Hyderabad: While the Centre is undecided about effecting changes in the system and pattern of the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for admission to IIITs, the IIMs have introduced landmark changes to the Common Admission Test (CAT) this year.
In an unprecedented move, CAT will have descriptive type questions in computer-based test apart from the usual multiple-choice questions. About 2.18 lakh candidates from across the country have registered for CAT, to be held on November 29. This is the highest number of registrations in the last three years.
Seats in 19 IIMs, including IIM Visakhapatnam, will be up for grabs. About six test cities in Andhra Pradesh and three in Telangana have been chosen for this year’s CAT among the total of 136 cities across the country. IIM Ahmedabad is conducting this year’s CAT.
Talking about the descriptive type questions in this year’s CAT, an official said, "Some questions in each section may not be of multiple choice type. Instead, direct answers are to be typed on screen." Experts meanwhile said students shouldn’t worry too much about the descriptive questions. Ramnath Kankadandi, CAT course director for TIME, “While complete details on the number of these questions are not available, we are sure the preparation that students have put in for the multiple choice questions will suffice to answer these questions also.”
Also, this year, there will be three sections instead of the usual two . The time too has been increased to three hours, one hour for each section, and cross navigation is not permitted. "The students are in effect giving three different tests, and hence can focus completely on one single section at a time without worrying about the others," Kankadandi said.
This year, the test will be held on a single day instead of the two-day testing period in 2014. Results will be announced in the second week of January.
