CAT 2015 Paper Analysis

One of the things that can be helpful during CAT exam preparation is the study and careful analysis of previous year’s question paper. When you carefully take a look at the paper you get to know the current pattern, the difficulty level, what type of questions were asked, which section might need more work and much more. This helps you to plan your study and also since you are familiar with the pattern and the level, there isn’t much room for surprises. There for a summary of the analysis of 2015 CAT exam given below:

Section I: Reading Comprehension (RC) and Verbal Ability (VA):

The Reading Comprehension (RC) questions were easy to, and most of the questions were based on facts from the passage. The smallest RC (in terms of length) was the most typical out of all the sets. A candidate with good reading skills can easily score well in this section.

The VA questions were tricky, as no grammar based questions were posed. Some of the questions required good and thorough reading as most of the para jumbles did not make sense on first reading. Thus, the Para Jumble part of this section could be considered as moderate to difficult. The summary based questions and the odd sentence out questions were moderately easy, according to the students.

Section II: Data Interpretation (DI) and Logical Reasoning (LR):Both the DI and LR part were ranked moderately difficult by the students. The students reported that the DI questions were not very calculation intensive. Only 3 out of the 8 sets were straightforward, as compared to 6 to 7 in the previous exams. This, however, does not mean that the other sets were very difficult, just that they were both tedious and tricky, and given the exam pressure and the panic on encountering a tough question paper, it became very difficult for the candidates to completely solve these questions.

Section III: Quantitative Ability (QA):The QA section can be considered moderate for a serious student as most of the questions did not involve a lot of extensive calculation and were based on core concepts.Some questions were quite easy and could be solved just by looking at the problem statement. The only factor increasing the difficulty of this section was the presence of 15TITA (type in the answer) questions, which increased the chances of silly mistakes. More than 20 questions could be attempted easily here by the students who had prepared well. The absence of Number System surprised most aspirants as it almost always proves to be a key factor in the exam.

On a thorough analysis of the paper it can be understood that its not difficult to score well if your preparation is thorough.

Anshika Srivastava, an English(H) graduate from Delhi University, currently covering all the relevant aspects of education through writing.