CAT 2015 Slot 1 Analysis & Cutoff

The overall structure of the CAT paper was as follows:

Section	No. of Questions	No. of non-MCQ questions	Difficulty Level	Good Attempts
Verbal Ability and Reading comprehension	34	10	Easy	27-28
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning	32	8	Moderate - Difficult	16
Quantitative Ability	34	15	Medium	25-27
Total	100			70+

CAT 2015 Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension Analysis

The questions in this section were of easy to moderate difficulty level. The trick was to aim for high accuracy by correctly identifying the factual questions in the RC section. However, one must have practiced adequately in order to tackle this lengthy session. . RC’s were majorly factual, not being inordinately lengthy or abstract. At most only two of the five given passages were tricky or tough.

The questions in Verbal ability were dominated by Verbal Logic and did not carry any negative marking, though they needed prior practice to aim for a high percentile.

Surprises: There were no questions of vocabulary or grammar and odd sentence out had five options contrary to the previous years making them a little tricky. No negative marking for Non-MCQs.

With an easy level of paper many students ended up attempting a lot of questions from RC passages and all questions from Verbal Logic. An attempt of 27-28 would be considered good in this section. 17-18 correct will ensure a 95 + percentile.

Area	Topic	No. of Questions	Description
Reading Comprehension (24 Questions)	Reading Comprehension	24	There were total 5 passages - three passages (450 words each approximately) and two passages (300 words each). The three passages had 6 questions each and the other two had 3 questions each. Four passages were very easy to read. One passage was slightly tedious due to its length and even the questions were tricky. Most of the questions were factual. There were three idea based questions. Only two inferential questions were there. They were very easy. The difficulty level of the passages varied from easy to moderate. Any serious aspirant could have easily attempted 4 passages with about 75% accuracy.
Verbal Ability (10 Questions)	Para-jumble	4	5 Sentence type. Two were very easy. Two para jumbles were really difficult. As they were non-MCQs, one should have attempted all. The trick was to identify the opening sentence and go ahead with the mandatory pair. The sentences were not lengthy either (unlike the previous years). Needed prior practice in order to be sure of the answer.
	Summary	3	Small paragraph of about 150 words followed by four options. Elimination of options made the task easy. Only one question had two extremely close options. One had to simply type in the correct option number. Hence, it was not really non-MCQ.
	Para-jumble (Odd sentence out)	3	New pattern. 5 sentence paragraphs and one was the odd sentence. Simple paragraphs with short sentences. Correct answer was easy due to the thematic difference. One needed to have practice of identifying mandatory pairs.

 

CAT 2015 Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning Analysis

In Data interpretation three sets were easy and the one based on set theory was of moderate-difficulty level. Most of the DI questions were lengthy. Logical reasoning questions were easy-moderate level of difficulty. There was no DS question. Two of the LR sets were doable while the other two was of moderate level. Everybody can do 4 sets in this section so to get an IIM call, one must do at least 5 sets.

Section	Topic	No. of Questions
Data Interpretation	Line Chart (Quarters 1 to 4) - Easy	4
	Table Chart (Plants Industry) - Easy	4
	Table Chart (time and work) (Non MCQs) - Easy	4
	Set Theory - Moderate	4
Logical Reasoning	Arrangement - Sudoku Set - Moderate	4
	Cube based Set	4
	Arrangement - 9 children	4
	Arrangement - 5 Children - 10 Tests based	4

 

CAT 2015 Quantitative Ability Analysis

There were 34 questions of QA. There were 15 Questions of Non MCQ type and the rest were MCQs. The difficulty level was marginally higher than the CAT 2014 (because of 15 non MCQ questions). The questions were designed to test the grasp of basic fundamentals. In some of MCQs, options were very helpful to get the answer. There were questions from regular topics like Algebra, Geometry, Modern Math and Arithmetic. Surprisingly there was no question from Number System. There was one question from height & distance as well.

Section	Topic	No. of Questions
Quantitative Ability	Number System	0
	Algebra	14
	Arithmetic	10
	Modern Math	3
	Trigonometry (Height & Distance)	2
	Geometry and Mensuration	5

With a very easy QA good students could have attempted about 25-27 questions in QA However in an easy paper it is accuracy that is the differentiator and anyone with poor accuracy will lose out.

Please Note: All information on analysis and scores are based on the accuracy of attempts provided by you as well as independent analysis and evaluation made by Career Launcher Academic Team. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.

CL extends its best wishes to all CAT aspirants
All the very best!!