#CAT2018: Here's a complete, section-wise analysis of question paper
The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2018 was successfully conducted by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) today at exam centers across the country. It was conducted in two slots: Slot-1 (9am-12pm) and Slot-2 (2:30-5:30pm). This year, over 2.4 lakh candidates registered to appear for CAT, the gateway to admission to IIMs and top B-schools. Here's an analysis of CAT-2018 exam held today.
Details about the CAT 2018 conducted today
CAT 2018 had three sections: Verbal and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DI-LR), and Quantitative Ability (QA). There were 100 questions (34 VARC questions, 32 DI-LR questions, and 34 QA questions) and candidates were allotted 60 minutes for each section. In the Slot-1 paper, there were 24 TITA (non-MCQ) questions and there were 26 TITA questions in the Slot-2 exam.
Analysis of the VARC section in Slots 1 & 2
CAT-2018 exam started with VARC in which, reportedly, there were some minor structural changes. In Slot-1, VARC was easier than the 2017 VARC section. The passages weren't difficult, para-jumble questions were easy, and summaries were comparatively a little tough. Most topics for RC passages were familiar too. The Slot-2 was also similar. VARC was easy except for para-jumble questions which were a bit tricky.
What about the DI-LR section this year?
Coming to DI-LR, it was easy this year compared to the last couple of years. However, there were some difficult questions too. In Slot-1, there were 32 questions of which 8 were TITA questions. Topics covered included pie-charts, matrices, tables, Venn diagrams, missing values among others. The Slot-2 was almost the same except for questions on coding-decoding. The tabular DI was reportedly more calculative.
The Quant section was the most difficult this year
The Quantitative Ability (QA) was reportedly the toughest section of CAT this year. In the Slot-1 question paper, QA was the "most grueling section" and the second slot's QA part was no different than the first, in terms of the difficulty level. According to experts, QA this year was "by far the most difficult QA section in CAT in the last 10 years."
Results expected to be released in January
The results of the CAT 2018 examination are expected to be out by the second week of January next year, as per the official notification. The CAT 2018 scores will be valid until 31 December 2019 only.
