With just 45 days to go for CAT 2016 on December 4, exam experts and aspirants are calling for release of previous year question papers to bring transparency and help students prepare well. Not sharing past CAT papers till 2013 can be understood as till then CAT used to have 20 days testing window with 40 or more sessions having hundreds of question sets. But now the exam is limited to 1 day 2 session testing window and test paper of either of 2 sessions can be made available to help aspirants to prepare well.
Even if your memory is very sharp and you and your peers recall all the CAT questions, you cannot share them exactly on same pattern and directions to attempt as they appeared in the exam due to restrictions imposed by CAT Centre 2016. Interestingly, no such restrictions applied till CAT 2008.
According to a leading CAT preparation expert, since other tests like XAT and AICTE conducted CMAT impose no such restrictions, what is the logic and reason of not providing and publishing CAT papers immediately after the exam. XLRI XAT has published past 2 years test papers on its website alongwith release of notification to guide the aspirants about the nature of questions that might be asked in the exam.
So now the only option to understand the exact question composition and pattern in CAT 2016 is to wait till October 18 when IIM Bangalore proposes to make available the sample questions on the exam.
After CAT assumed its computerised format in 2009, the CAT test papers have been stopped from being shared in public domain. Prior to 2009, CAT used to be a paper based test and its questions were freely available and CAT centres did not impose any penalty when they were reproduced, used or printed everywhere in the country.
No glimpse before October 18
CAT 2016 exam exact structure and content is proposed to be informed after a month from now just before a month or so to the CAT 2016 exam day which is going to take place on December 4, 2016. On the top of it, CAT has the legacy of non-repetitive exam every year and this has more strictly been followed since 2014 after TCS took over the reins of CAT as testing agency from Prometric.
CAT 2016 Convener Prof Rajendra K Bandi has assured that this year CAT will follow the pattern of CAT 2015 but has refrained from sharing the exact number of questions in exam.
While it is known that CAT 2016 will have 3 sections to be attempted in 3 hours with 1 hour sectional time constraint, but the composition of sections like total number of questions and their sectional division is not yet shared by CAT 2016 Centre.
CAT 2016 threatens of Legal Action
CAT Centre 2016 at IIM Bangalore clearly warns of legal action with imprisonment and financial penalty, in case any content of the exam is disclosed in public domain and states “Disclosing, publishing, reproducing, transmitting, storing, or facilitating transmission and storage of the contents of the CAT or any information therein in whole or part thereof in any form or by any means, verbal or written, electronically or mechanically for any purpose, shall be in violation of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and/or the Copyright Act, 1957 and/or the Information Technology Act, 2000. Such actions and/or abetment thereof as aforementioned may constitute a cognizable offence punishable with Imprisonment for a term up to three years and fine up to Rs. two lakhs.”
Past CAT papers, great help; why to restrict? Experts ask
Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2016 preparation asked, “Is CAT afraid of spreading awareness about its exam or the test questions? Are its test contents misleading or contain errors due to which it neither publishes its test papers nor solutions for the benefit of candidates who propose to take CAT in forthcoming years?’
According to another CAT preparation expert, “Since other computer based or paper based tests like CMAT, MAT, SNAP, XAT impose no such restrictions, what is the logic and reason of not providing and publishing Previous Year Question Papers for CAT immediately after the exam?” On the contrary XLRI-XAT 2017 has published past 2 years test papers on its website alongwith release of notification to guide the aspirants about the nature of questions that might be asked in the exam.
A student who will be taking CAT 2016 wrote recently on an MBA Forum, “While i have been taking mocks from TIME, and others, i would be more confident and assured if i could have taken actual CAT previous year question papers. I request IIMs to release for the benefit of students.”
No doubt CAT exam may have number of question sets but now since the test sessions are restricted to only 2, they can easily provide at least 1 or 2 years of past test papers while opening the registration process for the exam. This will help the aspirants to prepare better.
CAT 2016: Keeping aspirants in dilemma
CAT 2016 aspirants now preparing for the exam are clueless how many questions will be there in the test and what will be their sectional composition. This is the first time that CAT Centre has refrained from releasing the number of questions alongwith its notification.
In the absence of concrete information, now the candidates are running from one coaching centre to other just to know the shape and content of the CAT 2016 questions – MCQs as well as Non-MCQs. This adds to their agony as some of the coaching centres advise the aspirants that they should expect vocabulary based questions this year while others emphasize that questions on correction of errors in sentences and paragraphs might resurface as they were not asked in last year CAT.
It is genuinely not easy to prepare for CAT 2016 in one month only after IIM Bangalore chooses to make live the test pattern for CAT 2016. Besides, since the CAT 2016 convener Prof Rajendra K Bandi faculty at IIM Bangalore has already shared that the innovative steps taken by CAT 2015 convening IIM Ahmedabad will be carried forward, there should not be any harm in disclosing the exact nature of CAT 2016 exam when it is proposed to be kept on the same pattern.
First timers still to understand the pattern
CAT 2016 may prove to be more advantageous for the second chance takers as they have the experience of taking a fully revamped and modified CAT in 2015 on the pattern as expected in CAT 2016. Candidates who appeared in the exam last year, whether experienced or freshers, got perplexed with a different type of question pattern, increased number of sections, re introduction of sectional time constraint, introduction of most tricky DILR section, facing new type of questions in Non-MCQ format among other factors.
Now while they have the experience how to prepare for the particular type of questions, how to attempt them and how to manage time in the testing lab in CAT 2016, the first timers are still in dilemma.
CAT 2016 gateway to 20 IIMs and other top B-schools like FMS Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, SPJIMR Mumbai, IMI New Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad, BIMTECH Greater Noida, TAPMI Manipal among others is scheduled to be conducted on December 4, 2016. The sample test paper for CAT 2016 is proposed to be made available on CAT 2016 website from October 18, onwards.
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