Monday, December 01, 2008
The shift in weightage in this year’s CAT was significant.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2008 is now behind us. On D-Day, the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) let the “CAT” out of the bag and sprung a surprise on the 2.76 lakh management seat aspirants, who appeared for the examination in 23 cities across the country.

The Verbal Ability (or English) section was a twist in the tale. Though the CAT is no novice to change, the pattern of the examination, both in terms of sections and weightage given to each of the three sections, has been the same since 1998. For the first time in 10 years, the CAT had made a shift in the weightage by tipping the balance in favour of those who are a little sharper with their English skills.


While this is consistent with the increasing importance given to English skills in the second stage (personal interview and group discussion) of the admission process, there has been significant debate about whether it will end up to those with better knowledge of the English language. Does this put the student with a non-urban or even non-arts background at a clear disadvantage?

“Not really,” say experts. Ajay Arora of the Triumphant Institute of Management Education (T.I.M.E.) points out that students can still score well in the other two sections. “Moreover, these questions are all about basic grammar and comprehension skills which are by now essential to any course,” he points out.

Shiva Kumar, Director, R&D and Academics, Career Launcher, says that though students may be disappointed, it is not entirely a new trend. The percentage of engineering graduates has been increasing significantly over the past years, and is even close to 85 per cent in some of the IIMs. “This meant that those who have been good at mathematics or general quantitative skills have been making it. In previous papers, 60 per cent questions were based on English. This imbalance was straightened out by making it one-thirds English, which is not the ideal way either,” he says. He feels that in future, the CAT will move towards a 50-50 weightage for numerical and English skills. Experts also feel that this shift in testing will open up the CAT to those who may not be from a purely mathematical or technical background and will open its doors to some diversity in an IIM classroom.

Online
Come 2009 and the CAT is set to go online. There is considerable apprehension among students about this. Coaching centres are bracing themselves for the challenge by insisting that students take their mock tests online and even working out modules so students can work on their speed in this new format. The final announcement from the IIMs, however, is eagerly awaited. The IIMs, on their part, have been dropping hints about working on an online format, but are yet to confirm the deal.

“Next year, CAT could be a different game since it is going online. The difference will not be in the content but the format they will chose to adopt,” says Mr. Shiva Kumar. For instance, if the GMAT format is emulated, then students will be forced to attempt all questions, which experts feel may lead to a decrease in the number of questions as well as the level of complexity. Making close to three lakh candidates take the examination online will not be an easy task. The BIT SAT (which is the entrance test conducted by BITS) conducts exams online for 1.2 lakh students over 30 days.

CAT 2008, in that sense, may have been a precursor to imminent change. Not only did the number of questions increase from 75 to 90 (to be completed in 150 minutes), the difficulty level in some sections also went up. Students emerging from the examination hall could not wait to get online to check answer keys and detailed analysis. They also posted frantic messages inquiring about expected cut-offs, both sectional and overall.

Some websites took it a step ahead by offering “instant simulation of CAT percentiles” and giving a list of which IIMs a candidate will make it to. The CAT, being a comparative percentile, cannot be predicted by such mechanisms, experts say.

The fact that most experts predicted overall cut-offs in the same range as in last year in spite of the fact that the total marks shot up from 300 to 360, reflects an increase in difficulty level.

Most management education websites and training institutes predict an overall cut-off range of 110-124, compared to 110 last year. Anywhere in this range would ensure a call from at least one of the seven IIMs.