If questions on factor cost and marginal cost in the Common Management Admissions Test's (CMAT) trial test on December 12 left you flummoxed, relax. The test was only to give MBA aspirants an idea as to how a CMAT paper would look like.

Though CMAT's website clearly said, "A trial test will be available from 12th December onwards for the candidates to have a feel of the online test and navigation functionality. Candidates are advised to go through them carefully to familiarise themselves with the screens, layout, and navigation", not many

read it. And on December 12, candidates and coaching institutes were left racking their brains all day to make head or tail of the trial test. Refreshing the page several times also didn't help as all they got to see were questions on accounting. There was nothing on general awareness, quantitative techniques and data interpretation, language comprehension or logical reasoning.

The confusion has now forced CMAT authorities to suspend the trial test option. The service is said to resume from December 18. There is no reason for the trial test to be suspended for a few days on the website. It will soon be available to test takers, said Dr SS Mantha, chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Tony Xavier, head of academics, IMS said, According to the notification released by AICTE on December 12, we logged in to their website to check the test pattern. However, the test only had accounting questions. We then clarified the issue with AICTE and realised that the trial test was just to give candidates a feel of the online test experience. It had nothing to do with the kind of questions to be asked on the day of the test. He further said that it was already mentioned on AICTE's website in the test pattern section.

We have not relied on such trial tests to prepare our students. Besides, most candidates are already prepared for the test, which is based on a pattern similar to other management entrance tests, said Amol Kokate, assistant course developer for CAT and other management entrance tests, T.I.M.E..

As for aspirants, most seem undecided about whether to take the CMAT exam or not. Lack of information about the type of questions is one of the reasons why I'm unsure about taking CMAT. I don't need a mock test to learn navigational techniques, getting familiar with the type of questions would be much more helpful, said Devika Nair who has already appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT) this year. She also said that CMAT is scheduled in the last week of February 2012, and by then most MBA aspirants would have already appeared for other entrance tests and got a good amount of online test experience.

Swapnil Mishra, another CAT taker said, "There is little information about the kind of questions that would be asked in the test. I am waiting for some study material and mock tests that can provide more information on the overall testing experience.