CAT 2016: Notification release on July 31 confirmed; Changes expected

CAT 2016 notification will be released on July 31, 2016, it is confirmed now. The Notification will be available in all the leading news papers simultaneously on Sunday July 31, 2016. The sources have further revealed that CAT 2016 notification may bring many changes in the structure and content of the exam.

Expected changes in CAT 2016 CAT last year had a changed face. Sources have confirmed that CAT 2016 will again have a changed face. Last year CAT was totally revamped. Entire structure and content of the exam was changed.

Since IIM Bangalore, the CAT 2016 convener, has its own reputation of not going by the past pattern, CAT 2016 aspirants should expect more changes in the exam.

Change in testing window CAT 2016 may have more than 1 day testing window or may opt for since day single session exam. CAT 2016 aspirants have already approached and requested IIM Bangalore to change CAT 2016 testing window from 1 day to 2 days.

If the request of the aspirants is acceded to by IIM Bangalore, CAT 2016 may be held in 2 days instead of only in 1 day.

Early CAT 2016 It is proposed that CAT 2016 exam will be held at least a few days earlier than it was held in 2015. The reason behind early CAT 2016 is that entrance exam for MBA (IB) at IIFT is proposed on November 27, 2016, the last Sunday of the month. CAT 2016 exam, if goes beyond this date, may cause delay in the processing of result and its declaration. This may eventually delay in the admission process of IIMs and other top rated B-schools.

It is therefore expected that despite late release of CAT 2016 notification by a few days, IIM Bangalore will prefer convening CAT 2016 much earlier in partnership with exam testing agency TCS.

Removal of Sectional time limit CAT 2016 may scrap the sectional time constraint. It may go back to its 2014 pattern and may allow the candidates to attempt any section within the total overall allotted time limit.

Change in number of sections Number of sections in CAT 2016 may be restored to 2 instead of 3 as changed last year. One of the biggest disadvantages arising due to increase in number of sections from 2 to 3, after clubbing DI & LR was that both the tricky parts were placed in one section. Many 99 percentilers who scored well in other 2 sections could not even score the minimum required percentile to qualify for shortlisting.

Looking at the plight of the test takers, IIM Ahmedabad had to curtail the minimum required percentile score from 80 to 75 for DILR section.

Non-MCQs may be Absent The no negative penalty, Non-MCQ type of questions which had 28% weightage in CAT score last year may not be present again. It was a windfall for the CAT examinees last year as they attempted all the 28 Non-MCQs without fear of penalized for wrong answer.

Rely on website more Please go through the CAT 2016 notification published in the news papers on July 31, 2016 and also CAT 2016 centre website. Please note there could be some printing mistake in the CAT 2016 notification printed in the news papers. It will be better to cross-check the same from CAT 2016 website as it goes on getting updated quickly. Registration for CAT 2016 is proposed to begin in the first week of August, 2016.

Common Admission Test (CAT) 2016 is the mandatory exam for admission to flagship post graduate management programme in 20 IIMs and other top rated B schools for the academic session beginning 2017. At present there are 20 IIMs and the 20th one the IIM Jammu will start functioning from August 1, 2016 under the mentorship of IIM Lucknow.