CAT 2022 Analysis

The majority of applicants stated that the paper pattern had a similar No of questions to CAT 2021, the few surprises or highlights of this slot are as follows 

Big Surprises in CAT 2022 : 

• DILR was the toughest as compared to all other sets
• Quant was a complex thing! Some found easy to moderate some found difficult — it’s more or less based on your preparation too
• VARC was moderate and good for all who’ve been well-read! Critical reasoning-based RC questions were a trick area to maximize scores

Section-wise question distribution is:

• CAT 2022 VARC: Total 24 questions 
• CAT 2022 DILR: Total 20 questions
• CAT 2022 QA: Total 22 questions

The marking criteria remained the same: +3 for correct answers and -1 for answers in MCQs  and +3 for the correct answers and there is no negative marking in non-MCQ

• The Third slot of CAT 2022 was a little more challenging  
• VARC had an easy to moderate level comparable to the VARC part from the previous year. 
• DILR went to the level and was moderate to challenging In terms of difficulty In terms  of LOD 2-3
•  QA was moderate or difficult. 

CAT Exam Slot 3: Evening Session

Overall CAT 2022 Slot 3 Analysis 

• Quants are on the tougher side 
• VCRC is easy to Moderate, 2 RC are easier sir and the other 2 are moderate 
• LRDI is Moderate to Difficult, where 2 sets are very Tough 

Other details of the CAT 2022 Question Paper are as follows: 

• Test duration is 2 hours   
• Total Questions 66

In the past few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as expected the number of questions was reduced to 66. And It remains the same in CAT 2022.

• The total mark is 198.
• The total number of questions in the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension Section is 24.
• The total number of Questions in the Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning section is 20
• The total number of Questions in the Quantitative Ability section is 22 

CAT 2022 Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension Question-wise Breakup:

The Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension sections of Slot 3 CAT 2022 are at  Easy to Moderate. In total, 24 questions were to be answered in the allotted 40 minutes.

2 passages were simple to read, 2 passages were challenging, and each had 2 questions that could be answered. 

The questions on the RC Passages were very similar to  those on the CATKing Educare All India Mock

• Reading Comprehension = 16 Questions
• RC 1 - Social reorganization increasing crime rate 
• RC 2 - software if more easy humans are not capable to get solutions)
• RC 3 Indian history
• RC 4 American migration/urbanization increasing
• Verbal Ability – Para jumbles  3 Questions
• Verbal Ability – para summary  1 Question 
• Verbal Ability – No Questions of Odd One Out 

CAT 2022 Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning Question-wise Breakup:

There were 20 questions total in the Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning part, broken up into 4 sets. DILR was moderate to challenging in Slot 3 CAT 2022 level of difficulty.

• Set 1: DI Set — bar graph of death calculation (easy)
• Set 2: Reasoning city — 5 days Covid cases (moderate)
• Set 3: 1 set of Games tournaments (lengthy moderate )
• Set 4: Scheduling type but complex so left

CAT 2022 Quantitative Ability Question-wise Breakup:

In terms of LOD In slot 3 of CAT 2022 is Easy to Moderate. It contained 22 short questions that could be answered in 40 minutes. There were 8 non-MCQs in the section.

• Arithmetic (6-8)
• Time speed distance (3-4) 
• Simple interest ( 1 )
• Average (1) 
• Algebra ( 4 ) 
• Functions ( 1-2 )
• Geometry -  ( 2-3 )

All the Best!

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CAT 2022 Slot II Analysis

CAT 2022: The majority of applicants stated that the paper pattern had a similar No of questions to cat2021, the few surprises or highlights of this slot are as follows 

  Big Surprises in CAT 2022: 

• Para Completion is coming back again in CAT which was similar to the XAT exam and it had stopped coming in CAT for a long time, but we’re easy to score!
• VARC had 4 RCs of which 2 surely were easy to do the philosophy one was abstract and complex
• DILR we had 2 easy sets! Brownie points for attempting these the other two were complex and left by most students
• Quants were on the tougher side in Slot 2 as compared to Slot 1 CAT 2022

  Section-wise question distribution is

• CAT 2022 VARC: Total 24 questions 
• CAT 2022 DILR: Total 20 questions
• CAT 2022 QA: Total 22 questions

 The marking criteria remained the same: +3 for correct answers and -1 for answers in MCQs and +3 for the correct answers and there is no    negative marking in non-MCQs

• The Second slot of CAT 2022 was a little more challenging  
• VARC had a moderate difficulty level comparable to the VARC part from the previous year. 
• Due to fewer set options, DILR went to the level and was moderate to challenging In terms of difficulty In terms of LOD 2-3  QA was simple.

