CAT 2020 Analysis by Hitbulls Eye: Trends in CAT; Difficulty level, Percentile Cut Off Predictions

CAT Analysis 2020 by Hitbulls eye has been released below slot wise beginning with slot-1 which got over at 10.30AM, followed by Slot-2 and Slot-3 which got over at 2.30PM and 6.30 PM respectively on Sunday November 29, 2020. This year CAT exam is conducted in three slots as against two slots last year.

Hitbulls eye has shared with MBAUniverse.com the CAT 2020 paper difficulty level, key changes in question paper, good attempts and likely cut off score for different percentile range in the changed test pattern after each slot as shared below.

• CAT 2020 Morning Slot: 8.30 AM to 10.30 AM
• CAT 2020 Afternoon Slot: 12.30 PM to 2.30 PM
• CAT 2020 Evening Slot: 4.30PM to 6.30 PM

CAT 2020 Slot-1 Analysis by Hitbulls eye
The biggest question on everybody’s mind was the number of questions and the answer is finally revealed. CAT 2020 had total 76 questions spread across 3 usual sections. In terms of pattern, structure and difficulty level, the exam may have been similar to previous CAT exams with slight variation in difficulty levels across sections.

Major Changes:

1. Total number of questions has been reduced to 76 in 2020 from 100 in 2019
2. Duration has been reduced to 2 hours from 3 in 2019
3. Difficulty Level: VARC – inclined towards difficult, DILR moderate to difficult, Quant comparatively easier 

Exam Structure and Pattern:
The paper consisted of three sections: namely, ‘Quantitative Aptitude (QA)’, ‘Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)’ and ‘Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)’, with 26, 24 and 26 questions, respectively. The order of the sections was fixed, with a sectional time limit of 40 minutes.

The sections contained the following segmentation for Slot I:

Section-wise Review

Verbal Ability Review: In terms of level of difficulty, the verbal section can be labelled as moderate to difficult. The accuracy will be the key to good score.

There were Four RC passages (each of 450-500 words) out of which two passages had 4 questions each and 2 passages had 5 questions. The break-up of other questions was Parajumbles - 3, Summary – 4 and odd one out 1. There were 4 TITA questions. There were no TITA questions in RC. Para jumbles and odd one out were all TITA questions. These questions were generally difficult.

The topics of passages were – 1)about changes in sound of elephant seal due to change in location, 2) currency system in china in early times such as silk bolt grains, 3) Anarchy and its meaning primarily in praise of it and 4) Role of knowledge of grammar in writing etc

Overall an attempt of 17-20 with high accuracy will fetch 99%ile

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning: As with this section last year, the section was most difficult. Surprisingly there were 5 sets. There were 2 sets of 6 questions each and 3 sets of 4 questions each. One set was from venn diagram, other was typical data reasoning sets with tables. Table set was lengthy but doable. Overall DI was the toughest section and doing all 6 sets would have wasted a lot of time time and hurt accuracy.

An attempt of 10-14 questions with good accuracy will fetch 99%ile

Quantitative Aptitude Review: The Quant section was moderately easier. Commercial maths and ratio based topics like percentage, profit & loss and others had the most number of questions. TSD also had a good share of questions. Geometry questions were lesser than the previous year. Algebra had mostly the same share, however there were no typical questions from number system like remainder etc. Overall the quant section was doable. However like last year the questions were time consuming even though the level of difficulty was not high.

An attempt of 14-18 questions with good accuracy level, will fetch 99%ile

Attempts & Expected Percentile Table along with B-Schools Cut-offs

Table – Morning Slot

It looks like a normalisation of around 5% may take place to make both the slots at the same level.

Source: The CAT 2020 slot-1 Analysis has been shared by HitBullseye, a prominent CAT preparation institute

CAT 2020 Slot-2 Analysis by HitBullsEye 

The Slot 2 of CAT 2020 was on similar lines with slight deviation in terms of difficulty level of VARC and Quant sections. The two sections were a 1 notch higher in terms of difficulty level compared to slot 1.  The slot 2 had total 76 questions spread across 3 usual sections.

Major Changes:

1. Total number of questions has been reduced to 76 in 2020 from 100 in 2019
2. Duration has been reduced to 2 hours from 3 in 2019
3. Difficulty Level (compared to Slot 1): VARC –moderate, DILR difficult, Quant moderate to difficult 

Exam Structure and Pattern:
The paper consisted of three sections: namely, ‘Quantitative Aptitude (QA)’, ‘Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)’ and ‘Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)’, with 26, 24 and 26 questions, respectively. The order of the sections was fixed, with a sectional time limit of 40 minutes.

The sections contained the following segmentation for Slot 2:

Attempts & Expected Percentile Table along with B-Schools Cut-offs

Table – Slot 2

Section-wise Review

Verbal Ability Review: In terms of level of difficulty, the verbal section was a level higher in term of compared to slot 1. The attempt and accuracy will be key things to watch out.

There were Four RC passages (each of 450-500 words) out of which two passages had 4 questions each and 2 passages had 5 questions. The break-up of other questions was Parajumbles - 3, Summary – 3 and odd one out - 2. There were 4 TITA questions. There were no TITA questions in RC. Para jumbles and odd one out were all TITA questions.

