CAT 2011 to be held between October 22 and November 18 with minor changes in the format

The qualifying examination for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Management or IIMs will be held over a 20-day window from October 22 to November 18. Also, the CAT 2011 will have only two sections instead of the earlier three.

Two sections
The first section will focus on Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation while the second section will assess students on Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning. These two sections will be implemented sequentially with separate time limits.

Time allotted
The exam will be of 140 minutes. Candidates will have 70 minutes to answer questions within each section which will have an on-screen countdown timer. Once the time ends for the first section, they will move to the second and will no longer be able to go back. The total number of questions remains unchanged at 120.

So that students get acclimatised to the new format, a 15-minute tutorial will be provided before the start of the test. Also, a practice test will be made available in the coming weeks.

Three new cities – Bhilai, Jammu and Dehradun – have been added to the previous 33 test locations to make the test more convenient and pan-India.