By now, all of you should have heard about the changes that have been made by CAT-2014. Well, some of these changes were along expected lines (for example, a very short test window) but some were totally out of the blue.

Let’s go through a quick summary of the CAT-2014 and its salient features:

Dates, Deadlines and Basic Info:

• Test Dates: November 16, 2014 (Sunday), November 22, 2014 (Saturday) (shift from Oct/Nov to November)
• Registration opens on:  August 6, 2014
  Last date of registration: September 30, 2014 (Tuesday)
  Download of Admit Card: To be made available on October 16, 2014 (Thursday)
  Result Declaration: 3^rd week of December2014 (we have from January to December on this one)
• Test slows: 2 Slots per day, and a total of 4 slots
• Exam duration: 170 minutes (addition of 30 minutes)
• Sections: 50 questions per section (addition of 20 to each section), sections remain the same
• No sectional time limits: Sectional time limits are gone and you can migrate from one section to another with ease.

In terms of changes, the above pretty much cover the basic aspects of CAT-2014.

CAT-2014: Analysis of Changes

1. What does the reduction to four slots signify?

• The first thing is means that the hazy process of CAT normalization undergoes a change, and now normalization takes place over a significantly smaller number of slots (which makes it an easier process).
• In a way, there is a chance the random allocation of slots would actually not be that random. There seems to be a chance that actually the slots itself might carry some sort of normalization for allocation (either 10, 12 or graduation marks could be a play here) and thus ensure a similar mix of students appears for the different slots.
• Question repetition goes out of the window most definitely. Since there are only 4 slots, we can expect unique papers and no overlap (as seen in the previous year papers)

2. What does the change in number of questions signify?
With the number of questions going up to 50 in each section, the following break-up can be expected:

• Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation: It should have 30-35 questions on Quantitative Aptitude and 15-20 on Data Interpretation.
• Logical Reasoning and Verbal Ability:  Similar to the first section, 30-35 questions on Verbal Ability and 15-20 questions on Logical Reasoning. Reading comprehensions traditionally make-up around 45% of the Verbal paper, and that should remain the same. This means around 15-20 questions (5 to 6 passages) should feature in the exam.

Probing further, we can also expect:

• Greater variety in question types and a more even distribution for the topics that appear in the examination:  Topics that did not contribute a lot in the previous year exams might come back in prominence.
• Each of the three areas (QA, Verbal, LR-DI) should feature around 30 to 35 questions each.

3. What does the increase in time signify?
This is a tricky one. The number of questions have increased by 40 (66%) but the time limit has only increased by 30 minutes (roughly 22%). Basic inference from this: the level of questions should go down, but then again, we are hazarding a guess here. The best approach keeping this in mind is that you should really work hard on the basics and ensure you are prepared for a test of speed and accuracy both, and not accuracy alone.

4. What does extra one month for preparation imply?
Essentially you get an extra month to prepare if you had planned to give the exam in October (last year the exam started on 16^th October). If you were planning to give the exam in November, you pretty much get the same amount of time.

But one thing happens for sure: the gossip-mongering stops. Since the number of slots have reduced, and the exam is simply a one-week process, you would not incessantly hear different analysis (mine included) and thus, you should have greater mental bandwidth available for studying.

5. Last question: What do flexible sectional time limits mean?
In one simple word, it means one thing is back on the table: STRATEGY.
You need to decide which section or area you will solve first, how do you navigate between sections and how much time you spend on RCs and sets. All in all, the new CAT-2014 pattern makes it all the more interesting (in a certain sense).

Personally speaking (and this is a purely personal choice), I loved it when I did not have to decide how much time I need to spend on a section. I simply had to focus on the questions, and did not have to worry about their type.

Overall, the flexible time limits are a plus as they give you a chance to use your strengths better.

This just about completes a summary of the news we have till now.
I am working on a strategy post for CAT-2014 and some more analysis. Stay tuned for those.