Students aspiring to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) this year may find it easier to navigate through the computer-based CAT. Prometric, the US-based agency that is conducting the exam, will release practice tests for the candidates in two weeks.
The test is being jointly worked out with the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and will have two parts — a tutorial and the actual test.
“A practice test will be available on www.catiim.in website at least a month before the start of the testing window to familiarise candidates with the navigation and functionality of the CAT. There will be a tutorial followed by 12 sample questions. The sample questions in the practice test are not representative of the content or difficulty level of the actual test,” said Soumitra Roy, MD, Prometric India.
Roy said the test will be released in two weeks on the website. The tutorial will explain how to navigate the different options – question number, on-screen timer, next button, previous button, mark button, review button and quit test button – available on the screen.
Last year, when the CAT became CBT for the first time, candidates complained of difficulty in navigation during the test.
Every question will have four options – A, B, C and D. Candidates will have to read the question on the screen and click on the circle next to their selected answer. They can change their answer by clicking on any other circle.
Three points will be awarded for each correct answer and one point will be deducted for each wrong answer. Candidates may choose not to answer a question if they are not sure.
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“There is no penalty for unanswered questions. If they’ve already selected an answer but later decide that they would prefer not to answer that question, all they need to do is click on the circle again. Candidates have 15 minutes to complete the practice test and they can return and try the practice test as many times as they want,” said Roy.
Candidates will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to take the test. Disciplinary action may be taken against those who reveal the type of questions to other aspirants.
“We have kept some sessions idle for testing and there will be backups for every lab everyday. We can test 18,000 candidates in one day. Each lab will have 40 work stations and we have 247 labs across 78 centres,” he said.