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CAT 2010: Analysis of Day 1, Session 1
This year CAT has varied expectations. With a longer timeframe, and one year to get their act together, Prometric and IIMs have trained staff, got their processes in place, and are much more organised this time. Glitches seem to be fewer.
To put your minds at ease and answer all your queries about the CBT CAT 2010, here is a short write up which enumerates the various points that you need to keep in mind while attempting the exam.
Tutorial (optional): Duration - 15 minutes.
We suggest, you go through the tutorial once, even if you have seen it before.
Test Duration:
The actual duration of the test is 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Sections covered:
Verbal Ability, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning; not necessarily in that order.
Test Format and pattern:
Reports suggest a total of 60 questions with 20 from each section. The pattern is similar to CAT 2009.
Negative Marking:
There is negative marking. However, the marks per question and the actual negative marking is not known hence it is futile to speculate about the cut-offs.
Highlighting Text:
You can highlight text in group questions like RCs. You can make multiple highlights in a particular screen, which gets deleted once you switch to the next screen.
Reviewing Questions:
You can mark a question to come back to it later. You can then Review either all the questions or review only the marked questions or review only the incomplete questions. The review shows a list of all the questions, but it will not directly give you a count of the questions attempted or to be attempted. You will need to manually count the number of questions for such data.
Items provided for rough work:
Pencils, eraser and a paper booklet of 8 A4 size papers will be provided. You will not be allowed to take your own stationery into the computer lab. In case of broken or blunt pencil points, your pencil will be replaced immediately.
Timer:
The timer is present on the screen at all time and shows the time remaining till the end of the test. Wrist watches are not allowed into the computer lab. At the end of the test, when your time runs out, you will be automatically logged out of the test and a screen with "You have run out of time" text will be visible.
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What we don't know
- Weightage of a question
- Quantum of negative marking (Expected to be 1/3).
What we do know
- Biometrics Testing includes your photo being taken by a PC camera and an electronic finger printing (left and right hand index finger 3-3 times).
- Voucher, Admit card printout and Photo ID are required to give the test. If you have lost either, call on the Prometric helpline immediately.
- Having different addresses in the admit card and in the photo-id won't stop you from giving the test. To be on the safe side, if such a case rises, take your electricity or telephone bill with you.
- You do not require the Prometric username and password to give the test.
- The password required to login to the test will be given by Prometric volunteers at the start of the test.
- For doing rough work, pencil, eraser and a booklet having 4 A4 sizes papers (8 sides) are provided. No sharpners are provided. They just change your pencils.
- Skipping the 15 minutes tutorial won't grant extra time for the test. It is advisable to go through the tutorial anyway.
- System is user-friendly.
- Changing resolution of the screen (zooming) is not possible.
- Exiting the test software or opening another application like Notepad of MS Word is not possible.
- Cntrl + F is disabled. So finding a word in RC using the same is not possible.
- Negative marking exists.
- To clear the clicked option, re-click on the same to deselect the option.
- You can jump between questions by using the Review feature (as shown in the CAT demo Player)
- Highlighting multiple lines in an RC section is possible. However, the selection is lost if you move away from the section.
- Time left is displayed on screen. Timer logs you out automatically at the end of the test.
- You won't get a score-sheet immediately after the exam is over.
Strategies
As the marking system is unknown, the only strategy in hand is to attempt as many questions as possible without compromising on accuracy.
Students claim that the level of difficulty of CAT was similar to CAT 2009. Hence attempting more questions correctly will give you an edge.
It is recommended that a break up of 40 minutes for Verbal, 45 minutes for Quant and 50 minutes for DI-LR is optimum.