Evolution of CAT in 2014 TCYonline Blog

Evolution of CAT in 2014

With TCS bagging the contract to conduct CAT-2014, the exam was conducted over two days. The pattern of exam was changed over that of previous years. The number of questions in both Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation was increased to 50 each i.e. total of 100 question in paper over a time limit of 170 minutes.

This change in the pattern caused the shift in the weightage of the questions in both the sections. For the Verbal Ability & Reasoning Ability, the effective weightage of the comprehension and Logical Reasoning was reduced and that of English Usage was increased. Reading Comprehension had 16 questions, English Usage had 18 questions and Logical Reasoning had 16 questions. Para-Jumble (Odd sentence out), critical Reasoning, Grammar, Summary Questions and Maxima Minima Concept problems had an increased weightage over that in the previous years. Sentence Correction and Para-Jumble too carried weightage in the section. Vocabulary, Facts Inference and Judgments, and Phrasal Verbs did not feature in the exam. Problems on Arrangement and Set Theory were retained in the Logical Reasoning part. Therefore to get a good score in this section, reading habits will help the test takers, as it is the base of both Reading Comprehension and English Usage part.

The Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation Section too had some major changes. Quantitative Ability had 34 questions and Data Interpretation had 16 questions. In the Quantitative Ability section, the focus on arithmetic topic was increased as compared to that in the previous years, its weightage been doubled. Trigonometry was also introduced in the Quantitative Ability section. Logical reasoning based questions were also added to the data interpretation section, which were not prominent in the previous years. Along with these topics, topics such as Number Systems, Algebra, Geometry and Mensuration, and Modern Mathematics carried same weightage as before. Data Sufficiency topic was not present in data Interpretation problems. The section was easier than that over previous years and more number of questions could be easily attempted. To get good score in Data Interpretation, one must be well acquainted with the different charts and graphs. Also the knowledge of fractions and percentages will help with the speeding up of the problem solving.

Overall, the exam was easier than that of previous few years. The focus in the exam has shifted to basic skills and the accuracy of the test takers. It therefore indicated the effective problem solving skills and the selection of right problems to solve. The speed of solving the problems was also important for the exam takers, as an increase of 40 questions over the number in the previous year was accompanied by an increase of time limit by just 30 minutes over that in the previous year. Along with this, since all the test takers got similar set of questions, consistency over all the slots was a distinguishing feature which was never present in the exams in previous years.