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Last Updated on November 6, 2012 by MBAUniverse.com News Desk

CAT 2012 concludes; Papers remain moderate to difficult

The CAT 2012 passed off successfully barring a few glitches. According to some test takers, the Quant section was easier on the last day in a shift from the earlier trend.
So, the curtains finally fell on CAT 2012 after 21 testing days between October 11 and November 6. The 21st or the last day passed off without any major untoward incident being reported. According to some test takers, the Quant section was easier in a shift from the earlier trend. On an overall basis, the difficulty level was easy to moderate, experts said.
Saurabh Kumar, a test taker, said: The quantitative ability & data interpretation section was easier among the two sections. There were three reading comprehension passages which were lengthy and ambiguous.
According to Arks Srinivas, CEO, VistaMind Education, The exam was easy in the last two days. The last day also saw an overall moderate difficulty-level exam. The verbal ability & logical reasoning section was tougher whereas the quantitative ability & data interpretation section was of moderate to tough difficulty level. Apart from a few glitches, it had been a wonderfully conducted test. However, on an average, the number of attempted questions was lesser this year (40 out of 60) compared with the previous year (50 out of 60), Mr Srinivas added.
Vinayak Kudva, product head, IMS Learning, said: The exam was on the expected lines. Over the last few days, VA & LR questions became trickier. But the quantitative ability & data interpretation section remained tougher throughout.
Broadly, two trends the difficulty level and whether CAT is favorably biased to aspirants belonging to the science and engineering backgrounds need to be discussed once CAT 2012 comes to an end.
On both the issues, opinions are squarely divided. As far as the difficulty level is concerned, CAT, by default, is not supposed to be easy as it is the gateway to the best management colleges 13 IIMs and 172 top ranked B-schools with an MBA degree being considered one of the assured means of a successful professional career. When the ability of an average management degree holder to serve the industry is already in question, lowering the standard of the entrance test may not appear a good idea. CAT is rated as the third toughest test in Asia. Interestingly, the top two on the list are also conducted in India -- UPSCs Indian Engineering Services is dubbed as the toughest, followed by the IIT-Joint Entrance Examination.
At the same time, the difficulty level should have a proper balance in terms of both testing window slots and sections of the question paper. This balance was somewhere missing this year. Though the difficulty level of CAT 2012 was balanced in later slots, initially the toughness quotient rested only on the quantitative ability & data interpretation section. The quantitative ability & data interpretation section remained the toughest throughout the test window. Though the difficulty level of the verbal ability & logical reasoning section increased in the later half, the first section was always high on the difficulty level compared with the second section, Mr Srinivas said.
Despite suggestions and discussions on increasing the diversity quotient of students are doing the round for quite some time now, CAT 2012 could not fulfill that promise. Though the educational backgrounds vary among science, commerce, CA, bachelor of business studies, agriculture, architecture, pharmaceutical sciences and chartered accountancy, etc, students of the humanities and medical backgrounds are yet to catch up. According to experts and test takers, the reason behind it is that engineering and science students have a partial advantage as the entire first section is based on mathematics with the course demanding students to have an aptitude in maths. CAT 2012 results will be declared on Wednesday, January 9, 2013.
The MBA aspirants who did not take CAT 2012 or are aiming for next year; it is time to gear up for CAT 2013.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more news and analysis on CAT 2012

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