CAT 2019 Analysis by Career Launcher: Slot 1 and Slot 2

CAT 2019 Analysis by Career Launcher -  The question paper was of moderate difficulty. The exam was conducted today in two sessions at various centers in 156 cities across India. Here’s the CAT 2019 analysis by Career Launcher (Gautam Bawa, Vice-President)

CAT 2019 was held today in two sessions - Slot 1 an Slot 2. The question paper was of moderate difficulty with Quant section being lengthy. Experts at Career Launcher were of opinion that, CAT 2019 did not throw any surprises in terms of test structure. The CAT question paper was slightly easier than last year. VARC was slightly trickier this year with 2 passages on the difficult side. DILR and Quant sections were also slightly easier than last year. An overall raw score of around 157-160 should fetch 99%ile in CAT 2019.

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CAT 2019 Analysis: Slot 1

CAT 2019 did not throw any surprises in paper format. In terms of level of difficulty, VARC was slightly trickier this year, with two passages on the difficult side. Expect the cutoff in VARC to decrease by about 6 - 8 marks. Both DILR and Quant were slightly easier than last year. Overall, the paper was slightly less difficult, as compared to CAT 2018. An overall raw score of around 157-160 should fetch a 99%ile in CAT 2019.

The overall structure of the CAT paper was as follows:

Section	No. of Questions	No. of Non-MCQ Questions	Difficulty Level	Attempts for 95%ile	Attempts for 99%ile
VARC	34	7	Moderate - Difficult	23 - 25	26 – 28
DILR	32	8	Easy - Moderate	14 – 16	18 – 20
QA	34	11	Easy - Moderate	18 – 20	24 – 26
Total	100	26	~ 60	~ 65	-

CAT 2019 Analysis: Section-wise

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

The VARC section was of moderate difficulty level. However, the pattern was the same as that of the previous year. There were 34 questions, with 10 Non-MCQ questions.

There were five passages. One had four questions (the passage on Emperor Penguins) while the rest had five questions each. The topics of the remaining RC passages were from varied areas. While some were easy to read, few were tedious and had confusing answer options. There were quite a few inference-based questions; and most of these had tricky answer options. However, a student should have followed the POE (process of elimination) to be able to achieve a decent accuracy rate, as the options were not straightforward. The 10 TITA questions were also of slightly higher difficulty level than last year. The para jumble questions were of moderate difficulty level, with some challenges regarding the sequencing of the opening lines. The summary questions were relatively easier; and focused on academics and marketing/advertising. However, the options were not difficult, and one could eliminate 1-2 options easily. The questions on odd-one-out were relatively easy.

The RC passages were undoubtedly trickier than that of last year’s CAT paper due to the following:

1.Trickier question types: One would encounter questions like “Which of the following if TRUE, will strengthen the argument of the author the least” and “Which of the following will not cause the inversion referred to in the ‘flipping the script’”. The students would have spent quite some time trying to understand what they are required to think about.

2.Close options: RC passages, like the one on the origins of the Aladdin story and on ‘folk culture’ had options which were extremely close to each other. This would have definitely reduced the speed of the student.

Expect the cutoff of VARC to drop by about 8-10 marks, which is about 2-3 questions lesser than last year.

Surprises: Contrary to popular speculation, the paper structure was a replica of that of last year.

An attempt of 23 - 25 would be considered good in this section for a 95%ile. However, accuracy level will be an issue.

Area	Topic	No. of Questions	Description
Reading Comprehension (24 Questions)	Reading Comprehension	24	There were 5 passages – All of them had similar word limit (around 550-600 words each). The passage on Emperor Penguins had four questions; and was slightly easy to read, with simple questions. The passage on British Folk music was tedious to read; and the options were confusing, as well. The passage on Aladdin, though easy to read, had a lot of inference-based questions, with some close options. Of the remaining two passages, the one on Topophilia was of slightly higher difficulty level, with questions that had close options. The one on Online Shopping was easy to read and solve. Overall, the paper was moderate- difficult. One could attempt 15-16 questions with 85% accuracy.

Break-up of RCs passages:

Passages	Understanding	Attempts
Emperor Penguins	Easy	Easy
Aladdin	Easy	Difficult
Topophilia	Moderate – Difficult	Moderate – Difficult
Online Marketing	Easy	Easy
British Folk	Moderate – Difficult	Moderate

The VA questions were of the following types:

Section	Passages	Easy	Moderate	Difficult	Total
Verbal Ability (10 Questions)	Para Summary	2	–	1	3
	Odd Sentence	2	–	1	3
	Para Jumbles	1	1	2	4

Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning

DILR was easier, as compared to last year. About 3 sets, more specifically the ones about different types of gifts in 100 boxes, the 12 different junctions, and summation of two 6-digit numbers, were easy; and should have surely been attempted. Another set, which was a horizontal bar chart on the different types of crimes in different states, was also easy; and would not have taken more than 5-10 minutes to solve. It was good to see a new chart type, i.e. the radar graph, making its way to the CAT 2019 slot 1 paper (the image here shows what a radar chart looks like). In this set, different Vendors were ranked on features like Customer Service, Cost, Reliability, etc. This straightforward set required you to solve questions as simple as finding the best vendor on the basis of the average of scores on each of the features.

Section	Topic	No. of Questions	Doable
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning	Crime Rate across States	4	4
	Rating of Vendors (Radar Graph)	4	4
	Tournament – Shooting Bullseye	4	3
	Dancers and Choreographers	4	3
	Summation of Two 6-Digit Numbers	4	3
	100 Boxes of Gifts	4	4
	12 Junctions	4	2
	Arrangement of Books on Shelves	4	3

The cut-off for DILR is expected to increase by about 7-9 marks from last year, which is about 2-3 questions extra from CAT 2018.

Quantitative Ability

QA was also slightly easier than last year. You could have found more sitters this time round than in CAT 2018. The paper had a good number of questions on Arithmetic from topics like Percentages, TSD, Time and Work, etc. Among Algebra, Geometry, and Numbers, the paper had more questions on Algebra and Geometry than on Numbers.

Section	Topic	No. of Questions	Doable
Quantitative Ability	Number System	2	1
	Algebra	13	7 – 8
	Arithmetic	14	6 – 7
	Modern Math	1	1
	Geometry and Mensuration	4	1 – 2

The cutoff for QA is expected to increase by about 5-7 marks from last year, which is about 1-2 questions extra from CAT 2018.

CAT 2019, Slot 1: Expected Scores for 99 percentile

Section	Score	Percentile
VARC	65-67	99 percentile
DILR	48-50	99 percentile
Quant	55-58	99 percentile

CAT 2019 Analysis: Slot 2

• The slot 2 question paper of CAT 2019 was on the expected lines; same as slot 1
• The Verbal Ability questions of VARC section were a little bit easier than that of slot 1
• The Reading Comprehension section was tougher than slot 1
• The DILR section had easy sets. LR were more difficult than the first slot but easier compared to CAT 2018 question paper
• The QA section was a pleasant surprise to all the candidates. There were a lot of questions from Arithmetic and none of them were tough

CAT 2019, Slot 2: Expected Scores for 99 percentile

Section	Score	Percentile
VARC	58-60	99 percentile
DILR	45-46	99 percentile
Quant	60	99 percentile
Overall	155-157	99 percentile

Please Note: All information on analysis and scores are based on the accuracy of attempts provided by you, as well as independent analysis and evaluation made by the Career Launcher Academic Team. We do not take responsibility for any decision that might be taken, based on this information.

CAT 2019: Student Reactions & Reviews

About the Expert:

Gautam Bawa is an MBA expert and Vice President of Career Launcher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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