Gearing up for CAT 2018 | 21

CHAPTER 4
Gearing up for CAT 2018

THE CAT EXAM: THE ENTRY POINT TO YOUR DREAM

B-SCHOOL
CAT is a management aptitude test conducted by the IIMs primarily to evaluate and shortlist candidates for its
flagship programme, the 2 year postgraduate programme (PGDM) popularly known as Master of Business
Administration (MBA). It is a computer-based test (CBT) set and conducted by one of the IIMs each year.
Convener for CAT 2017 was IIM, Lucknow, which was conducted in about 140 test cities and taken by over
2,00,000 candidates.
CAT is your entry point into the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), which are considered India’s premier
national institutes providing quality education in management and research. Today, there are 20 IIMs as listed
below with their year of establishment:
1. IIM Ahmedabad 1961 (Gujarat)
2. IIM Calcutta 1961 (West Bengal)
3. IIM Bangalore 1973 (Karnataka)
4. IIM Lucknow 1984 (Uttar Pradesh)
5. IIM Indore 1996 (Madhya Pradesh)
6. IIM Kozhikode 1996 (Kerala)
7. IIM Shillong 2007 (Meghalaya)
8. IIM Raipur 2010 (Chhattisgarh)
9. IIM Ranchi 2010 (Jharkhand)
10. IIM Rohtak 2010 (Haryana)
11. IIM Kashipur 2011 (Uttarakhand)
12. IIM Tiruchirappalli 2011 (Tamil Nadu)
13. IIM Udaipur 2011 (Rajasthan)
14. IIM Amritsar 2015 (Punjab)
22 | Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT

15. IIM Bodh Gaya 2015 (Bihar)

16. IIM Nagpur 2015 (Maharashtra)
17. IIM Sambalpur 2015 (Odisha)
18. IIM Sirmaur 2015 (Himachal Pradesh)
19. IIM Visakhapatnam 2015 (Andhra Pradesh)
20. IIM Jammu 2016 (Jammu and Kashmir)

CAT is also your entry point to some 140 B-Schools or Management Institutes that accept the CAT scores as a
criterion for admission. Some of the top B-Schools that accept the CAT scores include:
1. Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi University, Delhi
2. International Management Institute (IMI), Delhi
3. Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon
4. Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad
5. SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai
6. National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai
7. Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Schools/Departments of Management across India
8. MICA, Ahmedabad
9. Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa
10. TAPMI, Manipal

THE CAT 2017 EXAM STRUCTURE AND EXPERIENCE

CAT 2017 was a 180-minute computer-based test (CBT) with a sectional time limit of 60 minutes for each of
the three sections, which appeared in the following order:
1. Section I: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
2. Section II: Data interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)
3. Section III: Quantitative Ability (QA)

MARKING SYSTEM FOLLOWED

1. Each question carries 3 marks for every right answer.
2. All questions that are not attempted get 0 marks.
3. There is Negative Marking of 1 marks for a wrong answer in the case of MCQ questions. But, there is
no Negative Marking for Non-MCQ/TITA questions.

HOW THE COMPUTER-BASED TEST (CBT) WORKS

1. The computer allotted to you at the test centre runs on a specialized software that permits only one
answer to be selected for the question using a mouse.
2. Your answers are updated and saved on a server periodically and also at the end of the test. The test
automatically stops at the end of 180 minutes. However, the section-wise time is of 60 minutes each
after which you are not able to go back to that section.
3. You cannot navigate through sections. The three sections will be administered in the order as given
above. You can only move to the next section after completing 60 minutes, which is the time allocated
to each section.
4. Each MCQ has four choices out of which only ONE is the correct answer. You have to choose the
correct answer by clicking on the radio button (O) placed before the choice. For Non-MCQ/TITA
questions, you have to use the on-screen keyboard and put the answers in the given space.
 Gearing up for CAT 2018 | 23

5. No external/physical calculator is allowed, however a basic on-screen calculator in the system is

provided.
6. Charts, graph sheets, and mathematical tables are NOT allowed in the Examination Hall. You can use
the rough pad and pen provided to you for any rough work. You are required to write your name and
registration number at the designated place on the rough pad and submit it at the end of the
examination.
7. You are allowed to leave the test hall only after the completion of 180 minutes, in other words only
after finishing the test.

