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New Delhi: The Common Admission Test (CAT) is considered the toughest among MBA examinations. This year it will be held on November 19 and its duration will be two-and-a-half hours instead of two hours. Aspirants need to change their preparation methodology. According to experts, students will have to focus on accuracy more than speed.

A CAT aspirant's biggest worry remains the pattern of the paper, which changes almost every year. In 1998, it had four sections and now it has dropped down to three. The number of questions has also dropped than it was earlier. This means the questions have become longer than before.

Questions are based on verbal ability and reasoning, reading comprehension, qualitative skills, data interpretation, analytical and logical reasoning.

According to experts, the key to success is that the students should try to understand the questions instead of just cramming formulas.

Focus on accuracy and comprehension, but the ability to think logically is important. You can improve these things with some practice. You need to score at least 50 per cent at the graduation level to sit for the CAT exam.

Common Admission Test 2006

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension - Last year, the section was worth 50 marks and out of it 18 questions were worth 30 marks. The questions are about sentence correction, sentence sequencing and verbal reasoning.

Data Interpretation and Logical Ability - Normally, Data Interpretation (DI) accounts for 25 to 30 marks and LA/ DS accounts for the rest. However, these days, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between DI and Logic. In CAT 2005, there were no Data Sufficiency questions. DI is a skill and it requires continuous practice.

Quantitative Ability also called Quant - This section is worth 50 marks and has been divided into four sections: number, (geometry and mensuration), arithmatic, algebra and pure maths. It may be heartening to note that in CAT, the cut-off for Quant never goes beyond 12 marks (out of 50).

Write to us or call us on 0120-4341895 for your queries on CAT 2006. Our experts from top Management training institutes will answer them on Breakfast with India between 8 am and 10 am (Nov 9-Nov 18).