BENGALURU: This year’s Common Admission Test (CAT), which saw the highest number of women register (78,009) in the last five years, got off to a smooth start. It was not only glitch-free, but many students said the paper was easier as compared to the last year.

Conducted by Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow across 20 cities, 1,99,600 (87%) of the registered 2.31 lakh candidates took the online CAT at 381 centres across the country on Sunday.

IIM Lucknow said the test – the gateway to 19 IIMs and 150 other B-schools – was by and large a smooth affair. The test was held in two sessions — morning and noon. Last year, CAT recorded 2.32 lakh registrations, the highest since 2010.

While most candidates said the data interpretation and logical reasoning (DILR) section was exhaustive, the other sections, verbal ability and reading comprehension (VARC) and quantitative ability (QA), were easier than expected.

Karthik Shankar, appearing for CAT for the third time, said initially he had no expectations, but after the test he feels that he might make it to one of the top institutes. “Compared to the other two sections, DILR was analytical and time-consuming. However, unlike last year, this year’s questions were easier,” he said.

“QA and VARC sections were perfectly fine, but DILR was complicated; however, it was much easier than last year. I don’t know how much I’ll score, but I am satisfied,” said Surabhi Sinha, another candidate.

For first-timer Pratyush Gadde, DILR was not tough, but time-consuming. “As last year’s paper was way too difficult, this year I prepared accordingly; hence none of the sections seemed tough,” Gadde said.

Sneha V, another first timer, said: “We are lucky to get such an easy paper on our first attempt.”

PAPER ANALYSIS

According to Srinivas Belvi, centre director at Triumphant Institute of Education Management (TIME), the morning-slot paper was a balance between very tough and very easy questions. “Number of questions across sections remained the same as last year. However, once again, the DILR section proved to be the nemesis for all aspirants. The entire section comprised ‘difficult’ and ‘very difficult’ questions. Most aspirants would have perceived the QA section to be the easiest of the three,” he added.

Analyzing the evening paper, Pravin Prakash, cofounder at Byju’s, said, “Like 2016, this year too DILR proved to be the toughest of all sections. This time, the problem was that though the data in the questions looked inviting, on trying to solve them, students would have hit a dead-end, wasted time and moved on to the next question. Overall, the exam was moderately difficult. Scores should have been maximized in the quant and verbal sections.”

“A score of 150+ (50% of 300) would be enough for a few IIM calls, with DILR requiring only slightly more than half the score of the other two sections. The discussion should veer around which was easier of the two sections — quant or verbal. These sections must have come to the rescue of CAT aspirants this year,” he added.

