IIMs revamp CAT 2017 Exam pattern: Increase negative marking in DILR, Quant; Check the score loss

DILR and Quant sections in CAT 2017 exam on November 26, may bear the brunt of increased number of negative marking questions as compared to last 2 years CAT exams. IIMs released the official CAT 2017 Mock test on October 30 and have introduced perceptible changes in the CAT 2017 exam pattern and CAT syllabus.
Important links:

• CAT 2017 Mock Test reflects changed CAT exam pattern: Non-MCQs reduced, answer options increased
• FMS Delhi CAT topper Somesh, success mantra for CAT 2017 Give equal importance to all 3 sections
• Take official CAT Mock test

CAT official Mock test always is the base that forms the expected structure and content of forthcoming CAT exam. Not only this, the past experience has established that CAT Mock test and CAT exam paper are not much different.
Similarly the recently enabled CAT 2017 Mock Test by IIMs at iimcat.ac.in which is accessible to all has brought about number of key changes in CAT 2017 exam pattern and CAT syllabus. The topics on which questions could be formed in actual CAT 2017 test may also not be very different.

Score loss in CAT 2017! Check now
There is not much to gain in CAT 2017 test paper. On the contrary the revamped CAT 2017 exam pattern is expected to cause more scoring loss due to negative marking. With the reduction of no penalty questions from 28 to 19, CAT 2017 aspirants are now fraught with the risk of losing 20 to 25 percentile in the exam.
DILR: 50% more negative marking than last year
Data Interpretation (DI) and Logical reasoning (LR) section (DILR) in CAT 2017 will have 50% more questions in MCQ format carrying the 1/3 negative marking. Before knowing how it will impact your scoring adversely in this already difficult rated section, you need to first know the key facts:

DILR in CAT 2017 to have 32 total questions as were there in 2016
Negative marking penalty questions in CAT 2017 in DILR: 28
Negative marking penalty questions in CAT 2016 in DILR: 24
No-negative marking penalty questions in CAT 2017: 4
No-Negative marking penalty questions in CAT 2016:8
No penalty questions in DI in CAT 2017: NIL
No penalty questions in DI in CAT 2016: 4
No penalty questions in LR in CAT 2017: 4
No penalty questions in LR in CAT 2016: 4

How it will impact your score adversely in DILR?
Had the CAT 2017 exam pattern be on the same lines as that of CAT 2016 or CAT 2015, you would have scored 50% higher than in CAT 2017 even if all your 8 Non-MCQs in this section would have gone wrong.

CAT exam year
No. of MCQ with negative marking
Increase in MCQ number
Increased Risk of negative marking due to more MCQs
Percentage risk increase over last year (8-4=4)
Percentile loss

CAT 2017
28
4
4x1=4 negative marks more
50%
20 to 24 points

CAT 2016
24
--
No risk zone for 8 Non-MCQs
Zero risk
Nil

If we presume that there would be 4 non-MCQs instead of 8 as shared in CAT 2017 Mock test released by IIMs, and if the 4 MCQs which have replaced the 4 non-MCQs go wrong, you get a loss of 4 marks due to negative marking and will suffer a loss of 20 to 24 percentile points, CAT preparation expert Prof S K Agarwal says. The need is to focus and practice more on MCQ type questions in DILR section.

Quant: Risk is more
Quantitative Ability (QA) section in CAT 2017 will have 34 questions. Out of them there are proposed only 5 no-penalty questions as against 7 and 10 in CAT 2016 and CAT 2015 respectively.
This will reduce your high percentile scoring chances apart from the fact that you will have to manage the 5 more MCQs which are fraught with the risk of 1/3rd negative marking.
The loss of score due to this fact in CAT 2017 Quant section could be 5 raw marks, but the impact on your percentile score in CAT 2017 may be as high as 24 to 28 points because of this loss.

VARC: No gain-no loss
There is no change in the VARC section in CAT 2017 exam. Probably, moving forward to attract gender and academic diversity in their class rooms, IIMs have kept the number of MCQs and Non-MCQs in VARC section at the same level as were there in last two CAT exams.

There are proposed 10 Non-MCQs with No-negative marking penalty and 24 MCQs with 1/3 negative marking in VARC section of CAT 2017 exam.
Net Loss of percentile
If it happens and the number of Non-MCQs in CAT 2017 are reduced from 28 to 19 in actual CAT 2017 exam and God forbid, if the MCQs that replace the 9 Non-MCQs go wrong, the loss of raw score is 9, but the loss of sectional and overall percentile score in CAT 2017 may go well beyond 24 sectional and 18-20 overall.

Accordingly, it is of utmost importance that you follow the right preparation strategy now weighing all the pros and cons and also devise your CAT 2017 test taking strategy well in time.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2017