CAT 2016 Analysis

CAT 2016 Analysis for the exam conducted on last Sunday, December 4, 2016, are provided on this page along with the reviews of some aspiring candidates. Common Admission Test (CAT) is conducted every year for admission to various Post Graduation Management programs in IIMs and various other Indian universities and colleges. Over 2.37 lakh candidates appeared for the Common Admission Test CAT 2016, which was being conducted in two separate sessions across 138 cities of India. This year, IIM Bangalore was the organising body of CAT 2016. Get CAT 2016 Analysis (slot wise)  below this page.

The students appeared on the CAT exam has presented their point of view on the exam paper for the separate sessions. The feedback received from some of the students are given below, there were quite a few feasible questions across sections this year, as there was last year.

However, the number of tough questions seems to have gone up particularly with an increase in aspiring candidates and competition. The number of easy questions in the CAT Exam was in a good amount so the students feel that the section is not very tough. Although, many of the students have felt that the exam was tough and the presence of the difficult questions was more as compared to the easy questions. The feedback of some of the students on the question paper is given below:

• "The paper was really tough, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) part was the most difficult section," said Amit Sharma
• "There were some technical glitches as some of the options were not clearly visible," said Deepika Sharma
• "The paper was a little tricky and there was a shift from conventional pattern to analytical based," Manish

As it is already mentioned above that the CAT exam was held in two sessions. Triumphant Institute of Management Education Pvt. Ltd (T.I.M.E) gives the comprehensive analysis for the Slot 1 and Slot 2 for each subject are given below. The analysis provided below is released by T.I.M.E. 

CAT 2016 Slot 1 Analysis

The CAT exam held in the forenoon from 9.00 AM to 12.00 PM with no major changes and surprises for the candidates. The Indian Institutes of Management has repeated the same exam pattern i.e same terms in the number of question and same terms of the difficulty of the questions for different sections. There were major issues which were faced by the candidates, however, there were few glitches reported by the students which stated the automatic logging out of the systems which were resolved quickly by the invigilators present at the exam centres. - No Major Issues

• Section A : Verbal Ability and Comprehension Analysis
  •  Though the section was always expected to be lengthy and many aspirants have reported it to be difficult one but in actual the passages were interesting and of moderate difficulty but answers were way to close to each other that really made the overall section tougher.
    
  • With no negative marking and no answer choices , the para formation questions attracted and disappointed the students respectively. The questions were packed with extra difficulty and were the toughest of all the times.
• Section B : Quantitative Ability Analysis
  • There was 8 question in the section which was non-MCQ types and some of the questions to be considered good attempt were 19-20.
  • Geometry has dominated in this section as always and the difficulty level was upper moderate.
• Section C : Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning Analysis
  • Higher Difficulty level of DILR Section ruled it again and a heavy shockwave strikes the aspiring minds. There was a quality increment in the level of difficulty.
  • 14 to 16 questions were considered good attempt in this section.

CAT 2016 Slot 2 Analysis

The CAT Exam 2016 held in afternoon from 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM on December 4, 2016. The candidates taking the exam in this slot reported that the exam was much similar to the Slot 1 exam in terms of the number of questions and difficulty level of the sections. However, some students reported problems in some mathematical symbols not being displayed correctly in the test which led to the loss of time. Particularly this issue seems to have impacted a few test takers in the Forenoon slot as well. 

The test pattern which includes the number of questions and their difficulty level is given below:

• Section A : Verbal Ability and Comprehension Analysis
  • Easier to read RC Passages and easier understanding of passages, verbal ability might look easier to the students but in actual, they have same hidden difficulty of similar looking answers.
  • There is no negative marking in the Para Formation/Para Odd-man-out and Para summary, therefore it can save a fall for the students though the questions were not easier to crack.
• Section B : Quantitative Ability Analysis
  • There was 6 question in the section which was non-MCQ types and some of the questions to be considered good attempt were 18-20.
  • Similarly as in Slot-1 Geometry has again dominated in this section as always and the difficulty level was upper moderate.
  • few cases where the mathematical symbols could be interpreted incorrectly
• Section C : Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning Analysis
  • Higher Difficulty level of DILR Section ruled it again and a heavy shockwave strikes the aspiring minds. There was a quality increment in the level of difficulty.
  • 14 to 16 questions were considered good attempt in this section.

CAT 2016 Exam Pattern

 
There was a sectional time limit of 60 minutes. However, there was no sub-section tab to identify and categorise the LR and DI questions within the LRDI section. 

CAT 2016 Exam Pattern