Note: The target of this article is to help the CAT 2009 aspirants. However, the opinions produced by the author are based completely on his experience of taking his first computer-based mock CAT. Any corrections and suggestions are invited in the form of comments.
The CAT is going computer-based from 2009. The computer-based version is more different than I had assumed it would be. It not only checks your ability to solve a question but also tests your dexterity at mental pictures and calculations. Elaboration on this shall follow but, before that, I must say, if the level of questions remains similar, CAT 2009 will turn out to be much less scoring than its paper-based predecessors.
The paper-based version offered an unnoticed advantage: the use of pencil. Imagine if you had to copy every given figure in a geometry question before you could start solving it; or imagine copying a given table every time you wanted to find the missing links in a DI question; or worse, imagine answering the RCs without underlining! Never had I completely appreciated the help that the pencil provided me in solving all those questions.
Considering that CAT is as much a test of your ability to manage time and selecting the right questions as it is of your analytical and logical ability, the computer-based version has brought an unprecedented twist in the entire approach of taking the test. Drawing mental pictures is now more important than it ever was. Someone who can visualise those angles, tables, and underscores, without “pencil” ling them, can now save double the time he saved earlier.
Anyone seriously preparing for CAT 2009 must make sure that he makes visualising things as much a part of his preparation as clarity of concepts. This alone may account for almost 50% of your preparation for this new version of the test.
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