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CAT guidance: how the paper is cracked, from your own numbers
Common Admission Test — MBA/PGDM admission to the 22 IIMs and 1,000+ B-schools. Conducted by Indian Institutes of Management (convenor IIM rotates each year). Aditi knows this paper from the site's own pattern pages — and reads your scores, your mocks and what you haven't touched before saying a word.
CAT guidance · Plan my weeksAditi · AI guide · has read your profile
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On the table
Carries the marks · Verbal Ability & Reading ComprehensionReading ComprehensionQs in paper 14–15 Open the chapter
The paper · CAT68 questions, 204 marksWrong answers cost marks
Aditi“Before we plan anything: when do you sit CAT, and how many hours a day do you really have?”
Talk TypeEnd & get my plan06:12
Ends in a plan
Stages
3
The paper
68 questions, 204 marks
Marking
Wrong answers cost marks
Your guide
Aditi, free
How it's decided
CAT, stage by stage
Once a year (registration ~August–mid September; exam last Sunday of November, three slots in a day). Computer-based, sectional-locked — 20 MCQ + 4 TITA in VARC, 14 MCQ + 8 TITA in DILR, 15 MCQ + 7 TITA in QA. A basic on-screen calculator is provided for QA and DILR..
CAT examOverall and sectional percentiles
120 minutes, 68 questions, 204 marks, three sections each sectional-locked at 40 minutes. +3 for a correct MCQ, −1 for a wrong one; TITA questions carry no negative marking. Your raw score is normalised across slots into an overall percentile and three sectional percentiles.
IIM-wise shortlistingCall for WAT-PI
Each IIM sets its own shortlisting formula — typically a minimum overall percentile plus separate sectional percentile floors, weighted together with class 10/12 marks, graduation marks, gender diversity and academic-discipline diversity. The weights differ IIM to IIM, so the same CAT score can clear one IIM's cut-off and miss another's.
WAT-PI (and GD at a few schools)Final composite score
Shortlisted candidates sit a Written Ability Test and a Personal Interview (a handful of schools retain a Group Discussion). Final admission offers combine the CAT percentile, WAT-PI score, academic profile and work experience in a composite formula each IIM publishes separately.
The paper
What you sit, and how it is marked
CAT — VARC, DILR, QA, one sitting
68 questions204 marks120 minNegative marking
Merit — feeds every IIM's own shortlisting formula
Marking: −1 per wrong MCQ; TITA (type-in-the-answer) questions carry NO negative marking
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension24 Q · 72 marks · 40 minData Interpretation & Logical Reasoning22 Q · 66 marks · 40 minQuantitative Ability22 Q · 66 marks · 40 min
Three sections, fixed order VARC → DILR → QA, each locked to exactly 40 minutes with no movement between sections and no returning to a closed one. A basic on-screen calculator is provided for DILR and QA (not for mental-arithmetic-only purists) but does not replace estimation speed under the clock.
Where the marks come from
Where your 204 marks come from
CAT is a single 120-minute, computer-based test split into three sections, each separately timed at 40 minutes with a hard sectional lock — once a section's clock runs out you cannot return to it, even if time remains unused elsewhere. Every correct MCQ scores +3 and every wrong MCQ costs −1; the TITA (type-in-the-answer) questions scattered through all three sections carry no negative marking at all.
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension72 marks · 35%
24 questions, 20 MCQ + 4 TITA. Reading Comprehension alone is roughly 60% of this section — 4 passages of 4-6 questions each — so passage-reading speed decides the section more than any single technique.
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning66 marks · 32%
22 questions, 14 MCQ + 8 TITA, almost always structured as sets — 4-6 questions sharing one table, chart or logic puzzle. Choosing which 2-3 sets to attempt out of 4-5 offered is the actual skill being tested.
Quantitative Ability66 marks · 32%
22 questions, 15 MCQ + 7 TITA. Arithmetic alone is the single largest QA topic — heavier than Algebra, Geometry, Number System and Modern Maths combined in some years' analyses.
What changed this cycle
Things last year's advice gets wrong
Sectional lock is the single most consequential structural fact: each of the 3 sections gets exactly 40 minutes, you cannot move between sections, and you cannot revisit a section once its timer ends — a fast VARC does not buy DILR extra time.
TITA (type-in-the-answer) questions carry zero negative marking, unlike MCQs in the same section, which lose −1 for a wrong answer. Attempt every TITA you can even partially solve; never leave a confident MCQ guess for a TITA slot instead.
CAT runs in multiple slots on exam day (morning/afternoon/evening), so raw scores are statistically normalised across slots before being converted to a percentile — your percentile reflects relative performance within your slot's difficulty, not a fixed raw-score table.
Most IIMs apply sectional percentile cut-offs, not just an overall cut-off — scoring very high in QA cannot compensate for a weak VARC if that IIM sets a separate VARC floor. Check each target IIM's own criteria rather than assuming a single overall number decides shortlisting.
The chapters that carry the marks
Where a plan for CAT usually starts
The highest-weight chapters in each subject, linked to their notes. Weights are estimates from previous papers where the conducting body publishes none. Your guide weighs these against your own scores.
CAT, XAT, CLAT and CUET: selection over speed, and reading the paper before it reads you. Pick one to start, or just talk — Aditi has read your profile either way.
1. CAT exam — Overall and sectional percentiles. 2. IIM-wise shortlisting — Call for WAT-PI. 3. WAT-PI (and GD at a few schools) — Final composite score.
How is the CAT paper marked?
CAT — VARC, DILR, QA, one sitting: 68 questions, 204 marks, 120 min (40 min per section, sectional-locked). Marking: −1 per wrong MCQ; TITA (type-in-the-answer) questions carry NO negative marking
Is there negative marking in CAT?
Yes. −1 per wrong MCQ; TITA (type-in-the-answer) questions carry NO negative marking
What decides the final merit in CAT?
CAT is a single 120-minute, computer-based test split into three sections, each separately timed at 40 minutes with a hard sectional lock — once a section's clock runs out you cannot return to it, even if time remains unused elsewhere. Every correct MCQ scores +3 and every wrong MCQ costs −1; the TITA (type-in-the-answer) questions scattered through all three sections carry no negative marking at all. Your raw score is then normalised across exam slots into a percentile, since CAT runs in multiple sessions on exam day.
What has changed in CAT recently?
Sectional lock is the single most consequential structural fact: each of the 3 sections gets exactly 40 minutes, you cannot move between sections, and you cannot revisit a section once its timer ends — a fast VARC does not buy DILR extra time.
What does the CAT guide know about me?
Only what you have done on the site: your scores by subject and chapter for CAT, what you have never been tested on, the kinds of mistake you make across topics, your mocks, your projected score, your error book, your last two weeks and your goals. You can open the exact page Aditi reads before you start.
Is it free?
Talking to Aditi, the AI guide, is free — up to four talks a day. Real guides who have cleared or teach CAT set their own prices, and many offer a free call or a short demo.
Every fact on this page comes from the exam's blueprint on this site. How the guide uses it: how Guidance works.
