New Delhi/Bangalore: For those seeking admission to the premier business schools of India, Saturday?s Common Admission Test (CAT) was quite a shocker.
The MBA aspirants were surprised by the googly thrown their way in form of less number of questions in the question paper.
Instead of the usual 150, the question paper had just 90 questions.
The surprise twist had parents worried and students hassled.
"It was a tough paper and we did not know the format was going to change," Kanishka Bhargava, an IIM-aspirant said.
"This was the first time that CAT had double-digit questions," Udaynath Prusty, another IIM aspirant said.
The number of students taking the CAT has gone up by 14 per cent this year. The difficulty level has also escalated.
Career Launcher, a coaching institute for CAT and other competitive exams, trains thousands of students for CAT every year.
Gautam Puri, the Managing Director of Career Launcher has been taking the test for the past 10 years to analyse the changing trends and says CAT 2005 was thus far the toughest he's attempted.
"After taking CAT for the past 10 years, I feel CAT 2005 has been the toughest I've taken till date," Puri says.
This year, only those with a 98.5 percentile score and above will get an interview call for the IIMs. 1,300 will finally make it.
Some students have even given up on their IIM dream.
Rashmi Pai, an IIM aspirant is disappointed with her performance. "I think I will not be able to make it to the IIMs. I will get 80 to 85 percentile, maybe," she says.
Another student, Ankit Bhargav, hopes for better luck this time. "This is the third time I'm writing it (CAT) and I hope to have some chances," he said.
So how many of these students will make it to the famed corridors of the IIMs?
"I think the people who score anything between 25 to 30 in verbal ability and who have done their homework in Math and Geometry will be able to make it," G Prahlad Rao, an IIM-Bangalore alumnus and a CAT coach says.
(with Deepa Balakrishnan in Bangalore)
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