CAT

CAT 2016 Slot 1 Test Analysis

Test Experience

• While most students have reported the administrative process as being quite smooth - we have heard of a few centres in Mumbai where chaos reigned before the test and also during the same; hopefully these were exceptions to the rule.
• Inside the examination hall, you are allowed to carry only a copy of your Admit Card (paste the same photograph as the one in the print) and a valid ID proof (in original).
• Things that are NOT ALLOWED inside the hall include watch (analog or digital), mobile phones, earphones, microphones, pager, health band or any other electronic gadgets, any printed/blank/hand-written paper, pencil box, pouch, calculator, etc.
• Test-takers wearing closed footwear like shoes were made to take them off before entering the lab.
• This year the admit card was taken back from the test takers.

Test Interface

• The test interface was similar to the one provided in the official CAT Mock Test.
• There were no sub-divisions within each section.
• The VA-RC questions were interspersed within the section and not as separate subsections.  
• Similarly the DI-LR questions were also interspersed.
• All questions within a section were available within the sectional time limit.
• There was a simple calculator provided & not a scientific one like last year.
• There was an arrow provided near the question palette which when clicked expanded the question window to full screen view by hiding the question palette & vice versa.
• At the end of the test, a summary of number of questions attempted, visited and not visited was displayed for each section.

Overview

• The overall structure of CAT 2016 was exactly similar to that of CAT 2015.
• Each section was timed for 60 minutes. One could not go back and forth between sections.  
• The test started with the Verbal Section, which had 34 questions - 24 RC and 10 VA. Unlike CAT 2015, this section was not divided into two sub-sections but had one single section and therefore some extra effort was required if one wanted to first solve VA questions or RC questions.
• The second section was the DI-LR with 32 questions distributed equally between the two areas. Just like VA-RC, the DI and LR sets were mixed up and there was no way one could locate all the DI sets or all the LR sets in one go.
• The third section was the Quantitative Ability section which also had 34 questions.


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Marking Scheme

While the instructions page indicated 3 marks for every correct, the corresponding values displayed alongside individual questions was 1 & (-0.33) respectively. However since the ratio remains the same we do not see this as a major cause of concern. There was no negative marking for TITA questions.

Verdict

• The first slot of CAT 2016 has been reported to be more or less similar to last year with no surprises.
• No new question types were seen in any of the sections.
• An overall attempt of 65+ questions with an accuracy of 80 to 85 percent should be classified as a good performance in this test.