cat 2008 question paper - Experts: English will be the key to crack CAT 2008

Kolkata, November 16 Students with a good grasp on English stand a better chance of making it to the cut-off list of IIMs this year.

Of the 90 questions asked in the Common Admission Test (CAT) held on Sunday, 40 tested the candidates’ verbal abilities, 25 data interpretation skills and 25 their skills with numbers.

The question paper marked a departure from last year’s pattern where there were 25 questions in each section. “The relative importance of the verbal ability section has increased. Students with good verbal skills will manage to make it to the overall cut-off,” said Rahul Reddy, director of TIME, an institute providing coaching for the CAT.

Experts also feel that in spite of an increase in the number of questions on verbal ability, candidates performing well in all the three sections will be able to meet the subject wise cut-offs. Some students pointed outthat questions in the data interpretation section this year were tougher and more time consuming.

“We were taken by surprise to find 90 questions. But the questions were relatively easier than last year. In the data interpretation section, questions related to diagrams were a little time consuming,” said Mofizul Rahman, a student.

About 15,000 students took the CAT from 17 centres in Kolkata, IIM-Calcutta authorities said. More than 2.5 lakh applicants were expected to appear in the CAT examination throughout the country.

The results of the examination will be out on January 9, 2009.

There are about 1,800 seats in IIMs and with an additional intake due to the OBC quota, the number of seats are likely to cross the 2,000 mark.

According to IIM-Calcutta, which will take 318 candidates this year, the number of seats will increase to 408 in 2009.

The Centre is also planning to start three new IIMs from this year so that students have a better chance of making it to the premier institutes in 2009. As a regular practice, a new IIM starts with a batch of 60 students.

The authorities are, however, not yet clear about making the CAT examination online by next year.

‘We cannot comment on the CAT 2009. As far as an online test is concerned, we are not sure whether such a system can be introduced by next year,” said Subrata Mitra, admission in-charge of IIM-Calcutta and one of the members of the committee that conducts CAT.

Source: expressindia.com