CAT — Written Ability Test
The percentile gets the call; the WAT and the interview convert it. Every IIM runs its own version, but the demand is constant: take a position on a contested statement, weigh the other side honestly, and land somewhere defensible.
Read the statement below and present your view. You will be asked to defend your position in the interview that follows.
- Efficiency and equity are not opposites; treating them as such is a failure of imagination. Take a position.(300 words)
One CAT WAT answer, from question to marked report
A real question, an attempt with the weaknesses a real attempt has, and the report an AI examiner hands back — in the marking unit CAT WAT genuinely uses. This is the whole product; there is nothing else to sign up for.
Scoped to the paper and topic you pick, at the marks it is genuinely set at.
Efficiency and equity are not opposites; treating them as such is a failure of imagination. Take a position in about 300 words.
Type it, dictate it, or write on paper and photograph the page — your handwriting is read.
Photographed, read, and marked in red — every criterion scored down the right margin and the omissions written in.
Efficiency and equity are often seen as opposite goals. Efficiency means getting maximum output from resources while equity means fair distribution. Many economists believe there is a trade-off between them.? For example subsidies may reduce efficiency. However there are also examples where both go together. Education and health spending improve equity and also increase productivity. Therefore I believe they are not always opposites and policy should try to achieve both. The trade off is usually explained through taxation. A tax raised to fund a transfer reduces the incentive to work or to invest, and part of the money is spent on administration before it reaches anybody. This is why many people argue that the cake should first be grown and only then divided. The argument sounds practical and it has shaped policy for a long time. But it assumes that the two goals are measured over the same period, and they are not. Efficiency is judged in the short run while the return from equity appears over a generation. A child who is healthy and in school becomes a more productive worker, and a worker who is not afraid of losing everything is willing to take a risk. Markets themselves work better when more people can take part in them, because ability is spread across the whole population and not only among those who can already afford to develop it.
- The position in the opening lines — panels read the first and last paragraphs hardest
- One concrete case: mid-day meals and school attendance, or land titling and credit access
- The strongest counter-argument stated at its strongest before being answered
Model answer for this question
Line one states the position. Paragraph two concedes the strongest version of the trade-off, so the panel sees you understood it. Paragraph three carries the argument with one developed example where the two reinforce each other. Paragraph four names the condition under which the reconciliation holds and where it does not. Close by restating the position with the qualification attached — never with a summary.
Photograph the page from your phone and the Studio reads your handwriting — the only way to practise the speed and layout the paper actually tests.
Fast enough to write, read the report and rewrite the same answer in one sitting — which is where the improvement actually comes from.
The scoring behind those pen marks: every criterion, what it was worth, what you earned, and a model answer.
The position appears in the final sentence. In a 300-word WAT it belongs in the first three lines.
The trade-off view is acknowledged but not seriously tested before being set aside.
Categories rather than examples. One concrete case would outweigh three abstractions.
Well ordered, but a third of the words go on defining terms the panel already knows.
CAT WAT at a glance
| Conducting body | The Indian Institutes of Management (institute-wise) |
|---|---|
| Mode | Handwritten or typed, depending on the institute |
| Papers | 1 |
| Marking | CAT WAT — examiner criteria |
What CAT WAT sets
The papers you sit, and what each is worth.
Typically 20-30 minutes for around 300 words, on a policy, business or abstract prompt.
- Marked to the CAT WAT scheme
- Model answer, every time
- Handwriting read from a photo
- AI viva on any topic
- Full timed papers
- Every attempt kept in your archive
- WriteA question, answered and marked.
- VivaQuestioned on Is AI a net job creator? and more.
- Full paperA timed paper, one scorecard.