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CAT 2002
(November 24, 2002)
The Comprehensive Analysis of Common Admission Test 2002
The Best Analysis in India!
This page gives you the Macro picture. For the micro CAT picture, don't forget to check out the Section-wise Analyses pages!
Section* Area No. of Questions
Section # 1 Language Areas -- Vocabulary,Comprehension,Grammar,Usage 50
Section # 2 Mathematical Aptitude -- All Topics + Reasoning 50
Section # 3 Data Interpretation + Sufficiency + Reasoning 50
Total Questions : 150
Total Time Allotted : 2 hours
* Section numbers vary across test booklets.
CAT 2002 - OVERALL BASIC SUMMARY
For the CAT aspirants across the nation, November 2002 was the grand finale. The tryst with destiny. Literally. When at 10:30 am sharp, the test paper was opened, and the 120 minutes of reckoning started, things started taking shape. For those who had - for months together - dreamt of nothing but the best, each moment brought immense joy and exhilaration. So what if some of the questions looked tricky, and some of the passages sounded philosophical. There is no fun if the bar is not raised high... right?
India started its process of economic reforms since 1991, and the CAT followed suit. Its shape, color and complexion have been changing ever since. Adapting to the changing corporate requirements. Analytical thinking, a cool headed approach and a capability to work under pressure is what the CAT is designed to check. Going by this yardstick, CAT 2002 did not disappoint!
In CAT 2002, at first sight, the Language area looked very manageable. However, true to the CAT tradition, there were the finer aspects. The options that were placed pretty close to each other, and the thrust on inference based reasoning made it worth its while. Students who would have worked hard on readings across the disciplines must have found the going rather easy. Apart from Comprehension, the sitters in Vocabulary made it a joy. Many cracked the same outright. The Grammar based set was an interesting exercise in comparison and elimination, and the Fill-in-the-blanks (cloze test) was neat. Closely placed options in 6 sentence para formation indeed took its toll! Time, that is. The Mathematical Aptitude portion had a nice sprinkling of questions that should have been solved. At least 15 questions were eminently solvable. Arithmetic got its due (after a long time) with algebra being a poor second cousin, and Geometry registering its presence once again. Frankly, the Maths section was not easy. It called for a good grip coupled with a lot of consistent practice. The DI-DS-LR section was classic. The DS twisters were well designed and seemingly innocuous. Seemingly. We say so because the options were jumbled up {for ex. (1) 2 (2) 1 (3) 3 (4) 4}. Students who did not heed the oft-repeated advice of teachers "Read the directions and options VERY carefully before you mark the answers" were big losers. It would be a pity, really! The huge tables in some DI sets made it important to make a strategic choice. To tackle or not to tackle? Some good choices, some intelligent calculations and some earlier exposure did the trick for many candidates. Reasoning was good. At least it lived upto its name!
Enough of theorizing! Let's look at the overall picture now, in numbers.
This year, there was no apparent issue of surprise regarding the macro structure of CAT. Thank God, no essays, no GK and no sectional time limits!
Testing Area
Marks
Difficulty Level
I
Verbal Skills, Usage,
Reading Comprehension
25
25
Easy
Manageable
II
Quantitative Ability
50
Not so easy
III
Data Sufficiency
Data Interpretation
Reasoning
8
32
10
Manageable
Easy
Manageable
TOTAL
150
Manageable
Section 1 - Language Areas
Given below is a comparison of this year's CAT with the last year's. See for yourself the comparison.
CAT 2002 CAT 2001
English 25 20
Vocab - fill in the blanks 6 0
Vocab - contextual meaning 5 0
Vocab - synonyms with usage 0 5
Vocab - matrix type 5 5
Fill in the blanks 0 5
Sentence correction (grammar) 4 0
Para jumbles 4 sentences 0 1
Para jumbles 5 sentences 3 2
Para jumbles 6 sentences 2 2
Reading Comprehension 25 30
Cell Biology, Nano - Technology and pressing medical problems (approx. 800 words) 5 Dark Ages (approx. 780 words) 4
Abortion - The Global debate (approx. 1000 words) 6 Phonology (approx. 550 words) 5
History writing in India - Trends & Realities (approx. 700 words) 5 Akio Kurosawa (approx. 900 words) 6
Language of economists (approx. 620 words) 5 Billary Holliday (approx. 700 words) 5
Philosophy & Science (approx. 650 words) 4 Democracy and Leadership (approx. 1000 words) 5
Racial Discrimination (approx. 800 words) 5
Total 50 50
Section 2 - Quantitative Section
The level of difficulty was slightly more as compared to the previous year. This is primarily because there was more of Geometry and Permutations & Combinations.
