CAT is the most well-renowned entrance exam for over 150 B-schools across India, including the 19 IIMs. The online exam is conducted by the IIMs every year in the month of November and the GDPI round takes place from Jan to April. The academic sessions begin in the months of July-Aug.
CAT focuses on general aptitude (English, Math, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning). The special feature about CAT is renowned institutes that one can gain admission to by cracking this exam. One can get admission into the IIMs only by cracking the CAT exam.
With the change of pattern for CAT 2015, a significant inclusion into the exam is that of the non-MCQ questions. The candidate is required to type-in the answers of these questions. These questions will not have any negative marking. Another feature included is the on-screen calculator. This calculator will only have the basic mathematical operations.
Section |
No. of Questions |
Time Limit in minutes |
Good Attempts (Accuracy) |
Quantitative Aptitude |
34 |
60 |
22 - 24 (90%) |
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning |
32 |
60 |
22 - 24 (90%) |
Verbal & Reading Comprehension |
34 |
60 |
24 - 26 (75%) |
Section |
No. of Questions |
Optimal Time in minutes |
Difficulty Level |
GoodAttempts |
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation |
50 |
80 |
Easy |
35+ |
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning |
50 |
90 |
Easy-Moderate |
35+ |
Total |
100 |
170 |
Easy |
70+ |
CAT is conducted in October-November every year and the results are declared in the last week of December or first week of January. The registration for CAT starts 2-2.5 months before the exam.
CAT 2015 will be conducted on 29th November 2015.The registrations commenced on 6th August '15 and will be open till 20th September 2015.
Section | No. of Questions | Optimal Time in minutes | Difficulty Level | GoodAttempts |
Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation | 50 | 80 | Easy | 35+ |
Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning | 50 | 90 | Easy-Moderate | 35+ |
Total | 100 | 170 | Easy | 70+ |
There were 34 questions of QA and 16 questions of DI in the slot. The difficulty level was low and the questions were designed to test the grasp of fundamentals. There were questions from regular topics like Number System, Algebra, Geometry, Modern Math and Geometry. There were two questions from trigonometry as well. Questions in Data Interpretation area did not involve convoluted calculations; however, they continued to be tricky. As has been the norm this year Logic-based DI was visible again. All the questions in DI came in sets of
Section | Topic | No. of Questions |
Quantitative Ability | Number System | 5-7 |
Algebra | 5-7 | |
Arithmetic | 11-13 | |
Modern Math | 3-4 | |
Trigonometry | 2 | |
Geometry and Mensuration | 7-9 | |
Data Interpretation | Bar Graphs | 4 |
Incomplete Table | 4 | |
Table based | 4 | |
LR Based | 4 |
The questions in this section were of low difficulty level. The trick here was to aim for high accuracy by correctly identifying the questions that one was confident of solving correctly. RC’s were manageable, not being inordinately lengthy or abstract. At most only one of the four given passages was tough. There was a balanced mix of questions from various areas of Verbal Ability. All the questions in LR came in sets of 4. 2 sets were doable while it was best to leave the rest alone
.
Surprises: There were not many questions of vocabulary or fill in the blanks.
With a difficult LR and easy RC many students ended up attempting three RC passages and only two LR sets. An attempt of 35+ would be considered good in this section.
Area | Topic | No. of Questions | Description |
Reading Comprehension (16 Questions) |
Reading Comprehension | 16 | 4 passages of about 550 words and 4 questions each. All the passages were easy to read and comprehend and the difficulty level of the questions varied from easy to moderate. Only one question in one of the passages was a further application question that could have troubled the students. |
English Usage (18 Questions) |
Sentence Correction | 3 | Spot the correct sentence, out of five sentences/parts of a sentence. Easy to moderate but the options gave away the answer. |
Para-jumble | 4 | 5 Sentence type. Very easy. One could have solved at least 2 of these by only spotting the first sentence of the sequence and using the options. The language too was not difficult. Except for one questions, sentences were moderate in length. | |
Summary | 3 | Small paragraph of about 200 words followed by four options. Elimination of options made the task easy. | |
Critical Reasoning | 4 | Small passage of about 200-250 words, followed by an inference question - time consuming but easy | |
Grammar | 3 | Simple words, use of phrasal verbs | |
Para-jumble (Odd sentence out) | 4 | Very easy sentences to read, the theme was not difficult either, short sentences. Correct answer was easy to spot owing to very obvious pointers - use of pronouns, change in context etc. | |
Logical Reasoning (16 Questions) |
Maxima Minima concept | 4 | 2 LR sets were not very time consuming and doable. 1 set was difficult and time-consuming but doable. The last set was very difficult and left best alone. Students were tested on the concept of maxima minima. |
Arrangement | 4 | ||
Circular arrangement | 4 | ||
Set theory based | 4 |