CAT 2024 Slot 1 Exam Analysis: Check First Impressions, Paper Review, Difficulty Level, Good Attempts

CAT 2024 Slot 1 Exam Analysis: IIM Calcutta has successfully concluded the CAT 2024 Slot 1 exam today, November 24, 2024. This year, CAT 2024 is being conducted across 170 exam cities in three slots. The first slot was from 8:30 am to 10:30 a.m. Students who have appeared for the first slot of CAT 2024 and those preparing to appear in the upcoming slots will be provided with the CAT 2024 slot 1 exam analysis, exam paper review, initial response from students, and the expected cutoff for MBA admissions here soon. Students are advised to keep visiting this page for updates.

Also Read: CAT Answer Key 2024 LIVE Updates

CAT 2024 Slot 2 of the exam will be conducted from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. The third slot will be conducted from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. 

Also Read: CAT Exam Analysis 2024 Live: Check Slot 1, 2 & 3

CAT 2024 Slot 1 Exam Details

The CAT 2024 first slot was held from 8:30 am to 10:30 am. Students were required to answer questions from Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Quantitative Aptitude (QA), and Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning  (DILR). The exam is being conducted for 120 minutes.

With the CAT 2024 first slot exams concluding, the CAT Exam Analysis 2024 Slot 1 will be made available here soon. Experts from the field will provide the complete analysis of the exam, the types of questions, difficulty level, and based on the analysis and the response of the students the expected cutoff to clear the CAT exam. 

Keep Visiting this page for initial responses from candidates and CAT slot 1 analysis.

CAT 2024 Slot 1 Analysis - First Impressions

CAT 2024 Slot 1 exams concluded at 10:30 AM. The exams were held for 120 minutes with 40 minutes provided to attempt each section. According to first impressions from students who attempted the paper in the first slot and experts, overall, the 2024 slot 1 exam was quite tricky with an increased difficulty level.  Before a detailed analysis of the exam, students will be provided here with an initial response from candidates who have appeared for the exam, the difficulty level, types of questions asked and changes incorporated in this year's CAT Exam. 

• According to students who attempted the CAT 2024 exam in the first slot, the slot 1 exams were moderate to high in terms of difficulty level.
• There was no change in the weightage of topics and the questions were similar to the previous year. 
• A few students however found the exam "difficult" stating that the Quant section questions were the most difficult while VARC questions were fine, normal.
• The CAT 2024 question paper comprised three sections and a total of 66 questions. 
• CAT 2024 slot 1 was overall moderate according to a few of the students.  The LRDI section was easy while the VARC section was tough. The Quantitative Aptitude had regular Math questions.s
• Some of the candidates found the CAT 2024 slot 1 QA section tricky. The VARC section did not have a "para jumble" question. The  
• CAT 2024 Slot 1 exam was good according to a few of the students. Questions were not very difficult except for the Quant section which was tricky. VARC and data interpretation were easier as per the first impressions given by candidates.
• Contrary to the majority opinion a few candidates have mentioned that the VARC section of the CAT Slot 1 paper was difficult this time compared to the previous years.
• The DLR and Quant were easier this year.
• The number of Quant questions is also 22 this year like the previous year's exam.

• The VARC section was moderately difficult with 24 questions to be completed in 40 minutes.

•  The DILR section this year was moderate in difficulty, similar to the previous year. Students were to attempt 20 questions, within 40 minutes, 

CAT 2024 Slot 1 Analysis by Experts

Slot 1 Analysis by TIME

Ramnath Kanakadandi, Senior Course Director, T.I.M.E.

CAT 2024 was conducted smoothly by the IIMs and was on expected lines. While there were some students who faced some technical issues during the test, the administrators were able to help them in quick time. However, it appears that the test admins were able to resolve this in a jiffy and that no student lost time on account of these minor glitches.

However, CAT 2024 did throw a few surprises in terms of the composition of the sections. The number of questions in the Verbal Ability and Quantitative Ability sections remained the same as last year. The surprise came in the form of changes in the Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning section, where the questions have marginally increased from 20 last year to 22 this year. While the change on the surface appears to be minor, it seems to have given much-needed relief to CAT aspirants by way of an increase in the number of sets.

CAT 2024 did retain the overall structure of the exam as was seen in the last couple of years but has also witnessed some changes in question types in the Verbal section as well an increase in the number of sets in the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section.

The following was the pattern of examination in the first slot:

The evaluation scheme was the same as that of the earlier years - Three marks for a correct answer and a penalty of a mark for a wrongly marked MCQ. Non-MCQs had no negative marks.

The difficulty, overall, for CAT 2024 in the morning slot was slightly on the lower side compared to that of all the slots of the two previous CATs.

Section-wise analysis

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension:

The VARC section had 24 questions in the morning slot, 16 from Reading Comprehension and 8 from Verbal Ability. There was no major change in the pattern or number of questions from the previous year.

The RC passages were four in number, with four questions per passage. There were a good number of questions that were based on the overall passage and would have made answering such questions tougher.

