CAT 2015: Post exam in-depth expert analysis; check where you stand

Taking a sigh of relief as the CAT 2015 D-day has passed on Nov 29, 2015 and putting their fate whether they would be getting the desired IIM in 2016, in the hands of IIM Ahmedabad, more than 2 lakh candidates now wait for the outcome after an ordeal of preparing for the most important exam of ones life Thousands of the students who interacted with us after coming out of the testing hall proclaimed that the CAT 2015 test paper was easy except that the Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning was pretty tough.

CAT 2015 was pretty much on the lines of what they have already given on the CAT 2015 website. Students reported that there was a minor glitch in the Instructions given at the start of the paper. The Instructions said that there would be DILR questions in sets of 2 or 4 and Reading Comprehension (RC) questions in sets of 4.

With QA becoming slightly easier and more importantly, reduction in weightage for higher maths and the addition of an online calculator is a bit of help for non engineers, which may help increase diversity this year.

The IIMs and TCS should be commended on pulling off the CAT 2015 exam without any glitches. In fact, reducing the number of slots from 4 to 2 and the days from 2 to 1, has made CAT 2015 less biased. CAT 2015 could be a precursor to making CAT 2016 a single slot paper on a single day. That way, the entire issue of normalization between sets can be done away with and every student is tested on the same questions. The score normalization should not be an issue in CAT 2015 as the normalization is clearly defined by the IIMs and therefore there is no scope for ambiguity, and heartburn, unlike in the past CAT exams.

The actual CAT 2015 test paper As has already been announced by the IIMs, for the first time in CAT, non-MCQ type questions made an appearance. There were 100 questions in all the three section put together, 28 questions of them were of the non-MCQ type.

As expected, non-MCQ questions did not carry any negative marks while the MCQ questions carried -1 mark negative for a wrong answer and +3 for a correct answer.

Section
No. of MCQ
No. of non-MCQs
Total no of Qns
Total Marks

Section I Verbal & Reading Comprehension (VARC)
24
10
34
102

Section II Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)
24
8
32
96

Section III Quantitative Aptitude (QA)
24
10
34
102

Total
72
28
100
300

*MCQ Multiple Choice Questions
LOD in CAT 2015 If one were to compare the difficulty level of CAT 2015 over the last years paper, then CAT 2015 would be a shade more difficult (especially the DILR section) than the difficulty level of the CAT 2014 paper
Summary of Cut offs
Section
Total no of Qns
Total Marks
Cutoff (85%ile)

VARC
34
102
40

DILR
32
96
24

QA
34
102
45

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) VARC the first section in CAT2015 paper had 5 passages of RC for 24 Questions overall. It was a pleasant surprise as the RC passages were not very long and quite a few questions were direct. The agonizingly close answer choices and the highly inferential choices were largely absent. The language and content was easy to read and there were no passages on abstract subjects.

In VA, the surprise was the complete absence of Sentence Correction (Grammar) questions. However, all the 10 VA Questions didnt have answer choices (non MCQ). This clearly makes Para Jumbles questions significantly tougher to solve. Odd Para-Jumble questions (Finding out the odd sentence out of a sequence of 5 sentences) were easy and the Alternative Summary Questions were moderate.

Breakup of the VARC section

Area
No of MCQs
No of Non-MCQs
Total

RC - Humanities
3
3

RC Economic Inequality
3
3

RC World Bank Loan
6
6

RC Economic Inequality
6
6

RC Immigration and effects
6
6

Odd Para Jumbles
3
3

Para Completion
4
4

Para Summary
3
3
24
10
34

Many students have reported that they have done upwards of 20 questions in the section. A quick poll, at the time of writing this analysis, says that more than 60% of the students have attempted more than 20 questions. However, as is always the case, the mistakes in RC and VA are far more than in DILR or QA sections. Hence the cut-off expected at 85%ile will be in the range of 38 to 42 marks.

Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) This section was probably the nightmare for CAT 2015 test takers, especially the LR area. Of the four sets given, only one set appeared easy (family working together on five projects). While the Cubes set also was doable, the fact that it was given as non-MCQs made the solution long and difficult. Sudoku set and the set where 5 students take ten tests and their marks distribution were decidedly lengthy.

The DI area had two relatively easy sets 1) Line Graph which gave information on Tourists arrivals and 2) Capacity utilization of 10 plants.

One set on Time & Work where 3 jobs A, B and C have to be done by four people was doable but a bit lengthy.

The non-MCQ set (distribution of newspapers in a hotel of 60 rooms for four days) was probably most interesting and the toughest set. Most students might have left this set without bothering to waste time.

Area
No of MCQs
No of Non-MCQs
Total

LR - Distribution
4
4

LR Cubes
4
4

LR Distribution
4
4

LR Distribution /Games
4
4

DI Table
4
4

DI Table Time & Work
4
4

DI Line Graph
4
4

DI Comprehension
4
4

24
8
32

A determined CAT 2015 aspirant would attempt around 17-18 questions in this set. Very few students might have touched the attempt of 25 in this section. Students who are careful in set selection and willing to cut their losses in case of tough sets would be able to get a decent score and good percentile.

The cut off in this section would be pretty low as compared to the other two sections and can hover around 23 to 25 marks for the 85%ile.

Quantitative Ability The relative easiness of the Quant section was overshadowed by the tougher section, which preceded QA (ie DILR) and contributed to the fatigue factor.

The huge emphasis on Arithmetic and Geometry (18 questions out of 34) could well be to give non-Engineers a better chance to crack this section. Though there were a couple of pure math questions, these two were very straight forward and easy to solve.

Break-up of questions in Quantitative Ability

Area
No of MCQs
No of Non-MCQs
Total

Arithmetic
8
3
12

Numbers
2
1
3

Algebra
5
3
9

Geometry/Mensuration
5
1
6

Pure Math
1
2
2

Venn Diagram
1
1
24
10
34

An IIM A, B, C aspirant would attempt upwards of 18 questions in this section. A few students reported that they have attempted as high as 30 questions too. The cutoff can be high and could be closer to 45 marks.

Overall Analysis CAT 2015 test paper, on the whole, was a relatively difficult paper as compared to the CAT 2014 paper. Also, since every student is forced to spend 60 minutes each on the three areas, there is no scope for maximizing the scores by giving disproportionate time to any one area of his strength.

This means that the overall cut offs for CAT 2015 would be lower by a significant level. Also, given that DILR section was much more difficult than the other two sections, the overall in CAT 2015 is therefore expected to be less by at least 20 to 25 marks than last year.

IIMs are clearly trying to strive for a diverse representation of students at the IIMs. The relatively easier Quant and Verbal/RC puts almost everyone on an even keel. The joker in the pack is DILR and whoever has kept the cool in the exam and tried solving the easy ones, would be getting very good percentiles.

FIRST CUT MARKS & PERCENTILE ANALYSIS The Research team has put together a preliminary analysis of the Marks required for various percentiles in each section as well as the overall marks required.

Percentile

VARC
DILR
QA
Overall

99%
62
45
70
173

95%
52
32
59
138

90%
46
28
51
121

85%
40
24
45
105

80%
35
20
38
91

70%
30
17
30
75
Source: Research team VistaMind There is a tendency to claim high accuracy after every exam and it has never been proven to be correct. Hence do not expect more than 80 to 85 percent accuracy in QA and probably even lower than this in Verbal and RC.

We will share the normalized percentiles for the marks in each section after due research and calculation shortly.

This analysis is part of MBAUniverse.com-VistaMind CAT 2015 Percentile Predictor initiative. MBAUniverse.com and VistaMind have prepared a CAT Percentile predictor to help you judge your performance.

Share your CAT 2015 performance now by filling a short online form, which will take 5 minutes, and we will soon email your likely CAT 2015 Score & Percentile. Click here to know your CAT 2015 Score.

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