The keyword for passages were – 1) culture, 2) Piracy, 3) Renewable energy and 4) Aggression Overall an attempt of 16-19 with high accuracy will fetch 99%ile

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning: As with this section in the first slot, the section was most difficult. There were total 5 sets with 2 sets of 6 questions each and 3 sets of 4 question each. The topics of the sets were parking slots, sales figures, scheduling, arranging balls and voting. The two sets of 6 questions each were difficult and lot of students got stuck in an attempt to get the two sets right. This resulted in lot of good students reporting attempts of less than 12.

Overall DI was the toughest section and beginning with the 6 question sets would have put students on the back foot. Since set selection played a key role here, the students who got stuck with the difficult sets may miss the bus to IIMs with much lower attempts of even 6-8. An attempt of 12-15 questions with good accuracy will fetch 99%ile

Quantitative Aptitude Review: The Quant section was moderately difficult. Commercial maths and ratio based topics like percentage, profit & loss and others had around 12 questions. Algebra had 7 questions on topics like quadratic and linear equation, inequalities and APGP. There were 4 questions from Geometry & Mensuration and Modern Maths had 3 questions. Overall the quant section was moderate to difficult. The level of difficulty was higher even compared to 2019.

An attempt of 14-17 questions with good accuracy level, will fetch 99%ile It looks like a normalisation of around 5% may take place to make all the slots at the same level.

B-School Cut-offs
CAT scores are used as a primary screening tool by B-Schools for short listing candidates for the GD/ PI round. Apart from CAT percentile other factors which are taken in to account for generating calls include academic performance in 10^th/12^th, Graduation, duration of work experience. Normally, the cut offs for old IIMs are higher than those for new IIMs.

Previous Year CAT exam Analysis by Hitbullseye

CAT 2019 Comprehensive exam analysis by Hitbulls Eye

The general perception is that verbal was slightly difficult compared to last year, but DI and quant either same or marginally easier. There wasn’t much to differentiate between the two Slots with selective feedback on verbal and DI being slightly tougher in slot II. A marginal drop is expected in overall score for 99%ile compared to last year. In terms of overall pattern, structure and difficulty level, the exam was similar to the exam last year. Unlike the common beliefs, the CAT examiners seemed to focus on a candidate’s aptitude rather than testing student’s ability to handle a disruptive pattern.

Exam Structure and Pattern
The paper consisted of three sections: namely, ‘Quantitative Aptitude (QA)’, ‘Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)’ and ‘Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)’, with 34, 32 and 34 questions, respectively. The order of the sections was fixed, with a sectional time limit of 60 minutes.

The sections contained the following segmentation for Slot I:

The sections contained the following segmentation for Slot II:

Section-wise Review

Verbal Ability Review: Overall verbal ability in both slots will see a drop in cut-off of 6-8 marks

Slot I
In terms of level of difficulty, the verbal section can be labelled as easy to moderate. The accuracy will be the key to good score. As with the exam last year, the exam did not feature any question from Grammar and vocabulary. This effectively meant that the aspirants who were proficient in the topics that are reading-based would have been more comfortable in this section. There were Five RC passages (each of 350-400 words) out of which four passages had five questions each and the fifth had 4 questions. Other questions were from sentence rearrangement, para-jumbles and -summary. There were 7 TITA questions.

Slot II
In terms of level of difficulty, the verbal section can be labelled as moderate. The accuracy will be the key to good score along with selection of passages. One passage was considerably tough to understand. As with the exam last year, the exam did not feature any question from Grammar and vocabulary. This effectively meant that the aspirants who were proficient in the topics that are reading-based would have been more comfortable in this section. There were Five RC passages (each of 350-400 words) out of which four passages had five questions each and the fifth had 4 questions. Other questions were from sentence rearrangement, para-jumbles and -summary. There were 7 TITA questions.

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning: Overall the DILR in both slots will likely see similar cut off or marginal increase of 1-2 marks. The slot II may not see any gains.

Slot I
As with this section last year, the section was most difficult but moderately easier compared to last year. There were 8 sets of 4 questions each and 3 sets may be categorised as easy to moderate. In general students reported an attempt of 2-3 more questions compared to last year. There were 8 TITA in DI.

Slot II
The section was as difficult as last year and a notch above from slot 1 with a few tricky sets. Therefore the set selection was critical to success. One scattered graph set looked out rightly difficult, but was manageable in terms of calculation, one more set was easy while others were time consuming and  difficult. There were 8 sets of 4 questions each. There were 8 TITA in DI.

Quantitative Aptitude Review: Overall, the quant section will likely register similar cut-off or may be 1-2 marks higher

Slot I
The Quant section was quite similar compared to last year or may be moderately easier. The number of attempts was higher on average but accuracy will hold the key. There were 11 TITA questions.

Slot II
The Quant section was quite similar to first slot with general thought of it being slightly easier than last year. But it did seem calculation intensive. There were again 11 TITA questions.

Attempts & Expected Percentile Table along with B-Schools Cut-offs

Table – Morning Slot

Table – Evening Slot

It looks like a normalisation of around 5% may take place to keep both the slots at the same level of difficulty. 

B-School Cut-offs
CAT scores are used as a primary screening tool by B-Schools for short listing candidates for the GD/ PI round. Apart from CAT percentile other factors which are taken in to account for generating calls include academic performance in 10th, +2, Graduation, duration of work experience. Normally, the cut offs for old IIMs are higher than those for new IIMs.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2020