CAT 2022 Slot I Analysis

Big Surprises in CAT 2022: 

• Para Completion is coming back again in CAT which was similar to the XAT exam and it had stopped coming in CAT for a long time
• DILR we had 4 sets of 5 questions
• Modulus-based questions of Algebra were there in Quants.

Section-wise question distribution is:

CAT 2021 Analysis

First cut analysis is out here, the surprise of the number of questions is out, we saw 66 total questions which is a 10 questions reduction from CAT 2020, and that provided a good time for the students to give a better performance

Overall the exam was Doable not very tough when compared to 2020 with DILR was a little Time consuming and lengthy. VARC was more inference based. Overall it had 66 Questions and I am proud this is what I had predicted and our students gave 6 practice mocks of total 66 questions in last 2 months.

CAT 2021 tested students on Speed, Logic and Analytical skills, a sincere student with well rounded preparation of concepts and a good practice of mocks would make their way to the IIMs . CAT tested students on their actual knowledge instead of mere guesswork. The reduction in questions from CAT 2020 helped students have a better time allocation and not have a crisis.

It was an exam with No twist it was all planned well prepared students should be able to outperform, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section was a little difficult and time consuming  , we saw the changes in Reading comprehension passages with dominance of Inference based Questions. But this wouldn't affect the overall criteria for a student selection in IIMs.

Negative marking existed for the Multiple choice questions; 1/3rd ie 0.33 negative marks. Type in The answer Questions didn’t have any negative marking similar to the CAT 2020.

The exam was not very difficult, it was manageable provided your concepts were clear. CAT has always been an ardent lover of concepts and logic than calculations, speed and time when compared to other competitive exams.

Feedback from some of the students after the CAT 2020:

“The paper was overall easy, pretty much similar to CAT2020. Thankfully the verbal section went off well to kickstart the exam on a good note. What was surprising was to see no conventional data interpretation questions like the tables, graphs and pie charts. The exam has been as per the expectations so hoping to get good results and making all proud. Awaiting for IIM-A” – Nikhil

“The paper was very structured but lengthy and time crunching. VARC was time consuming with concerns with the inference based questions in all Reading comprehensions not many factual questions. LR/DI was the trick section set selection was the key so now let’s hope for the best.” – Shreya

“A not very tough paper, overall moderate with verbal coming only from 3 areas of RC, parajumbles and inference based questions. DI section was time consuming but manageable. Overall moderate difficulty level so hoping for some good result” – Sumeet

Sectional Analysis:

Overall Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult

VARC 24 Questions:

Reading comprehension was dominated in the verbal section. There were 4 passages with 4 Questions each. More inference based questions and not factual, there were close options too so it needed little focus while solving.

TITA Verbal ability was overall easy.

3 questions on Parajumbles, 3 Questions on Para summary, 2 Questions on Odd one Out. the odd one out was tougher than always

Summary of Questions

Reading Comprehension 16 Questions

Verbal Ability 8 Questions (TITA)

The Reading comprehension were based on the following themes:

Passage 1: Cattle Fish Self control of food

Passage 2: History based Tea history

Passage 3: Maya personality

Passage 4: Eutopia

Ideal attempts in VARC Section: 18 Questions

DILR 24 Questions

LR/DI being Tough, lengthy and time consuming with a variation with 2 Sets coming with 6 questions each and 2 sets with 4 Questions each. Here the success mantra was the set selection as 1 4 Questions set & 1 6 Questions set were the toughest and time consuming, so the students should first wrap up the easy ones and grab a good base and then move to the trickier ones.

Summary of Questions

DILR Sets with 6 Questions: 2 Sets = 12 Questions (LR Sets)

DILR Sets with 4 Questions: 2 Sets=8 Questions (DI Sets)

Ideal attempts in DILR Section: 13 Questions

Quants 22 Questions: (TITA 8)

Quants was the easiest out of the three sections with direct formula application and concept based questions dominated by arithmetic and little Geometry and algebra. There was no need for having a lot of shortcuts and tricks, your solving speed and your temperament to understand what the question is asking was the main focus. The Questions based on the Venn diagram were tough. Arithmetic dominated the paper then algebra and numbers, geometry saw a lesser visibility with just 3-4 questions and modern maths was negligent in the paper.

