The Common Admission Test or as it is more commonly known the CAT exam is the gateway to the most prestigious B- schools in the country. It is conducted once every year in November and is conducted in the online mode. On a rotational basis, it is carried out by the IIMs. In 2020 IIM Indore is responsible for carrying out the exam. The results are released tentatively in January after which the further admission processes start for each of the colleges. His scores are valid for one year only.
Students start applying to colleges before the results are released. CAT is a highly competitive exam and every year more than 2 Lac students apply for it. The marks of the CAT exam are used for admission to the business administration courses of many colleges apart from the IIMs as well, a non- exhaustive list of these colleges is also given. Many fellowship programs also consider CAT scores. The prominent colleges that accept CAT exam scores are all the IIMs, FMS Delhi, SPJIMR Mumbai, IMT Ghaziabad, MDI Gurgaon, IRMA Anand and many more.
– Completed Bachelor’s degree with the required percentage of marks*.
– Completed professional degree (CA/CS/ICWA) with required percentage*.
– Should be in the final year of Bachelor’s degree with required percentage*. *SC/ST/PwD candidates should have a minimum of 45%. For General, EWS, and NC-OBC candidates, the minimum is 50%.
– The percentage of marks obtained by the candidate would be calculated based on the practice as followed by the respective University/Institution. In the case of grades/CGPA, the conversion to percentage of marks would be based on the procedure as certified by the respective University/Institution. If any University/institution confirms that there is no scheme for converting CGPA into equivalent marks, the equivalence would be established by dividing the candidate’s CGPA by the maximum possible CGPA and multiplying the result with 100.
– IIMs may verify eligibility at various stages of the selection process, the details of which are provided at the website www.iimcat.ac.in. Applicants should note that the mere fulfillment of the minimum eligibility criteria will not ensure consideration for shortlisting by IIMs. Candidates must declare and maintain a valid and unique email account and a phone number throughout the selection process.
Information | Description |
CAT Exam 2020 Conducting | IIM |
CAT Exam Mode | Online Mode |
CAT Exam Date 2020 | November 29, 2020 (Sunday) |
CAT Exam Question Types | MCQs and Type- In- The- |
CAT Application Mode | Online Mode |
CAT application start date | August 5, 2020 (10 AM) |
CAT last date for | September 23, 2020 (5 pm) |
CAT admit card download | October 28, 2020 (Wednesday) |
Fees | Description |
INR 1000 | SC, ST, and PwD aspirants |
INR 2000 | all other aspirants
|
The basic exam pattern for CAT is known to be similar across the years with minor changes within the sections or the number of MCQ and non- MCQ questions are given.
Total Questions in CAT Exam | 100 |
Total Marks | 300 |
Total Sections | 3 |
Total Duration | 180 Minutes |
Negative Marking | -1 for Each Incorrect Attempt +3 for Correct Answers 0 for not Attempted |
Sectional Details | Quantitative Aptitude (QA), Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC), and |
For the CAT exam, there is no predefined syllabus. The syllabus is mainly from the middle school topics of Maths and English with some generic logical reasoning questions. A few of the details of the syllabus are:
S.No. | College Name | Location | Website Link | Cut-Off Percentile (Expected for 2020) |
1 | Indian Institute of Management | Ahmedabad | http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/ | 100-99 |
2 | Indian Institute of Management | Bangalore | http://www.iimb.ernet.in/ | 100-99 |
3 | Indian Institute of Management | Calcutta | https://www.iimcal.ac.in/ | 99 |
4 | Indian Institute of Management | Lucknow | http://www.iiml.ac.in/ | 98-97 |
5 | Indian Institute of Technology | Kharagpur | http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/ | 96+ |
6 | Indian Institute of Management | Kozhikode | http://www.iimk.ac.in/ | 97-98 |
7 | Indian Institute of Management | Indore | http://www.iimidr.ac.in/ | 98-97 |
8 | Indian Institute of Technology | Delhi | https://home.iitd.ac.in/ | 96+ |
9 | Faculty of Management Studies | Delhi | http://fms.edu/ | 98+ |
10 | Management Development Institute | Gurugram | https://www.mdi.ac.in/ | 96-97 |
11 | Indian Institute of Technology | Bombay | http://www.iitb.ac.in/ | 96+ |
12 | Indian Institute of Technology | Roorkee | https://www.iitr.ac.in/ | 98+ |
13 | National Institute of Industrial Engineering | Mumbai | https://www.nitie.edu/ | 97+ |
14 | Indian Institute of Technology | Madras | https://www.iitm.ac.in/ | 96+ |
15 | Indian Institute of Management | Tiruchirappalli | http://www.iimtrichy.ac.in/ | 94-95 |
16 | Indian Institute of Technology | Kanpur | https://www.iitk.ac.in/ | 96-97 |
17 | Indian Institute of Management | Udaipur | http://www.iimu.ac.in/ | 92-94 |
18 | SP Jain Institute of Management and Research | Mumbai | https://www.spjimr.org/ | 85+ |
19 | Indian Institute of Management | Raipur | http://www.iimraipur.ac.in/ | 94-95 |
20 | Indian Institute of Management | Ranchi | http://www.iimranchi.ac.in/ | 94-96 |
21 | Indian Institute of Management | Rohtak | http://www.iimrohtak.ac.in/ | 95 |
