CAT 2021 Paper Analysis: Slot 1 vs Slot 2 vs Slot 3
CAT 2021 Exam Paper Analysis: This year the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) successfully conducted the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2021. Following the COVID-19 protocols, this year also there were three-time slots and changes in the paper pattern were observed.
This year the candidate saw a change in the level of difficulty (LOD). IIM-A made sure the students preparing for a year have a fruitful time when attempting the paper this year. Let us quickly have a look at the change in the paper pattern and analyze the CAT paper of each slot.
CAT 2021 Exam Paper Pattern
| Components | Total questions | Total MCQs | Total non-MCQs | Area/questions | Level of difficulty |
| VARC | 24 | 19 | 5 | · On utopia and dystopia, on Mayan civilization – personhood, marshmallow Theory, the thirst empire – Chinese tea. · Para jumbles (4 sentences), out-of-context sentences, Summary. | Moderate |
| DILR | 20 | 14 | 6 | · Bar graphs with numbers for 2019 and 2020 for different items grouped in furniture, tech, and office stationery. · The cost price of various fruits getting mixed in various smoothies. · Acquaintances, friends, strangers, among 7 friends. · 8 people, 3 countries, 4 issues, and 18 papers. | Easy |
| QA | 22 | 15 | 8 | · High on arithmetic. Other on log, geometry, roots, algebra, modern maths. | Difficult |
| Total | 66 | 47 | 19 | Easy to moderate |
Note: There is no negative marking for TITA/ non-mcqs/.
SLOT WISE CAT 2021 PAPER ANALYSIS
SLOT 1 (November 28, 2021 ; Time 8:30 am – 10:30 am)
| Section | |
| VARC | LOD: ModerateThere were Four RC passages of a medium length of 4 questions each. The break-up of other questions was Para jumbles – 3, Para Summary – 3, and odd one out – 2. There were a total of 5 TITA questions from the odd one and para jumbles. There were no TITA questions in RC. The topics of passages were – 1) Cuttlefish show impressive personality, 2) Book review moral marketing-Utopian and Dystopian, 3) The classic period of Maya and 4) Competing virtue with consumption-Marshmallows. |
| DILR | LOD: Moderate There were a total of 4 sets – 2 of 6 questions each and 2 of 4 questions each. One was a Bar Graph set of 4 questions which were calculation intensive but attempted mostly by all students. Another one was missing values from the table i.e. AR set of 6 questions. 2 sets were data reasoning – one of 4 and another of 6 questions. There were a total of 5 TITA questions. A typical AR set was related to persons and journals of different categories with a good number of variables and their logical connections. |
| QA | LOD: Moderately EasyMajority of the typical topics like Profit & Loss, TSD, Time & Work, Alligation were fairly represented. Geometry questions were 3 in number with a moderate level of difficulty. Algebra had 5 questions (2 Linear, 2 APGP, and 1 on inequalities. Overall the quant section was doable. However, like last year, the questions were time-consuming even though the level of difficulty was not high. |
SLOT 2 (November 28, 2021; Time 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm)
| Section | |
| VARC | LOD: Moderate (Tricky)RC: 4 passages, summary, parajumbles) |
| DILR | LOD: Moderate |
| QA | LOD: Difficult NON-MCQs – 8 |
SLOT 3 (November 28, 2021; Time 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm)
| Section | |
| VARC | LOD: Moderately difficult The bulk of the questions were of medium difficulty, and even difficult for quite a few questions. There were very few simple questions. There were 4 passages in Comprehension: 2 passages with 4 Qs each and 2 passages with 5 Qs each. Most of the questions were argumentative and application-based. |
| DILR | LOD: Difficult when compared to SLOT 1 and SLOT 2. There were a total of 5 sets, each with 2 sets of 6 questions and 3 sets of 4 questions. There was a Venn diagram, a patient case collection on covid-19, games and tournaments, scheduling, and one more. |
| QA | LOD: ModerateSlot-3 of CAT-2021 was also dominated by Arithmetic, like Slots 1 and 2 (10 questions). The focus was, however, significantly lower on Algebra than in the first two slots. |
SUMMARY OF 5 YEARS CAT Exam PAPER
| Year | Number of Questions | Marking Scheme | Duration | Conducting Body |
| 2021 | Total 66 questions (VARC – 24, DILR – 20, QA – 22) | 3 positive marks for each correct answer and minus 1 mark for each wrong answer | 120 Minutes | IIM Ahmedabad |
| 2020 | Total 76 questions (24 in one section and 26 in the other two sections) | 3 positive marks for each correct answer and minus 1 mark for each wrong answer | 120 Minutes | IIM Indore |
| 2019 | Total 100 questions (32 in one section and 34 in the other two sections) | 3 positive marks for each correct answer and minus 1 mark for each wrong answer | 180 Minutes | IIM Kozhikode |
| 2018 | There were a total of 100 questions (32 in one section and 34 in the other two sections) | + 3 marks for every correct answer and -1 for every incorrect answer (No negative marking for non-MCQs questions) | 180 Minutes | IIM Calcutta |
| 2017 | Total number of questions were 100 (32 in one section and 34 in the other two sections) | + 3 Marks for every correct answer and -1 for every incorrect answer (No negative marking for non-MCQs questions) | 180 Minutes | IIM Lucknow |
| 2016 | The number of questions was 100 divided into three sections (32 in one section and 34 in the other two sections) | 3 Marks for each correct answer and 1 mark will be deducted for each incorrect answer (No negative marking for non-MCQs questions) | 180 Minutes | IIM Bangalore |
