Bengaluru: Nearly 1.95 Lakh candidates appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2016 on Sunday for admission to the IIMs and 100 other management institutes in the country.
The test judges the candidates on the basis of Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) and Quantitative Ability (QA). Students had anticipated minor change in pattern, but found it to be quite similar to last year's.
“Math and English would have been easy for everyone. Data interpretation and Logical Reasoning were difficult and will be the deciding factor, as these sections are on equal ground for engineers and others alike,” said Aditya Balasubramaniam, a CAT aspirant.
Neha Sinha, another candidate said, “The logical reasoning was tricky. Last year, solving one question would give answers to all sub questions. This time, there was a new sub question each time, making it time consuming and highly calculative.”
Minor technical glitches such as the computer getting shut down were experienced at some centres. The strict rules, disallowing footwear and sweaters, were untimely in the winter season.
“We could not wear a sweater, which is a problem in AC centers. For the Non-AC ones, the windows were open and the weather was quite cold,” complained Aditya, who appeared at a centre in Puttenahalli which was too cramped for 125 people, causing elbows to clash each other.
A candidate was having a tough time as they did not give us more than five rough sheets, which we need for calculations, said Neha, who took the exam at Dayananda Sagar College.
Analysis of the both exam slots by T.I.M.E expert, Srinivas Belvi stated that, the toughest section was DILR, followed by VARC and QA. There were no major surprises, except that there was no sub section tab to identify and categorise DI and LR sections.
The analysis of the second slot, showed that certain mathematical symbols were displayed incorrectly, impacting test takers. The results will be declared in the second week of January.
