CAT 2019 Cutoff by Bulls Eye

Aparna, CAT is an online examination of 3 hours duration.The questions in the exam will be of MCQ and TITA type totaling 100 questions. MCQ are multiple choice questions, for which candidates get multiple answer choices. Each Question has 3 marks and a wrong answer takes away 1 mark. However Type in the Answer questions are exempted from Negative Marking.

CAT exam paper can be Categorised into 3 parts:

Quantitative Ability

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning

There is no predefined syllabus for CAT. But based on the previous question papers, there is a fair idea of how the questions paper might be or what topics might be included. And go through the previous papers to analyse and prepare a comprehensive plan and set priorities according to the importance of different topics across sections. Customise your own study plan based on your strengths and weaknesses. Gauge your preparation from time to time by taking mock tests. Solve questions to check your levels of preparation but not to set any targets. Remember, its ok to have cheat days and relax. But make sure you have a plan and stick to it for the next few months because even Rome wasnt built in a day

The Verbal Ability section and Reading Comprehension has 34 Questions, Data interpretation-Logical Reasoning section has 32 MCQ questions and Quantitative Ability has 34 MCQ questions totalling up to 100 questions. Each Question has 3 marks and a wrong answer takes away 1 mark.

NCERT books will sharpen your basics and you need strong basics for preparing for any entrance examination. Once your basics are in place, because the time period for preparation is quite less, your preparation should be extensive and thorough.

Quantitative Aptitude covers almost 30% of the CAT question paper. QA can be categorised into Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Advanced Mathematics. Practise chapter by chapter and develop mental calculations. Like practise more of basic summation, subtraction, fractions and tables. Numbers, Percentage, Profit and Loss, Simple and Compound Interest, Ratio, Proportionality, Time-Distance, Time-Work, Mixtures, Averages, Partnership, Permutation and Combinations, Probability, Set Theory, Progression and Series, Line, Angles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Polygon, Circles, Ares, Volume, Height and Distance, Coordinate Geometry, Basic Trigonometry are few important topics.

Preparation tips:

Because this section involves mathematics and takes most of your time, your focus should be on solving the problems efficiently in the beginning. Even if it takes time, practise upto perfection. Practise as many questions as you can in the conventional way. As and when you get a grip on the subject, you can go for short cuts. Memorise tables, square roots, cube roots, conversion from percent to fraction, etc. Solve sample papers on Mathematics. In the beginning, do not worry about the time it takes. As you practise, you will get the hang of the subject and it will be easier for you.

In Verbal Ability session, command on your English, Grammar, Vocabulary, Understanding of the given paragraph are of more importance. Reading English NewsPaper will also help you in your preparation.

Preparation tips:

Read articles from time to time. Follow newspapers, magazines, and watch the news channels and browse the internet to keep yourself updated. You will need a lot of reading to help you in the comprehension section. You will need speed to help you in this section and you can achieve that only by thorough practise and reading. Take time to understand the question because most answers are interlinked.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning needs to be practised as much as possible. Comparison of data, Data Analysis, taking clues, interpreting missing data, coming to conclusions and making future projections will be covered under this Category. The questions here are interlinked and so if you get one formula correct, cracking the next few questions will be easy. So it's important to memorise and practise formulae. You should cover topics like Data tables, Data Charts, Bar Diagrams, Pie Charts, Graphs, Data Comparison and Analysis.

Preparation tips:

As this is the most tricky section, this needs a lot of practise. Solve as many sample papers as possible to get the hang of the section. Make notes when required. Regular practise can help you understand and solve the questions easily as time goes on.

Overall,once you know the syllabus, it's easier from there on.Go through the previous papers to analyse and prepare a comprehensive plan and set priorities according to the importance of different topics across sections. Customise your own study plan based on your strengths and weaknesses. Gauge your preparation from time to time by taking mock tests. Solve questions to check your levels of preparation but not to set any targets. Remember, its ok to have cheat days and relax. But make sure you have a plan and stick to it for the next few months

We can recommend a few books for you:

• NCERT books to cover the basics from 6th to 10th Class
• Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Nishit Saxena
• Quantitative Aptitude Quantum for CAT by Sarvesh Sharma
• How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Arun Sharma
• Quantitative Aptitude for Competitive Exams by Abhijit Guha

You can also download free downloadable e books at:

https://bschool.careers360.com/download/cat-ebooks

Hello Aspirant,

Hope you are doing well.

Exams for Studying in Canada . Students have to pass one or more additional tests before they can be considered by most universities for admission. These range from the standardised graduate and college admission tests such as GRE, GMAT and SAT to English Language tests, such as TOEFL and IELTS.

Good luck

You haven't mentioned the Institution that you are interested in and your Category. Now IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Lucknow offer ABM course apart from other top B schools. You can check the complete list of colleges that offer this course at our page: https://bschool.careers360.com/colleges/list-of-agriculture-business-management-colleges-in-india

We shall give you the IIMs cut offs for a fair idea of how much you might have to score:

IIM Ahemdabad:

QA VARC DILR Overall

UR 70 70 70 80

NC-OBC/Trans 65 65 65 75

SC 60 60 60 70

ST 50 50 50 60

PWD 60 60 60 70

ST-PWD 50 50 50 60

Now this is sectional cut offs. The selection procedure is as follows:
10th Rating:

Percent score Rating Score

<= 55 1

> 55 and <= 60 2

> 60 and <= 70 3

> 70 and <= 80 5

> 80 and <= 90 8

> 90 10

The same rating score is used for 12th Science /Commerce Streams. For Arts/Humanities:

Percent score Rating Score

<= 45 1
> 45 and <= 50 2
> 50 and <= 60 3
> 60 and <= 70 5
> 70 and <= 85 8
> 85 10

From each Academic sectors top 5% from each stream and each Category will be short listed. It might look like:


Category Upper Limit

General 100

NC-OBC-cum-transgender 57

SC 32

ST 16

PwD 6

After shortlisting the Candidates, the selected Candidates will have to go through WAT and PI rounds. Selection at this stage will strictly be based on the shortlisting of the candidates done separately for each Category ) on the basis of their Final Composite Score. . The numbers selected in different reservation categories will be in proportions mandated by law.

