CAT 2016 exam pattern stays on the lines of CAT 2015 with 3 sections including MCQs and Non-MCQs although number of total and sectional questions have not been revealed by the exam Convener, Prof Rajendra K Bandi for the sake of confidentiality. Interestingly, earlier CAT notifications used to carry this information in public domain but this year it is missing and Prof Bandi, faculty at IIM Bangalore is not ready to divulge it for the reasons best known to him.
Not much space left for CAT 2016 to deviate
Common Admission Test (CAT) has the reputation of not being a repetitive exam. But with CAT 2016 going to be on similar pattern of last year exam, the only thing that CAT 2016 convener and testing agency TCS could do is to change the size of test by changing sectional or overall composition of questions whether in the name of improving academic or gender diversity or due to other compelling reasons.
Nevertheless, the anticipation among the aspirants is that the size of CAT 2016 exam may not matter much as the exam has not much space to deviate from its earlier overall and sectional size.
Not only this, according to Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2016 preparation, the notification as well as the press release by CAT 2016 convening IIM Bangalore has confirmed that CAT 2016 will be on the lines of last year CAT. Not revealing the number of questions simply implies that one or other section in CAT 2016 may bear the brunt of reduced number of questions while other one may see more of them.
Total number of questions may reduce
One thing, according to Prof S K Agarwal seems certain that number of questions in overall CAT 2016 will not increase although they may decrease, as neither the sectional time nor the number of sections have been changed in CAT 2016. Reshuffling/increasing or decreasing of questions in one or more sections will not have much impact on CAT 2016 aspirants.
Prepare on similar lines for CAT 2016
There is no need to change the preparation strategy for CAT 2016. In view of Prof S K Agarwal you should prepare on the lines of last year CAT exam as the test is going to be quite similar to 2015.
4 similarities keep CAT 2016 on 2015 pattern
Following are the key similarities that you will face in CAT 2016 on the lines of 2015-
3 Sections
CAT 2016 will again have 3 sections namely Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC); Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) and Quantitative Aptitude (Quant). The same structure was there in last year CAT exam convened by IIM Ahmedabad. In fact it was in 2015 that CAT was revamped and was made more aspirant friendly in real terms.
CAT 2016 is going to be the repetition, opined by Prof S K Agarwal, of last year CAT with some minor content level changes for which aspirants need not to worry and continue preparing the way they are doing.
Overall and sectional time limit
The non-disclosure of total or sectional number of questions in CAT 2016 may not have any far reaching impact on the preparation journey of aspirants as the time limit for each section has already been notified by IIM Bangalore.
The 1 hour sectional time limit also existed in 2015. Number of questions in each of the 3 sections also were in the range of 32 to 34. Now with the same time limit of 1 hour assigned for each section and 3 hours for entire exam, CAT 2016 convener cannot increase number of questions from 34 to 40 or can reduce it from 34 to 20.
Had this been planned earlier, there could have been varying sectional time limits in the range of 45 minutes to 75 minutes, a fact which is not there and hence there should not be any speculation on the increased number of questions.
It is very much possible, that number of questions could be reduced in CAT 2016 from 34 or 32 to only 30 questions in each section as candidates taking the test find it difficult to crack even 70 questions out of 100. Reducing them to 90 will sure be a good aspirant friendly change for the test takers.
MCQs and Non-MCQs: Latter may get higher ratio
On the similar lines as introduced in 2015, CAT 2016 has announced to comprise both MCQs and Non-MCQs in each section. The percentage of Non-MCQs in 2015 was 28% divided as follows-
VARC: 10 Non MCQs out of 34 questions;
DILR: 8 Non-MCQs out of 32 questions
Quant: 10 Non-MCQs out of 34 questions
The candidates who attempted only Non-MCQs accurately could also strike a percentile as high as 85. It is very much possible that CAT 2016 may increase this sectional and overall ratio of MCQs from 28% to 40% dividing the same in each section. VARC may play major role in this exercise as it is expected that CAT 2016 convener might try to improve academic diversity by bringing certain modifications in CAT 2016 exam content.
No negative marking for wrong answers to Non-MCQs
Another feature of CAT 2016 which has similar pattern as that of 2015 is that the Non-MCQs have been kept out of purview of negative marking. Whatever was introduced by IIM Ahmedabad last year is simply taken forward by IIM Bangalore in CAT 2016.
While all the correct answers to MCQs and Non-MCQs will carry equal weightage of 3 marks each, the penalty of negative marking of 1 mark for each wrong answer will be imposed only on MCQs and all the Non-MCQs can be freely attempted without any fear of negative marking for wrong answer.
Plan to prepare as per 2015 CAT pattern
The best preparation strategy, according to Prof S K Agarwal, expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2016 preparation is to revisit and scan the last year CAT paper from the memory based sources. Prepare on the same lines, without fearing the change in test size in CAT 2016.
Additional topics to prepare for VARC
Following are the additional topics on which you should prepare on Verbal Ability. These are error correction in sentences and paragraphs. Go through English Grammar chapters on Parts of speech, tenses, similar and confused words; there may be some questions on fill in the blanks, correct word usage among others. Prof S K Agarwal suggests to prepare them also very well as unpredictable CAT 2016 can ask questions on them. Besides, these topics will also help you in IIFT, SNAP and XAT exams.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2016 exam pattern
