CAT- Expected Cut-off Marks

So after weeks and months of preparation, the D-day came and went leaving behind many hopes and crushed aspirations. Imagine the number; 2.70 lakhs! So, now all said and done students must be waiting for cut-off marks. Those who are quite confident of their results must have already started to prepare for GD and PI. But before that lets check out the anticipated cut-off marks of various institutes and colleges.

Institute Name -----> Test Exam ----> Anticipated Cut-off Marks
IIM Ahmedabad---> CAT----> 99.3
IIM Bangalore ---->CAT ----> 98+
IIM Calcutta ----> CAT ----> 98.96
IIM Lucknow ----> CAT ----> 98+
Indian School of Business ----> GMAT ----> 690+ (SCORE)
Xavier Labour Relations Institute ----> XAT ----> 98.5 & PM&IR- 97.5
Faculty of Management Studies ----> FMS ----> 92+
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade ----> IIFT ----> 92+
IIM Kozhikode ----> CAT ----> 98
IIM Indore ----> CAT ----> 85
Institute of Rural Management Anand IRMA ----> 95+
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies ---->MH CET----> 183(Score)
Management Development Institute ---->CAT----> 95+
National Institute of Industrial Engineering ---->CAT ---->92 – 95
S P Jain Institute of Management & Research ---->CAT / XAT/ GMAT----> 85 / 680
Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Powai ---->JMET----> Up to 400 (Rank)
T A Pai Management Institute ---->CAT/GMAT ----> 88/650
Tata Institute of Social Sciences ---->TISS----> 43 marks
Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneshwar ---->XAT----> 96.21
Bharathidasan Institute of Management ---->CAT----> 95
Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi ---->JMET----> 401-850 (Rank)
Goa Institute of Management ---->XAT----> 90.01
Institute of Management Technology ---->CAT----> 96
K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research---->CAT/CET ---->96.35 / 171(Score)
Loyola Institute of Business Administration ---->XAT----> 90+
Mudra Institute of Communication Ahmedabad ---->CAT / GMAT----> 90
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies ---->NMAT----> 95+
Praxis Business School ---->CAT / XAT / GMAT ---->No cut-offs*
Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource----> SNAP----> 89 (Score)approx
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management----> SNAP ---->85 (Score)approx
University Business School ---->CAT----> 85+
Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur----> JMET----> 851-1400 (Rank)

CAT 2008 Examination Analysis

The CAT examination has a tendency of surprising students all these years. CAT 2008 was no exception. This year, total number of questions increased by 20 percent. What caught students’ off-guard was added emphasis on verbal section. That also means, weightage of verbal section was almost 45 percent resulting mainly from 40 percent increases in verbal questions. Students with adequate vocab knowledge and grammatical efficiency must have relished the surprise. RC (Reading comprehension) also had five questions per passage. Last year, it was three questions per passage. That way, verbal section became lengthier but it was also quite manageable. Coming to Quant and DI sections, there were not many surprises except few question patterns based on the previous CAT exams.

Students needed to apply unconventional methods including substitution method and numerous options to answer questions of DI and Quant sections. There were also several question formats and styles quite similar to previous CAT exams and it was also anticipated to some extent. So that must have helped students while handling these questions. DI was definitely tough whereas Quant was manageable for well prepared students.

According to experts, CAT paper was of reasonable complexity level. Because of more choices in English section, paper was also considered balanced. Total number of questions was 90 compared to 75 questions last year. DI and Quant had 25 questions each whereas Verbal section contributed 40 questions. Expected cut-off is 125-128 from IIMs.

Section wise expected cut-off marks are;
Verbal- 45-49
DI- 27-30 and
Quant- 30-33

CAT Trends

CAT has seen many changes over the years. It used to be a 120 minutes exam prior to 2006. In the mid-nineties, students were supposed to spend equal time on each of the section but 2006 onwards, students were allowed 150 minutes. The prime reason behind that change was increasingly high level of questions and fewer questions. With increased time duration, candidates’ candidates could focus better on difficult questions. That also implied that, speed was no more the most important factor.

With changing time, marks assigned to each question have also changed. The normal rule was assigning equal weightage to each mark whereas some other time, questions carried different marks depending upon their easiness and difficulty level. But since last two year, each question carried four marks. Another significant change was seen in terms of number of choices each question had. Before 2006, each question had four answer choices but since 2006, all the questions carry five choices. This has managed to increase the difficulty level a bit.

IIMs have never revealed about negative marking scheme and cut-off marks. So that makes it difficult to check about these things. But in 2005, negative marking scheme was revealed for the first time. IIMs have followed negative marking scheme; sometimes its one-third for every wrong answer and some other time, 25 per cent of the weight of a correct answer. With CAT paper being done today, students are expected to prepare for all the surprises. Competition is definitely tough with more than 2.5 Lakhs students vying for 1600 seats of IIMs. Wishing all the students good luck.

Changing Pattern of CAT

The much anticipated D-Day is round the corner. The Common Admission Test (CAT) is one of the toughest management entrance examinations in the world but at the same time, it opens a world of wonderful opportunities for the successful candidates. The difficulty level of this exam can be gauged from the fact that only one percent of total appearing candidates manage to get through the prestigious IIMs. CAT is very unpredictable by nature. The reason behind that unpredictability can be credited to the fact that, students need to prepare themselves for encounter surprise situations and changeable business environment.

Students should be prepared to face unpredictability element in form of number of questions, scoring pattern, sections, negative marking, test duration of the test and questions pattern. CAT question paper has kept on changing with changing times. If we go back to 90s, we will see that, exam paper was quite long with 4 sections and almost 180 questions in it. The four sections were, Quantitative Ability, Reading Comprehension, Verbal Ability, and Data Interpretation. In subsequent years, the sections were reduced to three and number of questions 165.

By the year 2004, the number of questions was reduced even further to 123, 90 in 2005 and 75 in 2006. By changing number of questions, students were made to prepare thoroughly. This also implied that, now onwards, no questions were easy and students couldn’t afford to ignore any particular section. This change also made sure that, candidates would be preparing hard and attempt each question seriously. The implication of such a reduction was that students could no longer afford to leave any area out of their preparation nor could one find 'easy' questions to answer by searching through the paper. A paper with a lower number of questions obviously reduces choice that students have and would play into the hands of those who prepare really well and have left no stone unturned in their quest for excellence.

Data Interpretation: Strategies

Almost all of us read the newspapers and magazines on a daily basis. While going through them, we often come across some data presented in the form of charts, bars, pie-charts and other diagrams. One of the most relevant examples is movement of the sensex of the BSE or NIFTY chart over a period of time. These are often represented by a line diagram. Now, students with regular practice of DI can easily make out the movement of the sensex depicting from the chart. It will almost always easy for him to tell accurately which day of the week saw maximum gain or loss.

In the same way, inflation index or cricket statistics or the rise in price levels are also depicted in chart or diagram format. It will be fun to draw your own consluions based on charts without even looking at the text written below.

Other method could be mental calculations. Whether you are filling up petrol or counting numbers written on the number plates of vehicles or buying vegetables or analyzing price movement of a particular share, one should use mental mathematics and revise percentages and approximations. Candidates with strong interest in cricket can also use that mental mathematics for calculating run rate, over rate or strike rate.

While preparing for Data Interpretations, candidates should also focus on learning square roots and cube roots of numbers upto 10. Then, knowing reciprocals and percentages of numbers upto 20 is also a must. Similarly, one should also be familiar with squares of numbers upto 30 and the cubes of numbers upto 20.