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CAT 2019 Exam Analysis – Expected Cutoff and Percentile Mapping

Sunday, November 24th, 2019

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CAT 2019 exam was conducted today (24th November). To publish CAT 2019 exam Analysis we spoke to a bunch of students of our online course. Based upon the feedback that we received, given below is the detailed analysis of the CAT 2019 exam.

Highlights of CAT 2019 Exam Analysis

There were no major surprises in the CAT 2019 exam. It was on the expected lines.

1. Verbal Ability was on the easier side when compared to other sections, as it has been the case for past few years. However, if you compare it with previous year papers – it was on the harder side. RC questions and passages were a lot tougher than previous years.
2. Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation was the toughest section. But it was easier than previous years.
3. Quantitative Aptitude was on the easier side. The questions were simple and not that calculation intensive. Probably the easiest in last 3-4 years. There were a lot of TITA questions as well.
4. Overall the paper would end up being easier than CAT 2018 because the impact of the level of Quant questions and a little bit because of LRDI.

CAT 2019 Exam Analysis – Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

Question Structure
Reading Comprehension: 24 questions
4 passages (with five questions) and 1 passage (with four questions) 
Parajumbles: 4 questions
Odd one out: 3 questions
Summary: 3 questions

All Reading Comprehension and Summary questions were objective type questions. The passages this year were significantly harder to read than previous years. Also, they were a bit longer. The questions were inferential in nature.
Parajumbles and odd one out were Type in the answer / Fill in the Blanks type questions. The Parajumbles questions in CAT 2019 were a little bit easier than earlier years with smaller sentences and only 4 sentences. It made sense to attempt them because it would not take too long and hopefully you would get couple of them right. Even if you didn’t, at least it won’t have any negative marking.

So, a total of 27 questions had negative marking for incorrect answers whereas the other 7 did not.

Summary The section was on the easier side. We could say that it was slightly easier than the CAT 2018 exam. You would need to do around 15-17 questions correctly for scoring 90%ile in the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section in the CAT 2019 exam.

Distribution of Questions – Both Slots

Reading Comprehension Passage Source

Slot -2 (Afternoon Slot)
Reading Comprehension Passage 1 – Time Magazine
Reading Comprehension Passage 2 – National Public Radio
Reading Comprehension Passage 3 – Prospect Magazine

CAT 2019 Exam Analysis – Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation

Question Structure
There were 8 sets of 4 questions each. We can say that there were 2 sets of Data Interpretation and 6 sets for Logical Reasoning but the Data Interpretation sets required a lot of logic to solve them as well. It would be better to put them in the ‘Logical DI’ category, if something like that exists.

A total of 24 questions had negative marking for incorrect answers whereas the other 8 did not. Also, these 8 Type-In-The-Answer type questions were distributed across multiple sets. There was no set that all 4 TITA questions.

As far as the difficulty level is concerned, it was on the difficult side. It was definitely easier than CAT 2018 where a few sets were doable. In my personal opinion, it is unfair to have one section significantly easier than the other two, which was the case with this year’s Verbal section.

Summary This section was really tough. It was easier than CAT 2018 but still tough. You would need to do around 11-13 questions correctly to score 90%ile in the Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation section in the CAT 2019 exam.

Distribution of Questions in Morning Slot

CAT 2019 Exam Analysis – Quantitative Aptitude

Question Structure
Arithmetic dominated the Quantitative Aptitude section in the CAT 2019 exam. There were 11-12 questions on it.
Geometry, Algebra, Modern Maths were in the next tier with 6-7 questions.
There were 3-4 questions purely on Number System.

A total of 22 questions had negative marking for incorrect answers whereas the other 12 did not. The number of TITA questions is higher than what it was in the earlier years and it is definitely higher than the number of TITA questions in the other sections.

Summary This section was on the easier side. You could say it was almost as easy as the CAT 2017 quant section. You would need to solve around 14-16 questions correctly to score 90%ile in the Quantitative Aptitude section in the CAT 2019 exam.

Distribution of Questions – Both Slots

Expected Cutoffs for CAT 2019 Exam

To get a 90%ile, we believe you would need the following number of questions to be correct (0 errors) in the CAT 2019 Exam
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension 15-17 questions
Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation 11-13 questions
Quantitative Aptitude 14-16 questions

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