CAT 2019 Slot 1 Analysis: No Major changes; VARC & QA Moderately Difficult; DILR Tricky; CAT Cut off 160+ for 99 Percentile expected

Here is CAT 2019 Slot 1 exam first analysis by MBAUniverse.com. DILR Section was a bit tricky, while other sections were moderately difficult. Number of Non MCQs increased to 31 from 27 last year. Total number of Non-MCQ type of questions have increased to 31 in CAT 2019 as compared to 27 last year. VARC had 10 Non MCQS and 24 MCQs. Quant section had 11 Non MCQS and 23 MCQs. It has been reported by IIMs that 1.15 lakh candidates appeared in the morning session of CAT 2019 exam. CAT 2019 Exam Analysis for Slot-1 reflects number of changes as compared to last year CAT, although the CAT 2019 overall exam pattern has remained the same as was last year with some changes in sectional difficulty level.

CAT 2019 Slot 2 Analysis: Similar Pattern & Difficulty Level as in Slot 1; CAT Cut off 160+ for 99 Percentile expected

Slot 1 CAT 2019: Analysis in Detail
The CAT exam timings 2019 for morning slot was from 9 AM to 12 noon while the CAT exam 2019 reporting time for the morning slot was 7.30 AM. No candidate was permitted to enter the CAT test centre after 8.45 AM. Read here the complete CAT exam 2019 slot-1 Analysis with exam pattern, difficulty level, expected cut off score for IIMs

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CAT 2019 Analysis: Exam Highlights Slot-1

• Total Questions: 100 (Divided into MCQs and Non MCQs)
• Total Sections: 3 (VARC, DILR, QA)
• Time to attempt CAT 2019 exam: 3 Hours (9 AM to 12 Noon)
• Sectional Time Limit: 1 Hour for each section
• Maximum Score: 300 Marks
• Marks for Each Correct Answer: +3
• Negative Marks: -1 for each wrong answer (Only for MCQs)
• No Negative Marking for wrong answers for Non-MCQs
• Overall CAT Difficulty Level: Moderate to Difficult
• DILR found a bit tricky

CAT 2019 Exam Analysis: Slot 1 Pattern

	Total Questions	Non MCQs	MCQs	Difficulty Level
VARC	34	10	24	Moderate to Difficult
DILR	32	10	22	Difficult
Quant	34	11	23	Somewhat Difficult

CAT 2019 Exam Analysis: Key changes in exam pattern
Total number of Non-MCQ type of questions have increased to 31 in CAT 2019 as compared to 27 last year with different number of questions in each section.

• RC Passages in VARC section were 5. Four passages were followed by 5 questions each and one passage was followed by 4 questions in MCQ format with negative marking
• The Verbal Ability questions were 10 in number. All were in Non-MCQ format without negative marking      
• Quant section had highest number of 11 Non-MCQs as compared to 12 Non-MCQs in last year CAT exam.
• More Arithmetic intensive questions appeared in CAT 2019 Slot 1.
• No change in Scoring pattern: Scoring pattern in CAT 2019 has remained to +3 for correct answer and -1 for wrong answer for MCQs and +3 for correct answer and 0 negative marking for wrong answer in Non-MCQs
• Many non MCQS had answer options also. The correct answers had to be typed in the given space.

CAT EXAM 2019 SECTION WISE ANALYSIS

VARC

• The first section on VARC had 34 questions.
• Non MCQs were 10 without negative marking
• Section Started with RC Passages and closed with Verbal Ability
• 5 RC passages were followed by 24 MCQ type questions
• 10 Verbal Ability Questions were of Non MCQ type
• One RC passage with 5 MCQs on Idea on Folk was found more difficult as it had tough vocabulary. Candidates found it difficult to answer more than 2-3 questions on this passage
• Ideal attempts in VARC section would be 24-26 questions with 90% accuracy
• 55-60 marks could fetch a percentile between 97-99
• Difficulty Level: Moderate to Difficult

