Smooth sailing for CAT on Day One

The revamped Common Admission Test (CAT) 2014 for admission to the prestigious IIMs and other B-schools went without any technical glitches on Sunday.

As many as 1.96 lakh had registered for the online test which will be held on two days. The next test will be conducted on November 22.

Over all, aspirants said that the test, which had morning and afternoon sessions, was comparatively easy with difficulty levels varying in certain sections.

Kundan Kumar, who gave his test at a centre in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, said the test was lengthy but easy.

“The section on verbal ability was okay but the section on logical reasoning was very lengthy. I am expecting around 98 percentile,” he said. 

There were a number of changes this time like an increase in the duration of the test from 140 to 170 minutes, flexibility in switching between the two sections - quantitative ability and data interpretation, and verbal ability and logical reasoning, decrease in the number of days the test was conducted et al.

Earlier, the test was conducted over a period of 20 days but now it is reduced to two days. Abhishek Kedia, who works in the IT sector, wrote CAT for the second time.

“The section on quantitative ability was easy, while logical reasoning was tough. I am expecting a percentile between 99 and 99.7. The fact that we could switch between sections helped me navigate the paper better, ”  he added.

Last year, Abhishek got a percentile of 96.81 which was below what he had expected. He even wrote to the authorities as to how they had normalised his marks.

The issue of  “normalisation of mark” was a big controversy last year.

Srinivas Belvi, course director, TIME, a coaching institute, said that the test was not different than previous years in terms of quality of content or the difficulty level although there were noteworthy variations in the difficulty level in individual areas. 

“Quantitative ability was perceived to be relatively simpler by most students when compared to the high level of concepts and difficulty level of past years. However, the opposite was true about data interpretation,” he said.