UNDERSTANDING THE SCORES

CAT 2017 was conducted in two sessions. Two different Test Forms were administered in two Test Sessions. In
order to ensure fairness and equity in comparison of performances of the candidates across different test
sessions, the scores of the candidates were subjected to a process of Normalization. The Normalization
process adjusts for location and scale differences of score distributions across different forms. After
normalization across different forms, the scores are further normalized across different sections. The scaled
scores obtained by this process are converted into percentiles for purposes of shortlisting.

For reporting purposes, Scaled Scores for each section (Section I: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
(VARC), Section II: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Section III: Quantitative Ability (QA))
and Total along with the Percentiles were published. Here a CAT 2017 sample Score Card.

CAT 2017 SAMPLE SCORE CARD

VARC DILR QA TOTAL

Scaled Percentile Scaled Percentile Scaled Percentile Scaled Percentile
Score Score Score Score
66.30 96.40 38.03 97.27 76.86 99.31 181.19 99.37

CAT 2017 VARC SECTION ANALYSIS

CAT 2017 maintained the same pattern as CAT 2016 and CAT 2015—34 questions in the VARC section with a
sectional time limit of 60 minutes. As in the last two CAT, there were no questions on vocabulary and grammar.
This section was dominated by reading comprehension (RC)—24 questions/5 passages. Even the verbal
reasoning (VR)—10 questions comprising jumbled paragraphs (5 sentences), out-of-context sentences
(5 sentences) and paragraph summary essentially test candidates for their RC skills. So it was RC all the way
as in CAT 2016 and CAT 2015—3 years in a row!

The RC passages (both slots) as always covered a wide range of topics and subject-matter, with no noticeable
bias towards any particular subject. Any candidate with eclectic reading habits would have been comfortable
with most of the passages. Unlike CAT 2016, however, some RC questions had close options requiring re-
reading of portions of the passages; and the proportion of inference-based to direct questions was higher
requiring careful reading of the passages. This made CAT 2017 RC more challenging and time-consuming.
An attempt of 19 questions with 90% accuracy would be necessary for a 99 percentile.

Unlike the last two CATs, CAT 2017 did not have RC and VR questions interspersed throughout the section; the
24 RC questions were presented first followed by the 10 VR questions in the sequence as given in the next
page. Another difference was that the paragraph summary questions were multiple-choice questions (MCQs)
as against type-in-the-answer (TITA) questions, which do not have negative marking. The subject-matter of
paragraph summary questions was dense and the options were close, making them very time-consuming.
These should have been attempted at the end as per time availability. There were also some jumbled
24 | Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT

paragraph questions which had difficult subject matter and therefore were time-consuming. An attempt of 7
questions with 90% accuracy would be necessary for a 99 percentile.

This makes 26 attempts with a score of 66, the overall cut off for this section for a 99 percentile.

The distribution and sequence of the questions is summarized as follows:

1. RC Passages (Long): 3 passages  6 questions each  18 questions (MCQ)
2. RC Passages (Short): 2 passages  3 questions each  06 questions (MCQ)
3. Paragraph Summary:  03 questions (MCQ)
4. Jumbled Paragraphs:  04 questions (TITA)
5. Out-of-Context Sentences:  03 questions (TITA)
Total  34 questions

CAT 2018
Notification is Out !!!
CAT 2018 official notification issued on 29 July 2018 indicates that your
CAT 2018 experience will be very similar to the CAT 2017 experience in
pattern of exam, conduct of CBT and marking and scoring.

IMPORTANT DATES:
1. Registration opens: 08 August 2018
2. Registration closes: 19 September 2018 (5:00 pm)
3. Admit Card download: 24 October to 25 November 2018
4. Test Date: 25 November 2018 (Sunday)
5. Result Declaration: Second week of January 2019 (Tentative)

Visit the CAT website www.iimcat.ac.in for further details.