TOPIC CAT 2002 CAT 2001
Arithmetic 26 16
Number System 18 10
Time, Speed, Distance / Time and Work 6 2
Percentages and Profit/Loss 0 4
Ratio & Proportion, Pipes & Cisterns 2 0
Algebra 9 15
Equations and inequalities 6 8
Progressions 1 2
Functions 2 2
Maxima/Minima 0 3
Geometry 10 13
Plane geometry 5 8
Mensuration 4 3
Coordinate + graphs 1 2
Base System 0 1
Calendar 0 1
Miscellaneous 1 3
Permutations & Combinations 4 1
Total 50 50
Section 3 - Data Interpretation, Data Sufficiency and Logical Reasoning
This section comprised DI, DS and LR. There were 32 questions of DI in 7 sets, 8 questions of DS (in one set), 10 questions of LR made up of 6 questions of Analytical Reasoning and (1 set of) 4 questions of Logical Reasoning. The DI sets involved counting, with not much of calculations. In DS, the options were not all numbered in the regular 1, 2, 3, 4 fashion. Some students may have to regret since they may have arrived at the correct answer and still marked the OMR answer sheet wrongly.
TOPIC CAT 2002 CAT 2001
Data Sufficiency 8 7
Data Interpretation 32 24
Tables 24 (5 sets) 8 (2 sets)
Bar Charts 6 (1 set) 10 (2 sets)
Pie Chart 2 (1 set) 0
Line charts and activity Qs 0 6 (2 sets)
Analytical Reasoning (single Qs) 6 8
Others 6
Logical Reasoning 4 (1 set) 5
Total 50 50
The pattern of CAT for the last five years is given below :
Year
Total no. of Questions
Data Interpretation
(Questions)
Verbal Ability/Reasoning
(Questions)
Reading Comprehension
(Questions)
Problem Solving
(Questions)
Time in mins
1997 185 40 50 50 45 120
1998 185 40 50 50 45 120
1999 165 31 28 Verbal Ability + 10 Verbal Reasoning + 27 LR 27 42 120
2000 165 40 25 Verbal Ability only 40 60 120
2001 150 34 20 Verbal Ability + 16 Logical Reasoning 30 50 120
Suggested Action Plans
Strategy is the name of the game. It is critical for a student to decide clearly his or her priorities, and attack the test paper accordingly.
Suggested Action Plan # 1
Order of Attempt Time allocation Number of attempts
Language Section 40 mins 27-32
Quantitative Section 40 mins 20-22
Reasoning / DI / DS 40 mins 25-30
An alternative action plan, especially for those who have difficulty in reasoning, could have been :
Suggested Action Plan # 2
Order of Attempt Time allocation Number of attempts
Language Section 35 mins 25-30
Quantitative Section 40 mins 20-22
Reasoning / DI / DS 45 mins 27-32
Another action plan... and this one for those who have problems with language areas :
Action Plan # 3
Order of Attempt Time allocation Number of attempts
Quantitative Section 35 mins 25-30
Reasoning / DI / DS 40 mins 23-28
Language Section 45 mins 26-32
Expected Cut-offs
(assuming 1 point for each correct answer and 25% negative marking)
{Based on the feedback received from more than 30 PT Centres across India, and hundreds of top ranking PT Students}
Overall Cut-Off
(IIMs) Cut-off for
CAT-Allied B-Schools
(Top Grade) Cut-off for
CAT-Allied B-Schools
(Others)
70 � 73+ 57 - 60 + 50 - 55 +
Going by these standards, we are sure that many of you would have done pretty well. Congratulations!
As for the rest, remember, do not lose hope. It is a relative testing situation and you just do not know what may happen.
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Disclaimer: All these questions have been memorised by PT students and given to us after the CAT was conducted. We fully acknowledge that these questions in original are the property of the IIMs and we are merely reproducing a few of them here in fragments to ensure that the huge community of students eagerly waiting to see an objective comparison of their performance gets the right picture.
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