The Common Admission Test, the qualifying examination for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Management, will be held over a 20-day window, from October 22 to November 18.

More importantly, the IIMs have, in a release, announced two minor changes in the CAT 2011 pattern. First, it reduces the number of sections from three to two by simply re-arranging the existing sections. Students will be tested on two sections — Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation, and Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning. Previously, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning were a separate section comprising 20 questions each.

Secondly, while the total number of questions remains unchanged at 120, the IIMs have announced that the duration of the test will be 140 minutes against 135 in previous years. More critically, students will be forced to stick to section-wise time limits; each section will have to be completed in 70 minutes.

Unlike previous editions of CAT, where candidates could go back and forth between the three sections, now the test will be implemented sequentially.