By: Sakshi Awasthi on November 26, 2018
CAT 2018 was successfully conducted by the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta on November 25, 2018, i.e. yesterday across various examination centres. The CAT examination was held in two sessions, the forenoon session was held from 9 am to 12 noon and the afternoon session was held from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm. CAT is an annual entrance examination conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management for admission in Post Graduate management courses offered by the institutes.
The CAT aspirants had a mixed reaction for the examination. Many students believed that the Quant section was the toughest. According to the experts, DILR section was comparatively easier than last 2-3 years.
CAT 2018 Paper-Analysis:
|
Sections
|
Total Number of Questions
|
Number of non-MCQs
|
Difficulty Level of Section
|
Good Attempt
|
|
VARC (Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension)
|
34 questions
|
7 questions
|
Easy
|
28+
|
|
DILR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning)
|
32 questions
|
8 questions
|
Moderate
|
17+
|
|
Quant (Quantitative Ability)
|
34 questions
|
12 questions
|
Difficult
|
16+
|
CAT Exam Section-wise Analysis:
VARC (Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension):
This section was easier as compared to previous years. The section carried 34 questions with 7 Non Multiple Choice Questions. There were 5 reading passages with 4 questions in the passage on genetics and remaining passages had 5 questions each. The word limit of each passage was around 500-550 words. The passage on genetics was comparatively difficult and slightly difficult to understand than other 4 passages that were based on familiar areas such as World War II, Plastic Pollution, Elephant Society and Consumer Behavior Studies. The passage on World War II was the easiest among all 5 passages which were followed by the passage on plastic pollution.
There was a major change in the Verbal Ability section. VA carried 4 subjective para jumble questions that had 4 sentences each. There were 3 odd sentence para jumble questions which were quite easy.
DILR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning):
This section was quite surprising for the candidates as after three years, DILR section was on the easier side. The section carried 32 questions with 8 non-multiple choice questions. All the sets had one difficult question and most of the questions of DI section did not require calculations. Logical Reasoning section was moderately difficult.
Data Interpretation:
|
Topics
|
Difficulty Level
|
Number of Questions
|
Good Attempt
|
|
Pie Chart/ Half & yearly/ Quarter Sales
|
Moderate
|
4
|
14-16
|
|
Denomination of 100, 200 & 500 (ATM)
|
Moderate
|
4
|
8-10
|
|
Set Theory/ 1600 rackets launched
|
Moderate
|
4
|
8-10
|
Logical Reasoning:
|
Topics
|
Difficulty Level
|
Number of Questions
|
Good Attempt
|
|
Matrix/ Adjacent cell
|
Easy
|
4
|
12-14
|
|
10 friends/ scores in di-we-gk
|
Difficult
|
4
|
8-10
|
|
4 females, 4 males, minor and major
|
Easy
|
4
|
14-16
|
|
3 committees-research, teaching, economist
|
Moderate
|
4
|
12-14
|
|
1-20 petrol pumps
|
Moderate
|
4
|
12-14
|
Quant (Quantitative Aptitude):
The section was difficult for non-engineering CAT aspirants but for students with the engineering background, this section was moderate. The questions were based on calculations and logic. The section carried 34 questions with 12 non-multiple choice questions. This section is said to be the toughest in the last 4 years. The questions focused more on the basic concepts and the candidates who had worked on their fundamentals during CAT Preparation can easily score well in this section.
CAT 2018 Expected Cut Off:
-
A score of 150-155 would be considered to be a good score and will fetch 99 percentile.
CAT 2018 Cut Off for Admission in IIMs (Academic year 2019):
|
Institute
|
CAT 2018 Percentile
|
|
IIM Ahmedabad
|
80 percentile
|
|
IIM Calcutta
|
90 percentile
|
|
IIM Bangalore
|
90 percentile
|
|
IIM Lucknow
|
90 percentile
|
|
IIM Indore
|
90 percentile
|
|
IIM Kozhikode
|
90 percentile
|
|
IIM Tiruchirappalli
|
90 percentile
|
|
IIM Ranchi
|
95 percentile
|
|
IIM Vishakhapatnam
|
90 percentile
|
|
IIM Udaipur
|
90 percentile
|
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