Common admission test popularly known as CAT is an entrance exam for candidates who aspire to make their career in management and business administration that is MBA. The CAT score is considered for admission in any MBA college. Indian Institutes Of Management (IIMs) is responsible for conducting CAT examinations.
CAT Examination is one of the toughest entrance exams that is taken for MBA and otherwise also. The preparations for CAT 2020 involve hours of determination and requires unconventional methods of solving questions within the stipulated time frame.
Questions are designed to evaluate the capability of the candidates so as to determine whether they qualify for management studies or not.
Important Information for CAT 2020
The syllabus for CAT includes Verbal ability and reading comprehension (VARC), Data interpretation and logical reasoning (DILR) and Quantitative Aptitude (QA). This module is prescribed by IIM.
Many entrance exams got postponed due to the novel coronavirus. However, CAT usually takes place in the month of November, so no such postponement happened. CAT 2020 was held on 29th of November with no changes in the syllabus, but the duration of the exam was reduced from 180 minutes to 120 minutes.
Also, certain changes were made in the exam pattern. Instead of 2 slots, the examination was conducted in 3 slots. The first slot began from 8:30 and was concluded at 10:30, the second slot was from 12:30 to 2:30, and the final slot was from 4:30 to 6:30.
The questions are asked in MCQ format, and hence there is a negative marking of -1 for every wrong answer. There is no negative marking for non-MCQs. 40 minutes are allotted to each of the three sections of the syllabus.
The number of questions asked in each section is directly proportional to sectional weightage. 7-11 questions are asked in Verbal ability, 24-28 in reading comprehension.
The second section comprises of two sub-sections that is data interpretation and logical reasoning. LR comprises 16 MCQ and non-MCQ type questions. The last section is Quantitative aptitude which comprises of 34 questions.
CAT 2020 Conducted Successfully
CAT 2020 was successfully held amidst the pandemic in computer-based mode on 29th November. As per the information provided by CAT 2020 convener Prof. Harshal Lowalekar, only 190143 candidates appeared for the examination out of 227835 registered candidates.
Prof. Lowalekar also provided gender-wise breakup of the number of students who registered for the CAT 2020 examination. The number of female candidates who had registered was 80135 and number of male students were 1,47,699.
Only 1 transgender candidate had registered for the CAT exam. He also informed that the CAT Exam was held in 159 test cities and was conducted across 430 test centres.
The exam was taken amidst COVID 19 with all the safety protocols given by the government. No negligence in safety measures was reported from any test centres. Along with other information, Prof Harshal also gave slot wise break up of candidates who took the test.
In shift 1, 72166 candidates have scheduled out of which only 59580 candidates appeared for the exam. This sums up to only 82.56% of total registered students.
For the second slot, 78265 students were scheduled out of which only 65556 appeared that is only 83.762% of registered students.
In the third shift, 83.984% of total scheduled candidates appeared that is 65007 candidates out of 77404. The average candidates who appeared are 190143, that is 83.456% of the total.
The professor said that the individual CAT response sheet along with the question paper, will soon be released by Indian Institute of Management, Indore.
The students will get an opportunity to challenge it within the stipulated time given. These challenges will be reviewed as soon as possible, and then CAT final answer key will be released.
However, there is no provision for students who skipped the test due to genuine circumstances. IIM was expected to make provisions for these candidates. Around 16-17% of candidates were at a loss.
Other opportunities are there for students who feel that they have not performed up to the mark and will not be able to make it to the IIM can appear for another national level MBA entrance exam.
This makes their chances bright to get in a good MBA college. XAT2021 and IIFT2021 registrations are currently open. Other exams that candidates can appear for are MAT and CMAT.
The answer key was soon released on December 8th as promised. Students can challenge it till December 11th. This opportunity is provided to very few entrance exams. Candidates must make the most of it by thoroughly going through the answer key.
It is released on the site iimcat.ac.in on individual candidate login. This opportunity is also great to get the estimated score by comparing the answer key to individual responses. This makes it convenient for students to decide their further course of action.
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