CAT 2021 Exam Analysis (Slot 1, 2 and 3): Falguni Goswami – founder and Head of Careerbandhu Education, helps decode CAT 2021 Examination by providing a through analysis for all three slots of MBA Entrance Exam.
The admission test for postgraduate management programmes, Common Admission Test (CAT) 2021, have been conducted today, November 28, in three sessions. CAT 2021 Exam has conducted by IIM Ahmedabad.
As it was hinted earlier by IIM official, the number of questions in CAT 2021 reduced to 66 questions from 76 questions last year (CAT2020). Approximately 2.30 lakh students registered this year for the exam.
CAT 2021 has been divided into 3 sections – VARC, DILR and Quant. Each section is timed with the individual time limit. Order of the sections was VARC, DILR and Quant each having 40 min. Candidates were not allowed to switch from one section to another while answering questions in one section.
CAT 2021 exam has been held in 159 test cities across the country. Students who took the slot 1 paper said the QA section was the easiest and the difficulty level of the paper was of moderate to high. However, as per some students who appeared for CAT 2021 Slot 2& 3, felt the CAT exam questions were comparatively lengthy this time and hence, time taking. They might not have got enough time to try a couple of question types in TITA.
CAT Exam Year
Time limit
Total number of Questions
CAT 2020
120 Minutes (2 Hours)
76
CAT 2021
120 Minutes (2 Hours)
66
“In order to ensure fairness and equity in comparison of performances of candidates across different test sessions, the scores of candidates shall be subjected to a process of Normalisation,” an official statement said while explaining the CAT normalisation process.
“The Normalisation process shall adjust for location and scale differences of score distributions across different forms. After normalisation across different forms, the scores shall be further normalised across different sections. The Scaled Scores obtained by this process shall be converted into percentiles for purposes of short listing,” it added.
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Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning
Quantitative Ability
Types of Questions
Difficulty Level:
Moderate. RC Passages were found of a little higher difficulty level. Paper in Slot-2 was comparatively longer and time taking.
Moderate.
Paper 1 was considered easier than the other two
Moderate to high
Section
MCQs
Non-MCQs
Total
Good Attempts
of questions with 85% accuracy
Expected Score for higher than 90percentile
Expected Score for higher than 95 percentile
Expected Score for higher than 99 percentile
VARC
19
5
24
14 to 16
30-32
30-32
38-42
DILR
15
5
20
10 to 12
21-23
21-23
28-32
QA
14
8
22
14 to 16
30-32
30-32
36-40
Overall
48
18
66
38 to 44
75-80
82-88
100-106
*Note that difficulty level of questions in all three slots of the exam was moderate to high. Candidates having attempted a reasonable number of questions with 85-90 % accuracy would definitely have the last laugh when IIM declares the result in Jan 2022.
CAT scores are used as a primary tool by B-Schools for short listing candidates for the GD/ PI round. Various B-Schools may give calls to the candidate with score as given below:
Approx cut-off percentiles (Gen)
Institutes
99+
IIM A,B,C,L,K,I,S, FMS and all other IIM calls, IIT B
98+
IIT-D, MDI-PGP, All IIMs except old 7
95+
SPJIMR, NITIE, MDI- HR/IM, few new IIMs ( Latest 6), IIT-KH, IIT-KN, IIT-C, IIT-R, IISc-B, XLRI-Global BM, MDI-M, IIMA (Abm), IIML (Abm)
90+
MICA, IMT-G/N, XIMB, IMI-D, FSM, IRMA, GIM, TAPMI, KJSIMSR, SIMSREE, , UBS-CHD, SPJAIN-D/S, BIM, NIRMA,
85+
WIMDR-M, LBSIM, LIBA, IMI-K/B, GLIM, BIMTECH-PGDM/IB, IBS-ICFAI, MFC-DU, IFMR, MIB-DU, MHROD-DU, IMT-H MBE-DU,
CAT percentile is just one factor for short listing candidates. The other factors which are taken in to account for generating calls include academic performance in 10th/12th, Graduation, duration of work experience. Normally, the cut offs for old IIMs are higher than those for new IIMs.
Falguni Goswami is the founder and Head of Career bandhu Education. He is a renowned career counsellor and an Ex-Indian Air Force veteran with 30+ years of experience as senior faculty in coaching institutes like T.I.M.E and Career Launcher.
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