The Common Admission Test (CAT) which is held for admission to postgraduate management studies is scheduled to be conducted on November 28. CAT 2021 will be held for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) with options to select and some non-MCQs and will comprise of three sections -- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC); Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR); and Quantitative Ability (QA).
While answering the questions in CAT 2021 exams, applicants have to use the following options -- Save and Next; Clear Response and Mark for Review and Next. As the CAT 2021 exam will be conducted in three sessions -- 8:30 to 10:30 am, 12:30 to 2:30 pm and 4:30 to 6:30 pm, the administering body will follow a normalisation process to arrive at the result.
CAT Question Paper Analysis From Last 5 Years
CAT | Overall Question Paper Analysis | Section-Wise Analysis |
CAT 2020 | Moderate | VARC: Difficult DILR: Moderate to Easy QA: Moderate to Easy |
CAT 2019 | Moderate to Tough | VARC: Toughest DILR: Tough QA: Moderate to Tough |
CAT 2018 | Moderately Difficult | VARC: Easy DILR: Easy to Moderate QA: Tough |
CAT 2017 | Difficult | VARC: Difficult DILR: Toughest QA: Easy |
CAT 2016 | Moderate | VARC: Moderate DILR: Easy to Moderate QA: Moderate to Difficult |
The CAT 2020 question paper, as per students who appeared for the admission test last year was of “moderate” level. According to students appearing Slot 1 in CAT exam last year, the VARC section was “difficult”, while DILR and the QA section were “easy”. The total number of questions in CAT 2020 question paper was 76 and it was distributed in a 26-24-26 format (VARC - 26, LRDI - 24, Quant - 26). Students found the CAT 2020 Slot 2 paper difficult. In slot two CAT last year, the level of VARC and DIRL were difficult. While the difficulty level of Quantitative Ability was moderate.
According to CAT experts the overall difficulty level of CAT 2019 was moderate to tough. Out of the three sections, VARC was the toughest while QA and DILR were both equally intimidating.
As per an expert on CAT, the question papers in both the slots of CAT 2018 were similar in difficulty level, with the Quantitative Ability section being the toughest section in both the slots. The paper was moderately difficult overall.