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MBA CAT 2021

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CAT 2021 Exam Overview

Exam Overview

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is an annual online entrance examination for admission into the prestigious IIMs and various other 1200+ MBA institutes in India. Phase I of the examination is a written test comprising objective questions, basis the result of which institutes release their respective shortlists for phase 2 – Written Ability Tests (WATs)/Group Discussions (GD) and Personal Interviews (PI). Candidates need to qualify both phases to gain admission into an institute.

The exam is administered by a different IIM every year on a revolving basis. The written exam covers questions from four broad areas:

  1. Quantitative Ability (QA)
  2. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
  3. Data Interpretation (DI)
  4. Logical Reasoning (LR)

Official Website: www.iimcat.ac.in

CAT 2020

  • Notification release date: 29/07/2020
  • Registration: 05/08/2020 to 23/09/2020
  • Exam date: 29/11/2020
  • Result date: 02/01/2021
  • Conducted by: IIM Indore
  • Fee: Rs 2000/- (Gen) and Rs 1000/- (Reserved)
  • Applicants: 2.3 lakhs
  • Test Cities: 156

CAT 2021

  • Notification release date: July end (Tentative)
  • Registration: August-September (Tentative)
  • Exam date: November end (Tentative)
  • Result date: January (Tentative)

Eligibility Criteria

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Latest Update

Latest Updates

  • IIM Kozhikode releases stage 1 shortlist

Link- https://iimk.ac.in/academics/pgp/admissionpackage2021/PDFstage1/index.php

  • CAT 2020 result highlights
    • Nine 100 percentilers in CAT 2020, all of which are male
    • Seven out of nine 100 percentilers are engineers (includes five IITians) and one 100 percentiler is from IIM Indore IPM program
    • 19 candidates with 99.99 percentile, out of which 18 are male and 1 female
    • 16 out of these 19 candidates are engineers, 2 have come from economics background and 1 has come from management background
  • CAT 2020 results declared

Link – https://iimcat.ac.in/per/g01/pub/756/ASM/WebPortal/1/[email protected]@[email protected]@1

  • SPJIMR releases profile based shortlist

Link – https://spjimr-pgdm.nopaperforms.com/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=pgdm-india-overview

Exam Pattern

Exam Pattern

It is paramount to know the examination pattern in advance to have a more accurate and effective preparation strategy.

CAT 2019 CAT 2020 CAT 2021 (Tentative)
Sections 3 (VARC, LR & DI, QA) 3 (VARC, LR & DI, QA) 3 (VARC, LR & DI, QA)
Total duration 180 mins* 120 mins* 180 mins*
Total marks 300 228 300
Total questions 100 (MCQs/Type-in) 76 (MCQs/Type-in) 100 (MCQs/Type-in)
Marking +3/-1# +3/-1# +3/-1#

*Please note that each section is individually timed

#No negative marking for wrong non-MCQ response

Section-wise details for CAT 2019:

  1. Quantitative Ability (QA) – 34 questions | 22 MCQs and 12 non-MCQs | 60 mins
  2. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) – 10 VA questions (3 MCQs + 7 non-MCQs) and 24 RC questions (MCQs)| 60 mins
  3. Data Interpretation (DI) & Logical Reasoning (LR) – 16 DI questions and 16 LR questions | 24 MCQs and 8 non-MCQs | 60 mins

Section-wise details for CAT 2020:

  1. Quantitative Ability (QA) – 26 questions | 18 MCQs and 8 non-MCQs | 40 mins
  2. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) – 8 VA questions (non-MCQs) and 18 RC questions (MCQs)| 40 mins
  3. Data Interpretation (DI) & Logical Reasoning (LR) – 14 DI questions and 10 LR questions | 18 MCQs and 6 non-MCQs | 40 mins

Section-wise details for CAT 2021 (Tentative):

  1. Quantitative Ability (QA) – 34 questions | 60 mins
  2. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) – 10 VA questions and 24 RC questions | 60 mins
  3. Data Interpretation (DI) & Logical Reasoning (LR) – 16 DI questions and 16 LR questions | 60 mins

Syllabus

Syllabus

Following is the composition and distribution of questions amongst various topics for CAT 2021 (expected). Please note that the same changes every year depending on the institute conducting the exam.

  1. Quantitative Ability (QA):

Geometry (29%), Algebra (24%), Arithmetic (23%), Number system (15%), Modern maths (9%)

Trigonometry, Mensuration, Partnership (Accounts), Profit & Loss, Ratios and Proportion, In-equations Quadratic and linear equations, Surds and Indices, Time-Speed-Distance, Number System, Geometric Progression, Inequalities, Work and Time, Percentages, Logarithms

  1. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC):

Interpretation-based, title-based, vocabulary-based etc. questions from reading passages (70%), Parajumbles (12%), Summary-based (9%), Sentence correction, completion and out-of-context identification (9%)

Word count in RC for long passages hovers around 900 words and for short passages around 600 words. Topics may vary a lot – politics, environment, science, literature, history, mythology, technology, economy and abstract topics.