Summary of Questions:

Keeping the new pattern in focus a 99%ile would be an Ideal Attempts 45+ with 90% accuracy
Overall a happy day for students who know their basics and have preached their books with building conceptual clarity and like Rahul Sir always says “Success comes to those who work for it. Keep working hard and you will see the results !” The exams in terms of difficulty level were very close to our Real CAT Exams and closest to RC 19.

For an in-depth analysis on each section, overall cut-off, which colleges to apply and how to gear up ahead stay tuned to the CATKing

Youtube Channel:

Those going in for Slots 2 and 3, Stay confident you know your stuff and just give the best shot at it. Would recommend all students to relax, chill and take a break. You have worked really hard for the exam and done your best. Now let karma play its role, party tonight and come back with a bang for the series of exams lined up ahead, one day one exam can never give an idea about one’s aptitude nor decide your career path. So stay glued and keep rocking!

All the Best to all MBA Aspirants! Punch in your thoughts and concerns and we shall sort you up.

CAT 2020 Analysis

Slot I Analysis

CAT2020 is being conducted under the COVID Pandemic in 430 centers across 156 cities with 2.27 Lakh aspirants. Social distancing and COVID guidelines being strictly followed across centers so please reach on time with all the 7 essential items with you. CAT 2020 has been the year of surprises with the biggest one being the reduction in time of CAT from 3 Hours to 2 Hours, this has impacted the paper pattern too in the following manner:

Slot II Analysis

Slot III Analysis

Overall the exam was Tough as compared to 2019 with DILR and VARC both being Time consuming and lengthy.

CAT 2020 tested students on Speed, Logic and Analytical skills, a sincere student with well rounded preparation across three sections would make their way to the IIMs . CAT tested students on their actual knowledge instead of mere guesswork.

It was an exam with the twist , Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section was really difficult and time consuming  , we saw the changes in Reading comprehension passages with 5 Questions and DI LR Sets with 6 Questions. But this wouldn’t affect the overall criteria for a student selection in IIMs.

Negative marking existed for the Multiple choice questions; 1/3^rd ie 0.33 negative marks. Type in The answer Questions didn’t have any negative marking similar to the CAT 2019.

The exam was not very difficult, it was manageable provided your concepts were clear. CAT has always been an ardent lover of concepts and logic than calculations, speed and time when compared to other competitive exams.

Sectional Analysis:

Overall Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult

VARC 26 Questions: 

Reading comprehension was dominated in the verbal section. There were two passages with 5 Questions remaining all had 4 questions in each passage.More inference based questions and not factual. There were a Lot of author based questions.

Parajumbles were tough 3 questions on Parajumbles, 3 Questions on Parasummary, 2 Questions on Odd one Out.

Summary of Questions

Reading Comprehension 18 Questions

Verbal Ability 8 Questions

The Reading comprehension were based on the following themes:

Passage 1: Elephants

Passage 2: Vocabulary based

Passage 3: Greek Anarchy

Passage 4: Chinese Currency

Ideal attempts in VARC Section: 18 Questions

DILR 24 Questions

LR/DI being Tough, lengthy and time consuming with having a variation with 2 Sets coming with 6 questions each and 3 sets with 4 Questions each. Here the success mantra was the set selection as the 6 questions sets were the toughest and time consuming, so the students should first wrap up the easy ones and grab a good base and then move to the trickier ones.

Summary of Questions

DILR Sets with 6 Questions: 2 Sets = 12 Questions

DILR Sets with 4 Questions: 3 Sets=12 Questions

Ideal attempts in DILR Section: 13 Questions

Quants 26 Questions:

Quants was the easiest out of the three sections with direct formula application and concept based questions dominated by arithmetic and little Geometry and algebra. There was no need for having a lot of shortcuts and tricks, your solving speed and your temperament to understand what the question is asking was the main focus. The Questions based on the Venn diagram were tough. Arithmetic dominated the paper then algebra and numbers, geometry saw a lesser visibility with just 3-4 questions and modern maths was negligent in the paper.

