CAT Exam 2021-22

Contents:

 

• • • What is the CAT Exam?
    • CAT 2021 Exam Overview
    • CAT 2021 Importance (for preparing Aspirants)
    • CAT 2021 Conducting Body
    • CAT 2021 Registration and Fee structure
    • CAT 2021 Eligibility Criteria
    • CAT 2021 Syllabus
    • CAT 2021 Exam Pattern
    • CAT 2021 Exam Score
    • CAT 2021 Admission Procedure
    • Top colleges accepting CAT Exam score
    • CAT 2021 Coaching Centers
    • How to Prepare for CAT 2021
    • CAT 2021 Admit Card
    • Documents required at counseling
    • CAT 2021 Exam Centres
    • CAT 2021 Answer Key
    • CAT 2021 Result
    • CAT 2021 Reference Books
    • CAT 2021 Cutoffs
    • Factors that disqualify a candidate for the CAT exam
    • The Contradiction between CAT exam Eligibility and IIM eligibility 2021
    • GMAT Vs CAT
    • CAT Marking Scheme vs Percentile
    • CAT 2021 Contact Details
  •  

What is the CAT Exam?

The CAT was abbreviated as Common Admission Test. CAT Exam is the popular national-level management entrance exam conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) for admission of aspiring candidates to twenty IIM's and more than 100 B-schools across India. It is conducted and managed by one of the IIMs on a yearly rotational basis. The top six IIMs which conduct the CAT Exam are

• IIM  Bangalore
• IIM Calcutta
• IIM Indore
• IIM Kozhikode
• IIM Lucknow
• IIM Ahmedabad

CAT Exam 2021 Overview/Highlight

On an average of over a decade, every year nearly 200,000 candidates have registered for the exam. The exam score will be accepted across the universities for their MBA/PGDM programs. 

Particulars	Details
Conducting Body	Established IIM on a rotational basis
Exam Frequency	Once in a year
Application Mode	Online
Exam Mode	Computer Based Test (CBT)
Question Types	Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and Type in the Answer (TITA)
Score Validity	Only a year

CAT 2021 Exam Importance (For Preparing Aspirants 2021)

The Common Admission Test (CAT) exam is an entrance exam for admissions into Master of Business Administration (MBA) or Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) programs. Qualifying in the exam is a prerequisite for the next level of the admission process for most MBA/PGDM programs.

The meritorious in this computer-based test will possibly make it to the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) located across the country. Other than the prestigious IIMs, renowned institutions like the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Institute of Management Technology (IMT), S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Management Development Institute (MDI), and other prominent B-schools use the CAT score for admissions.

That is why aspiring candidates like you strive hard to make it into these modern temples, with an excellent CAT score.

CAT 2021 Conducting Body

IIMs are the conducting body of CAT examinations. IIM's is responsible for all the activities release of CAT official notification, CAT online application form, conducting the exam, and declaration of results. Through the CAT exam, one can get admission to 20 IIMs and more than 100 management schools across the country.

CAT 2021 Exam 2021 Registration and Fees Details

Event Name	Dates (Tentative)
Exam Online Registration Commencement Date	5 August 2021
Exam Online Registration Closing Date	16 September 2021
Exam Admit Card Date	28 October 2021
Exam Date	29 November 2021
Exam Result Date	First/Second Week of January 2022

CAT 2021 Exam Fees details: Rs.2000 (General Category) and Rs.1,000 (Reserved Category)

CAT 2021 Exam Eligibility Criteria|CAT official website

To sit for the exam, a candidate must have:

• A Bachelor’s degree with a degree from a recognized university/institute by the government 
• The candidate should secure a minimum of 50% marks or equivalent CGPA. The candidates from the Reservation Category – Schedule Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST), and Differently Abled (DA) – must secure at least 45% of their marks.

• Candidates who’re going to appear for their final year exams are also eligible to apply for the test. Provided they submit the proof of passing their Bachelor’s degree exam at the time of admission into the MBA/PGDM programs.

