Last Updated on September 15, 2025
MBAUniverse.com News Desk
Many changes have been announced in CAT 2020 pattern, sectional time limit, test duration and sessions. With few days left to the CAT exam which is scheduled on November 29, 2020, aspirants are clueless how to prepare for CAT 2020 and what changes they should make in their strategy. To help them, MBAUniverse.com reached out to top CAT experts to get their guidance. Read this article how to prepare for CAT 2020 in 45 days
CAT 2020 will be a different exam from previous years in terms of test duration, testing sessions, sectional time limit, number of questions while keeping the social distancing norms on November 29, 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic. The exam may throw a few surprises as the exam pattern is changed and candidates can see different type of questions in CAT 2020.
IIM Indore has announced many important changes in CAT 2020 Exam pattern in late evening on September 15, out of them a few were updated on CAT 2020 website on September 20, while others, like changes in total number of questions, sectional composition of questions, ratio of MCQs and Non-MCQs are not yet officially known.
Now, the CAT aspirants are anxious to know how to prepare for CAT 2020 exam in 45 days in changed pattern; whether they need to change their preparation strategy or should move on as they were preparing. MBAUniverse.com has approached top CAT experts in India and will share the tips and guidance from them on CAT preparation strategy for next 45 days. But, before coming to guidance & tips on how to prepare for CAT in 45 days in changed pattern from top experts, let’s know what are the key changes introduced in the structure, time and sessions in CAT 2020 exam.
CAT 2020 Exam Pattern: Important Changes
IIM Indore, which is conducting CAT 2020, has announced following key changes in CAT exam pattern, duration and testing slots:
1. CAT 2020: Exam in Three Sessions –Morning, Afternoon & Evening
CAT 2020 will be conducted on November 29, 2020 (Sunday) in three sessions. Earlier CAT was to be conducted in two sessions.
2. Exam Duration Reduced to 2 Hrs
A big change in CAT 2020 is the revised duration of the test which will be 120 minutes. Experts expect a fall of 25% to 30% questions in CAT 2020.
3. Section wise time limit reduced to 40 Minutes
Candidates will be allotted only 40 minutes for answering questions in each section as against 60 minutes earlier.
4. CAT 2020 Exam to have Three Sections
Why you need to Change your CAT Preparation Plan? Check below
The change in CAT pattern 2020, with little knowledge about exact CAT structure, has put the candidates off guard in their preparation strategy. Exploring the idea on how to become a 99 percentiler in CAT in 45 days with a changed strategy, they remain clueless. Many candidates who were well aware with the strategy – how to prepare for CAT 2020 without coaching are now looking for top CAT experts to get guidance on how to prepare for CAT 2020 in changed pattern.
As the number of questions, difficulty level in CAT 2020 is not known, the exam pattern may or may not change much. First you need to know experts’ opinion on expected changes in number of questions and their difficulty level accordingly to which you need to change your CAT 2020 preparation strategy.
Experts are of the view that if you are aware about the expected number of total questions, changes in difficulty level in CAT 2020, it would help you to plan your CAT preparation & Mock taking strategy as per the actual exam pattern. It would also help you to devise your test taking strategy, how many questions to target, what should be maximum number of questions that you can skip.
How to Prepare for CAT 2020 in 45 days? MBAUniverse.com asked top experts..
To help the CAT aspirants in their CAT preparation, MBAUniverse.com reached out to top experts in India on CAT preparation with the query – how to prepare for CAT in 45-60 days? The CAT experts are very positive regarding the changed CAT exam pattern and feel that it is good for the CAT aspirants and suggest some changes in CAT preparation strategy in coming days.
CAT 2020 Preparation Plan by Arks Srinivas, National Head MBA Prep at CL
Arks Srinivas, IIM Calcutta alumnus & National Head MBA Prep, (India & Abroad) at Career Launcher, expects 25% fall in number of questions across the sections. Besides, their division in MCQs and Non-MCQs in each section is also expected to be reduced. In his view, the revised CAT question paper is likely to be as under:
Section | Time Limit (in minutes) | No of Questions (Expected) |
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension | 40 | 25 – 26 |
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning | 40 | 25 – 24 |
Quantitative Ability | 40 | 25 - 26 |
Total | 120 | 75 |
Source: Arks Srinivas, CL
CAT Preparation Strategy in changed pattern
Analysing the changes in CAT 2020, Arks Srinivas anticipates that the change may have positive impact on preparation. According to him:
So, you should devise your CAT Preparation Strategy as under:
CAT Preparation Strategy by Nishit Sinha, IIM Lucknow alumnus, Author of bestselling CAT books published by Pearson
After making an indepth analysis of revised CAT pattern 2020, Nishit Sinha, IIM Lucknow alumnus, Author of bestselling CAT books, advises CAT aspirants to identify their strong, not-so-strong and weak areas and suggests the preparation strategy for each of them. Besides, he wants the prospective test takers to develop a reliable test taking strategy and reduce the gap between potential and performance.
Your CAT preparation strategy, according to Nishit should be as below:
Create a Conceptual Comfort Map
By now, CAT aspirants should be in a position to identify their strong areas, not-so-strong areas, and weak areas across the sections. One may use the following metric to identify these areas:
Keep in mind that atleast one high-value concept in the Quantitative Aptitude section should be a strong area.
2. Identify Possible Areas to Widen the Attempts
Out of the not-so-strong areas, depending upon an individual’s comfort level, one may identify few areas which might be catapulted into strong areas. It is achievable through identifying the bottleneck, which may be owing to (a) lack of conceptual clarity, or/and (b) deficient practice upon typical questions, inter alia.
The suggested course of action is to follow any standard material, learn the concepts, solve the questions from the material as well as previous years CAT question papers. I would suggest NOT to venture into investing time in ‘weak areas.’
3. Develop a Reliable Test-Taking Strategy
With the new pattern announced by CAT 2020 committee, aspirants must gain enough exposure to the new test pattern. Over the period, develop a reliable test-taking strategy, follow the dual-round process of attempting the section, keeping in mind a minimum accuracy percentage across sections. The desired accuracy percentage may vary among the three sections following one’s comfort level.
4. Reduce the Gap Between Potential and Performance
Analyze the MOCKs to identify the gap between possible marks that one could have obtained within the same time-limit (POTENTIAL) and actual marks obtained (PERFORMANCE). Though achieving 100% of the potential is the ideal case scenario, in any case, the marks obtained should not be less than 80% of the potential. The possible reasons for the gap between potential and performance could be one or more out of the following: (a) not being able to identify the relevant questions, (b) ineptitude to attempt the questions as per questions’ hierarchy of difficulty level, (c) silly mistakes committed, (d) getting ‘emotionally attached’ to any question. Especially in the LRDI section and Reading Comprehension area, one should have the clarity in mind that which set/passage I am going to attempt? In the case of NOT being able to proceed ahead with the confidence of cracking the set/passage, one should quit the set/passage within 2-3 minutes. Do not behave like the proverbial frog-in-the-pan !!
Hope above tips by Arks Srinivas, Nishit Sinha were useful! MBAUniverse.com will be publishing CAT 2020 preparation strategy by following experts very soon:
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2020