More than two lakh aspirants of the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and other top B-schools appeared for the common admission test (CAT) 2020 across the country on Sunday.
This year, the exam was conducted by IIM Indore and most students found it to be difficult compared to last year.
The paper is divided into three sections — Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) and Quantitative Ability
(QA).
“In the first two slots, both VARC and DILR sections were more difficult compared to the QA section. Overall, the level of difficulty was a little higher than last year,” said Vijay Jha, president of a competitive exam prep institute.
Keeping the ongoing pandemic in mind, the exam-conducting authority this year decided to reduce the otherwise three-hour paper to a two-hour paper and held the exam in three slots instead of two slots in a day.
The total number of questions asked in the paper was also reduced, in comparison with time reduction this time round.
Several students also found the overall difficulty level higher of the examination held in the second slot, between 12:30pm and 2:30pm, compared to the morning slot.
“In slot two, VARC and DILR sections were very difficult whereas the QA section was moderately difficult. Scoring well in order to be able to bag seats in top IIMs this year will be a challenge,” said Anukriti Sharma, an aspirant who appeared in the second slot of the exam held on Sunday.
“The third and final slot for CAT exam on Sunday was comparatively easier than the first two slots. While DILR section was difficult, the other two sections were moderately difficult, giving relief to many students,” said Kaushik Laskar, centre director of a coaching institute.
“Some sections across the three slots were slightly more difficult compared to the same section in last year’s paper, primarily because of two reasons—higher level of difficulty of the questions teamed with reduced time for answering them,” he added.
