Hi everyone, here is the analysis of 2005 CAT exam held on
20/11/2005. If anyone from this forum has given the exam, please write your
views on this forum would
definitely help other future aspirants.
Wow. What a CAT!
After all the hype that this CAT generated, everyone was looking forward to
another
great CAT. The last two CATs have been lapped up by the media. It all started
with the first ever leak in CAT in Nov. 2003, and the heavy TRPs generated by
the leak
introduced the glamour quotient in CAT. And now this, just 90 questions! While
questions have been heading southward, no one expected a sub-100 number of
questions. What next?? Just 10 question in CAT? This, in our opinion, was not a
test for the weak hearted. Hole your hears, the cut-offs would not be very high.
List of surprises:
1. 60 two markers?????
2. Negative marking scheme declared.
3. Just 90 questions.
Looking at 90 questions only, it was obvious that the paper could not be easy,
and definitely not Verbal and RC. Anyway, let us get to business.
Section wise Analysis
Quantitative Section: The overall pattern was fairly interesting,
with 6-7 relatively easy questions in the 1 marker variety and another 6-7 in
the 2 markers. However, as most people would have spent more time on the two
markers, overall marks attempted would be on the higher side. We expect the
people to solve 24-25 marks worth of questions in 40 minutes, and get a score of
abut 20. 16-17 for a 98 plus percentile. 14–15 for a 93 plus percentile, which
would also be the cutoff for most IIMs. A score of around 12 would get you 85 +
percentile, which would be for calls from other B-schools.
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension:
What a VA and RC. Just 30 questions! It would make people feel that they would
attempt them all. But the answer options in RC were very close and some of the
verbal questions were unanswerable. A score of 25 + would be good. Most people
would attempt around 35-38 marks worth of questions and hence the cut-off is
likely to stand at last years level. Cut-off would be around 22 + and a score of
25 will be 98 plus percentile, and 22 at 93 percentile, sufficient for call from
the IIMs and a score of around 18 would give you a 85 plus percentile.
Data Interpretation: A blood bath must have ensued in DI. The ten
1-markers alone
would have taken 20 minutes to answer; as one of them was calculation intensive
(area under cultivation) and the other was very logical (average ages). If a
student answers these 10 and manages to attempt a few 2 markers, he would sail
through.
Our expectation is that the cut-off in DI would be very low. So a 15 would get
you 98
plus percentile, and 12 would get you a 92 plus percentile, which would be
sufficient for IIM cut-offs. A score of 10 would be required for 85 percentile.
Overall
It was not a great paper by any standards. A huge let-down. The IIMs could
have done much better. It was a very intimidating paper.
Overall Cut-offs
55 plus for all 6 IIM calls, given sectional cut-offs are met. 50 plus for
1-2 IIM calls, maybe more. This would correspond to 98 percentile. A score of
around 42-43 would be sufficient to get 90 percentile, and get calls from top
B-schools affiliated to CAT.
You can discuss this CAT exam and other MBA exams in
RxPG MBA forum which is
located here.
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