CAT 2014 Analysis: Nov 16, Morning slot

The first slot of CAT 2014 is over and as expected the change in the pattern of CAT led to lowering of the difficulty level. There were no surprises in the structure and the ADI section had 34 QA questions along with 16 DI questions in 4 sets of 4 questions each. In the VALR section, Verbal Logic and Usage contributed to 18 questions while LR and RC contributed to 16 questions each (4 sets of 4 questions each).

While the QA questions in this paper were possibly the easiest ever in CAT (as easy as CAT 2006), LR and DI were difficult and many students would have had a tough time trying to solve these sets. Verbal Logic and RC proved to be life savers in the second section.

For the complete analysis of Nov 16, Morning slot, visit www.careerlauncher.com/cat 

 

 

134 Comments

  1. GP Sir,
    I attempted CAT 2014 on 22nd Nov(Morning slot). After normalization my scores decreased by 9 marks. Sir, may I know how the normalization process normalize the scores?
    Now, the normalized percentiles are 82.65(Conservative) & 87.56(Optimistic). Sir, do you think I stand a chance of getting call from any IIM’s? What will be good non-IIM’s options for me?
    Profile is below:
    10th- 82.71%
    12th- 69%
    Grad: 67%
    Experience: Fresher
    Category: SC
    State: Tripura
    Thanks in Advance 🙂

    • Diptanu, the GATE formula for normalisation has been applied to the attempt and estimated correct data submitted by all of you based on which slot 3 has turned out to be easier than the other three and hence a reduction in your normalised scores.
      With an average of 85%ile in CAT, decent academics and SC category you have a chance of calls from a few IIMs and FMS. Do apply to other DU courses also especially MFC & MBE. JBIMS is another possibility for you. If you are an engineer then NITIE and IITs are all possible for you. Additionally Symbiosis also has reservation for SC candidates and hope you have applied to SIBM and SCMHRD.

  2. Respected Sir,

    The predictor seems to be having problems. It’s showing 99 as normalised score for a lot of people within a wide marks range.

    • Rohan, The Percentile Predictor was rounding off the percentiles to integral values. Thanks for pointing out the error, it has been rectified.

  3. In this slot I attempted all 50 questions in section 1 (of course about 120 minutes for that )with at least 44 correct.Can I expect 100 percentile in section 1?

  4. The percentile predictor is predicting 99.06-99.92 currently, by how much approximately can I expect it to increase/decrease after normalization? (Morning slot, 16th) Can you just give me a rough idea?

    Thanks a lot Sir!

    • Rohan, it can change marginally. We will be normalising the four slots based on the data submitted by all of you and will come out with the results in a day or two.

      • Sir the normalised percentiles read 99 for a score of 163 and 99 for a score of 185! How can they be same for a difference of 22 marks! Is there some problem?

        Thanks

    • Piyush, the approximate cutoffs based on SNAP scores are:
      1. SIBM Pune – over 98%ile
      2. SCMHRD Pune – 97%ile
      3. SIBM Bangalore – 90%ile
      4. SCIT and SSBF – 60%ile

        • Piyush, SIBM Blr reports an average salary of around Rs 8 lakh pa while that of SCIT is likely to be in the region of Rs 6.5-7 lakh pa. These two colleges are good can can in the worst case be considered as good back up options. SSBF is a niche program in Banking and Finance and is yet to establish itself and will be lower than the other two in my order of preference.

  6. Hi Sir,

    I gave my cat on 16th Nov 1st Slot. Attempted 21 questions in section 1 (atmost 4 wrong) and attempted 23 questions in section 2 (atmost 3 wrong). Can you predict presumably what percentile I might land up with ?

    Thanks in advance.
    -Anto

  7. Sir, I attempted 29Q in Quant with 95%+ accuracy and 25Q in Verbal with approx 90%+ accuracy..what percentile should I expect??

  8. Hello sir. What percentile can I expect to get on a score of 150-160?
    i am not able to see it on the percentile predictor even after filling up all the details.

  9. Respected Sir,
    I wanted to know if the students who took CAT on 16th, First Slot will have any advantage, as everyone else in the other slots knew about the LR & DI part being difficult and so spent less time on it.
    Thank you.

  11. GP sir, I have attempted 33+32 in the Nov 16 morning slot. Assuming an 80% accuracy (since I did not guess any question, be it a wild or an educated guess), what kind of percentile can I expect? Sir, I also request you to kindly go through my profile and tell me my best bet regarding IIMs
    X-95.8%
    XII- 81.2%
    Btech- 58%
    No work ex, male
    Regards
    Thank You

  12. Sir,
    I am expecting around 174 in CAT 14. CL percentile predictor is estimating my percentile to be around 99.95, which I think is bit too optimistic. Question that I had was that my target was to get above 99.5 percentile in this year’s CAT. What according to you should be the minimum possible score to achieve that?

