IIM Calcutta had announced CAT 2011, the entrance exam for the 13 IIMs and over 150 B-schools in India, on 25 July 2011. CAT 2011 will be held in a 20 day window between October 22, 2011 and November 18, 2011.
This year there are two changes in the pattern of the paper.
CAT 2011 will have only two sections instead of the erstwhile three sections. The other change is that the two sections -- Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation; Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning -- will be implemented sequentially with separate time limits.
The examination will be for 140 minutes. Candidates will have 70 minutes to answer 30 questions within each section which will have an on-screen countdown timer. Once the time ends for the first section, they will move to the second and will no longer be able to go back.
To find out how the MBA aspirant/education community is viewing these changes, MBAUniverse.com raised the question New pattern of
CAT 2011 exam is better than CAT 2010 Yes/No in its Have Your Say section recently.
The results of the poll are now out. A very high 71% of the respondents say that the change in CAT 2011 exam pattern is a welcome change and certainly makes
CAT 2011 a better exam than CAT 2010. Only 17% of the respondents think the other way. Interestingly, 12% of the respondents have clicked on Cant Say. There were 240 respondents to the poll from across the country.
Top MBA/CAT experts, echoing the same view of the majority of the respondents, have also welcomed the new pattern in
CAT 2011 entrance exam. Arun Sharma, author of CAT prep books, and IIM Bangalore alumnus, mentions that this new development will balance the sections.
Previously, CAT was more like an engineering test and candidates from engineering background had the advantage. Now it will be balanced, as Quantitative Ability is clubbed with Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability section is clubbed with Logical Reasoning. This will also make attaining the cut-off easier as instead of three you need to attain the cut-off for only two sections.
Gautam Puri, Vice Chairman, Career Launcher says that it will be an advantage for the test takers as they dont have to think much about time allocation and strategizing. Students should find it easier to solve the paper as they have to spend 70 minutes in each section. This will not lead to a skewed performance like giving maximum time to ones strong sections and minimum time to the weaker sections leading to a skewed sectional percentile.
According to Tony Xavier, Head Academics, IMS Learning Resources, this step is good for both the test takers as well as the test conductors point as it will help to filter out the actual competent candidate.
CAT 2011 will be able to filter out students who are equally better in all the sections, he said.
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more polls.
