Aspirants take on modified CAT-2011

LUCKNOW: Common Admission Test 2011 for admissions to prestigious B-schools across Uttar Pradesh went on smoothly on Saturday. No major technical snag was reported from the centres in Lucknow. At one centre, there was server problem, but it did not affect the students.The change in paper pattern was also not a surprise for the candidates as the paper carried standard questions, which have been asked in the previous years. The majority of the candidates termed the paper as not very difficult. For them, the first section, quantitative ability and data interpretation was slightly more difficult than the second section of verbal ability and logical reasoning."There was not something very surprising or difficult in the question paper. The mathematical portion was little tough in comparison to the English and reasoning," said Shubham, who took the exam for the first time. The data interpretation was a little time consuming with more calculations, which candidates generally are aware of. Nishant Priyadarshini, director of a coaching institute who also took the exam said, "The paper was a standard one. There was nothing that was shocking. Questions from old chapters dominated the question paper." He further informed that majority of the questions were based on numbers, geometry, mensuration, speed, time and distance. In the second section, logic questions from Mathematics and English were included. "The students were confused about the kind of questions that would be asked in logical reasoning. At least the first day has cleared the confusion," said Nishant.Marginally, section II was a better choice for the students. This year, the CAT pattern has gone for a change. Unlike previous years, CAT had two sections instead of three. The first section focuses on quantitative analysis and data interpretation, the second on verbal ability and logical reasoning. Both the sections were implemented sequentially with separate time limits. Also, a student was bound to attempt the first section, which had a fixed time and then the second one. There was no scope for a candidate to jump from one section to other."The change of pattern was slightly complicated as there was nothing that a student could decide upon. Everything was pre-decided, even which section to attempt. This was a little too much," said a faculty. At the centres, there was also an onscreen countdown timer.The computer-based test went on smooth, but there were hardly any students who took the exam. The test was conducted in four centres in the city. This included Jaipuria Institute Management, Everonn Education Limited, Surya Group of Institutions, and IPCC. Out of this, exam was held at three centres. At IPCC, the test is scheduled from October 28. Experts also feel that the mixing quantitative ability with data interpretation and verbal ability with logical reasoning will help UP board students in scoring better. They contested that while a student may be bad in vocabulary, grammar or reading comprehension, but if he has the knack to give sufficient time to the logical reasoning questions, then it would be easy for him to clear the cut-offs in that section.CAT 2011 will be held till November 18 and the results will be announced on January 11, 2012. This year, approximately, 2.06 lakh students have registered themselves for the examination.