Kolkata: The dates of the Common Admission Test (CAT 2011 - CAT 2012) have been released by the IIMs. The test would be conducted online during a 20-day testing window between October 22, 2011 and November 18, 2011.

This 20 day window for CAT 2011 was released by IIM-K on 25th July. This year CAT 2011 has also introduced 3 new cities namely Dehradun, Jammu and Bhilai in the already existing list of 33 cities making it available in 36 cities this year.

There are also some changes in the test pattern; the CAT 2011 from this year will only have two sections instead of three. The first section will purely focus on Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation while the second on Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning. With 70 mins time for each section, CAT 2011 will be a 140 mins test spanned over 2 sections of 30 questions each. Each section will have an on-screen countdown timer for 70 mins. Once the time ends for the first section, test will move to next section and will no longer be able to go back. Hence, this year CAT 2011 time format is more like a GRE format.

A 15-mins help guide or kind of tutorial will also be presented before the test begins. The total duration of the exam, including the tutorial would be two hours and 35 minutes.

The official practice test will be made available within days and this will help CAT 2011 aspirants take get the feeling of the test and get familiar with the new format of the test.

Now candidates will also be able to purchase CAT vouchers from 201 Axis Bank branches, an increase of 30 outlets. This was done to reduce the difficulties in purchasing CAT vouchers.

For a detailed information on CAT 2011 Announcement Click here.