CAT Trends

CAT has seen many changes over the years. It used to be a 120 minutes exam prior to 2006. In the mid-nineties, students were supposed to spend equal time on each of the section but 2006 onwards, students were allowed 150 minutes. The prime reason behind that change was increasingly high level of questions and fewer questions. With increased time duration, candidates’ candidates could focus better on difficult questions. That also implied that, speed was no more the most important factor.

With changing time, marks assigned to each question have also changed. The normal rule was assigning equal weightage to each mark whereas some other time, questions carried different marks depending upon their easiness and difficulty level. But since last two year, each question carried four marks. Another significant change was seen in terms of number of choices each question had. Before 2006, each question had four answer choices but since 2006, all the questions carry five choices. This has managed to increase the difficulty level a bit.

IIMs have never revealed about negative marking scheme and cut-off marks. So that makes it difficult to check about these things. But in 2005, negative marking scheme was revealed for the first time. IIMs have followed negative marking scheme; sometimes its one-third for every wrong answer and some other time, 25 per cent of the weight of a correct answer. With CAT paper being done today, students are expected to prepare for all the surprises. Competition is definitely tough with more than 2.5 Lakhs students vying for 1600 seats of IIMs. Wishing all the students good luck.