The passage on ‘Unlikely Survival Story of Australia’s Bandicoots’ was easy to read and can be classified as moderate in terms of the difficulty level of the questions.

The passage on ‘Accessibility of Movie Content in the Modern Age’ was a moderately difficult read but one that could have been attempted by a large section of aspirants on account of its contemporary content.

The passage on ‘Homo Economicus’ was amongst the more difficult ones in this section and had many questions where the options were very close and difficult to eliminate. Those attempting this RC passage might see low-moderate returns given the difficulty level.

The passage on ‘Crafts & Manufacturing’ was one of the more difficult ones in this section and this was compounded by the extremely close answer options and tricky questions. An ideal approach would have been to omit this passage, which would have been the go-to mode for most students who would have avoided this on accounts of the difficult readability of the passage.

In the Verbal Ability section this year, there were two questions on Odd Man Out and three questions each on Para Summary and Sentence Placement. The Sentence Placement questions were moderately difficult. An ideal approach would be to have attempted two of them accurately. The Para Summary questions were difficult, with the themes being difficult to read and the summaries being very brief and to the point.

 The distribution of the questions in the Verbal Ability area is as below –

A net score of 20-22 would be a decent score for a test-taker to be able to get 85 percentile (sectional cut-off).

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning:

The DILR section of the morning slot would have been a welcome breather for most aspirants on account of the increased number of questions as well the increase in the number of sets. What this would have done is to give everyone more opportunities to select the right set and spend quality time on solving it. Those who had done precisely this would have seen their attempts increasing with a corresponding increase in accuracy as well (given that the right sets were chosen!!).

This year, there were 5 sets, with 3 of them having four questions each and 2 sets with five questions each. Two of the sets with four questions were of moderate level of difficulty and should have been attempted. As was expected, the two sets with five questions were difficult to comprehend and would have been virtual minefields had anyone stepped on them. The set on the ‘Candle-Stick Pattern of Stocks’ was daunting to look at but had some of the easiest questions in the whole section and would have been easy pickings. The set on ‘Star Ratings of Bloggers’ required some logic and could have been solved if one persisted in working it out. The sets on ‘Countries Visited’ and ‘Elections’ were quite lengthy and could have landed one in trouble. The set on ‘Tournament’ was a very convoluted one that could have tested the best of the aspirants.

Unlike last year, this year’s paper also did have two sets that were quite doable, and which could have contributed to a high score and consequently higher cut-offs

The set-wise details are as below:

A net score of 16–18 would be a decent score for a test-taker to be able to get 85 percentile (sectional cut-off).

Quantitative Ability Section

The Quant section retained the same structure from last year, including the non-MCQs. The paper had 22 Questions, with 8 non-MCQs. However, based on the student feedback, this year’s paper was slightly easier than last year’s.

This section had a good number of ‘Arithmetic’ based questions, which would have come as a relief for those who dread this section. Quite a few of the questions could have been solved by the process of reverse engineering (through the choices!!). The difficulty level of the paper did not go down too much on account of the presence of moderate-difficult level of questions from Algebra. Some of the questions from Algebra were difficult, with the approaches being either not straightforward or time-consuming. This may have prevented students from reaching the end of the section and maximising their attempts. Even those with a lot of practice in QA would not have found it easy to score high, given the tediousness involved in some of the questions. The distribution of questions in this section across topics is as below:

A net score of 15-17 would be a decent score for a test-taker to be able to get 85 percentile (sectional cut-off).

Overall, a net score of 58-60 should be sufficient to get 90 percentile.

Slot 1 Analysis by IMS

 The first slot of CAT 2024 took place today between 8.30 am and 10:30 am. The structure of CAT 2024 underwent several changes compared to 2023, with a total of 68 questions. Notably, the Verbal Ability (VA) and Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) sections experienced modifications in segmentation and the distribution of MCQs and TITA (Type In The Answer) questions.

The Verbal section saw the complete removal of Paragraph Jumble questions. Instead, it featured 3 Summary (MCQ) questions, 3 Paragraph Completion. (MCQ) questions, and 2 Odd Sentence (TITA) questions.

In the DILR section, which had 22 questions in total, the number of sets increased from 4 to 5. This included 2 sets with 5 questions each and 3 sets with 4 questions each. There was widespread consensus that the DILR section was significantly easier compared to the previous year.

The marking scheme was +3 for every correct and -1 for incorrect. There was no negative

marking for TITA Qs.

Based on the feedback received from several candidates who have appeared in the first slot,

our initial estimate of the percentiles and scores*** is as follows. These estimates will be

suitably revised soon after the CAT releases the response sheets.

*** Students are advised not to take any B-School application decision based on these initial estimates. They serve only as the first indicator of likely performance.

