CAT 2021 Exam Analysis (Slot 1, 2 and 3): Check Difficulty Level and Expected Cut-offs Here by Expert Falguni Goswami

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 have been conducted in three sessions:

• Morning session (8:30 am - 10:30 pm)
• Afternoon session (12:30 pm - 2:30 pm)
• Evening session (4:30 pm - 6:30 pm)

CAT 2021 Exam Pattern: Key Highlights of 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 Remains a Computer Based Test

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.

• There have been two types of questions in CAT 2021 exam – MCQs and Non-MCQs
• MCQs have negative marking for wrong answer and Non-MCQs do not carry negative marks
• Questions with negative marking (MCQs) are between 75-80% of total questions
• Answer must be typed in the given space on computer screen for Non-MCQ.
• Score awarded for each correct answer: 3 marks
• Negative marking (Applicable for wrong answers in MCQs): -1 mark
• Fixed order of sections to move beginning from section-1: VARC, followed by DILR and QA
• Each section is individually timed. Your time to attempt each section is 40 minutes. 

CAT 2021 Pattern Vs Last year CAT Exam Pattern: Key Changes

CAT 2021: About Normalisation of Scores

“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.

CAT 2021 at a glance

Performance predictor:

*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.

B-School Cut-offs predictor based on CAT Score

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:

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.