CAT Center: Tiwari College, Mira Road
Pre-test: I had planned to sleep by 10 p.m. but no, life is never so simple. People decided to wait till the last minute to ask doubts/panic/broadcast good luck messages/generally lose their heads. 🙈 I eventually slept at 2 and woke at 4:30, feeling downright grumpy. A bath and a (very strong and sweet) coffee made life look more bearable and I set out. 2 hours of train journey later, I was at the centre feeling surprisingly fresh.
The check-in process was pretty smooth (more so than last year) and I had an hour to kill in the lab. Tedium. Then the fun began, with the instructions (parts of which were copied straight out of last year's manual, I suspect, and were hence not totally appropriate - they mentioned "4-question" RCs and DI/LR sets of "2 to 4 questions" throwing me into confusion for a bit. The instructions for the scientific calculator were downright scary "it will display till 15 decimal places and then round off" indeed 😒
1) How many questions did you attempt(section wise)?
VA-34 DILR-32 QA-34
OA: 100
(Standard disclaimer: Don't read too much into that. I rely on speed and not accuracy. So I pretty much always attempt all the questions if I can. I typically have time left over, so I see no point in leaving a question unless it is highly ambiguous. If accuracy happens to happen, that's a bonus 😁 )
2) Range of mock scores?
NA, not taken any mocks.
3) How was your experience of the test?
Very smooth. The interface worked just fine, and the invigilators, at least in my centre, were civilised and helpful (and non-disturbing).
4) What was the surprise element for you?
Despite the mock test and IIMA's insistence that it would be indicative, I had not expected to see 24 RCs. (Mea culpa - I called that one totally wrong :sad: ). Add to that 5 Parajumbles and the rest basically para- and comprehension-based as well, and the Verbal section was extremely one-dimensional. I guess IIMA is looking for people who can handle their case-based methodology?
Having said which, I like RC over VR any day, so I found this a perfectly cromulent state of affairs 😁
Also, 15 TITA questions in QA. And 13 Arithmetic questions. You gotta be kidding me! 😳
5) Your overall analysis of the exam. Toughness, new topics, sections etc.
VA: Similar to last year's level, different in structure. Not too ambiguous (which was a pleasant surprise after the VA sections in the last two IIMA-conducted tests). The TITA parajumbles were unnerving, but really you would sink or swim depending on where you stand w.r.t. RCs.
DILR: Again, similar to last year's level (tough!) but with the added misery of a time limit. TITA questions with large numbers as the answers meant random guessing was never going to be of realistic use. This is the section that would make or break the challenge of most serious test-takers, the game-changer.
QA: Almost as easy as last year's; the key here was really to not panic after that DILR but to start afresh with a clear head - 25 attempts with a good accuracy were perfectly manageable.
The TITA questions meant a lot more of uncertainty, but other than the aforementioned parajumbles they were mostly straightforward. The other major change, the calculator, was a useful tool if used in moderation. One irritation in both of those was the fact that if you clicked twice on the same number on the onscreen keypad in quick succession, only one click was recorded. So when entering a number like 2240 it would appear as 240 and you would have to redo the whole thing (if you spotted the error at all). I had entered two TITAs wrong which I spotted almost at the end of the QA paper (don't know if any more escaped my notice...wondering about one entire DI set now!)
6) Any other query or something you would like to share.
Nothing as such. All the best to everyone! May the scores be with you... 😃