CAT this year tougher, 20% rise in number of questions

For over 2.5 lakh candidates who took a crack at CAT—the common admission test to the coveted IIMs—in 23 cities across the country, belling
the CAT was a trifle tougher this year than it was for the last two years. This year there was a sharp increase in the number of questions in the CAT exam, which is used by over 110 institutes besides the IIMs.

While there were 75 questions worth a total of 200 marks for CAT 2006 and 2007, this year the number of questions increased to 90, worth a total of360 marks. However, while the number of questions were more than the previous two years, the duration of the exam remained the same—150 minutes.

Last year, there were 25 questions in each of the three sections—Quantitative Aptitude (QA), Data Interpretation (DA) and Verbal Ability/Reading Comprehension. This year, while the number of questions in the QA and the DA sections remained the same as last year, the 15 'extra' questions were in the verbal ability section.

"We wanted to increase the number of questions in the verbal section to 40. While both QA and DA involve number crunching and account for a total of 50 questions, we wanted to balance the paper with an almost equal weightage to verbal ability,'' said Subrata Mitra, admissions chairperson at IIM Calcutta.

Source: EconomicTimes