Data interpretation, quants stump CAT aspirants

Chennai: Students who took Common Admission Test (CAT) for an MBA seat in one of the top B-schools felt that quants and data interpretation were tough on the second and last day of the test on Saturday. Over 2,000 persons took the test at five test centres across the city.

K. Shankar, a student who took the test at Aalim Muhammed Salegh college of engineering, Muthapudupet, said he felt the test pattern to be long and data interpretation very difficult.

Aishwarya Sharma, another aspirant, had a similar opinion. “It took us a lot of time to answer questions in quants as it was difficult. Even as the IIMs have increased the test time from 140 to 170 minutes, the number of questions have also increased; only students who managed their time well were able to answer all the questions. English was competitive,” she said.

Pointing out that it took more time for the aspirants to read six passages in the verbal section, Sai Sujana says that several other students also found it difficult to crack questions in the data interpretation section, as they had to interpret five bar charts.

However, it seems that it was only the first-timers who had a lot of difficulty in cracking the test. Saneesh, who took the test for the second year opined that this year, the test was not challenging as it was last year. “This year, the test was moderate because of which the cut-off mark will go up, making it difficult for more students to enter the country’s top B-schools,” he said.

According to R. Ravikumar, head, career planning development cell at Aalim Muhammed Salegh college of engineering and presiding officer of CAT at the college, the candidates were asked to register their fingerprints in the biometrics machine and after verification of their photograph in the server, they were allowed to sit for the test.

This was done to avoid impersonation, he said.