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

The VA-RC section consisted of 16 Reading Comprehension questions and 8 Verbal Ability questions. As in the past several years, there were no direct Grammar or Vocabulary questions. Two of the passages were easy to moderate. The passages on Critique of Behavioral Economics and Revival of Bandicoots in Australia required more careful reading. About 12 RC questions could be attempted with high accuracy. There were no jumbled paragraph questions. One additional paragraph completion question and one summary question replaced the two jumbled paragraphs. So, the section had 3 questions each of Summary (MCQ) and Paragraph Completion(MCQ), and two Odd Sentence questions (TITA). In VA, 5 or 6 attempts with high accuracy were possible. Overall, the section was moderate and comparable in LOD to the VARC of SimCAT 16.

An attempt of 12 or 13 questions with an accuracy of approximately 60% will fetch around 85%ile score in VARC.

An attempt of 17 or 18 questions with an accuracy of approximately 70% will fetch 95+ percentiles in VARC.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning

Last year, there were a total of four sets, each comprising five questions. This pattern has been changed in CAT 2024. There were two sets with 5 questions in each and three sets with 4 questions in each.

Overall, the Level of difficulty of the section was Medium to Difficult and it was relatively easier in comparison with the DILR Section of Slot 1 of CAT 2023.

An attempt of 10 or 11 questions with an accuracy of approximately 80% for an 85 %ile score in DILR.

An attempt of 14 or 15 questions with an accuracy of approximately 85% for 95 + percentiles in DILR.

Quantitative Ability

This section was comparatively easier (in terms of level of difficulty) as compared to last year’s slots and was dominated by Arithmetic (8 questions), followed by Algebra (7 questions). There were 3 questions on Geometry, 3 questions on Modern Math and 1 on Numbers. In Arithmetic, the questions were on SICI, Time and Work, Time-Speed-Distance, Ratio Proportion, Mixtures & Alligations, Multiple operations, and Profit & Loss. In Algebra, the questions were dominated by Quadratic equations, Inequality with graphics Functions, Identity-based questions, etc. In Modern Math, the questions were on Logarithms, Sequences, Permutations etc. In Geometry, the questions were on Quadrilaterals, Sphere with cuboids, etc. There were questions on remainders and numbers.

Number of TITA (8 questions) and MCQ (14 questions) in this section.

Attempting the right questions was the key.

An attempt of 7 or 8 questions with an accuracy of approximately 80% for an 85 %ile score in QA. An attempt of 9 or 10 questions with an accuracy of approximately 85% for 95 + percentiles in QA.

THE PROCESS

At many centres shoes and metallic objects (including metal jewellery) were not allowed. Only the admit card and the ID proof were allowed. As in the previous years, the authorities took possession of the admit cards. The candidates were given a small pad with IIM CAT Logo on the cover for rough work, and a pen – which were also taken away at the end of the exam.

TEST INTERFACE

The test interface was user-friendly and exactly the one provided in the official CAT Mock Test. A simple calculator was provided, and not a scientific one. There was an arrow provided near the question palette which when clicked expanded the question window to a full-screen view by hiding the question palette & vice versa.

At the end of the test, a summary of the number of questions attempted, visited, and not visited was displayed for each section.

There was a button marked ‘Question Paper’ that opened up a screen containing all the questions of the section. This was used by students for planning their approach for the section.

*** The scores and percentiles mentioned in this analysis are indicators based on feedback from students and IMS experts. They are in no way related to the results that IIMs are expected to declare in January 2025. You are advised to wait for the results.

CAT 2024 Slot 1 Analysis

Candidates can check below the analysis of CAT 2024 Slot 1 exams as per opinions from students

CAT 2024 Slot 1 Changes

• No para jumble in the CAT 2024 slot 1 paper

• 16 questions in VARC on RC, 3 on para summary, 2 on odd one out, and 3 from para completion

• 22 questions instead of 20 in DILR with 5 DI sets instead of 4

• 3 sets of 4 questions in DI and 2 sets of 5 questions in LR

• The number of Arithmetic questions was very high. 

CAT 2024 Slot 1 Analysis by CATKing

Candidates who have attempted the CAT 2024 Slot 1 exam can check the analysis provided hereby Sumit Singh Gandhi, CEO and founder, CATKing

1. Overall easy No of Questions — 68
2.  VARC- Toughest 4 RCs No Para jumbles 
3.  1 RC Doable 1 RC then odd one out 1 RC then Paracompletion 1 RC then para summary 1 RC craftsman due to AI ( easy to do ) Netflix ( moderate ) Animals RC Animals odd one out 
4.  *QA ( Easy)*  14-15 Attempts 10 direct formula questions of 4 topics TSD profit loss roots ratios Overall arithmetic 9-11 questions Algebra easy Geometry 2 Modern maths — sequence and series no PnC / Probability 
5.  *DILR 22 Questions* 3 DI sets 4 Questions
6. Set 1 Stock market candle chart 1 Set theory —multiple ppl to different countries and what countries unique travel and what together travel 1 Set Star distribution 3 judges and distributing stars to 2 Sets with 5 Questions 3 sets attempt will get 100%ile
7. “Overall CAT was easier than last two years Verbal was level up, quants was easier than expected and DILR surprised with 2 more questions ( having 5 sets total ) Verbal also had no para jumbles”