Check out the complete CAT eligibility from the CAT exam official site. Official website: https://iimcat.ac.in/

CAT 2021 Exam Syllabus

The CAT syllabus comprises the basic concepts up to middle school from Maths and English. Plus, the exam tests the candidates’ aptitude with questions from Logical Reasoning concepts. Other than that, there isn’t a proper exam syllabus like other national-level entrance exams. A glimpse of the syllabus is:

• CAT Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension: This section mainly tests a candidate’s language skills. It includes reading passages followed by a set of questions, sentence completion, jumbled sentences, etc.
• CAT Quantitative Aptitude: The syllabus for the CAT Quant section includes basic maths concepts such as geometry, algebra, modern maths, number system, and so on.
• CAT Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation: This section consists of two parts - Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation. The questions are loosely generic to test a candidate’s logical skills. The questions from Data Interpretation comprise the case lets and graphs.

CAT 2021 Exam Pattern

Given below is the exam structure. The CAT pattern has been the same for the last two years.

Total Questions	100
Question Types	MCQs and TITA
Test Time	180 minutes
Test Sections	Three: Quantitative Aptitude  Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation Verbal Ability Reading Comprehension
Marks	300
Negative Marking	Yes; -1 mark for each incorrect attempt.

Check: For the number of questions per section and total sectional marks, see this article/site page.

CAT 2021 Exam Score

CAT exam score validity is only for a year. Each IIM will have its own score cut-off or sectional cut-off to filter candidates for the next round of the admission process. The score obtained by a candidate is subjected to normalization before it is converted and published as a percentile. This percentile is used for shortlisting candidates for the next round of the admission process.

CAT 2021 Admissions Procedure 

For admission into the prestigious Postgraduate Programmes (PGP) at IIMs and MBA courses at other institutions/universities, a candidate has to pass the Written Aptitude Test (WAT). Then, he/she has to give their Personal Interview (PI).

At the time of the PI and joining the program, there will be ‘Eligibility Verification’:

• Mark sheets & Degree Certificate: A candidate has to submit original mark sheets along with the photocopies of the same at the time of the PI, in support of their eligibility. And at the time of joining the program, they have to submit the original degree certificate and mark sheets along with the attested copies of the same.

• Reservation and/or Disability Certificate: Those who claim reservation and/or disability (SC, ST, NC-BC, EWS, and PwD) have to show their original certificate and the attested copy at the time of the PI. Plus, they have to submit the original certificate at the time of joining.

• Final year students with a required percentage: The applicants who are in the final year of their graduation have to submit a certificate form available from the exam official site. For complete information about this particular group, check the exam notification for that year.

Top Colleges Accepting CAT Exam Score

CAT scores are accepted by 20 IIMs and over 1,200 B schools across the country. You can visit the links to know the cut-offs, placements, fees, rankings, and selection process of each IIM.

List of IIMs accepting CAT scores
IIM Culcutta	IIM Ahmedabad
IIM Bangalore	IIM Lucknow
IIM Kozhikode	IIM Indore
IIM Shillong	IIM Rohtak
IIM Ranchi	IIM Raipur
IIM Udaipur	IIM Nagpur
IIM Tiruchirappalli	IIM Kashipur
IIM Vishakapatam	IIM Bodh Gaya
IIM Amritsar	IIM Sambalpur
IIM Sirmaur	IIM Jammu

Best CAT Coaching Centers in India / Top 5  CAT Coaching Centers in India

1. Carrere launcer
2. IMS
3. T.I.M.E
4. Endeavor careers
5. Byju's
6. Abhyaas
7. MBA Guru

How to Prepare for CAT 2021

Common Admission Test (CAT) 2021 is an exam that many of the candidates seeking admission to MBA colleges in India prepare for every year. CAT is difficult to crack, you need a lot of planning beforehand to crack the exam. Candidates must also start the preparation plan a few days or weeks before the examination. Here are some tips to crack CAT easily  And also, take a decent number of CAT mock tests and analyze the results. The more questions you practice, the better you perform. Going through important concepts and formulae is another way to boost performance on exam days.

