Previous Year Questions and Solutions

This year, CAT is being conducted by IIM Calcutta under the guidance of Professor Ramya Tarakad Venkateswaran. IIM Calcutta has traditionally been viewed as favoring engineers, which often suggests a heavier emphasis on the QA (Quantitative Aptitude) section. However, according to a report by TOI, the institute has seen a notable shift in its student demographics, with a significant rise in the number of non-engineers and women in this year’s MBA intake. This suggests that there might not be a strict focus on certain topics or difficulty levels. Below are the past four years' question papers.

Here is the analysis of the last 10 years of CAT, detailing the topics and the number of questions asked from each.

VARC Questions asked per year- Topic wise

DILR Questions asked per year- Topic wise

QA Questions asked per year- Topic wise

Key Observation

For CAT 2024 preparation, focus on the following topics:

• VARC: Reading Comprehension (primary), Parajumbles, Parasummary (secondary)
• DILR: Arrangements (primary), Numerical Puzzles, Groups Condition, Reasoning-Based
• QA: Arithmetic (primary), Algebra, Geometry (secondary)

By concentrating on these areas, you can cover the majority of high-weightage topics across sections.

CAT 2024 Cutoff

For IIM Lucknow, the previous year's cutoff ranged from 60-90 depending on the category of students. Below is a table summarizing the minimum qualifying cut-offs at different IIMs for the general category:

If you're interested in knowing your chances of receiving calls from IIMs, it's important to understand the factors they consider when shortlisting candidates. These factors include your CAT score, academic background, work experience, and diversity. IIMs assign varying weight to each aspect, which can influence the final selection.

IIM Fees for MBA through CAT

The fees for MBA programs at IIMs can vary depending on the campus and category (General, OBC, SC/ST). Additionally, various IIMs offer scholarships to eligible students. For example, IIM Ahmedabad's fees can go up to INR 23-25 lakhs, whereas other newer IIMs might charge slightly less. Candidates belonging to OBC, SC, and other reserved categories can also apply for financial aid and scholarships, making the programs more accessible. Check Check MBA Fees for OBC, SC, General, Scholarship

CAT Result 2024

The results of the Common Admission Test 2024 examination are expected to be released in the second week of January 2025. Students need to visit the portal, iimcat.ac.in, and click on the result-checking link. Next, you must provide the user ID and password to view your final result. Previous year, 14 students secured the 100 percentile, and 29 students each secured the 99.99 and 99.98 percentiles respectively. Don't feel discouraged if your CAT score is low. There are still many colleges where you can secure admission and begin your MBA journey.

CAT 2024 Preparation Tips

“What are the strategies followed by toppers for the CAT exam?” is one of the common questions of aspirants. Previous year, 2.88 lakh out of 3.3 lakh students appeared for the exam. Every year students compete to grab 5500 seats, so the competition is high, and it is a prestigious MBA exam. Technically, only 5 months are left to prepare for the exam, but still, you can ace the exam if your strategy is effective:

• Allot yourself 3.5 hours each for all three sections of the CAT exam daily.
• Solving CAT mock tests and previous year questions is very important to get used to the weightage of questions, trends of questions, and understand the difficulty level.
• For Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, making a habit of reading different books, articles, and newspapers is important to make a strong command of vocabulary. You should learn to play with words. Read different comprehension passages, learn to skim important points, and try to solve questions with a timer set.
• Students weaker in Mathematics might find the Quantitative Aptitude section difficult. However, students should understand the concept as by doing it they can understand the fundamentals of Mathematics. The maximum number of questions appear from Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Mensuration; and hence must be focussed with special care.
• For Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, candidates must focus more on the previous year's questions. Check tough questions that came in the past few years. Check your favorite online coaching guide, or mentors on YouTube to cover the syllabus at a fast pace.

How to Crack CAT TITA Questions 2024: Tips and Tricks

TITA (Type In The Answer) questions in CAT do not carry negative marking, making them a key area for maximizing your score. Focus on understanding the concepts thoroughly, as these questions often require precision. Practice solving past papers to get familiar with the format and improve your speed. Avoid guesswork, and double-check your answers to ensure accuracy. For DILR and QA sections, work on quick mental calculations and logical deductions to tackle TITA questions effectively. Learn more strategies and practice TITA questions here

Tips to Score 99 Percentile in CAT 2024

Experts say that students should devote equal time to mock tests as they give to studying concepts. This makes sure that you are not only learning concepts but also practicing and analyzing your mistakes after that. That's why the CAT mock tests are very important for excelling in the real exam. CAT Mock Test 2024 provides self-confidence and a feel-good factor, which greatly helps you in the real exam.

Also read-

• CAT Toppers Strategies: Check Toppers Preparation Tips to Ace CAT 2023

Learning and Practicing

First, you need to learn concepts and topics, and then you can use our Topic-wise CAT Mock Test 2024 to strengthen your learning. Now that you have learned the concepts, you need to practice to make your concepts concrete and accustomed to the latest exam pattern.

For practicing, you can use our Full and Sectional CAT Mock Test 2024. Don’t forget to analyze your attempts after completing the Mock test, as it is the most important part of mock tests. For this purpose, we provide detailed solutions and an analysis of your strengths and weaknesses.

Attempts and Accuracy in CAT

Analyzing the above Marks vs. Percentile table, we see that if you attempt only 10 questions from each section correctly, you can easily get above the 99 percentile, which is only 30 out of 66 questions.

There are two major factors to focus on in a CAT mock test 2024, as shown in the figure above.

Attempt Rate: Number of questions you answered.

Accuracy Rate: Number of questions you answered correctly.

From the below table, you can get more than 90 marks in two ways.

100% Attempt with 60% Accuracy

50% Attempt with 100% Accuracy

Both of the ways mentioned above are difficult due to the difficulty of getting 100% accuracy or 100% paper attempt. So, you can find a middle way and aim for 80% accuracy and a 70% attempt rate to secure 98 marks, which are enough to secure above 99 percentile. Always remember CAT is all about picking the right questions.

Increase Attempts in CAT

If you left some questions without visiting them, you must spend time more carefully and practice more with the CAT mock test 2024. Ensure you don’t spend too much time on any question or section. Particularly in VARC and DILR, pick the set from a topic you are most comfortable with, but don’t spend much time on a difficult set. Again, CAT is all about picking the right questions. You don’t need to answer the complete paper. Practice as much as possible through our mock tests.

If you had seen and read the question, you might not have understood it or couldn’t have arrived at an answer despite trying to solve it. In both cases, you need to learn the concepts well and practice topic wise questions on them, for which you can use our free CAT mock test 2024.

Increase Accuracy in CAT

Analyze the time you spent on solving each question. Whether right or wrong, if you spend a lot of time, it's a wasted effort. Instead of spending too much time on difficult questions, look out for easy questions that are solvable in less time. It would make more sense and help you to improve your score.

• Eliminate Options: Increase your problem-solving speed by eliminating the least likely options first. This will quickly reduce the options so you can focus on the most probable answers.
• Strengthen Concepts: Ensure your fundamental concepts are clear and solid to tackle the questions more effectively and confidently.
• Timer for Each Question: Practice with a timer for each question and record the time to solve each. This will help you determine your average time per question and make a strategy to improve your speed.
• Analysis after Mock: After each mock test, review the questions and identify alternative and quicker methods to solve them.
• Solve Round Wise: Arrange questions based on your time to solve them. Start with the easier ones and then move on to the more challenging questions. After each mock test, review your question order to find the sequence that works best for you.