CAT 2019 VARC sectional Composition

Composition of section	Number of questions	Difficulty Level
RC passage-1: Story of Aladdin-as shared by Antonio Galland in 1712, learnt from Syrian story teller Diyab	5 MCQs	Moderate
RC Passage-2: Idea of Folk	5 MCQs	Difficult with tricky sentence formation and vocabulary
RC Passage-3: Emperor Penguins in Antartica- Ciovering heating, radiation, convection	4 MCQs	Moderate
RC passage-4:  Topophilia, the affective bond between people and place by Yi-Fu Tuan	5 MCQs	Moderate to Difficult
RC Passage-5:	5 MCQs	Moderate
Parajumbles	4 Questions (Non-MCQs)	Moderate
Para Summary	3 Questions (Non-MCQs)	Moderate
Odd sentence Out	3 Questions (Non-MCQs)	Moderate

DILR

Most of the candidates found the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) questions a bit more tricky and could not attempt beyond 15-18 questions out of 32. Many others found DILR more interesting than last year. Overall the section had similar difficulty level as last year, although a few questions were tricky to attempt as the section had slightly different type of questions this year. DILR sectional Analysis is shared below:

• The Second section in CAT was on DILR with 32 questions.
• Non MCQs in DILR have increased to 10 without negative marking as against 8 last year
• Section had a few new type of question sets like – Radar Chart based questions, Street Map with straight lines and intersection angles, Tables, horizontal graphs
• Ideal attempts in DILR section would be 20-22 questions with 90% accuracy
• 45-50 marks could fetch a percentile between 97-99
• Difficulty Level: Moderate to Difficult

Sectional Composition	Number of questions	Difficulty level
Radar Chart Based Problem set for 5 vendors	4	Difficult – New type of question set
Government’s study on different types of Crime rate in States & UTs	4	Moderate – based on horizontal graph and data inputs
Street Map Based problem set with straight lines & intersections	4	Moderate
Coding based Problem set	4	Moderate to difficult – based on codes & calculation to alphabets
Other problem sets included Tables, direction, & others	16	Moderate

Quantitative Ability (QA)
Quantitative Ability (QA) section in slot 1 of CAT 2019 exam had highest number of 11 Non-MCQs out of 34 questions. The section was found on moderate difficulty side and was similar to last year.

• The 3^rd section in slot 1 of CAT 2019 exam was on Quantitative Ability
• QA section had 34 questions.
• Non MCQs were 11 without negative marking
• QA section has maximum number of Arithmetic based questions
• More calculation intensive and formula based questions appeared in QA section
• Ideal attempts in QA section would be 22-24 questions with 90% accuracy
• 48-55 marks could fetch a percentile between 97-99
• Difficulty Level: Moderate to Difficult

QA Sectional Composition in CAT 2019 slot-1	Number of Questions	Difficulty Level
Arithmetic Based Questions	11-12	Moderate. Percentage, Time-Distance, Time Work, Men & Machine, interest, Profit & Loss
Algebra based	6-7	Moderate – more formula based
Geometry/Co-ordinate Geometry	6-7	Moderate-based on Triangle, radius, circle etc
Number System/Roots/Under-roots/Log/Probability	8-11	Moderate

Overall Analysis: CAT 2019 Slot 1
Overall, the slot 1 of CAT 2019 was not more difficult than last year except that one or two RC passages and a few questions in DILR were found a bit more difficult than last year. Your raw score of An overall raw score of around 155-160 is expected to award 98 – 99 percentile this year. 

CAT 2019 Section wise & Overall Cut offs

CAT 2019 Section	CAT 2019 percentile Cut off	Raw Score required
Section-1: Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)	97-99	55-60
Section-2: Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)	97-99	45-50
Section-3: Quantitative Ability (QA)	97-99	50-55
Overall Score in CAT 2019	97-99	155-160

This article will be updated shortly after CAT 2019 slot 2 is over at 5.30 PM

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2019