  1. Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR):

DI (50%) and LR (50%)

Blood Relations, Series, Proposition, Direction Sense, Coding-Decoding, Assumptions, Puzzles, Clocks and Calendars, Statements, Data Arrangement, Family Tree, Binary Logic, Seating Arrangement, Sets & Caselets, Syllogism, Venn Diagram, Data Structures, Tables & Pie Charts, Data Sufficiency, Bars & Line Graphs

Cut Off

Cutoffs

Please note that the below cutoffs depict the minimum CAT percentile that a candidate has to score to qualify for a call from respective b-school.

Old IIMs:

Institute Section GENERAL OBC-NC SC ST EWS PwD (except ST) PwD (ST)
IIM Ahmedabad VARC 70 65 60 50 60 50
DI&LR 70 65 60 50 60 50
QA 70 65 60 50 60 50
Aggregate 80 75 70 60 70 60
IIM Bangalore VARC 85 75 70 60 70 50
DI&LR 80 70 65 60 65 50
QA 80 70 65 60 65 50
Aggregate 90 80 75 70 75 60
IIM Calcutta VARC 85 75 65 60 70 60
DI&LR 80 75 65 60 65 60
QA 80 75 65 60 65 60
Aggregate 90 85 70 70 75 70
IIM Lucknow VARC 85 77 55 50 77 50
DI&LR 85 77 55 50 77 50
QA 85 77 55 50 77 50
Aggregate 90 82 70 65 82 65
IIM Kozhikode VARC 75 65 55 45 65 45
DI&LR 75 65 55 45 65 45
QA 75 65 55 45 65 45
Aggregate 85 75 65 55 75 55
IIM Indore VARC 80 70 55 45 80 45
DILR 80 70 55 45 80 45
QA 80 70 55 45 80 45
Aggregate 90 80 60 55 90 50

New IIMs:

Institute Section GENERAL OBC-NC SC ST DAP EWS
IIM Trichy VARC 80 60 50 50 50
DILR 80 60 50 50 50
QA 80 60 50 50 50
Aggregate 95 78 60 65 65
IIM Shillong VARC 75 75 50 60 50 75
DILR 75 75 50 60 50 75
QA 75 75 50 60 50 75
IIM Udaipur VARC 80 60 50 30 30 80
DILR 80 60 50 30 30 80
QA 80 60 50 30 30 80
Aggregate 90 78 60 40 40 85
IIM Ranchi VARC 80 60 45 30 30 60
DILR 80 60 45 30 30 60
QA 80 60 45 30 30 60
Aggregate 94 75 55 40 40 75
IIM Rohtak VARC 70 60 50 30 30 70
DILR 70 60 50 30 30 70
QA 70 60 50 30 30 70
Aggregate 95 78 60 40 40 95
IIM Raipur VARC 80 60 50 30 30 80
DILR 80 60 50 30 30 80
QA 80 60 50 30 30 80
Aggregate 90 78 60 40 40 85
IIM Kashipur VARC 80 60 45 30 30 60
DILR 80 60 45 30 30 60
QA 80 60 45 30 30 60
Aggregate 94 75 55 40 40 75

 Baby IIMs:

Institute Section GENERAL OBC-NC SC ST PwD EWS DAP
IIM Amritsar VARC 80 65 55 35 35
DI and LR 75 60 50 35 35
QA 75 60 50 35 35
Aggregate 85 75 55 40 40
IIM Bodh Gaya VARC 80 60 45 30 30 60
DI&LR 80 60 45 30 30 60
QA 80 60 45 30 30 60
Aggregate 91 73 50 38 35 70
IIM Nagpur VARC 72 65 50 40 40
DILR 72 65 50 40 40
QA 72 65 50 40 40
Aggregate 85 76.5 60 40 55
IIM Sambalpur VARC 80 60 45 30 60 30
DILR 80 60 45 30 60 30
QA 80 60 45 30 60 30
Aggregate 94 75 55 40 75 40
IIM Sirmaur VARC 80 60 45 30 30
DILR 80 60 45 30 30
QA 80 60 45 30 30
Aggregate 94 75 55 40 40
IIM Vishakha Patnam VARC 85 75 60 50 50
DILR 80 70 60 50 50
QA 80 70 60 50 50
Aggregate 90 80 75 55 50
IIM Jammu VARC 80 80 60 50 30 30
DILR 80 80 60 50 30 30
QA 80 80 60 50 30 30
Aggregate 90 85 78 60 40 40

Paper Analysis

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Preparation Strategy

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Important Books

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Previous Years Papers

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