CAT 2021 Admit Cards

CAT 2021 Admit Card will available for download from the official website 10 days prior to the exam. CAT 2021 Hall Ticket having the applicant's details and information regarding the test or exam venue, session, exam location, etc. In order to enter the CAT entrance exam hall, the candidate provides his/her valid government of India ID Proof. Candidates belonging to reserved categories (Like SC/ST/BC) should verify whether the right category has been mentioned in the CAT 2021 Admit Card. Candidates can follow the steps given below to download the CAT 2021 admit card.

• Step 1: Visit the official website of the CAT Entrance Exam.
• Step 2: In the notification section, click on the 'Admit card' link.
• Step 3: Login using the credentials provided at the time of registration.
• Step 4: View and download the admit card.
• Step 5: Take a printout of the same.

Moreover, if the candidate finds any difficulty with the registration or application form then he or she may contact the CAT center with the below-given contact details given below:

• 1. 1800-266-3549
  2. [email protected]

Documents Required at Counselling/ Documents required for CAT 2021 

• Class 10, Class 12, graduation, and professional (if applicable) mark sheets
• Provisional Certificates( PC) of Graduation
• Proof of date of birth (DOB)
• Caste certificate (if applicable)
• Admission letter
• CAT admit card
• Address proof of parents
• Passport size photographs (colour/black & white)
• CAT Scorecard

CAT 2021 Exam Centers

CAT Exam State/UTs	CAT Test Cities
Andaman & Nicobar Islands	Port Blair
Andhra Pradesh	Chittoor, Kurnool, Nellore, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam
Arunachal Pradesh	Itanagar
Assam	Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh
Bihar	Aurangabad, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Purnea
Chandigarh	Chandigarh
Chattisgarh	Bhilai, Raipur
Delhi	New Delhi
Goa	Madagaon, Verna
Gujarat	Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara, Anand
Haryana	Ambala, Bahadurgarh, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Palwal, Rohtak, Panipat and Sonipat
Himachal Pradesh	Solan, Simla
Jammu & Kashmir	Jammu
Jharkhand	Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Ranchi
Karnataka	Bengaluru, Belgaum, Bidar, Mangalore, Mysore, Shimoga, Udupi, Ramanagara, Davanagere, Chikballapur, Mandya, Kolar, Hassan, Tumkur
Kerala	Kochi, Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram, Trivandrum
Madhya Pradesh	Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Jabalpur, Sagar
Maharashtra	Ahmednagar, Amravati, Aurangabad, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nashik, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Solapur, Nanded, Ratnagiri, Satara, and Thane
Meghalaya	Shillong
Odisha	Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur, Berhampur, Balasore, Rourkela
Puducherry	Puducherry
Punjab	Fatehgarh Sahib, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Mohali, Patiala, Ropar, Sangrur, Mohali, Paghwara
Rajasthan	Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Udaipur, Sikar, Alwar, Ajmer
Tamil Nadu	Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Namakkal, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli and Thanjavur
Telangana	Hyderabad, Karim Nagar, Khammam
Uttar Pradesh	Agra, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Varanasi, Mathura, Bairelly
Uttarakhand	Dehradun, Roorkee
West Bengal	Durgapur, Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata, Kalyani, Siliguri, Burdwan, Asansol.

CAT 2021 Answer Key

Candidates can follow the steps given below to download the CAT 2021 answer key, Kindly follow the steps: Step 1: Visit the website, www.iimcat.ac.in Step 2: Click on the ‘Candidate login’ link/button. Step 3: Enter your login credentials to get to your dashboard. Step 4: Dashboard will display answer key, question paper, and response sheet for download.

CAT 2021 Result

IIM is expected to release CAT 2021 Results in the 1^st or 2^nd week of January 2022 and scorecards will be published online along with the results. CAT scores will be valid for 1 year.

How to check CAT 2021 Results?

Candidates can follow the detailed steps given below to check their CAT 2021 results.

• Step 1: Visit the official website of the CAT Entrance Exam.
• Step 2: The site will be redirected to the login page.
• Step 3: Provide the User ID and Password.
• Step 4: The site will be redirected to the candidate's account page.
• Step 5: Click on the Download Scorecard link and download it for future reference.

