Previous Year CAT Analysis: CAT'2012 Exam Analysis

Brief Video Snapshot of CAT 2012

The 21 day 'hallowed month' of CAT 2012 has now come to an end. One might be tempted to say that with each passing year the mystic of online CAT is reducing and now we are accustomed to the test and all that it entails. But, saying this would be an act of lying. CAT, like always, brings a new flavor with it each year. So was true for this time as well. This year saw one of the toughest sections in Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation ever. The section troubled students consistently in all the slots. Even with 70 minutes for 30 questions, an attempt of 20-22 questions in this section is being considered very well. Both QA and DI were in their element. Where QA had the audacity to occur with seriously tough questions, DI was a tedious ride with intensive calculations.

After much brow-wiping and hard-work in section-1, section-2 would come as a respite. Though Verbal Ability, with its grammar questions and near incomprehensible passages, can never be called easy, in most of the slots it was definitely more doable than quant. The Logical Reasoning questions were what bought relief to thousands of students. Most of these questions could be done by almost everybody

Now that you have taken CAT and the nail-biting wait for the results have started, you are expected to fill applications for various colleges allied to CAT. Given below are two tables that will help you do just that

Table-1 will help you calculate your expected percentile based on your expected raw score in each section.

Table -2 gives you a cluster wise list of which colleges to apply for as per your respective percentile

Table-1: Calculation of percentile

Table-2: Cluster wise categorization of colleges

Disclaimer-The data given here is based on the analysis done of the scores of hundreds of Career Launcher students who took CAT last year. This is only indicative of your probable result. We have removed the "expected approx percentile" column from the second table as we realized that the students were getting too much into the intricacy of calculating their percentiles rather than using the table to zero in on the B-Schools to which they should apply. This post was meant to guide the students about their chances of getting calls from various B-Schools, not to give them their percentiles. The percentile scores, anyway, would take into account the normalization process. Also, you should also consider some B-Schools in the cluster above and the cluster below the one in which your expected raw score falls.

CAT update 19th Oct

It’s been over 10 days since the curtain raiser of CAT 2012 and the verdict is that the exam has been on the tough side. Section I, Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation, has been a tough nut to crack in almost all the slots, if we ignore a couple of lucky days where the students found the section doable. Section II, however, got a mixed response with the first few days seeing relatively easier questions. But, the later days have seen passages bordering on abstract. So , for most slots, a good attempt in section -1 will still be 18-20 and for section-2 it will be 20-22. We will advise you to consider the test in your slot on its own merit and not go with any preconceived ideas about the number of attempts that should be made.

CAT update 13th Oct

Quant continued to be difficult in day- 2 of CAT. English, which was of moderate level of difficulty in day-1 has taken a turn and slot -2 today reported some very tough RC and Para-jumble questions. As in Day -1, all questions of DI and AR were in sets of 3 and were of moderate level of difficulty. Day-2 also did not see any Word Usage questions. These questions have been a consistent part of CAT for past 3 years. Slot -1, Day 2 had at least 2 questions incorrect in section 1

Overall Analysis of CAT'12

Overall Analysis of CAT'12 The first round of tests of CAT 2012 is done now and so far all has been along expected lines. As per the announcement made earlier, the paper had two sections - Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning, with 30 questions in each section. The sections were available sequentially, each having a time limit of 70 minutes to answer 30 questions. Thus, it was mandatory to spend the stipulated time on the prescribed section and it was only when the time ended for the first section that it was possible to move to the second section.

The total duration of the test was two hours and thirty five minutes, including a 15-minute tutorial provided to the candidates before the start of the test to familiarize them with the layout, screens and navigation

The overall structure of the paper was as follows:

Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation

There were 21 questions of QA and 9 questions of DI in both the slots. The difficulty level was high and the questions were designed to test the grasp of fundamentals. There were questions from regular topics like Number System, Algebra, Geometry, Modern Math and Geometry. Questions in Data Interpretation area were also not simple and involved convoluted calculations. All the questions in DI came in sets of 3. DS was absent from both the slots.