CAT 2023 Analysis and Performance Barometer – Morning Slot

3.3 Lakh IIM Aspirants are appearing in Common Aptitude Test (CAT) today. Quite a big number isn’t it considering around 2.5 lakh people took CAT last time… CAT Slot 1 (morning shift) started at 8:30 pm today. Following the tradition CH EdgeMakers’ expert faculty members appeared in the CAT today to bring you the most authentic Analysis with expected cutoffs and percentiles.

CAT 2023 Shift 1 was quite similar to what last year’s CAT was in feel and character. No new question-variety was introduced in Sections. DILR section was bereft of DI like last year.

More number of CAT Aspirants this time means marks needed to score a percentile can go up.

But as there was an increase in difficulty level in DILR section will bring the marks needed to score a percentile down and thereby might counter the effect of increased number of takers.

Or

As the difficulty level was not as much as last year, No introduction of new question-variety and similar difficulty level as last year’s CAT the marks required to score a percentile will further go up.

There were 66 questions in the morning slot divided into three Sections of 40 minutes each.

The three sections were:

Section I: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)

Section II: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)

Section III: Quantitative Ability (QA)

The section-wise break-up of the questions is as under:

*TITA = Type in The Answer. You have to type the answer of these questions by using a numeric pad.

Let’s discuss and analyze all the sections in detail.

Section 1: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)

This year’s VARC Section was of similar difficulty than that of the last year’s section. There were 24 questions of reading comprehension divided into 4 passages. The readability of the passages was moderate. The questions were generally moderate. There were 3 questions of Para Jumbles (TITA) and they were (easy to moderate). There were 3 questions of Para Summary and they were (easy to moderate.)

Last year CAT introduced a new variety of sentence placement (Para Completion) wherein one has to place the given sentence at the right blank in a paragraph. This variety has been repeated this year. There were 2 questions (easy to moderate) questions of this variety. Odd Sentence variety made a comeback. There were 1 question (easy to moderate) questions of this variety.

A good number of attempts in this section will be 15-17 questions and a score of 25-26 can fetch a 90 plus percentile. For getting a 95 plus percentile one should score at least 32 marks. Around 42 marks will fetch you a 99 plus percentile.

Section 2: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR)

The DILR Section was slightly more difficult than that of last year’s. There were 20 questions divided into 4 cases. All the four cases were of 5 questions each. There were 8 TITA questions. All the cases were of LR. Most of the questions posed a good challenge to the students.

There were no questions based on DI Students who have practiced well during their CAT Prep will be able to attempt 6 to 8 questions and a score can fetch him a 90 plus percentile. For getting a 95 plus percentile, one has to score at least 20 marks. A score a 30 will be required to score a 99 percentile.

Section 3: Quantitative Ability (QA)

The QA Section was Similar that of last year’s. Out of 22 questions, there were 8 questions of TITA variety in this section. Questions covered all the sections like Arithmetic, Geometry, Algebra, Modern Math etc. Few of the questions were challenging. 5 questions were sitters and even an average student could solve them.

A good attempt will be 12-14 questions and a score of 20-21 can get one a 90 percentile in this section. For getting a 95 plus percentile, one has to score at least 25 marks. A score of around 35 will be needed for a 99 percentile.

Overall Analysis:

In overall this year’s CAT was slightly difficult than last year’s CAT. Considering difficulty level and increased number of aspirants a score of 56-58 would be needed to get a 90 %ile. To get a 95 %ile a score of around 67-69 should be enough. To get 99 plus percentile one would be needed to score around 85-90 marks.