Summary of Questions:

Arithmetic 10 Questions

Algebra 8 Questions

Numbers 5 Questions

Geometry 3 Questions

Ideal attempts in QA Section: 14 Questions

Keeping the new pattern in focus a 99%ile would be an Ideal Attempts 45+ with 90% accuracy

Overall a happy day for students who know their basics and have preached their books with building conceptual clarity and like Rahul Sir always says “Success comes to those who work for it. Keep working hard and you will see the results !” The exams in terms of difficulty level were very close to our Real CAT Exams and closest to RC 18.

Check the Slot 1 Analysis:

For an in-depth analysis on each section, overall cut-off, which colleges to apply and how to gear up ahead stay tuned to the CATKing Youtube Channel.

Those going in for Slot 2 and 3, Stay confident you know your stuff and just give the best shot at it. Would recommend all students to relax, chill and take a break. You have worked real hard for the exam and done your best. Now let the karma play its role, party tonight and come back with a bang for the series of exams lined up ahead, one day one exam can never give an idea about one’s aptitude nor decide your career path. So stay glued and keep rocking !

All the Best to all MBA Aspirants! Punch in your thoughts and concerns and we shall sort you up.

Slot-II Analysis

CAT 2020 Slot 2 has just ended, we didn’t see any changes in the paper pattern and also the COVID guidelines. Students have been asked to wear masks mandatory, some centers have made it compulsory to not allow students to wear footwear as well as accessories. Lockers were provided to keep your belongings outside at your own risk so something as always told before as well by Rahul Sir only go with the bare essentials for the exam.

Overall the exam was Tough as compared to 2019 and as compared to Slot 1 Quants was Tougher because it was lengthy and time consuming, VARC was Moderate and DILR as expected Toughest

The exam focussed on testing your conceptual clarity and how well prepared you are. Selecting the right Questions and managing your time was the key. If you get stuck on one set or one question that was tricky you will lose the battle.

Sectional Analysis:

Overall Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult

VARC 26 Questions: 

Reading comprehension was dominated in the verbal section. There were two passages with 5 Questions remaining all had 4 questions in each passage. More inference based questions as seen in the Slot 1 as well and not direct easy factual questions. But this section for someone who has been studying and practicing Reading comprehension well with the Rules of RC by Rahul Sir wouldn’t find difficult

Summary of Questions

Reading Comprehension 18 Questions

Verbal Ability 8 Questions

The Reading comprehension were based on the following themes:

Passage 1: Psychology: Aggressive Behaviour

Passage 2: Renewable Energy

Passage 3: History

Passage 4: Chinese Currency

Verbal ability 8 Questions

Parajumbles 3 Questions Easy

Parasummary 2 Questions Easy (Similar to the Squat RC concept taught by CATKing)

Out of Context 3 Questions Tough

Ideal attempts in VARC Section: 16-20 Questions

DILR 24 Questions

LR/DI being Tough, lengthy and time consuming with having a variation with 2 Sets coming with 6 questions each and 3 sets with 4 Questions each.

This was the Make or Break Section; the set with 8 people arrangement based 6 questions was the most complex and time consuming. Most students messed up this section as they were stuck in this particular set.

Summary of Questions

DILR Sets with 6 Questions: 2 Sets = 12 Questions

DILR Sets with 4 Questions: 3 Sets=12 Questions

Ideal attempts in DILR Section: 13 Questions

Quants 26 Questions:

Quants was a little trickier than always. Though the questions were solvable they were highly time consuming and posed a major threat to most non engineers. Engineers have managed to pave their way in this section with reaching upto 18-20 attempts. Some Questions which were tough based on analytical skills one could use the rule of elimination and narrow down to 2 options, fit them in the answers and use reverse solving techniques to save time and maximize the scores.

Summary of Questions:

Arithmetic 80% Questions

Geometry More Questions than slot 1

Algebra few Questions

Modern Maths No Questions

Ideal attempts in QA Section: 14 Questions

40-42 Attempts overall with a 90+% accuracy shall fetch you a 99%ile

Our students were most happy to relate to the VARC and DILR done in the recent most mocks, Aryan Quoted that RCs gave me the true practice for these kinds of challenging DILR sets and Inference based RCS. Especially the RC 14 was most relatable.

For an in-depth analysis on each section, overall cut-off, which colleges to apply and how to gear up ahead stay tuned to the CATKing Youtube Channel.

Let’s see how the Slot 3 fares and post that we shall come up with a consolidation of expected score versus percentile for you.

