CAT 2014 First Day reactions: Students find exam lengthy; report few glitches

Ipsita Sarkar Gupta & Barkha Sethi

CAT 2014 first day is finally over. CAT 2014 first slot analysis. The first day ended at 5:50 pm across various centres in the country.

CAT 2014 second slot analysis.

While the experts declared the CAT 2014 paper to be easy, aspirants found it lengthy with easy to moderate difficultly level.  CAT 2014 Live Updates

Know CAT 2014 Second Day Live Updates here!

According to Parasharan Chari, MBA expert at Endeavour Careers, “CAT Quant section is easier than the easiest Mock tests. CAT 2014 Verbal sections had the difficultly levels of a normal mock test. Overall - easier than majority of the mocks.”

Key learnings from CAT 2014 first day

Majority of CAT 2014 aspirants Shiksha.com spoke to found the paper ‘moderate but doable’.  

Mohit Batra, a working professional and engineering graduate, attempted CAT for the fourth time in 2014. “The exam was lengthy. LR was difficult. Verbal was easy, reading comprehension moderate – two passages were easy, two not so easy.  Surprisingly, 15 to 20 questions in Quant were quite easy. DI was between easy and okay. One who has attempted 60% questions with 90% accuracy can get a good score,” he says.

Candidates also found the verbal section quite easy. “Performance in verbal section depends on your skills which you acquire over a period of time,” said Rajat Rawat. This is his third CAT attempt.

Shiksha.com met several fresh college graduates attempting CAT 2014 for the first time. “We just want to get a feel of the paper before coming back to attempt CAT 2015,” said a parent-son duo (on condition of anonymity).

Glitches in CAT 2014

Tusshar Shareen, an engineering graduate and working professional, faced a few technical glitches in the test lab. “My system stopped / hanged for approximately four times. They (authorities at the centre) moved my seat to a different location in the lab. At first, I thought I lost time. But the timer had stopped when the glitches emerged. I finished the entire 170 minutes of the test. So though, I didn’t lose any time, it was a little baffling,” he says. You can view his reaction to the CAT 2014 in the video uploaded.

Tusshar is not the only one who faced problems. According to Mayak Trivedi, CAT 2014 aspirant, “About five candidates in my lab were still attempting the paper when I left. These candidates were facing technical glitches and hence were shifted to new systems.”

Sectional pattern of CAT 2014