CAT 2019 Experience

Common Admission Test or CAT is a national-level management aptitude test which is conducted by the IIM for admission to the MBA courses offered by its 20 campuses and over 1,200 B-schools in India. Over two lakh candidates apply for the CAT exam every year.

Format of CAT 2019

CAT 2019 consisted of 3 sections –

• Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC): 34 questions (24 questions from RC & 10 questions from VA)
• Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR): 32 questions (8 sets, each set having 4 questions)
• Quantitative Ability (QA): 34 questions

Each correct answer would fetch 3 marks while each wrong attempt would attract a penalty of 1 mark. No penalty for not attempting a question. Around 80% of the questions were MCQ while the rest were TITA (Type In The Answer). There was no negative marking in TITA questions.

My Performance

CAT 2019 Percentile: 98.64

CAT 2018 Percentile: 92.04

Although this might seem to be a good score, it is an average score, at best, for the so-called GEM.

Nevertheless, it was an improvement from CAT 2018, which I didn’t expect.

Performance Review and Tips for Future Aspirants

• VARC – Since the RCs in 2019 were more challenging than in 2018, my decision not to ignore the VA section paid off. Many candidates ignore the VA section or visit it in the dying moments of the exam. Hence, despite difficult RCs, my percentile in this section was boosted as the VA section was comparatively easier.

Never ignore VA section

• DILR – This section provided a relief since it was much easier compared to the previous years. I could attempt 4 sets and got 13 correct. Should have gotten all correct here.

Accuracy is the key in DILR

• QA – I could go through 30 questions and attempt 20 of them. Got all correct.

Leaving difficult questions and going for the easy to moderate ones is the key to do well in QA

All the best!