14,500 aspirants bell CAT in city

TNN / Nov 19, 2007, 03:10 IST

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The aspirants included outstation candidates, who preferred Pune over 22 other cities where the test was conducted simultaneously between 10.30 am and 1 pm.

PUNE: Around 14,500 aspirants appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT) at 20 exam centres here on Sunday for admission to the prestigious six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in the country.
The aspirants included outstation candidates, who preferred Pune over 22 other cities where the test was conducted simultaneously between 10.30 am and 1 pm.Overall, 2.23 lakh students appeared in the test across the country. The result is expected in December.
Students clearing the test will qualify for admission to the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikhode and Lucknow.
Widely regarded as the “Mother of all entrance tests”, the 300-mark exam was held in three different sections, i.e. English, data interpretation and quantitative aptitude (maths) - each carrying 25 questions at four marks apiece.

Over the last two years, the CAT has witnessed a steady decline in the number of questions for each of the three sections. At the same time, the number of options for each question has gone up.
While the paper this year did not bring any major surprise, students told TOI that the quantitative aptitude part was relatively tough compared to English and data interpretation.
Arts student Tejashree Chaudhari, who appeared from the Nowrosjee Wadia College centre, said, “The paper wasn’t very tough, but I feel the English passages were a little too lengthy and certain queries in the quantitative aptitude were tough and confusing.”

Sandeep Singh, a commerce student, who also appeared from the Nawrosjee Wadia College, said that maths was tough but other sections such as data interpretation and English were okay. “I feel that overall, the paper was rather simple.”
At Bharati Vidyapeeth, Kothrud centre, one of the candidates, Ikshit Pande said the maths paper required a lot of time for doing calculations. In comparison, the English section was easy to crack. “Lengthwise, the paper was manageable,” he said.
Commerce student Gaurav Sinha at the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce exam centre said, “Last year, people found English tough and many scored less in the subject. But this year, the English paper was simple while maths was a little different. Overall, I would rate the paper not very tough.”
At MIT, Kothrud centre, engineering student Kanika Manchanda said the data interpretation section had some unexpected questions. “Thankfully, the format was same as last year and there were not too many surprises in the paper this year.”
IIM Bangalore had sent a team of officials, headed by faculty incharge Subhashish Gupta and senior administrative officer Sirajuddin, to oversee the conduct of the exam at all centres in Pune.

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