The new CAT is foxy

Altered format leaves examinees confused.

The common admission test (CAT), which was held on Sunday and which will separate the 1,150 men from the over 144,000 boys in the fray for the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), did deliver a few shocks this year.

Months of cram classes had not prepared the aspirants for the surprise change in the pattern of the test paper, which had fewer questions this year.

The examinees appeared angry as they trooped out of the centres this afternoon. Said Rachana Shetty, a final-year engineering student of Mumbai's KJ Somaya College: "Though we were expecting some changes in the pattern because of last year's leak, this was really upsetting. With questions carrying marks varying from one section to other, we had to spend time deciding which ones to attempt."

Similar reactions were reported from aspirants all over the country.

This time there were 123 questions compared with the 150 of the previous years, and every question did not carry equal marks. "It was so confusing," commented one dejected soul, as he came out an Ahmedabad centre.

"The second section was the most difficult as geometry was tougher this year," said Neha Mudgal, a final-year student of the Institute of Technology for Women.

According to another student, Section A, (data interpretation and logical reasoning) was divided in two parts of 26 and 12 questions each.

Analysts who vetted the format said anybody scoring 60-70 marks and clearing all the sectional cut-offs may get a call from all the six IIMs.

According to a source close to IIM, Ahmedabad, of the 144,000 students who took the examination, around 6,000 would be called for interviews.

But it is going to be a few weeks of nail-biting wait for the aspirants. Said the source: "Candidates who have taken CAT the on Sunday will receive their score cards by December-end."

In the meantime, the IIM dons will surely be keeping their fingers crossed.