Tough to bell online CAT?

Shift From Paper To Online Test Will Need Adjustment, Say Trainers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Cracking one of the toughest entrance tests — the Common Admission Test (CAT) — for entry to seven Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) was never easy.

For the first time, CAT will go online and with a little over two months left for CAT 2009, aspirants are preparing hard at coaching centres, trying out various types of question paper patterns.But how are students preparing to face CAT? What are the difficulties they are encountering?

According to coaching centres that TOI spoke to, students are finding it a tad tough with the online version, as opposed to the paper-based one.

“Many candidates told us that they were finding it difficult to stare continuously at the monitor for over two hours,” pointed out Arindam Lahiri, director (academics) with Career Launcher. TIME regional director Ajay Arora revealed that candidates could face ‘computer fatigue’. “According to IIMs, the online test will be user-friendly and the pattern will remain the same, which will be advantageous for students,” Arora said.

Some hiccups?
With paper-based test, candidates could give the paper a once-over and then decide which section to tackle first. But a preliminary scan of the paper before solving it may be difficult with the online version, at least during the mock tests.

But Anchana C, a working person, said she has no problems making the transition from paper to computer. “During mock tests, we were given models — one section after the other and tabbed, where all sections are presented on different windows. You can alternate from one window to the next. Questions are hyperlinked, so you can go directly to the question you want to attempt,” she explained.

In the coaching centres
Coaching centres are providing question papers with different patterns. “We are giving papers with all types of patterns so that whatever pattern appears, students are ready,” said Ajay of TIME.

Another observation the trainers made is that reading graphs and passages in the Reading Comprehension (RC) section is difficult in the online mode. Unlike with paper, candidates can’t put any marking on the graph. Earlier, students could also mark difficult sentences in RC, which is now not possible to do. “The RC section may pose a problem. Grasping power is higher on paper and reading long passages online will be tough. Plus, in DI and Quant and geometry sections, transferring calculations to drawings will be an issue,” said Anchana.

Details on website soon
An IIM-B official said details of the exam pattern will be posted on the website in September.

Online Mode
With paper-based test, candidates give the entire paper a once-over and then decide which section to tackle first

Preliminary scan of the paper before solving it may be difficult with the online version
In online Reading Comprehension section, unlike with paper, candidates can’t put any marking on the graph