The Common Admission Test (CAT), conducted by the IIMs, has been continuously evolving over the last two decades. An analysis of the CAT question patterns will be beneficial to all MBA aspirants who are preparing to give the CAT 2010 exam. With this objective MBAUniverse.com — in association with globally renowned publisher of educational books, Pearson Education — presents to you an analysis of the changing pattern of CAT exam in the last two decades, i.e. 1990-2009.
This exclusive article is authored by Sujit Kumar, author of CAT preparation books for Verbal Ability section, ‘English Usage for the CAT’ and ‘Reading Comprehension for the CAT’ published by Pearson Education. He is a Faculty at CPL (Pvt. Ltd.), Mumbai. He has been mentoring thousands of students in the competitive exams like CAT, CET, GRE, GMAT etc. for the Verbal Ability section. He is a Masters in English literature from University of Mumbai and has a Diploma in Management. Apart from corporate experience of over a decade, he has taught in the mainstream as well as parallel education in India and abroad.
The exclusive article begins herewith:
The Common Admission Test (CAT) seems to be the most popular, yet the most feared competitive examination in India. It is also the most student-friendly test, though most people are so engrossed with its details that they miss this aspect of the CAT exam. The glory that the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) enjoy because of their campus placements fetching fabulous salaries in a country that was until recently considered poor has added to the hype around this exam and given it an aura of extreme intelligence. The CAT exam, however, has always been a regular aptitude test, testing the broad areas of English, Mathematics, Data Interpretation, and Logical Reasoning.
The CAT exam seems to undergo a complete metamorphosis in every ten years or so.
CAT 1990 had 174 questions in four sections, with 100 questions in the Verbal Ability section. Reading comprehension was a standalone section with 50 questions. There were 50 questions in Quantitative Ability, and 24 in Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning. Sectional timing was a norm in the earlier CATs, but in the decade that followed, sectional timing was done away with. Through the 1990s the CAT exam remained more or less the same with 174 to 190 questions in four sections.
The year 1999 saw a major change in the CAT exam. It became three sections. The two sections of English Usage, Vocabulary etc. and of Reading Comprehension were combined into one with 55 questions in it. The test had 165 questions in three sections of 55 questions each. In the decade from 1999 to 2008, the CAT exam became more and more compact. Though the number of sections remained three, the number questions reduced from 165 to 150, to 123, to 90 and then finally to 75.
CAT 2009 was a watershed year in the history of the CAT exam. It became a computer based test. The CAT exam took almost a decade to catch up with the technological advancement in India. It was a welcome change, though a little late. However, the CBT-CAT in 2009 blew up in everyone’s face and was marked by technical glitches, controversies, lame excuses, cover-ups, and a remarkable insensitiveness to the candidates’ concerns. It had three sections with 20 questions in each section.
Did the testing actually change over these years? It did – especially in Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation sections.
The Quantitative Ability section of the CAT exam underwent considerable changes. In the 1990s and later, the emphasis was largely on arithmetic topics like Number Properties, Percentages, and Ratio Proportion etc. The questions were formula driven and the students needed short-cuts and non-conventional methods to maximize attempts. With the number of questions reducing to 30 and then to 20 (2009) in this section the focus shifted entirely towards analytical and reasoning skills; multiple topics were factored into a single question. Formulae became redundant. Logic became important. The emphasis shifted from speed to accuracy and the selection of questions became a decisive factor.
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section also changed significantly. With the reduction in the number of questions, the caselets and graphs have almost disappeared. The stress is on interpretation and reasoning skills rather than calculation and counting ability. Sets that were earlier loaded with numerical and statistical data now come with myriad conditions and interdependencies. The given information has to be deciphered and interpreted with precision for the student to be able to answer the questions.
The paradigm shift is not so pronounced in the Verbal Ability Section. With as few as 20 questions equal importance is still given to Reading Comprehension; and Non RC (Grammar, Vocabulary and Reasoning.) The long 1500 word-long passages gave way to 400 to 500 word-long passages with three questions each. The difficulty level has eased in 2009 CAT. More often than not, the difficulty level of the CAT exam is hyped up too. Vocabulary and Reasoning questions too were, especially in 2009, the familiar and anticipated types.
The CAT exam introduces changes in the format or new question types almost unnoticeably making the transition smooth and unobtrusive for the students. The CAT is the most student-friendly exam for MBA in India.
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