Prepare Online For CAT - Say Bye to Paper and Pen – Mytestbuddy
By: Deep Lodhari
Submitted: 2012-02-22 06:03:08 | Word Count: 655
CAT was the first major Indian examination that announced its transition to the digital media in 2009 and since then there has been an aura around the CAT examination and students have found the transition from pen pencil and adapting to the computer based examinations little difficult.
Before analysing the Computer based approach to the CAT; let us first understand what is CAT why is it is one of the most quintessential examination among the Indian B School aspirants. The Common Admission Test (CAT) is conducted by the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) as a pre-requisite for admission to various management programmes of IIMs, IITs, FMS and IISc. There are non-IIM institutions that have registered to avail the CAT scores to be used in their admission process, thus making CAT the most important of all online mba degree programs in India.
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CAT is normally conducted every year during a 20 day testing window in the months of October and November. The test score is valid for admission to the forthcoming academic year only. Every year close to two lakh students takes this examination for not more than a couple of thousand coveted IIM MBA seats and thus making CAT one of the toughest examinations in the world for MBA admissions. Every year hundreds of thousand students attend coaching classes for a period of greater than ten months for online CAT preparation and thus naturally there is an aura and fear around the CAT enthusiasts and the sense of competition is severe.
This year the examination pattern for CAT has changed and instead of three sections. The CAT 2011 will have only two sections instead of three. The first section will focus on Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation; the second on Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning. These two sections will be conducted one after another with separate time limits. The total time of the examination will be 140 minutes. Candidates will have 70 minutes to answer 30 questions within each section. For their assistance they will have a timer which will show how many minutes are remaining. Once the time ends for the first section, they will move to the second and they will no longer be able to go back into the previous section.
A 15-minute tutorial will be provided before the test actually starts, and it is advised that candidates should go through the tutorial very carefully before starting the actual main examination. The tutorial will help student grasp the basic software used for the examination and this will also help student to decrease anxiety about the online examination. The total duration will be two hours and 35 minutes including the tutorial.
A computer based CAT practice test will provide candidates with a feel of the timed sections, as well as navigation (the whereabouts) and functionality of the actual test will be made available in the coming weeks. Once again candidates are advised to go through them carefully to familiarise themselves with the screens, layout, and navigation. It is advised to every student to take the practice test.
For decreasing the anxiety about the computer based test students should prepare online for CAT and should familiarize themselves with the computer based pattern beforehand. There are handfuls of sites that are providing online/ net based preparation and software for CAT preparation, however there are very few online interactive platforms that provide ideal environment for communication and preparation for the test online. www.mytestbuddy.com is a pioneer in the education social networking in India and is a fantastic application that has answers to all your troubles for online tests.
