Normalisation of the AT scores has been termed as a “highly unjust process”, that has left a lot of candidates frustrated because their scores have been scaled down. It has also led to widespread debate about whether the technique is even reliable. A lot of students have found it difficult to explain the sudden dip in their scores on the exam day.
How to deal with normalisation then? Since normalisation or some other form of standardisation is here to stay, it is important that we make peace with the idea and try to deal with it. My advice is to ignore the entire concept of normalisation. And I have good reason for the same: one cannot really predict how others in your same slot are going to perform in the same test (over 3,500 students take CAT in a single slot). You cannot even predict whether the question you have attempted/left are going to be branded as easy or difficult based on statistics – in short, there is no way to know whether a question is that ‘marque’ question that one needs to attempt and get right at all costs. Therefore it makes sense to attempt as many questions as possible just the same way as one would have done in a normal exam. Yes there might be some loophole with the laws of statistics, but then which law in this cosmos is without its own set of cracks and glitches.
Focus on accuracy and not on attempts – will boost your score more often than not.
Do not link your mock scores to CAT scores and blame normalisation – dip in scores can be due to exam stress too. There is not point in shooting arrows in the dark and creating unnecessary anxiety unless you want to pin the blame of your performance on normalization.Give it your best shot and forget the rest.
The other point to note is that the sample size taken for standardization in this case is very large (over 1.8 Lac students giving CAT) – thus low chances of statistical selection error.
Just to add, I am a general category male engineer and I gave CAT when the exam went online for the first time. I personally know at least a dozen people who attempted all the questions; finished it before time and yet didn’t get an interview call while I attempted 54/60 and got three. I feel at the end of the day your accuracy matters far more than anything else and that is where your focus should be rather than focusing on factors that might not be in your hand at all and then blaming them for your below par performance.
Deepak Nanwani is the co-founder of One52.com, an online adaptive solution for GMAT, MBA and UG exams. An alumnus of IIT Guwahati and IIM Bangalore, he is a master strategist for all competitive exams.