Best Reference Books for CAT 2021

Newspapers and magazines are essential to crack CAT 2021 Group Discussion and Personal Interview Rounds such as The Hindu, The Statesman, India Today, Business Line are among a few recommended newspapers and magazines. The most prominent Books to crack the CAT 2021 exam are:

CAT 2021 Expected Cut-off

Category	VRC	DILR	QA	Overall
General	70	70	70	80
NC-OBC	65	65	65	75
SC	60	60	60	70
ST	50	50	50	60
PWD	60	60	60	7

Factors Which Disqualify A Candidate For CAT 2021

• If the candidate has not appeared for their bachelor's degree and is in the progress of completing their Professional Degree (CA/CS/ICWA)
• If the candidate is pursuing both their bachelor's degree as well as a professional degree but has yet to complete both of them.
• If the graduation is not recognized by the UGC/AICTE/MHRD, the candidate will be considered ineligible to appear for the CAT Exam.

Contradictions Between CAT Exam Eligibility & IIM Exam Eligibility

While the IIMs and CAT exams are almost the same, their eligibility criteria are different. There are some small points of difference that every candidate dreaming of studying at the IIMs should be aware of. For CAT you can go with 2 years Bachelor’s degree, but IIMs require a 3 years Bachelor's degree for their Management Programs. Apart from the above-mentioned clause, there are no contradictions between the CAT Exam Eligibility and the IIM Eligibility

GMAT VS CAT

Features	GMAT	CAT
Exam Full Form	Graduate Management Admission Test	Common Admission Test
Conducting body	Graduate Management Admission Council	Indian Institute of Management
Mode of Exam	Online	Online
Validity	Global/for five years	In India only, valid for only one year
Exam Fee	USD 250	General and NC-OBC: Rs 1900
		SC/ST/PWD (DA): Rs 950
Frequency	Any time of the year	Once a year (November end or December beginning)
Exam Sections	Verbal Reasoning	Quantitative Aptitude
	Quantitative Reasoning	Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning
	Integrated Reasoning	Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
	Analytical Writing Assessment
Number of sections	4	3
Number of questions	81 Questions	100 questions
Exam Duration	187 minutes	180 minutes
Difficulty level	High	High
Marking Scheme	0-6 for Analytical Writing Assessment	+3 for the correct answer
	1-8 for Integrated Reasoning	-1 for incorrect answer
	0-60 for Verbal Reasoning and
	0-60 for Quantitative Reasoning

CAT Marking Scheme Vs Percentile Score

Raw Marks in CAT Exam	Scaled Score in CAT Exam	CAT Percentile Score
+3 Marks for each right answer -1 Mark for each wrong answer (only for MCQs) Maximum marks in CAT 2020: 228 You can check your CAT marks with the CAT answer keys released by IIMs with the help of the above calculation	IIMs are conducting CAT 2020 in three Slots. CAT question paper difficulty Level in the three Slots may differ IIMs use Score Equating and Normalization process for all the  slots on the basis of  different sets of test papers The scaled score arrives on the basis of this normalization process CAT Scaled score is usually more than your raw CAT marks but it may remain below your raw CAT marks	Percentile Score in CAT is the total percentage of the candidates who score equal to or less than the candidate in question. CAT percentile is related to the relative performance of the candidate in the CAT exam and not the actual performance Thus, the candidates scoring 80 percentile & above refer to the candidates who are top 20% CAT test-takers

CAT 2021 Contact Details:

•   1-800-209-0830 (Toll-Free) - Call on the Toll-free number, Monday to Saturday 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM (excluding National holidays).
• [email protected]

• +91-731-2439410
• [email protected]
•  CAT Centre Indian Institute of Management Indore Prabandh Shikhar, Rau - Pithampur Road, Indore- 453556, Madhya Pradesh, India

FAQs (From Students)

1.How many times in a year is the CAT exam conducted?

A: Only once a year

2.How many times can a candidate sit for the CAT exam in a lifetime?

A: There is no cap on the number of attempts.

3.Are the Overseas Universities/B-schools considering the CAT exam score?

A: No, they do not.

4.I made a mistake during the exam registration. Can I correct them?

A: No, you cannot. Once you ‘Confirm’ your details you cannot edit the personal details such as DOB, email ID, phone number, etc. You have to re-register with a new unique email ID. No refund will be given for the earlier incorrect registration.