    • Also sir, I wanted to ask that whether accuracy plays a part in normalization or not, wherein a student scoring less marks than another can get a higher percentile than another, if his accuracy is better than the latter ?

      • Viraj, the normalisation formula of GATE takes into account only the raw score and not the accuracy. Hence a student with a higher raw score will get a higher percentile aeven with low accuracy.

    • Viraj, the percentile predictor has been revised based on the data submitted by all of you. Please check your revised percentile.

  14. Sir, I have attempted 23 questions from VALR section 16 are correct for sure. How much percentile can I expect from this section alone ? Can I clear the cutoff percentiles of all the IIMs.

    • Teja, with 14 net correct answers you are likely to miss out on the sectional cutoff in VALR. Another 2-3 correct answers can get you over the hump.

    • Daniel, based on 16th Nov paper I would think that a 160 should be sufficient but will be able to give you a confirmed figure next week after analysing the data submitted by all of you.

  17. Sir , I am Sure that the percentile predictor shows very close to actual percentiles , but my doubt is that is the normalization being considered because I have attempted 38 in section 1 with a 80-85% accuracy and 32 in section 2 with a 65-70 percent accuracy may be, but even with an estimated wrong attempts of 15-18 questions ,it is still showing 98.76 percentile ?

    • Prakhar, based on the data submitted by all of you we may have to revise our estimates and after the papers on 22nd we will also normalise the scores.

  18. Hi Sir,
    Expecting a score of 159-183 in the morning slot, according to percentile predictor, percentile is 99.77-99.98.

    Profile Xth- 92.8
    XIIth-87.8
    Graduation-66.2
    No work ex, currently in 4th year, general male engineer.

    Which calls can I expect from the top 10 including FMS?

    Thanks!

  19. Sir,
    My attempts in Nov 16, morning slot:
    QA+DI = 26 + 0
    VA + LR = 34 + 0

    There are some rumours that the individual sectional cut off will have specific DI and LR scores. If then I have 0 marks in them. Even though I am expecting 98%ile + overall(raw score of 140), I will end up not clearing the sectionals
    Please reply asap as it is literally killing me and I am not able to work at office today

  20. Sir, what is the minimum percentile a student (OBC Category) should achieve to get a call from IIM A, C and FMS Delhi?
    and also how much marks in each section is required to achieve that percentile.(with reference to 16th november slot 1 paper)

    • Sajid, NC-OBC candidates can get call from FMS at a score of 87%ile but to be sure of converting you should have around 95%ile. IIM A and C will need around 97%ile.

  21. sir,
    i gave my cat on 16th nov, 1st slot, i am expecting a score in the range of 122-130, can you please tell me how much %ile i can expect…………………..

    • Prasanta, a general category candidate will need 99.5%ile for IIM A & C, 99%ile for other old IIMS and over 97.5%ile for new IIMs.

      • Thanks sir. CL % ile predicter is showing 97.65 % ile.hope I will get a call.but I m unable to concentrate on XAT, because of poor performance in CAT. Does XLRI give good exposure to students as IIMs do? Or close to them? Pls suggest.

        • Prasanta, we will be normalising the scores after the papers on 22nd and then we will have better estimates. XLRI is as good as the top IIMs and provides as good an exposure and education. Its placements are at par with A, B & C.

  23. sir,my mock scores are very poor,around 50-60 percentiles..do i have any realistic chance of reaching 85+ percentile considering the level of difficulty of cat 14 Nov 16 slot.If yes what strategies should i follow?

    • Santosh, focus on Mock CAT 18, new sectional tests No 21 and 22 in QADI and VALR in Test Gym Classic – CAT based section tests. Modified CAT 2006 in Online Mocks. Do not worry about the funda books.

  25. Sir,
    I was woefully underprepared for QA this time. Anyway, I wasn’t very quick either which ended up with me attempting only 57 questions, 42 of which was from VALR. However, since I took more time with each question I could keep a high level of accuracy (between 85 and 95%). But obviously even with that my QADI percentile is going to be quite low. Given all of that, do you think I stand a chance of getting calls from any of the better non-IIM schools (SP Jain, IMT-G, IMI-D, etc)?

    • Soham, apart from IIMs, MDI and SP Jain almost all other MBA institutes shortlist on the basis of total scores and do not worry about sectioanl scores and tghese institutes will be possible for you.

