CAT 2012 Dates@ CAT 2012 on Oct 11 to Nov 6 to see no change in pattern; notification on July 22

CAT 2012 dates have been announced by IIM Kozhikode, the IIM which is conducting CAT this year under Prof. SSS Kumar, CAT 2012 Convenor. In a meeting held in Kochi on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, it was decided that CAT 2012 would be held between Thursday, October 11 and Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Talking to MBAUniverse.com, Prof. Kumar said, “The CAT 2012 bulletin will be out in the national dailies on Sunday, July 22, 2012.”

The CAT 2012 Voucher Sale and registration will start from Monday, July 30, 2012 and will end on Monday, September 17, 2012. The last date to register is Wednesday, September 19, 2012. CAT 2012 result will be declared on Wednesday, January 9, 2013.

The CAT 2012 pattern will remain the same as CAT 2011. According to CAT 2012 Convenor Prof. SSS Kumar, the test comprises two sections that are separately timed. Each of the sections will be 1 hour and 10 minutes i.e. 70 minutes. There will be 30 questions in each section. The sections are (a) Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation (b) Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning. Once a section ends, aspirants can no longer go back to it. Aspirants will be presented with the section on Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation first, followed by Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning.

Prometric, the agency which had conducted CAT for the past three years would continue to conduct CAT 2012 as well.

Like the past years, this year too, so far, MBAUniverse.com has been the first media platform to break the news on important MBA entrance exams like NMAT 2013 and IIFT 2012 apart from CAT 2012.

Last year, CAT was conducted in a window of 20 days between Saturday, October 22, 2011 and Friday, November 18, 2011. The registration for CAT 2011 was held from Wednesday, August 17, 2011 to Tuesday, October 4, 2011.

CAT 2011 saw a major change in the pattern. From the erstwhile three sections, the number of sections was lessened to two, Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning, instead of Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning. Both the sections were timed to 70 minutes each and the candidates could not move to and fro between the sections.  Though moving within the sections were allowed.

Though CAT 2012 has not seen any change in pattern, CAT exam has seen a number of changes over the years in the pattern with respect to number of questions, difficulty level and duration. Let us have a look at the trend of change in CAT over the past five years:

Year	Sections	No. of Questions	Duration	Difficulty Level
CAT 2007	Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning	25*3 = 75	150 minutes	Difficult
CAT 2008	Quantitative Ability Verbal Ability Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning	DI LR - 25, QA - 25, VA – 40 = 90	150 minutes	Difficult
CAT 2009	Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning	20*3 = 60	135 minutes	Easy to Moderate
CAT 2010	Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning	20*3 = 60	135 minutes	Moderate to Difficult
CAT 2011	Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning	30* 2 = 60	140 minutes	Moderate to Difficult

Compared to CAT 2009 and CAT 2010, CAT 2011 was even more successful in terms of conducting the test in a glitch free manner. There were no reports of technical snags at any point in the 20 days. CAT 2011 saw a registration of 2, 05, 345 candidates, but it was recorded that only 1.85 lakh candidates took the test.

MBAUniverse.com will keep you updated on the developments on CAT 2012 and the plans by CAT Convenor and Prometric in the upcoming articles.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more on CAT 2012.