CAT 2008 answers - Top Coaching Institutes differ on some

MBAUniverse.com in a recent article informs that Common Admission Test (CAT) for the IIMs, held on November 16, 2008, has managed to fox even the CAT experts !

How else does one explain significant differences amongst the "answer keys" to CAT 08 that have been published by some of India's leading CAT test prep companies like IMS - Mumbai, TIME - Hyderabad, Career Launcher – Delhi and PT Education – Indore. At the time of publishing this article (November 21, 2008 at 8:00 AM), an analysis by MBAUniverse.com of answer keys published by four major test prep companies have shown that answers to as many as nine questions don't match. The questions as per CAT test series number 111 are: 39, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 64, 86 and 90.

Given that just a few wrong answers can impact CAT percentile drastically, MBA aspirants are in a big dilemma over this issue.

Read Complete news on MBA Universe click here

CAT 2008 - Views, Analysis and Answer Keys

Highlights :
- Around 270,000 MBA aspirants appeared for the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) across india on Sunday

- Increase in the number of questions. While in the previous years, the number of questions were fixed at 75, this year the examiners had increased it to 90

- Of the 90 questions asked in the Common Admission Test (CAT) held on Sunday, 40 tested the candidates' verbal abilities, 25 data interpretation skills and 25 their skills with numbers.

- Unlike last year, it was a three-hour paper with 30 questions in QA and DI sections and 40 in verbal. Each section was of 100 marks

- There are about 1,800 seats in IIMs and with an additional intake due to the OBC quota, the number of seats are likely to cross the 2,000 mark.

What CAT Experts say :

CAT 2008 was an easier paper, but Data Interpretation tougher: IMS Learning

IMS Learning say that overall CAT 2008 was on "the easier side."

IMS Cut-offs 2008
Quant: 32-35
DI: 32-35
Verbal: 46-49

Overall Cut-Off
1-2 IIM Calls: 120+
3-4 IIM Calls: 130+
5-6 IIM Calls: 140+

"The relative importance of the verbal ability section has increased. Students with good verbal skills will manage to make it to the overall cut-off," said Rahul Reddy, director of TIME Kolkatta

A balanced paper says Career Launcher
Overall, the CAT'08 paper was of a moderate difficulty level. The paper was more balanced than previous years, primarily because of more choices in the English section. There have been an increase in the total number of questions - from 75 to 90, with English section accounting for 40 questions (an increase of 15 from last year) and Quant and DI having 25 questions each.

Indore based PT education believes that there were no big surprises in CAT 2008 and the paper was a well balanced one.

CAT 2008 Answer Keys