  26. Sir I attempted 82 (38+44) questions in the first slot.
    I generally used to attempt 68-73 in all the mocks and used to manage a percentile of 98+ consistently.
    How many do you think I can afford to get wrong out of the 82, and still end up with a 99+ percentile?

    • Anand, my estimate is that about 18 incorrect will also get you a 99%ile + however let us wait till the 22nd Nov papers as then we will be revising the percentile predictor based o the data submitted by all of you and will also be normalising the scores across the four slots.

  29. Hi GP sir,
    I gave cat in the morning slot on 16th. I attempted 29 in quant(all correct) and 22 in verbal with around 90% accuracy. What %ile can i expect considering everyone has normally attempted more that 60 70?

    • Priya, in this paper accuracy will be important and hence I will not go by the attempts only. Based on your data you could be over 97%ile but please enter you data in the Percentile Predictor for an estimate. Normalisation will be done after all the four slots are done.

  30. Sir,there were some questions misplaced in the 16th morning slot exam.These questions were of RC and LR.This resulted in some wastage of time.Did it affect all the students?Will there be any compensation for this?

    • Siddharth, If you have suffered then please report this to the CAT Centre and also forward the mail to me. Please send an email and also a letter by registered post to the address and email IDs mentioned on the Contact Us page of CAT website.

  31. Sir,
    I attempted 26 que in quant/di and 34 que in va/lr. With an accuracy of 70%- 80% what %ile is possible considering such an easy quant..

  33. Sir, i gave my exam in slot1..i attempted 39 ques in section 1, with above 95% accuracy, and 23 in section 2, with 50-60% accuracy. Sir can u pls suggest what percenntile to expect?? should i apply for NITIE and SP Jain?

      • with 35 correct in section 1 and 15 correct in section 2 (total score 138) , percentile predictor is showing 98.76 %ile. Sir, does this predictor take into account marks in individual section or just the total marks??

        • Sumita, it is o the basis of the total marks. With only 15 attempts in Section 2 you will not be able to clear the sectional cutoffs of IIMs, MDI and SP Jain. Almost all other B schools go by the total score only and hence will not be a problem.

  35. Sir,
    As per your directions that CAT exam on 16th was similar to mock cat 21 pattern, I want to go through it as I haven’t given it yet ,however it is not available in the sis account.please help.

    • Ankita, I had mentioned Mock CAT 18. Apologise it I said Mock CAT 21.
      Based on 16th Nov paper take Mock CAT 18, Modified CAT 2006 and the 4 new sectional tests in your Test Gym. Practice DI and LR from your Mocks. With difficult LR it might be useful to do it later after you have attempted the easier parts of the paper. I expect 22nd Nov paper to be of the same difficulty level.

  36. Sir, with approx 25 attempts 95% accuracy in first section, and 21 attempts with 80-85% accuracy, what % can I predict in CAT14.? What colleges, can I apply for. Because, CL predictor says around 95%. Please suggest some deadlines are ending

  37. I checked cat percentile predictor.The percentile is more in sync with the score vs percentile table that you posted before the exam.
    I would like to know if the percentile predictor considers the difficulty level of yesterdays exam while calculating the percentile.

  38. Sir,…
    Maybe too early to predict..maybe not…
    But wt percentile do u think an 80 80 in either sections in a paper as easy as this willl fetch!!!
    i gave it 16 mornin..
    Hope to hear fom u soon

  39. Hello Sir,
    My name is S.Lipsa and I attempted CAT on16th Nov 2014 1st slot. I attempted 35 in VA and 31 in QA. But after the submission of the test the screen showed the no of attempts in QA 31 and in VA only 24. I am really confused. I have always clicked the save and next button to move on to the next question. I clearly remember doing 4 RC sets each of 4 Qs and 1 LR of 4 Qs. That adds upto 20. Then 8 PJs and 7 CR and summary qs.
    I am just speculating if I had answered a question but have still marked for review. I mean purple with a green tick. Will it be considered for marking??

    Regards

    • Lipsa, have the CAT authorities responded to your mail on this issue?
      Puple with a green tick will be recorded an answered and should have been recorded.

      • Even I have the same doubt.. I didn’t notice if there was a separate column “Marked and Attempted”. I remember marking 28 questions in VA. But in the report section, I could see only 23

    • There were different columns for “attempted” and “marked and attempted” as far as I remember. Though I am not very sure.
      In that case, you might not have noticed the other column.

  42. Sir, As DI and Lr were tough, and I am really weak in these two sections, In the last 5 days, how can i improve?
    Which papers (previous) to attempt?

