BANGALORE: Your strength in "English Usage and Reading Comprehension" might just land you a seat in one of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). If this dramatic emphasis on English sounds so strange, consider this: academic experts and students alike found the just-concluded Common Admission Test (CAT) paper too easy in its Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation sections, but simply hard to digest when it came to English.

The English section had no questions to test the candidates' ability in vocabulary. Of the 25 questions under the English Usage section, five were on paragraph completion, five on critical reasoning and 15 questions on "Reading Comprehension" based on three passages.

"The passages were mindboggling. I had to spend a lot of time understanding them," said Ashish, a student. He was certain that no coaching class would have prepared the students for such a test. "Candidates who were strong in Quantitative Ability and Logical Reasoning will be the losers," Ashish told The Hindu .

This time, the CAT paper had five options for each question. But every question under the English section was "inferential", meaning the options were "extremely close." "It was difficult to differentiate one option from the other. Besides, grammar, the eternal favourite, was also nowhere in sight," analysed Career Launchers, a coaching centre.

Eighteen of the 30 English section questions in CAT 2005 and 29 of the 50 English questions in CAT 2004 were on English usage, based mostly on grammar. This year there were none.

A faculty member of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, said by doing away with vocabulary and grammar, the focus had shifted to logical understanding of the questions, which would benefit people who were not so good in grammar more.

Meghna, a candidate, was not convinced by this rationale. "All the three reading passages were very tough. The 25 questions in the English section will play a very big role in this CAT," she said.

Many found the sections on Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation plain, simple and "disappointing," as Kavitha, Academic Head, Career Launchers, put it. "English will be the deciding factor," a student said.

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