Slot-III Analysis

CAT 2020 Slot 3 has just ended, Quick Summary of the Paper is as follows:

Sectional Analysis:

Overall Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult

VARC 26 Questions: 

Reading comprehension was dominated in the verbal section. There were two passages with 5 Questions remaining all had 4 questions in each passage. More inference based questions as seen in the Slot 1 as well and not direct easy factual questions. But this section for someone who has been studying and practicing Reading comprehension well with the Rules of RC by Rahul Sir wouldn’t find it difficult. Verbal ability was doable for the ones who didn’t get stuck on the difficult passages.

Summary of Questions

Reading Comprehension 18 Questions

Verbal Ability 8 Questions

The Reading comprehension were based on the following themes:

Passage 1: Screen Time Based

Passage 2: Travel adventures

Passage 3: NA

Passage 4: Economics

Verbal ability 8 Questions

Parajumbles 4 Questions Moderate

Parasummary 2 Questions Moderate

Out of Context 2 Questions Tough

Ideal attempts in VARC Section: 14-16 Questions

DILR 24 Questions

Toughest Question with more dominance of reasoning than data interpretation in the puzzles seets.

Summary of Questions

DILR Sets with 6 Questions: 2 Sets = 12 Questions

DILR Sets with 4 Questions: 3 Sets=12 Questions

Set1: COVID Patients + Blood Group Bottles arranging —> Manageable

Set 2: 4 VennDiagram Based Most calculation intensive but easy

Set 3: Game based Scoring of points High and Low Tricky but doable

Set 4: Mango and Pine based set the most difficult of all

Ideal attempts in DILR Section: 12 -13 Questions

Quants 26 Questions:

Quants was dominated yet again by Arithmetic and Algebra. The Arithmetic questions were time consuming and calculation intensive. Geometry was prevalent in the form of Coordinate geometry and mensuration questions. Algebra had a major chunk of its questions from Functions

Ideal attempts in QA Section: 14-16 Questions

40-42 Attempts overall with a 90+% accuracy shall fetch you a 99%ile

For an in-depth analysis on each section, overall cut-off, which colleges to apply and how to gear up ahead stay tuned to the CATKing Youtube Channel.

CAT 2019 Analysis

The general perception is that verbal was slightly difficult compared to last year, but DI and quant either same or marginally easier. There wasn’t much to differentiate between the two Slots with selective feedback on verbal and DI being slightly tougher in slot II. A marginal drop is expected in overall score for 99%ile compared to last year. In terms of overall pattern, structure and difficulty level, the exam was similar to the exam last year. Unlike the common beliefs, the CAT examiners seemed to focus on a candidate’s aptitude rather than testing student’s ability to handle a disruptive pattern.

CAT 2018 Analysis

The CAT 2018 was conducted on November 25, 2018, by IIM Calcutta. The exam was conducted across 144 test centers across India. The exam was conducted in two slots morning and afternoon slots, i.e from 9 AM to 12 PM and 2.30 PM to 5.30 PM.

Test Pattern and the number of questions

Detailed Analysis of Slot 1:

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension
The RC part had a total of five passages with a similar word limit. Four passages had five questions each and one passage had four questions. The passage on Genetics was apparently difficult and slightly tedious to read. Other passages were related to Second World War, Elephant Society, Consumer Behaviour Policy and Plastic Pollution.

Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation

the DILR section was moderately tough on the difficulty scale. The section had 32 questions divided into 24 MCQs and 8 non-MCQs. Out of the total sets given in the section, 4 sets were easy to solve. The best part of DI sets was that no calculation was required in any of the sets to solve.around 16-18 questions with 95 percent accuracy is considered as good to get a high score.

Quantitative Ability

The section had questions from Arithmetic (14), Modern Math (10), Geometry (six) with a couple of questions from Algebra and Numbers each. There were around eight to 10 sitter questions in this section. According to experts, Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry questions were on the tougher side.

Detailed Analysis of Slot 2:

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

The VARC section of second slot last year was similar to that of the first slot. As per the experts, most of the questions related to VA were easy. Especially TITA questions were quite easy. Around 28-30 question could be attempted easily with high accuracy to score well in this section.

Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation

There were 8 sets of 4 questions each.  There were 2 blocks which were easy and doable. A block consisting of room allotment to 7 students was easy and again a block on mobile’s costing, profitability and revenue was also doable. Blocks related to coding and college ranking should have been avoided as they were lengthy and tough. Rest were moderate to tough of which selectively 1-2 could have been done with good application.