Personal Interview Multiplication Factor (PIF) = 0.50

AWT Multiplication Factor (AWTF) = 0.10

CAT Score Multiplication Factor for Final Composite Score (CATF_FCS) = 0.25

Application Rating Multiplication Factor for Final Composite Score (ARF_FCS) = 0.15


After the AWT & PI round, admission offers are made by IIMA to successful candidates. The final selection is based on a diverse set of attributes which includes performance in CAT, performance in AWT & PI, academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular achievements, work experience, etc.

IIM Lucknow:

QA VARC DILR Overall

UR 85 85 85 90

NC-OBC 77 77 77 82

SC 55 55 55 70

ST 50 50 50 65

PWD 50 50 50 65

For being shortlisted for Written Ability Test and Personal Interview, the following chart is followed on a composite score of 100:
Scaled CAT Score: 60
12th marks: 10
Graduation: 10
Work Experience: 10
Diversity Factor for Academics: 5
Diversity Factor for Gender: 5
Method of scoring can be found on the official website. Those candidates who are eligible after these 2 rounds are called for Written Ability and Personal Interview Test. The final score is calculated based on this scale:
Common Admission Test: 30
Academic Performance (12th + Graduation): 5+5
Diversity Factor (DF academics +DF gender): 5
Work Experience: 5
Writing Ability Test: 10
Personal Interview: 40
Final Score: 100

Hi...

Yes you can apply for the exam even if you have the backlog. Candidates who are appearing for the supplementary re-exams are also eligible to apply for CAT,MAT or ICET exams.

While applying foe CAT exam you have to select the "yes" option for the question " Are you in final year of Bachelor degree?". Since your graduation is not complete you have to take the certificate from your college principal or registrar of the university mentioning that you are appearing for the supplementary exam.

The rule here is that finally when you complete your bachelor degree there must be minimum of 50 percent. For the reserved categories the minimum percentage for the bachelor degree must be 40 percent.

All the best

Komal, the best part of CAT is you do not have either a PASS or a FAIL mark. The scores are released in the form of percentiles. Let's say you managed to get 85 percentile, it means that you fared well and scored better than 85 percentage of Candidates who have appeared for CAT. And there are almost more than 1000 participating Institutions which accept CAT score. So getting a good college with your CAT score is reasonably easy. Now the reality is IIMs are everyone's dream and if it is yours too, then you will have to manage to pull off a feat because IIMs and the Top B schools have their own selection criteria. IIMs shortlist candidates for the interview stage based on their own criteria, which may be independent of each other. The process may include Written Ability Test, Group Discussion, and Personal Interviews. Performance in the CAT examination is an important component in the admission process. IIMs may additionally use other factors such as the previous academic performance of the candidates, relevant work experience, gender and academic diversity and other similar inputs in shortlisting and ranking of candidates at various stages of the admission process. The processes, academic cut-offs and the weights allocated to the evaluation parameters may vary across IIMs. The process is more or less the same with top B-Schools. So if your dream is to get into any of the IIMs or top B schools, you should have a clear mind that you have only 9-10 months for preparation and you cannot wonder whether you can prepare or not. If you want to appear for CAT, you fill in the application form that "YOU CAN MAKE IT". You cannot afford any apprehensions and doubts on your hardwork. Now that we are clear that you can crack CAT, we need to figure how to do it.The tricky part in CAT, is there has never been an official release of syllabus. Based on the previous question papers, the syllabus has been assumed. So your job is quite cut out because you know what to expect.

CAT exam paper can be Categorised into 3 parts:

Quantitative Ability: Quantitative Aptitude covers almost 30% of the CAT question paper. QA can be categorised into Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Advanced Mathematics. Practise chapter by chapter and develop mental calculations. Like practise more of basic summation, subtraction, fractions and tables. Numbers, Percentage, Profit and Loss, Simple and Compound Interest, Ratio, Proportionality, Time-Distance, Time-Work, Mixtures, Averages, Partnership, Permutation and Combinations, Probability, Set Theory, Progression and Series, Line, Angles, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Polygon, Circles, Ares, Volume, Height and Distance, Coordinate Geometry, Basic Trigonometry are few important topics.

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension: In Verbal Ability session, command on your English, Grammar, Vocabulary, Understanding of the given paragraph are of more importance. Reading English NewsPaper will also help you in your preparation.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning needs to be practised as much as possible. Comparison of data, Data Analysis, taking clues, interpreting missing data, coming to conclusions and making future projections will be covered under this Category. The questions here are interlinked and so if you get one formula correct, cracking the next few questions will be easy. So it's important to memorise and practise formulae. You should cover topics like Data tables, Data Charts, Bar Diagrams, Pie Charts, Graphs, Data Comparison and Analysis.