In line with the expectations, CAT 2017 did not surprise the students as far as difficulty level was concerned.
Based on the feedback we received, there were quite a few doable questions across Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VA-RC), and Quantitative Ability (QA). However, the Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation (LR-DI) sets were quite tough to crack. Hence, many might have found it difficult to push their attempts in LR-DI section and subsequently, the overall attempts beyond a certain level.
With a tough LR-DI section, and a doable QA and VA-RC sections, the cut-offs this year could be slightly lower than those in CAT 2016.
The level of difficulty was broadly similar across both the slots, forenoon and afternoon. Relatively more number of students from the second slot felt positive about their LR-DI performance when compared with the ones who appeared in the first. Whether this positive feeling translates into better scores or percentile is yet to be seen, given the process of equating and scaling that the IIMs have been following over the past few years.
Except for an issue in a Delhi centre in the morning slot (where the server reportedly failed and the test was held in a different centre at 4 pm), the experience was largely smooth and glitch-free across centres.
VR-RC analysis
The VA-RC section is the most dreaded by the aspirants because of low accuracy. But this time around, the RCs were easy to read both in terms of language and the topic.
There were three passages with six questions each and two passages with three questions each. The relative ease of reading the passages was compensated by the increased level of difficulty in the ‘choices’.
In the VA part, more than half the questions did not have any negative marking as they were non-MCQ, which could have motivated students to attempt them.
The number of good attempts for this section would be around 20-22.
LR-DI analysis
The difficulty level of the LR-DI section went up a notch when compared to the last year.
The entire section had more difficult, lengthier, trickier questions. There was barely one full set in the section that could be called outright doable. In fact, in some of the sets, it was not easy to solve more than one or two questions. While the first slot did not have any set in the LR-DI section that could be called familiar, students in the second slot did report seeing at least one standard type of set.
The number of good attempts for this section would be around 8-10.
QA analysis
The surprise in this year’s CAT was saved for last in the form of an unexpectedly easier QA section. The number of questions from basic arithmetic was, to the joy of many aspirants, on the higher side, making life easier for many those weak in QA. There were very few un-crackable questions, pushing up the number of attempts by the students. However, there were quite a few questions in the section which had cleverly devised traps built into them, that needed to be tread on with caution.
While there were many doable questions in this section, one must bear in mind that this section comes right after the very tough LR-DI section. The mental drain that students would have been put through in LR-DI would not have left them in the right state of mind to put in their peak performance.
It would hence reduce the possible scores that students could get from this section, classifying what would otherwise have been called easy-moderate, as moderate.
The number of good attempts for this section would be around 20-22.
(By arrangement with T.I.M.E. — Triumphant Institute of Management Education)