CAT 2016: Exam analysis

There has been two sessions for the Common Admission Test this year one timed from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. and the other timed from 2.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. A lot of subject experts have released the analysis of the question pattern this year available across multiple forums.

In the first slot, following were observed:

• As per the CAT exam authorities, the marking scheme is 3 marks per questions and -1 attributed as negative marking. In the course of taking the exam, however, the marking scheme was displayed as +1,-0.33. Further, the count of the questions in the verbal section was 34 while the display indicated a count of 32.
• The paper was tough as compared to last year and time-consuming.
• Ambiguous symbols were mentioned in questions.
• The Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation section was one of the toughest sections in the exam.
• The quantitative section was set to moderate difficulty level.

In the second slot, following were observed:

• The exam was set to moderate difficulty.
• The verbal section was easy but consumed a lot of time.
• The marking scheme appeared right in the second slot.
• The quantitative section had tough questions.
• There was no question on pie charts or trigonometry.

Majority of questions in the quantitative section were posed on arithmetic and geometry. Data interpretation section had questions based on Line charts, table charts and set theory. There were totally 5 passages in the RC section with a count of 24 questions in the Cat exam.

Overall, the exam was slightly tougher in comparison to last year and had few errors in the way the questions were drafted as well as contained ambiguous symbols which were tough to be interpreted by various students. The institutes while determining the cut-off will be taking into account these factors:

• The difficulty level of CAT 2016.
• The cut-off for last year.
• Total number of examinees
• Seats available
• Reservation criteria

The verbal and quantitative section were marked 102 each with data interpretation being marked 96. The question count for verbal and quantitative were 34 each while logical section was 32.

All the best for your results!

Chandrakala, a content writer based in Collegesearch, a leading education portal that has been setup with an aim of simplifying the information the students need to decide on which college to study.