Quantitative Ability

Quantitative aptitude was tricky and tough similar to slot 1. There were 4-5 questions on ratios which were very calculative. Geometry had 5 questions out of which 2 were straight forward and easy and rest were tough. There was only 1 question on permutation and Venn Diagram. Time and work had 4 questions which were also calculative and required application. There were 3 to 4 questions on mixtures which were moderately tough but calculative. Function and number system had 1-2 questions each. Algebra had 7 -8 questions which were moderate to tough. Time, speed and distance also had 3-4 questions moderately difficult.

CAT 2017 Analysis

The CAT 2017 was conducted on November 26, 2017 by IIM Lucknow. The exam was conducted across 144 test centers across India. The exam was conducted in two slots morning and afternoon slots, i.e from 9 AM to 12 PM and 2.30 PM to 5.30 PM. The overall difficulty of the CAT 2017 can be considered to be moderate. The LRDI was quite tough to crack, with only a few doable questions. Many would have felt it very difficult to attempt more numbers of sets in LRDI section. The pattern for CAT 2017 was same as the pattern of CAT 2016.

Learn from CAT Toppers and make your IIM dream come true

Detailed Analysis of Slot 1:

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

VARC section had 24 questions in RCs and 10 questions in Verbal ability section. The RCs which appeared were easy to read and the students could comprehend it easily in terms of language and the content. Total number of RCs which appeared were 5 and out these 5 RCs three RCs had 6 questions and the other two RCs had 3 questions. The questions which were asked in RCs were mainly inference-based, which requires good critical reasoning skills. The options for most of the questions were close enough and this involved multiple reading of the questions as well as the passage. This made the students consume lot of time in attempting the questions and left most of the students in dilemma whether they have attempted the question right or wrong.

Verbal ability section was on the moderate level of difficulty. Number of non MCQ questions which appeared in this section was 7 and most of these questions appeared difficult to the students because of the Type in the Answers.

Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation

This was the most difficult section in CAT 2017 Slot 1. The difficulty level of this section was much higher than CAT 2016 LRDI. All the sets of DI and LR were difficult and very difficult. All the DI sets in this section had reasoning based DI questions and it was difficult to identify and classify the sets in DI. All the sets which appeared took more time to solve than compared to CAT 2016. Non-MCQ questions were spread across all the sets and no set had completely non MCQ questions. Good number of attempts for this section is 14-16 questions solving 4 sets.

Mocks to ace the Exams

Quantitative Ability

Most of the students considered this section to be the easiest out of the 3 sections. Hence the number of questions attempted by students were quite higher than CAT 2016. Highest number of questions were from Arithmetic with 13 questions, followed by geometry and Modern maths. Total number of non MCQ questions in this section was 11 and most of the questions in this section were sitters. Questions mainly tested elementary concepts. Good number of attempts for this section is 23-25 questions with 90% accuracy.

Also Read: How to crack CAT Quants

Detailed Analysis of Slot 2:

The pattern of the slot 2 was similar to that of the slot 1. There were no surprises in terms of the sections and number of questions in each of the sections. The difficulty level of this slot was also on par with the morning slot.

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

This section was similar to that of the morning slot with 24 questions in RC and 10 questions in verbal ability. RCs which appeared for this slot were also easy to read and doable questions. However the options were close enough which troubled the students in marking the right option and this consumed lot of time to attempt. Total number of RCs which appeared were 5 and out these 5 RCs three RCs had 6 questions and the other two RCs had 3 questions.

In the verbal ability questions also, there 7 non MCQ questions which were tougher than usual. The questions which were asked were not direct and students spend lot of time in attempting.

How to prepare for CAT Verbal section

Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation

LRDI of Slot 2 of CAT 2017 was the difficult section to crack and students faced lot of difficulty in solving the sets of DI and LR. Selection of the right sets to solve was key to a good performance in this section. One set on DI was on easy calculations and two sets on Logical Reasoning had easy arrangements. These sets were easily attemptable by most of the students. Non-MCQ questions were spread across all the sets and no set had completely non MCQ questions. Good number of attempts for this section is 14-16 questions solving 4 sets.

Quantitative Ability

This again was the easiest section out of the three sections in CAT 2017 Slot 2. The easy questions were from arithmetic topics. Students who had regular practice of solving Quant questions felt very comfortable in this section. There 11 non MCQ questions in this section most of the questions tested elementary concepts. Decent number of questions with to attempt in this section is 23-25 with 85-90% accuracy.

