CAT 2024 exam preparation will require long terms planning and a good number of months. If you plan to appear for the CAT exam 2024, you should start preparation by March 2024. Check here key CAT preparation strategies for VARC, QA and DILR.
CAT 2024 preparation
Common Admission Test or CAT the gateway to IIMs and all other top MBA entrance exams in India is not easy to crack. The difficulty level is high and competition is tough. Lakhs of MBA aspirants appear for the CAT every year, but a very small bunch of them score 99 plus percentile, the ideal score to bag a seat at the IIMs. Understandably, one needs to prepare hard and smart. Most importantly, one needs to start CAT preparation early. A minimum of nine months are required to prepare for the CAT exam.
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There is a 90% more chance of getting best college recommendations by sharing preferences.If you are planning to appear in the CAT 2024, you need to start your preparation now. The CAT 2024 exam will be held on November 24, 2024 and if you start exam preparation from now, you will have ample time cover its vast syllabus and practice a good number of mock tests. Many candidates would have already enrolled for CAT 2024 coaching classes. So, decide now and start your CAT 2024 preparation.
Q: What is the CAT 2024 exam date?
The CAT exam is always conducted on the last Sunday of November every year so the CAT 2024 exam is expected to be conducted on Nov 24, 2024. Official announcement of the CAT 2024 exam date will be made by the convening IIM on Jul 30, 2024. The announcement will be made at the iimcat.ac.in website as well as in all the national dailies across India. We at Shiksha also notify the aspirants through our communication channels. Registrations cum application process for CAT 2024 will begin from the first week of August and end in the third week of September 2024.
Check below CAT exam dates for last five years:
- CAT 2023: November 26
- CAT 2022: November 27
- CAT 2021: November 28
- CAT 2020: November 29
- CAT 2019: November 24
Q: Will CAT exam 2024 also be conducted in three shifts?
Yes, the CAT 2024 exam will be conducted in three shifts. Until 2019, CAT was conducted in two shifts and the exam duration used to be 180 minutes. However, in 2020, the number of shifts were increased to three and exam duration was reduced to 120 minutes in order to follow the social distancing guidelines for COVID-19. Since the COVID-9 pandemic appropriate behaviour had to be followed at public places and gatherings, the examination authorities increased the number of exam slots to ensure a limited number of candidates can be accommodated at any exam centre in a given exam slot by following social distancing and seating arrangement with gap. Since then, the CAT is conducted in three shifts - morning, afternoon and evening. In CAT 2024 too, there will be three slots which will be allotted to applicants in no particular order. The CAT exam slot timings will be - 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM.
Q: What are the CAT exam slot timings?
CAT Syllabus 2024
Before starting CAT 2024 exam preparation, know the CAT syllabus and topics included. CAT syllabus includes Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning and Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension.
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| CAT Section |
Syllabus and Topics |
|---|---|
| Quantitative Aptitude |
Geometry, Algebra, Arithmetic, Mensuration, Trigonometry, Modern Math and their sub topics |
| Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning |
Data Structure, Data Sufficiency, Tables, Pie Charts, Graphs, Series, Coding-Decoding, Family Tree, Blood Relation, Seating Arrangement, Assumptions |
| Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension |
Reading Comprehension, Fill in the Blanks, Para Jumble, Para Completion, Vocabulary, Grammar |
CAT Sectional Break Up
In order to make a CAT 2024 preparation plan, you not only need to know your strong and weak areas with respect to CAT syllabus, but you also need to know the weightage of topics. Knowing which topic will have more questions will help you in making your study plan more focused. Given below is the sectional break-up of the latest CAT question paper (2023). This will give you an idea of which topics carry more weightage.
| CAT Sections |
Number of questions |
Topic wise break up |
Difficulty level |
|---|---|---|---|
| VARC |
24 |
4 passages having 4 questions each, 2 para jumble questions, 2 para summary questions, 2 para completion questions and 2 odd one out questions |
Moderate |
| DILR |
20 |
4 sets of 5 questions each |
Moderate to difficult |
| Quantitative Aptitude |
22 |
7 Algebra questions, 7 Arithmetic questions, 3 Geometry questions, 4 Number System questions, 1 Modern Maths questions
|
Difficult |
| Total |
66 |
-- |
-- |
Also Read:
How to Prepare for CAT 2024: Section wise Tips
CAT VARC Preparation: The VARC section is dominated by Reading Comprehension (RC) passages. Out of 24 questions, there are usually 14-16 questions on RC. Which means, your English comprehension should be strong. For that, start early. Start reading English novels, books, newspapers from now on and spend at least an hour every day reading. Keep a dictionary by your side and check the meaning of any new word or idiom that you come across. Keep making a note.
