CAT focusing on accuracy, not speed: Career Forum on planning for CAT - Part I

In this first part, Career Forum chairperson and director Ms Sujata Khanna dissects the past 12 years of CAT exams, and presents her findings:
Changes in exam duration and questions

In 1996 and 1997, the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension sections were grouped and had a time limit of 1 hour. Similarly, Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation sections were grouped and had a time limit of 1 hour. There was no such time limit after that.

The number of questions also came down to 123 from 150 in 2001- 2003.

In 2004, differential marking was introduced for the first time and, needless to say, this was a big surprise for CAT takers. CAT 2005 sprang a bigger surprise: the number of questions further came down to 90. The system of differential marking continued; but this time there were 2 subsections in each section.

CAT 2006 beat both these. Not only was it a 150-minute exam instead of the traditional 2 hour exam, but also the number of questions went further down to 75 (25 in each of the three sections). It also had 5 options instead of 4,
which students were used to and were expecting, thus making it similar to GRE/ GMAT. Each question carried 4 marks and 1 mark penalty for a wrong answer.

Changes in sections of CAT 2006
The English section was perceived to be very difficult whereas the quantitative aptitude section was perceived to be much easier in 2006 than previous years.
If we look at the English section, Reading Comprehension does form a major chunk of the questions. It is imperative that one pays a lot of attention to this section. A cursory glance at the last years paper reveals that English was in fact the toughest of them all. There were 25 questions out of which 15 were from Reading Comprehension. The passages were not easy reading ones. The answer options were so close to one another that the student would be tricked into marking the wrong option with full conviction that Yes, I got it right! It is obvious from the fact that the cut-off for this section was very low.

Another noteworthy trend was that in the Verbal Ability section, none of the favorites like Jumbled Paragraphs and Fill in the Blanks were there. The questions were more tilted towards logic and reasoning than being pure vocabulary and language-based ones.

A fundamental shift
If we observe the change in trends over the years, we can see that the number of questions have come down, whereas the time allotted has remained the same till 2005 and gone up since 2006. Doesnt it mean that the stress on speed is shifting rather to accuracy?

It is neither expected nor possible that a student answers all the questions correctly. Thus CAT also tests the students ability to prioritize under pressure, a quality necessary for an IIM student and a leader in the corporate world.
The nature of questions also indicates that one needs to have profound knowledge in all the areas tested. Simply mugging up the formulae wont work any more.

Ms Sujata Khanna, Chairperson and Director at Career Forum, holds an MBA degree and has had a stint in the corporate world. Ms Khanna started coaching with seven students for MBA entrance exams in 1988. Now, Career
Forum incorporated in 1995, has 15,000 students enrolled this year.

Watch out for the second part of this series on Career Forums strategy for CAT 2007