With IIM Bangalore, conducting CAT 2016 all set to release the notification on July 31, all eyes are set on the several changes expected to be made in the structure and content of the test, the scores of which form a major factor in determining admission to MBA programmes, the 2-year course accredited as pre-experience MBM by AMBA, UK, at various business schools and management institutes in India.
Experts in the field say the possible changes would be in continuation of a total overhaul of the test pattern in 2015. IIM Ahmedabad and testing partner TCS had at that time decided on a single day exam that could be extended following demand from the aspirants to extend the test window to two days.
CAT 2016 may also be held a few days earlier than last year to avoid a clash with the entrance exam for MBA (IB) at IIFT is to be held on November 27, the last Sunday of the month.
Scheduling of CAT 2016 exam beyond this date, could delay the processing and declaration of result. It woulld lead to a chain reaction by delaying the admission process at IIMs and other management institutes.
Thus, it is possible that CAT 2016 would be held at an earlier date despite late release of the notification. For the applicants, this would amount to a smaller window for preparation for the test.
The test used to be held in the month of October every year till 2013.em However, in 2014, it was conducted on November 16 and 22. Last year, it was on November 29.
It is also expected to remove the sectional time limit, introduced in 2015. Candidates were allotted exactly 60 minutes for answering questions in each section and not allowed to switch from one section to another while answering questions in a particular section.
Interestingly, the sectional time constraint applicable till CAT 2013 was removed in 2014 but reintroduced the very next year.
CAT 2016 is also expected to reduce the number of sections to two. The sections were increased to three last year. However, clubbing DI & LR resulted in both the difficult arts were placed in one section. Several of those with 99 percentile who scored well in the other two sections could not even score the minimum required percentile to qualify for short listing.
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Finally, IIM Ahmedabad had to reduce the minimum required percentile score from 80 to 75 for DILR section.The no negative penalty, Non-MCQ type of questions which had 28% weightage in CAT score last year may also get scrapped.
Common Admission Test (CAT) 2016 is the mandatory exam for admission to flagship post graduate management programme in 20 IIMs and other top rated B schools for the academic session beginning 2017.
