CAT 2017 Exam Pattern
The Slot 2 students would have had a slight advantage over the Slot 1 students in the fact that they knew that the DILR section could be tough and that QA was easy!
As it turned out, the CAT 2017 Slot 2 did not throw up any major surprise as a comparison to Slot 1. While VARC continued to be easy, the options for some of the questions were close. Students could have been trapped by the similar kind of options. DILR was ‘Not Easy’ to say in two words. One could have assumed the questions to be easy; however, they were not. Like Slot 1, Quantitative Aptitude continued to be on the easier side. On first impressions, an overall raw score of 155-160 should fetch a student a 99%ile, this year. The overall structure of the CAT paper was as follows:
| Section |
No. of Questions |
No. of non-MCQ questions |
Difficulty Level |
Good Attempts |
| Verbal Ability and Reading comprehension |
34 |
7 |
Moderate |
25-27 |
| Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning |
32 |
8 |
Difficult |
12-14 |
| Quantitative Ability |
34 |
8 |
Moderate |
25-26 |
| Total |
100 |
|
|
64-68 |
CAT 2017 Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension Analysis
Contrary to expectation (which was based on the sample paper), the verbal section had only 7 non-MCQs and 3 MCQs. The summary questions became MCQ based and carried negative marking. The passages were easy to read but the options to a few questions were close.
Out of the five passages, only one was a tedious read. The passages came from expected areas of Economics, Biology, Current Technical Trend etc. One passage was of creativity which was very interesting. One passage on typewriters was really short in length (around 250 words). Around 16 out of 24 questions were based on main idea and inference. The other questions were factual in nature. Tone questions remained absent.
The four subjective para jumble questions were, as per expectation, time consuming and futile. A student should have just guessed these and concentrated on RCs. The three odd sentence para jumble questions were easy.
The three summary questions carried negative marks. And the topics were very tedious to read. In one summary question, all the options were identical as they started with the same stem. Hence, a student should have read the questions carefully.
The overall difficulty level of the section is moderate. A good attempt will be 25-27 with around 90% accuracy.
Surprises: The section was not an exact replica of last year. Idea based questions dominated. Summary questions carried negative marks.
| Area |
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Description |
Reading Comprehension
(24 Questions) |
Reading Comprehension |
24 |
There were total 5 passages - three passages (500-550 words each approximately) and two passages (350 words, 250 words). The three passages had 6 questions each and the other two had 3 questions each.One passage could have looked tedious. All the other passages were really interesting to read. Majority of the questions were idea based. One should have attempted 4 passages and aimed for an 80% accuracy. The options were very close. So, it became time-consuming. |
Verbal Ability
(10 Questions) |
Para-jumble |
4 |
5 Sentence type. Two were very easy. One was tricky and one was extremely confusing. As these had no negative marking, one should have attempted all without wasting a lot of time. The trick was to identify the opening sentence and go ahead with the mandatory pair. There were quite a few clue words. Prior practice and awareness of deductive paragraphs were the keys. |
| Summary |
3 |
Small paragraph of about 150 words followed by four options. Elimination of options made the task easy. However, one question had almost all identical options. It was MCQ based. So, one should not have guessed these questions. |
| Para-jumble (Odd sentence out) |
3 |
5 sentence paragraphs and one was the odd sentence. Simple paragraphs with short sentences. One paragraph was on Sports. Correct answer was easy due to the thematic difference. One needed to have practice of identifying mandatory pairs. |
CAT 2017 Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning Analysis
The DILR section had two sets which were easy and doable. The set on Pizza was very similar to the one given in the CAT 2004 paper and the based on Chess Board was quite easy. Three sets based on Dorms, Asset Management and Teas had about 1-2 questions each that were solvable. The airplane set was doable but lengthy. 14-16 questions, in this section, should be attempted with 85% accuracy to get a 99%ile
| Section |
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Doable |
| Data Interpretation
And Logical Reasoning |
Chess – Easy to Moderate |
4 |
3-4 |
| Pizza – Easy |
4 |
4 |
| Dorms - Medium |
4 |
2-3 |
| Asset Management - Medium |
4 |
2-3 |
| Airplane - Medium |
4 |
1-2 |
| Biometric - Difficult |
4 |
1 |
| Tea – Easy to Moderate |
4 |
1-2 |
| Elective - Difficult |
4 |
Best left alone |
Identifying the 2 sitters was the key. All other sets had about 2 solvable questions
CAT 2017 Quantitative Ability Analysis
There were 34 questions of QA. There were 8 to 9 Questions of Non-MCQ type and the rest were MCQs. The difficulty level was similar to the morning slot. The questions were designed to test the grasp of basic fundamentals. In some of MCQs, options were very helpful to get the answer. Arithmetic and Algebra dominated with about 22 to 24 questions from these topics There were just 4-5 questions in Geometry and Mensuration combined
| Section |
Topic |
No. of Questions |
Doable |
| Quantitative Ability |
Number System |
4 |
2-3 |
| Algebra |
12 |
9-10 |
| Arithmetic |
12 |
9-10 |
| Modern Math |
2 |
1 |
| Geometry and Mensuration |
4 |
2-3 |
Questions in Algebra were focused on Inequalities and Quadratic Equations. Arithmetic questions were focused on Commercial Math, TSD and Ratios. 22-25 attempts with 90% accuracy should suffice for 99%ile.
Please Note: All information on analysis and scores are based on the accuracy of attempts provided by you as well as independent analysis and evaluation made by Career Launcher Academic Team. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.
CL extends its best wishes to all CAT aspirants. All the very best!!
See how you performed in CAT 2017 with CL's CAT 2017 Score Calculator and AI-based Percentile Predictor @ www.careerlauncher.com/cat/
Follow the InsideIIM Live Blog,
here.
Enter your Attempts and Expected Correct below. Know aggregate attempts of the population here – we will update periodically
here.
You Might Also Like To Read:
Loading...