In the late 1960s, multiple choice questions (MCQ), an educational testing innovation, were introduced for the first time in the entrance examinations of IIMs. 

Later, in the late 1970s, entrance tests of different IIMs were merged to form CAT .  In the late 1980s, optical machine reading (OMR) of the answer-sheets was introduced. Now, the IIMs have taken the next logical and the much warranted step of making CAT-a Computer Based Test (CBT). A lot of students are apprehensive about this change for obvious reasons but they can prepare themselves to face this challenge.

The three most popular formats of Computer Based Tests are:
a) It will throw questions to you one question at a time. You are allowed to access questions in a random order if you like. Let us say that there are 90 questions, with 30 questions in each section. Then you can imagine it as a 90 page book with one question on every page. You can go to any page that you like. Such a format can be tweaked to accommodate RC, DI and LR questions.

b) It will be an exact replica of the paper based test with the same number of pages. The only difference being that instead of an extra OMR sheet, you would have buttons/checkboxes to select your answer. This, in my opinion, is the most likely pattern for CAT 2009.

c) It will be adaptive in nature. This means that the test would adapt to how you are attempting the paper. The next question would depend on the answer you gave for the current question. This testing pattern has been followed by GMAT and GRE for quite some time.

Prometric, which conducts the GMAT exam globally, has got the contract for conducting CAT in India. The IIMs have declared that CAT 2009 is not going to be adaptive but I believe that in the years to come, CAT will also shift to this format.

A drastic change in the difficulty level of questions in CAT 2009 can be ruled out. However, there are some obvious measures that the examiners could take. The length of the Reading Comprehension passages is bound to reduce as it would be very difficult to read a 2000 word passage on the monitor.  In all likelihood, the data in DI questions will also go down. Both of these could be easily implemented by having 2 to 3 questions per set instead of 5 to 6 questions per set.

With this, I would like to wrap up the introductory session of Handa Ka Funda . In coming weeks, we would discuss How to prepare for a CBT .

Signing off,
Ravi Handa.