CAT 2018 Official Notification - All You Need To Know

• The exam will be conducted in two sessions, as was the case last year.
• Candidates will be allowed to select a preference of 4 test cities. The concerned authorities will then attempt to allot cities of preference to as many candidates as possible. Candidates will not be allowed to choose the session of the exam.
• Only online payment will be accepted as registration fee (credit card, debit card, net banking)
• Following registration, candidates can download their admit cards from 24th October onwards till the date of the examination.
• A tutorial to understand the pattern of the test will be available from 17th October onwards.

Exam Pattern:

The pattern for CAT 2018 will be identical to that of CAT 2017:

• A total of 180 minutes will be allotted for the exam.
• The exam will consist of 3 sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Ability.
  The candidate will have 60 minutes per section to attempt all questions. A candidate cannot switch from one section to another before the 60 minutes of a section end.
• There will be a mix of multiple choice and TITA (type in the answer) questions for all sections. It is likely that the TITA type questions will not have negative marking, as was in CAT 2017.
• Candidates will be allowed to use the on-screen calculator.

What We Think:

• For those who gave CAT 2017, this notification comes as a relief. Every year, IIMs tend to make certain significant changes to the exam pattern which often rattles aspirants.
• The IIMs seem to have reached very close to cracking the pattern for CAT. With minimal changes for CAT 2017 and no changes for CAT 2018, it is possible that only very minor changes may be made in the years to come.
• It is possible that this year again, the IIMs may release the answer key for the exams, a trend that was introduced after CAT 2017.
• Expect the DI-LR section to be more difficult than rest of the sections, as has been the trend with the previous versions of CAT.

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