22 | Institute for Financial Management and Research | Chennai | https://krea.edu.in/ifmrgsb/ | 80+ |
23 | Great Lakes | Chennai | https://www.greatlakes.edu.in/ | 80+ |
24 | Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA) | Pune | https://www.pumba.in/ | 90+ |
25 | ICFAI Business School (IBS) | Hyderabad | https://www.ifheindia.org/The-ICFAI-Group.html | 87+ |
26 | Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management | Delhi | https://www.lbsim.ac.in/ | 87+ |
27 | T.A. Pai Management Institute | Manipal | https://www.tapmi.edu.in/ | 85+ |
28 | International Management Institute | Delhi | https://www.imi.edu/ | 90+ |
29 | Welingkar Institute | Bangalore | https://www.welingkar.org/ | 85+ |
30 | Indian Institute of Management | Shillong | http://www.iimshillong.in/ | 90 |
31 | Xavier Institute of Management | Bhubaneshwar | https://ximb.edu.in/ | 94+ |
32 | Indian Institute of Financial Management | NOIDA | http://iifm.ac.in/ | 85+ |
33 | Indian Institute of Management | Kashipur | http://www.iimkashipur.ac.in/ | 94-95 |
34 | Jamia Milia Islamia | Delhi | https://www.jmi.ac.in/ | 85+ |
35 | National Institute of Technology | Tiruchirappalli | https://www.nitt.edu/ | 80+ |
36 | Banaras Hindu University | Varanasi | https://www.bhu.ac.in/ | 85+ |
37 | Institute of Management Technology | Ghaziabad | https://www.imt.edu/ | 90+ |
38 | BML Munjal | Gurugram | https://www.bmu.edu.in/ | 85+ |
39 | Alliance University | Bangalore | https://www.alliance.edu.in/ | 85+ |
40 | Indian Institute of Management | Nagpur | http://iimnagpur.ac.in/ | 95-96 |
41 | Amity University | NOIDA | https://www.amity.edu/ | 75+ |
42 | Panjab University | Chandigarh | https://puchd.ac.in/ | 80+ |
43 | FORE School | Delhi | https://www.fsm.ac.in/ | 85+ |
44 | Nirma University | Ahmedabad | https://nirmauni.ac.in/ | 85+ |
45 | Institute of Rural Management | Ahmedabad | https://www.irma.ac.in/ | 85+ |
46 | Indian Institute of Mass Communication | Delhi | http://iimc.nic.in/ | 85+ |
47 | Birla Institute of Management Technology | Greater NOIDA | https://www.bimtech.ac.in/ | 80+ |
48 | Goa Institute of Management | Goa | https://www.gim.ac.in/2020/index.php | 85+ |
49 | Lovely Professional University | Punjab | https://www.lpu.in/ | 80+ |
50 | Loyola Institute of Business Administration | Chennai | https://liba.edu/ | 80+ |
The category wise and section-wise cut- off for IIM Ahmedabad for the year 2020 is as follows-
Category | VARC | DILR | QA | Aggregate |
General | 70 | 70 | 70 | 80 |
NC-OBC- Transgender | 65 | 65 | 65 | 75 |
SC | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 |
ST | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 |
PWD | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 |
PWD(ST) | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 |
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
CAT exam pattern of the last 3 years indicates that the section consists of two primary components:
Reading Comprehension:
Verbal Ability:
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning Section :
This has been the most challenging section according to the CAT exam pattern for the last 3 years. As the name suggests, the section consists of two parts:
Data Interpretation
Logical Reasoning Section:
Quantitative Aptitude
This is the section that most candidates prepare for the most. This is because the CAT exam pattern and syllabus for this section is the most fleshed out amongst all the other sections.
It is the section which can make or break the exam for most candidates. It consists of 23 to 27 MCQs while the other questions are in the form of TITA questions. There is no specific division in terms of topics which carry higher weights compared to its compatriots. Thus, candidates have to go through the entire syllabus in order to be confident of scoring well in this section.
The CAT exam pattern and syllabus for the Quantitative Aptitude section consist of:
In the past, the CAT used to be famed for their difficult QA section but recently the IIMs have reduced the difficulty level of this section in order to accommodate non-engineers. This has also led to higher scores and cut- offs in this section.
The CAT 2020 Exam Pattern will constitute 3 sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), Quantitative Ability (QA). The CAT Exam is held as a Computer Based Test (CBT) with duration of 2 hours. Each section of the CAT exam is allocated 40 minutes and there is no concept of carrying that time forward to other sections.
The CAT exam pattern tends to change a bit over the years, however, for the past 4 years, it has remained constant. But CAT 2020 has added a new element to the table by reducing the exam duration from 60 minutes to 40 minutes per section. The number of questions per section will be confirmed by IIM Indore on 20th September. This change in the CAT 2020 Exam Pattern has come as a surprise to many candidates and has been enforced due to the COVID 19 Crisis.
Section | Number of Questions | Time Allocated |
Verbal Ability | To be Confirmed (TBC) | 40 minutes |
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning | To be Confirmed (TBC) | 40 minutes |
Quantitative Ability | To be Confirmed (TBC) | 40 minutes |
Click Here to Check CAT Previous Year Paper Analysis of 2019 , 2018, 2017,2016.
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