CAT 2015: Amazing but true-50 percent score suffice to get 99.9 percentile; improve accuracy level

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Marking correct answers to half of the test paper questions in CAT 2015 can award you with 99.9 percentile but will require 100% accuracy level. Prof S K Agarwal Expert on verbal ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation shares the amazing fact that your score of 50% in CAT 2015 can get you a percentile of 99.9 provided all the answers are correct and no wrong answers are marked. Now the major requirement during the preparation and practice sessions is to watch out for the accuracy level. Higher the level of accuracy lower will be the chances of committing errors and getting imposed with the penalty of negative marking.
Another strategy when you accuracy level is low and is between 80 to 90%, is that you could attempt more number of questions with the precaution that probability of wrong answers is minimized and doesnt go beyond the prescribed accuracy level. Please remember you have to get a position in merit relative to your peers.

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CAT Centre 2015 while clarifying all about the scoring pattern in CAT 2015 conveys For purposes of reporting, Scaled Scores for each section (Section I: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Section II: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Section III: Quantitative Ability (QA) ) and Total along with the Percentiles shall be published.

The process of Normalization is an established practice for comparing candidate scores across multiple Forms and is similar to those being adopted in other large educational selection tests conducted in India such as Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). For normalization across sections we shall use a sort of percentile equivalence
CAT toppers who earlier scored percentile as high as 99+ or 100, have never been able to go beyond 70 or 75 questions. The only difference is their greater accuracy level.

If you are able to score around 47 to 50% marks in each section, you get a percentile of 99.25 to 99.95 after taking into account the 7 to 10% mistakes you might have committed resulting in loss of few marks due to wrong answers.

Different Normalization process
The scores you obtain in raw form go for percentile calculation which in turn is measured on relative terms. Number of factors like location, level of difficulty shall be taken into account while going for score normalization process.

Even the highest scorer doesnt score 60 to 70% raw marks. So if the highest scorer gets around 55% marks and after normalization process he may even go beyond a candidate who has scored 57% marks and might be declared 100 percentiler while candidate with 57% may get 99.99 percentile depending upon the other factors counted while going for score normalization like LOD, Location, Test form.

Game of Accuracy
If your accuracy level is high say 90% or 80% and if you attempt 24 out of 34 in each of the 3 sections, you could score a fairly high percentile between 99 to 100 in each section. After allowing for 10% or 15% errors you get 3 to 4 answers wrong and net result will get you the desired percentile.

Understand with examples
The examples below are shared taking the higher side of error level. Out of 24 attempted questions instead of 2.4 as wrong answers at the 90% accuracy level, 3 have been taken as wrong and for 80% accuracy level 5 have been taken as wrong answers.

For accuracy level 90%: 24-3=21x3=63-3(Negative marking)=60 out of 102 maximum marks for Quant section and VARC section. The same score of 60 in DILR section will be exceptionally high as the maximum marks for 32 questions in this section are 96.

Your total percentage of marks is more than 60% and you can expect a percentile between 99.9 to 100.

For accuracy level 80%: 24-5=19x3=57-5 (deducted due to negative marking) = 52 marks out of 102 maximum marks in Quant and VARC sections and 96 in DILR section.
If you calculate the maximum marks in all the 3 sections, the sum total of them would come to 300 but your percentile score taking into account the different factors in score normalization process will have amazing effect and will shoot up to 99+ with the above score.

Low accuracy level
3 dos and donts you have to follow to score high percentile in CAT 2015 if you do not have high accuracy level
-Even with accuracy level of 60 to 70% and attempting same number of questions as cited above, you may get a percentile as high as 94 to 97. Your 43 to 46% marks in each section of CAT 2015 will award you a high percentile. With this score and your good academic profile, you can get shortlisted by older IIMs.
- Work hard to improve the accuracy level. Practice more, analyse each and every wrong answer and avoid recurrence of mistake. Dont take the difficult question as a challenge, skip it instead and move on to attempt the next good one.
-Focus on high sectional percentile as IIMs need minimum qualifying sectional percentile along with high overall percentile in CAT 2015.

Avoid temptation
Never and in no way allow the temptation of solving more questions and taking the risk of losing marks come near you. If you do so, please remember you will be losing your positive score and instead of you other candidates might be getting into merit position in IIMs. Even FMS Delhi apart from IIMs will consider sectional percentile instead of only overall percentile.

Success Mantra
Prof S K Agarwal, expert on CAT 2015 preparation shares below 2 success mantra points to score high in CAT 2015
-- Whenever you study and practice the questions for CAT 2015, think that exam is just after 2-3 days and you have to revise well.
-- In the testing room begin to solve questions from your strongest area ending with the weaker one. Avoid attempting difficult questions in which you are not confident enough.
CAT 2015 is the gateway to 20 IIMs, FMS Delhi, SPJIMR, MDI, IMI, IMT, NITIE, TAPMI, BIMTECH, Great Lakes and number of other top rated B-schools who will use CAT 2015 scores in MBA/PGDM admission in 2016. The computer based CAT 2015 exam will be held on November 29, 2015 in 2 sessions in 136 test cities and 650 testing venues across the country. Admit cards for CAT 2015 are proposed to be issued on October 25, 2015 with important details in them.