CAT 2016 Analysis

The CAT 2016 was conducted on December 4, 2016 by IIM Bangalore. The exam was conducted across 136 test centers across India. The exam was conducted in two slots morning and afternoon slots, i.e from 9 AM to 12 PM and 2.30 PM to 5.30 PM. The overall difficulty of the CAT 2016 can be considered to be moderate to difficult. The LRDI was very difficult section, with only a few doable questions. The number of doable questions in LRDI were quite less and all the sets had difficult questions.

Learn from CAT Toppers and make your IIM dream come true

Detailed Analysis of Slot 1:

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

VARC section had 24 questions in RCs and 10 questions in Verbal ability section. The RCs which appeared were easy to read but were very lengthy and the students could comprehend it easily in terms of language and the content. The topics of the RCs were from Economics, Environment, and Linguistic Studies etc. Total number of RCs which appeared were 5. The questions which were asked in RCs were mainly inference-based, which requires good critical reasoning skills. The options for most of the questions were close enough and this involved multiple reading of the questions as well as the passage.

The questions in Verbal ability area did not have any negative marking as they were of the non-MCQ type which could have motivated students to attempt them. Verbal ability section was on the moderate level of difficulty. The para formation questions were one of the toughest in the CAT history.

Also Refer: Tips on Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation

This was the most difficult section in CAT 2016 Slot 1. The difficulty level of this section was much higher than that of previous year CAT exams. All the sets of DI and LR were difficult and very difficult. All the DI sets in this section had reasoning based DI questions and it was difficult to identify and classify the sets in DI. Non-MCQ questions were spread across all the sets and no set had completely non MCQ questions. Good number of attempts for this section is 13-16 questions solving 4 sets.

Mocks to ace the Exams

Quantitative Ability

The difficulty level of this section was marginally higher than CAT 2015. Many questions were from Geometry and arithmetic. The image of the Square Root sign in some of the questions resembled more like a PI - thereby creating some confusion. There were only 7 non-MCQ questions. There were at least 8 to 10 sitter questions in this section. Questions mainly tested elementary concepts. Good number of attempts for this section is 22-25 questions with 90% accuracy.

Detailed Analysis of Slot 2 :

The pattern of the slot 2 was similar to that of the slot 1. There were no surprises in terms of the sections and number of questions in each of the sections. The difficulty level of this slot was similar with that of the morning slot.

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

This section was similar to that of the morning slot with 24 questions in RC and 10 questions in verbal ability. RCs which appeared for this slot were also easy to read and doable questions was easy to crack. However the options were close enough and many students faced difficulties in marking the right answer. Total number of RCs which appeared were 5 and were lengthy.

In the verbal ability questions the questions were very hard to crack for the students. All the questions in this were non-MCQ. The 3 Summary questions were mostly quite easy, and the 3 Odd Sentence out of the Paragraph questions were of a moderate level of difficulty. Para – jumble questions were quite challenging.

Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation

LRDI of Slot 2 of CAT 2017 was the difficult section to crack and students faced lot of difficulty in solving the sets of DI and LR. The sets in Logical Reasoning were somewhat trickier to solve than those of Data Interpretation. These sets were easily attemptable by most of the students. Non-MCQ questions were spread across all the sets and no set had completely non MCQ questions. Good number of attempts for this section is 13-16 questions solving 4 sets.

Quantitative Ability

This section was the easiest section out of the three sections in CAT 2016 Slot 2. The difficulty level was marginally higher than the CAT 2015.  The many questions were from arithmetic topics. Students who had regular practice of solving Quant questions felt very comfortable in this section. There were questions from regular topics like Algebra, Geometry, Modern Math, Arithmetic and Number Systems. Decent number of questions with to attempt in this section is 22-25 with 85-90% accuracy.

CAT 2015 Analysis

The CAT 2015 was conducted on November 29th, 2015 by IIM Ahmedabad. The exam was conducted across 136 test centers across India. The exam was conducted in two slots morning and afternoon slots, i.e from 9 AM to 12 PM and 2.30 PM to 5.30 PM.

