Analysis of CAT Test 2017

CAT 2017 Comprehensive Analysis

Industry experts share their insights into the CAT 2017 exam

The exam was not surprising to the CAT examiners. The exam was similar in structure, pattern and difficulty to last year's exam. Contrary to common belief, the CAT examiners appeared to be more concerned with a candidate’s aptitude than their ability to manage a disruptive pattern.

Exam Structure and Pattern

The paper was divided into three sections, namely, 'Quantitative Aptitude', ’Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning', and 'Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension. Each section contained 34, 32, and 34 questions. Each section was limited to 60 minutes.

These sections were segmented for Slot I as

These sections were segmented for Slot II as

Section-wise Review of both slots

Review of Verbal Ability: The verbal section is easy in terms of difficulty. Most students found the RCs easier than they did last year. However, Verbal Ability is more accurate than other sections.

The exam this year did not include any questions from grammar or vocabulary. The exam did not feature any questions on Grammar and vocabulary. This meant that those who are proficient in reading-based topics would have felt more at ease in this section. There were five RC passages, of which three had six questions and three had three. Other questions included sentence rearrangement, odd sentence-out, and para-summary. 

Some of the RC sources included www.bbc.com/future, The phone's smart, but what is the big idea - nytimes.com by Timothy Egan July 7, 2017, Why the death malls is more than just shopping excerpt taken from (by Brian Ulrich). The difficulty level in this section was almost identical for both slots.

Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation: This section was also the most difficult, as it was last year. Each slot had eight sets of four questions. Both Analytical Reasoning (and Data & Reasoning) were equally weighted. This was the most difficult section. Slot II DI was much easier than slot I. Students reported that they attempted 2-3 more questions than in slot I.

Quantitative Ability Review: The difficulty level of the Quant section was quite low compared to the last. The number of questions from traditional areas such as Profit & Loss and Geometry was higher than the ones in Algebra & Geometry. There were fewer one-to-two questions in areas such as Puzzles, Logs and Chain Rule Permutation, Combination, Number Systems, etc. The composition of this section was the same in both slots, but the second slot had 11 Non-MCQ questions, compared to the 7 in the first slot.

Table of Expected Percentiles and Attempts, along with Cut-offs for B-Schools

Table - Morning Slot

Table - Evening Slot

To make both slots equal, it appears that a normalization of about 5% could occur.

B-School Cut-offs

B-Schools use CAT scores as a primary screening tool for shortlisting candidates for the GD/ PI round. Other factors that are considered when generating calls include academic performance, +2, Graduation, and duration of work experience. The cut-offs for older IIMs are usually higher than for new IIMs.