CAT
What is CAT Exam?
Common Admission Test or more popularly known as CAT is an entrance exam which helps students to get into reputed MBA (Masters in Business Administration) colleges like IIMs (old/new/baby), FMS, MDI, SP Jain, IMT etc. Until 2011, CAT exam score was considered only by IIMs but now a lot of other MBA colleges use the CAT exam score for their selection process. The first ever online CAT exam was conducted in the year 2009 and now nearly 2.2 lakh candidates appeared for CAT 2022 exam.
CAT exam is considered as one of the most difficult entrance exams in India as it is the first step to get into an MBA college. An MBA is the most sought-after post-graduate course among students and every year lakhs of students appear for the CAT exam but only a handful of them make it to the top colleges in India.
Syllabus for CAT Exam
CAT exam analyses the skills of the aspirant in 3 sections. Some of the core concepts in this are –
- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
- I. Paragraph Jumbles
- II. Paragraph Completion
- III. Reading Comprehension
- IV. Odd Man out
- V. Inferences
- Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)
- I. Tables and Bar, Pie &Line Graphs
- II. Venn Diagrams
- III. Puzzles
- IV. Arrangements
- V. Game based sets
- VI. Data Structures
- Quantitative Ability (QA)
- I. Numbers and its applications
- II. Percentages and its applications
- III. Ratio and Its applications
- IV. Algebra and its applications
- V. Geometry and its applications
CAT 2023 Exam Notification and Overview
CAT is conducted in November every year. The detailed notification is released around July/August on the official website, where you will be required to register online. You will get to know about the important dates, application fee, MBA/PGP programmes and other essential information from the notification.
CAT 2023 Exam Important Dates
Here is an overview of the tentative dates for CAT 2023:
| Event | Dates |
| CAT 2023 Notification Release | 4th week of July 2023 |
| CAT 2023 Registration Starts | 1st week of August 2023 |
| CAT 2023 Registration Ends | 2nd week of September 2023 |
| CAT 2023 Admit Card Release | 4th week of October 2023 |
| CAT 2023 Exam Date | 4th week of November 2023 |
| CAT 2023 Answer Key Release | 1st/ 2nd week of December 2023 |
| CAT 2023 Result Declaration | 1st week of January 2024 |
CAT 2023 Exam Pattern
While the CAT 2023 exam pattern has not been released officially, it is likely to continue with the pattern from the previous year paper. Here is a descriptive overlay of CAT 2023 exam pattern based on CAT 2022 exam pattern –
| Particulars | Details |
| Exam Mode | Computer based |
| Exam Duration | 2 Hours (120 Minutes) |
| Name of the sections |
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) Quantitative Aptitude (QA) |
| Section wise time duration | 40 minutes for each section |
| Number of questions per section |
66 questions in total VARC – 24 questions DILR – 20 questions QA – 22 questions |
| Total Marks | 198 |
| Marking Scheme |
+3 for every right answer -1 for every wrong answer No negative marks for non-MCQ questions |
CAT 2023 Eligibility
Given below are a few salient points for the eligibility criteria for the CAT 2023 exam–
- In order to be eligible for the exam, the candidate has to pass at least their bachelor’s degree with at least 50% (for general category, EWS and for candidates from the NC-OBC caste). For SC/ST and differently abled (DA) candidates, the percentage required is 45%.
- For the degree to be counted, the University who has awarded the degree has to be recognized by the MHRD.
- If the University awards grades or CGPA instead of marks, the conversion factor given by the University has to be used. If there is no conversion factor specified by the University, the CGPA has to be converted into percentage by direct conversion i.e. divide the CGPA received by the highest CGPA possible and multiply the result by 100.
- Candidates who have completed their professional degrees with over 50% (45% for SC/ST/PwD) are also eligible for CAT.
CAT 2023 Application Fee
In order to complete the registration process, the candidate needs to pay the application fee. The details about the amount will be mentioned when the notification comes out and the candidates need to fill the form and pay the amount within the registration window in order to be eligible to appear for the CAT 2023 exam.
CAT Exam Cutoff
Every aspirant keeps an eye out for the cutoff of all the top MBA colleges so that he/she has an idea of what they are shooting for. The cutoff is the initial stage that must be cleared by the candidate to be considered for further procedures. While the actual cutoff is far higher than the ones given by the colleges, these figures must also be kept in mind to ensure that the aspirant has a realistic target for which they can aim.The general trends for the top MBA colleges are –
- The top IIMs and MBA colleges require a CAT exam score of over 99%ile to get a call for the interview rounds.
- New IIMs like IIM Udaipur, IIM Trichy, etc. all have a cutoff of 90-95%ile for an interview call.
- Baby IIMs have similar cutoffs as compared tonew IIMs but some can dip to 85%ile for the candidate with the right profile.
- Tier 2 and Tier 3 Colleges can have CAT exam scoreand cutoffs of anywhere between 50-80%ile.