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Detailed Analysis of Slot 1:

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

The CAT Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability sections have been easy and doable for the past couple of years, and this year was no exception. There were 24 RC questions, and 10 Verbal Ability/Reasoning questions. The passages were easy to understand and no passage had very abstract or dense subject matter. All the Verbal Ability Questions were TITA questions. There were no Grammar questions in the VA section

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Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation

the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning Sets were very time consuming. In particular, the sets in Logical Reasoning were much more difficult than the Data Interpretation Sets .This section was certainly the toughest and the most challenging among the three sections. About 5 of these sets in the given time with an accuracy of around 85-90%.The sets that should have been definitely solved were Line graph & Table Set, Reasoning & Calculation based Table Set involving percentage calculation and finding missing values of certain variables, Reasoning & Calculation based on principles of work and Set Based on Groupings & Arrangements.

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Quantitative Ability

This section was on the easier side and was dominated by Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry based questions. There were no questions based on Number Properties. Most of the questions in this section tested basic concepts.

Detailed Analysis of Slot 2 :

The pattern of the slot 2 was similar to that of the slot 1. There were no surprises in terms of the sections and number of questions in each of the sections. The difficulty level of this slot was similar with that of the morning slot.

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

There were no grammar questions in the VA section. The RC questions were mostly quite easy: there may have been one or two questions that had close options, and which might have given students pause for thought, but otherwise they were nearly all very doable. The passages themselves were fairly easy to read and understand. The VA questions were slightly tougher: for example, none of the options of one of the paragraph summary questions seemed correct; in an odd sentence out question, all the sentences seemed to fit logically, so choosing the odd one out was tough; and in one of the jumbled paragraph question, it was difficult to identify the first sentence.

Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation

This section consisted of 4 sets on DI and LR each. Each set had 4 questions. Most of the sets were time consuming and challenging. A few DI sets had logical angle to them.  In general, all the sets were data intensive with several conditions. In general, DI-LR section was at similar level of difficulty as DI-LR section of CAT-2014. Calculator was useful for solving only a few questions in the set. There were 8 TITA questions in all in this section

Quantitative Ability

Out of 34 questions in the section, 15 were TITA questions and the remaining 19 were MCQ questions. This section was marked by easy to medium level of difficulty question. In general, the level of difficulty of this section was slightly higher than the level of difficulty of CAT-2014 QA section. This section was dominated by questions on Arithmetic and Geometry. Questions from all the different topics in Arithmetic were tested.

CAT 2014 Analysis

Computer based CAT 2014 was held on two days, 16th and 22nd November, 2014. The total number of questions were 100, with a time limit of 170 minutes. There was no time restriction for any section. Hence, one could switch over to any section during the exam. The overall impression of the paper was moderate, except for the AR and DI sections. In fact,Analytical Reasoning and Data Interpretation questions were relatively easy to moderate in the paper conducted on the second day i.e. 22nd Nov 2014.

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

Although DI was tough but Quants was comparatively manageable. Ideal attempts were 10 questions.The Quantitative Aptitude portion of the exam was significantly easier than the previous year’s CAT papers. In terms of degree of difficulty, the section featured only a few probing questions and majority of the questions could be handled easily. Mostly the questions were based on common sense asthere was no data sufficiency questions this time.

Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning

The overall level of the questions was moderate. Reading comprehension passages were manageable. Only 1 out of the 4 passages was tough. Questions on verbal ability covered only a few areas like critical reasoning, sentence rearrangement, and misfit among sentences given. Logical reasoning section had 4 sets with 4 questions each. The LR section was also moderate except one set on Venn diagrams which was comparatively difficult.

CAT 2013 Analysis

The CAT 2013 was a 27 testing day long computer based test starting from 16th October 2013 to 11th November 2013. CAT 2013 witnessed 2 sections with designated time limits that are 70 minutes for 30 questions in each section.Switching of Section was not allowed,students can review the section within the time provided.

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

Although Quants was tough but DI was comparatively manageable. Ideal attempts were 18 to 19 questions. Mostly the questions were based on common sense as there were no data sufficiency questions this time.The questions on quantitative ability were based on various topics and involved tough calculations. Overall, this section was difficult and speed

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Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning

There were 3 RCs with little lengthy with standard questions like “Theme of the passage”, “Tone of the author”, etc. A good attempt in this section would be of 20-22 questions correctly.The level of the questions was moderate. Reading comprehension passages were manageable. Only 1 out of the 3 passages was tough. Questions on verbal ability covered entirely every topic of English usage. Logical reasoning witnessed 3 sets with 3 questions each.