CAT 2017 Slot 2 Analysis & Cutoff

CAT 2016 expected cutoff: 155-160

CAT 2016 Exam Pattern

CAT 2016 Slot 2 did not throw up any surprises in comparison to Slot 1. While VARC continued to be easy, DILR was deceptive with easy looking sets that had difficult questions. Like Slot 1, Quant continued to be tricky. Overall DILR seems to have been slightly more difficult as compared to Slot 1 whereas Quant was slightly easier. On first impressions, an overall raw score of 155-160 should fetch a student a 99%ile, this year. 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	14-16
Quantitative Ability	34	7	Medium	22-25
Total	100			68-72

CAT 2016 Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension Analysis

This section seemed like a repeat of last year’s paper. Only one RC was difficult to read. 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. The options of some questions were extremely tricky. Time constraint was the major issue. RC’s were majorly factual, not being inordinately lengthy or abstract in nature.There was no tone question and only a couple of inference based questions.

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. The para jumble odd one questions were very easy. Subjective para jumble questions had a lot of linking words and were time consuming. The summary questions were really easy.

Surprises: Contrary to popular speculation, the section was a replica of the last year’s paper.

With a moderate level of paper many students ended up attempting a lot of questions from RC passages and all questions from Verbal Logic. An attempt of 25-28 would be considered good in this section. Accuracy level will be an issue. As the non-MCQs didn’t have any negative marking, a student could have guessed an additional three questions.

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 (350 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 language. Most of the questions were factual. 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 slightly tricky. 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. Lots of pronouns and linking words were there. The questions were simply time consuming. 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	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 2016 Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning Analysis

In this section three sets were easy (Organization, Coding/Decoding, Set Theory) and the one based on restaurant rating was of moderate-difficulty level. A couple of sets had 1 question each which were difficult to crack and students would have been wise to leave those questions. Most of the DI sets were calculation intensive. Logical reasoning questions were easy-moderate level of difficulty. There was no DS question. 3 - 4 sets in this section should be attempted, so to get a 99%ile a score of 43-45 (raw score) should suffice.

Section	Topic	No. of Questions	Doable
Data Interpretation	Model for loan default - Moderate - Difficult	4	1-2
	Salary of 3 categories in an Org - Easy-Moderate	4	3-4
	Rating of Restaurant: Moderate - Difficult	4	2
	Rating of products P1/P2 - Difficult	4	Best left alone
Logical Reasoning	Coding Decoding - Easy	4	3-4
	Set Theory - Easy	4	3-4
	Lectures : Moderate - Difficult	4	2
	Water Supply problem: Moderate to Diff	4	1

Picking sets was the key. In general, students would have picked 4 sets out of the 8 above and thus doable questions would be around 13-15.

CAT 2016 Quantitative Ability Analysis

There were 34 questions of QA. There were 7-8 Questions of Non MCQ type and the rest were MCQs. The difficulty level was marginally easier than first slot. 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, Arithmetic and Number Systems. The number of questions in Geometry showed a spike over previous years.

Section	Topic	No. of Questions	Doable
Quantitative Ability	Number System	3-4	3
	Algebra	8-9	5-6
	Arithmetic	10-11	7-8
	Modern Math	3-4	1-2
	Geometry and Mensuration	7-8	4-5

Questions in Algebra were focused on Inequalities and Quadratic equations. Arithmetic questions were focused on Commercial Math and TSD. There were a good number of questions from Geometry. 22-25 attempts with 90% accuracy should suffice for 99%ile.

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.