This year IIM Ahmedabad will conduct the CAT paper. It has been observed that when IIM Ahmedabad conduct the CAT exam , they have introduced several changes , therefore brings to you the CAT evolution when IIM Ahmedabad conducts the paper over the years to keep candidates in track with the changes and changes that might appear in coming years . Lets take a closer look .
2003
In 2003 cat paper leak in November . So in February 2004 cat retake the Cat exam . The computer-based Common Admission Test (CAT) seems to have taken a huge burden off the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). After the CAT paper leak in November 2003, the IIMs were paranoid about security issues during the paper-pencil format era, say faculty of IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A). A day before the IIMs conducted the first-ever retest of the CAR in 2003 , an IIM-A professor took it upon himself to guard the test papers in a locked room. Vijay Sherry Chand shares his experience of the episode in a chapter of the book “Nurturing Institutional Excellence: India INstitute of Management.
2009
Change from pen paper based to computer based. It was in 2009 that for the first time the CAT was held in computer-based mode or online mode. To get acquainted with the online test, it was the biggest challenge for the test takers. Before 2009 the exam used to be conducted in paper-based mode, wherein the students used to mark their answers on the OMR sheet.
Duration of exam – Due to the shift in the mode of examination, the duration of the exam also increased to two hours and 15 minutes. With the shift in the mode of exam and duration, the test takers witnessed many technical glitches which led to re-test of CAT. There were 40 day window of exam at that time as it was the first time exam was conducting online. and there were 40 slots of exam.
2015
Introduction to on-screen calculators – With the introduction of on-screen calculators, it came as a relief to the candidates of CAT in solving Mathematical problems.
Non-MCQ questions were introduced from 2015 onwards, wherein candidates have to type the answer in one-liners. (No negative marking for non-MCQs questions) This year again saw the change in the completion of the exam pattern of CAT – The number of the section was again increased to three as it was till 2010. Total number of questions were 100 (32 in one section and 34 in the other two sections)
The duration of the exam was increased from 170 minutes to 180 minutes. In 2015 , the test taking window decreased up to 1 earlier it was 2 day window and slots also decreased , so there were 2 slots of exam.
Source – Times of India
