MBA CAT 2021
Get all the details here!
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_tabs color=”peacoc” spacing=”4″ gap=”3″ alignment=”center” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section add_icon=”true” title=”CAT 2021 Exam Overview” tab_id=”overview”][vc_column_text]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 3 broad areas:
- Quantitative Ability (QA)
- Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)
- Data Interpretation (DI) & 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 2021 (Tentative)
- Registration: August-September 2021 (Tentative)
- Exam date: November 2021 (Tentative)
- Result date: January 2022 (Tentative)
Eligibility Criteria
Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) with at least 50% marks or equivalent GPA (45% in case of SC, ST, PWD candidates).
Final year appearing undergraduate students also eligible.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section add_icon=”true” title=”Latest Update” tab_id=”latest-update”][vc_column_text]
Latest Updates
- IIMs get ranked in the top 100 Business School Rankings by Financial Times Check Here
- 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
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* | 120 mins* |
Total marks | 300 | 228 | 228 |
Total questions | 100 (MCQs/Type-in) | 76 (MCQs/Type-in) | 76 (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 responses
Section-wise details for CAT 2019:
- Quantitative Ability (QA) – 34 questions | 22 MCQs and 12 non-MCQs | 60 mins
- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) – 10 VA questions (3 MCQs + 7 non-MCQs) and 24 RC questions (MCQs) | 60 mins
- 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:
- Quantitative Ability (QA) – 26 questions | 18 MCQs and 8 non-MCQs | 40 mins
- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) – 8 VA questions (non-MCQs) and 18 RC questions (MCQs) | 40 mins
- 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):
- Quantitative Ability (QA) – 26 questions | 40 mins
- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) – 8 VA questions and 18 RC questions | 40 mins
- Data Interpretation (DI) & Logical Reasoning (LR) – 14 DI questions and 10 LR questions | 40 mins
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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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
Download the syllabus in PDF Form[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section add_icon=”true” title=”Cut Off” tab_id=”cut-off”][vc_column_text]
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 |