CAT 2016 aspirants going through their preparation journey in full swing may find number of situations coming with different type of challenges before the D-day. There are many firsts introduced by IIM Bangalore in convening CAT 2016 and many such information items on which nothing has been divulged by the CAT 2016 convener in the name of confidentiality.
This may create situations that may require sudden shift in your preparation strategy, going back to learn and prepare some forgotten type of questions on different topics, changes in the share of MCQs and Non-MCQs, increase and decrease in number of total or sectional questions among others.
It happened in last year CAT when the exact format of the exam could be known just a month before and almost all the CAT aspirants had to switch their preparation schedule and had to plan it differently. On the ame lines CAT 2016 is keeping most of the things behind the curtain that could affect your preparation in the last 1 month and could impact on your percentile score.
According to Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2016 preparation, you should anticipate and remain ready to adapt yourself in any challenging situation that could mould your flow of preparation.
The possible situations posing challenges till CAT 2016 exam day on December 4, 2016 could be –
Aspirants in dark on number of Questions
In a marked deviation from last year CAT, there is no information about the expected number of total questions in CAT 2016. Any increase or decrease in total number of questions or their sectional composition can impact your sectional attempts as the time limit to attempt each of the 3 sections in CAT 2016 is the same. And in case their sectional composition or total number is increased from 100, or if 1 section has more questions than the other, it may affect the attempts and candidates may not be able to score the minimum required qualifying percentile in one or other section in CAT 2016.
Since the exam is to be held on December 4, 2016, non-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 the CAT 2016 aspirants whether some big changes are proposed in the exam.
Sudden shift in exam content
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 MCQs and Non-MCQs will be there in each section.
It is very much possible, that this year you may face more Non-MCQs than MCQs. MBAUniverse.com Research & Analysis team has taken the view of expert & mentor on CAT 2016 preparation, Prof S K Agarwal who shares that more Non-MCQs are expected in CAT 2016 as IIM Bangalore has already announced that the exam proposes to provide level playing field to all the candidates coming from all the academic streams and would prefer that more non-Engineers appear in CAT 2016 so that class rooms in IIMs get a good mix of students coming from all the academic streams.
Now, with a clearly announced admission policy to award low weight to CAT 2016 scores in the admission process, IIMs have made it clear that anything can happen. You may get fewer questions on Quant or Data Interpretation. It is also possible that you get more non-MCQs in Quant & DI as they are non penalty questions and will not adversely impact the percentile score of the candidates who are not so good in DI or in Quant.
VARC may get back old type of questions
It is very much possible that you may face question on correction of errors or vocabulary usage in CAT 2016. Such questions totally disappeared in 2015 and it is the history of CAT exam that it does not repeat the content of last year. MBAUniverse.com research team expects that few of such type of questions may re-appear in CAT 2016.
No time to review 1st session
The candidates appearing in the afternoon 2nd session of CAT 2016 exam will not have any time to review what appeared in the 1st session as immediately after completion of 1st session the entry to the test venue for the 2nd session would begin.
In CAT 2014 the exam was held in 4 sessions with a gap of one week. Prior to that, it used to be a 20 days exam till CAT 2013. This opportunity to review the pattern of CAT does not exist any longer. Whatever you are preparing will now absolutely depend upon your skill and upon the mentor who is guiding you on CAT 2016 preparation.
Since TCS, the testing partner for CAT, was able to manage well the one day CAT in 2015 without any technical glitches, it is moving on the same path, although aspirants requested for at least 2 days CAT testing window.
Feel of CAT 2016: Not before Oct 18
IIM Bangalore has announced that the sample test for CAT 2016 will be enabled on website on October 18, 2016 and not before. This can be delayed also as during last 2 years official release of sample test for CAT exam has been delayed.
As MBAUniverse.com research team has found that it is only the official sample test of CAT which can guide you the exact nature and ratio of the total, sectional, type and topic of the questions that may appear in CAT exam, you may need to change, intensify your preparation plan for next 1 month and may have to include or leave some of the topics which may need sudden shift in your preparation journey.
CAT 2016 is proposed to be held in the largest ever number of test cities and more testing labs on December 4, 2016. There will be 138 testing cities and more than 650 testing sites to accommodate 2.32 lakhs test takers in a single day exam. The Admit card for CAT 2016 can be downloaded from October 18 and the result is expected to be declared in the second week of January 2017.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2016