    • CATholic, based on 16th Nov paper take Mock CAT 18, Modified CAT 2006 and the 4 new sectional tests in your Test Gym. Practice DI and LR from your Mocks.

  43. sir … the feedback of day 1 is that … cat was easy …
    so what should we take from this feedback ??
    and what to do for the left 5 days ?? advice …!!

  45. sir,
    now my question is, since todays paper being more on easier side, can we expect similar paper on 22nd or it will be other way round? LR and DI easy and rest tougher?
    Since 5 days r left, wat should be strategy now for remaining 5 days?

    • Navnath, I expect a similar paper on 22nd. Based on 16th Nov paper take Mock CAT 18, Modified CAT 2006 and the 4 new sectional tests in your Test Gym. Practice DI and LR from your Mocks.

  46. Hi Sir, I attempted 43 in section I. Usually my attempts lie in the range of 20 to 30. But today,I couldn’t refrain as the quant section was so easy. And I attempted 23 in english. Im usually good in LRs. But today I couln’t even solve 1 question. All 4 RCs (usually I attempt no more than 3) as I didn’t have a choice. And I believe there is a mistake in a LR. If possible can u give your email id. Need to discuss about that LR.

  47. ALL guys who gonna take test on 22nd november are requested just revise ur fundabook (only basics) and do ur basics …also recommended u to attemps lr and di at last…quant paper was so easy and no grammer knowledge needed….i wasted my lots of time in lr and DI sets due to that i gonna survive…
    (16 nov evening shift)….now I can only be saved when ur test slots comes very difficult so that cut off goes low…

    (my situation is like India is OUT of final and can only survive if bangladesh will defeat AUSTRALIA ….):-)

    • Deepak, appreciate your sharing this with “your competitors”.
      Forget CAT and start preparing for the other papers. IIFT, SNAP and XAT all have very good institutes.

  48. Hello Sir
    A bit relieved to know paper was abit easy but definitely it would b easy for everyone ..I just wanted to know if u can shed some light upon the level of difficulty by illustrating some examples if u remember from the test in quants section, or some examples of similar level … Sir it would be of immense help.
    Thank u Sir

  50. SIR WITH JUST 5 DAYS LEFT FOR MY CAT WHAT WOULD YOU SUGGEST I SHOULD FOCUS ON SPECIALLY AFTER THE ANALYSIS OF SLOT 1 AND 2 WHICH YOU HAVE DONE

    • Shashank, based on 16th Nov paper take Mock CAT 18, Modified CAT 2006 and the 4 new sectional tests in your Test Gym. Practice DI and LR from your Mocks.

  51. Sir,

    What shud be our strategy now…how shud we go abt attempting..Shud we expect the same pattern on the 22nd…and if that is the case shud we leave the LR and DI sections for later.

    • Shayantu, in terms of degree of difficulty I expect a similar paper on 22nd but they could make DI and LR easy and the others difficult. Please assess each part of the paper before deciding to leave or attempt.

  52. Sir,
    In my mocks I was attempting VA/LR section first…but now QA being the most easy as per analysis should I change my strategy to doing QA first?….

  53. GOOD EVE SIR,

    I HAVE ALREADY READ YOUR EXAM ANALYSIS FROM http://WWW.CAREERLAUNCHER.COM/CAT. BUT STILL I HAVE SOME QUERIES.
    IT WOULD BE GREAT OF YOU IF YOU CAN ANSWER SOME OF MY QUERIES AS I HAVE SLOT ON 22 NOV.

    1) WERE THERE 4 OR 5 OPTION WITH EACH QUESTION???

    2) WAS THERE SOME QUESTION FROM PREVIOUS YEAR PAPERS SINCE I HV 5 MORE DAYS TO REVISE THOSE PAPERS AGAIN?????

    3) WERE THE QUESTION IN QUANT TRICKY OR MOST OF WERE DIRECTLY FORMULA BASED???????

    THANKS IN ADVANCE

    • 1. The questions had 4 options.
      2. Had not attempted previous years so don’t know if they were repeated.
      3. The questions were VERY EASY.

  54. Sir
    With the paper being easy for first slot ,wont it be a problem for the rest of slot takers.Also now the exam being easy,what marks do u think will be required for 97 percentile?

    • Alfin, the normalisation will take care of slot wise differences in difficulty level. My current estimate is that a 97%ile will need around 125 marks but it could change as more students submit their attempt/correct data.

  55. Sir
    Is the real cat closer to the CL mocks or is it easier than that? Would you advise anything to those who have cat on 22nd?

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