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Q: Which IIM will conduct CAT 2024 exam?
The top 6 Indian Institute of Management are given the responsibility to conduct the Common Admission Test exam. Each of the top Indian Institutes of Management conducts the exam rotation-wise after a gap of five years. The responsibility to conduct the CAT 2023 was given to IIM Lucknow. Professor Sanjeet Singh had been appointed as the CAT convener. For CAT 2024, IIM Calcutta will be the exam convening institute. IIM Calcutta will be responsible for preparation and conduct of the exam without glitches, in collaboration with TCS for test labs and centres. The institute will design the question papers, exam pattern and guidelines, as well as manage the conduct of exam and preparation of admit card, answer key and result.
CAT Conducting Indian Institute of Management Over the Years:
- 2023: IIM Lucknow
- 2022: IIM Bangalore
- 2021: IIM Ahmedabad
- 2020: IIM Indore
- 2019: IIM Kozhikode
- 2018: IIM Calcutta
- 2017: IIM Lucknow
- 2016: IIM Bangalore
- 2015: IIM Ahmedabad
- 2014: IIM Indore
- 2013: IIM Indore
- 2012: IIM Kozhikode
- 2011: IIM Calcutta
- 2010: IIM Lucknow
- 2009: IIM Ahmedabad
For more information, you may visit the Shiksha Common Admission Test page. (https://www.shiksha.com/mba/cat-exam). I hope this will help you.
Practicing sample RC passages is a useful way of preparing for CAT VARC. Since you will need to answer the questions in limited time, you will need develop speed reading. You will also need to develop the skill of finding answers from the passages quickly. This is possible only if you practice time bound VARC test prep.
CAT DILR Preparation: There are a total of 20 questions in DILR - 10 from Data Interpretation and 10 from Logical Reasoning. To prepare for this section of CAT exam, you will need to have a good analytical aptitude. DI is all about tables and bars, so will require mathematical calculations. Logical Reasoning, on the other hand is about puzzles and patterns which require logical deduction and keen observation. In this section too, practice is the key. Apart from strengthening your fundamentals, you will need to practice a lot. Get the best sample question series for CAT DILR and devote a good number of months on it.
CAT Quantitative Aptitude Preparation: This is the section, with the potential of 100 percentile. The topics included in CAT Quantitative Aptitude are advanced level Class 9 and 10 Mathematics, so it is not something completely new. For candidates from Engineering and Technical studies background, CA Quants will be a more familiar field, however, for candidates from non-Engineering background it could be a challenge. So, start with basics. Go back to NCERT Mathematics books for conceptual clarity. Then take up CAT books for Quantitative Aptitude. Again, the key here is practice. You need to practice a huge number of sample papers and mock tests to be quick in solving questions.
CAT Mock Test for Practice
Shiksha has created free CAT mock test for practice. CAT 2042 aspirants can try these to check their control on CAT topics and preparation level:
| CAT_Mock_Test_1 | CAT_Mock_Test_1_Solutions |
| CAT_Mock_Test_2 | CAT_Mock_Test_2_Solutions |
Read More:
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No, SKILL-CAT exam is not compulsory to get into MBA at Symbiosis Skills and Professional University. Candidates can also apply with a valid score of national-level examinations. The accepted entrance exams are CAT/MAT/SNAP/GMAT, etc. After shortlisting candidates based on exam scores, the universit
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Manipal University offers admission to several MBA courses via its affiliated college called TAPMI Manipal. The institute accepts several national-level entrance exams, such as CAT/ XAT/ CMAT, and NMAT, for admission to the MBA/PGDM courses. During the TAPMI Manipal MBA cutoff 2023, the CAT cutoff p
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Is SKILL-CAT compulsory for MBA at Symbiosis Skills and Professional University?