What is CAT?

Common Admission Test or more popularly known as CAT is an entrance exam which helps students to get into famous colleges like IIMS, IITS and also IISc. Until 2011, CAT score was considered only by IIMs but, now IITs and IISc also uses the CAT scores for the selection process.

The first ever CAT exam was conducted in the year 2007 and it was a paper based exam. Later, it was turned into a Computer Based Examination. Nearly 2.44 lakh candidates appeared for CAT 2019.

CAT is considered as one of the most difficult entrance exams in India and the passing percentage of CAT is also very low. MBA, i.e Masters in Business Administration is the most sought after post-graduate course among students. Every year lacs of students appear for CAT exams but only a handful of them make it to IIMs which are considered as the best colleges for MBA.

Eligibility for CAT

The candidate must hold a Bachelor’s Degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA [45% in the case of candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons with Disability (PwD) categories].

Candidates appearing for the final year of Bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification examination and those who have completed degree requirements and are awaiting results can also apply.

Syllabus for CAT

CAT analyses the skills of the aspirant in four sections –

Some of the core concepts in this are –

1. Quantitative Section

Algebra

Geometry and its applications

Numbers and its applications

Percentages and its applications

Ratio and Its applications

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English Section

Grammar

Vocabulary

Critical Reasoning and its numerous applications

Reading Comprehension

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Analytical and Logical Reasoning Section

Blood Relations

Direction Sense

Puzzles

Arrangements

Data Structures

Series

Coding-Decoding

Clocks and Calenders

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Data Interpretation Section

Table

Bar

Pie

Line graphs

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Paper Pattern

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