi, “CAT aims to ensure that questions in the test, do not give any specific advantage to candidates from any specific academic background or for a particular gender. Every question is carefully reviewed to ensure that it is academic and gender neutral.”
IIMs targeting more non-engineers
Sharing with MBAUniverse.com, Prof Rajendra K Bandi, convener CAT 2016 and faculty at IIM Bangalore confirms “We would like to see an increase in the number of applicants from the non-engineering background and from female applicants as well.”
It is expected that the question pattern and number of questions in each section of CAT 2016 may change to promote the academic diversity in IIMs.
CAT 2016 Press Release: Silent on Qs
The IIM Bangalore Press Release states ‘The duration of the examination will be 180 minutes. There will be three sections: Section I: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Section II: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, Section III: Quantitative Ability. Some questions in each section may not be of multiple choice type. Instead, direct answers are to be typed on the screen. The tutorials will clearly explain this. Also, we will allow use of basic on-screen calculator for computation’ On the top of it nothing has also been informed as to why this key information has been hidden from the CAT 2016 aspirants
Despite announcing the test duration of 3 hours, there is no clue how many questions would be there in the exam. Neither CAT 2016 notification nor the Press Release from Prof Rajendra K Bandi, faculty at IIM Bangalore and Convener CAT 2016 has shared about the number of total questions or questions in each of the 3 sections of CAT 2016 going to be held on December 4, 2016 in 2 sessions at 138 test cities across the country.
Concealment: Big change pointer
In a marked deviation from last year website update, when the total number of questions as well as their sectional division was shared with the notification, CAT 2016 press release by IIM Bangalore shares no information about the expected number of total questions in the exam to be held on December 4, 2016.
Not-sharing and keeping away the information on CAT 2016 about the total number of questions and sectional composition of the same by IIM Bangalore has raised suspicion among aspirants whether some big changes can be anticipated in the exam.
Other details shared: Composition not available
Although CAT 2016 notification published in news papers and the website enabled on July 31, have shared all the other details about the exam format – like names and number of sections; order of sections; time limit of 3 hours to complete the test; sectional time constraint of 1 hour for each of 3 sections; types of questions like MCQs and non-MCQs; marks per question; penalty of negative marking on wrong answer on MCQs and no penalty on Non-MCQs, but there is no mention how many total questions will appear in CAT 2016, nor there is any mention of number of questions proposed to appear in each section.
The last year CAT website which was also enabled simultaneously with the release of notification, had all the details including the total and sectional number of questions. The notification for CAT in 2015 was released on July 26 and the updated website informed that there would be 100 total number of questions which will be further divided in following pattern - QA section with 34 questions; VRC with 34 questions and DILR with 32 questions.
The silence of CAT Centre 2016 on number of questions in the exam indicates that something different is going to happen in CAT 2016 test content.
Expected sectional changes in CAT 2016
The sectional changes that you could expect in CAT 2016 exam could be anywhere as - Quant with 25 to 28 questions; VARC may have an increased number with 40 to 44 questions and DILR may comprise 25 to 28 questions.
Experts also expect changes in CAT 2016
While Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and mentor CAT 2016 preparation is of the view that keeping away this information from CAT 2016 aspirants, is an indicator of unanticipated changes in the exam pattern, Mr Gautam Puri, Vice Chairman & MD, CL Educate observes ‘it is still not clear whether the number of questions will remain the same or not. Also, the breakup of the number of questions between Verbal and Reading Comprehension might change, while we expect the breakup to be similar to last year between DI and LR. We need to wait for the official CAT sample paper for this clarification.’
Expert’s advice
Irrespective of the fact, the suggestion from experts is to continue your preparation for CAT 2016. It is possible that number of questions in CAT 2016 and their pattern may not be similar to last year, but since there is no change in basics and study pattern, the suggestion is to study well without leaving anything to chance..
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2016
