CAT Previous Year Paper Guide: Practise, Analyse, Improve

Which CAT previous year question paper to start with

CAT moved to a two hour format with 40 minute sections from the 2020 exam onwards. The question count has varied since then, from the mid 60s to the mid 70s, and the most recent papers carried 68 (check the bulletin for any further change). Papers from these recent years match today's exam most closely.

The section topics themselves are listed on the CAT syllabus page.

What recent slot papers reveal

• VARC: four reading comprehension passages carry two thirds of the marks. Passages lean towards abstract topics such as philosophy, economics, cognition and culture. Para jumbles and odd sentence questions are usually TITA, so they carry no negative marking.
• DILR: about four sets in recent papers, with wide swings in difficulty from slot to slot. Usually one or two sets are approachable, and choosing them quickly is half the battle.
• QA: arithmetic and algebra dominate. Many questions are short to read but need a clever route rather than long calculation. Each paper also slips in some geometry, a few number theory items and a little probability or counting.

Slot to slot, the papers are of broadly similar level after scaling, so do not worry about solving only the "easy" slot.

How to practise with past CAT papers

1. Simulate the real test. Sit for 120 minutes, keep the 40 minute section lock, and use only a basic on-screen style calculator.
2. Score it honestly with +3, minus 1 for wrong MCQs and 0 for wrong TITA answers.
3. Review for at least as long as you solved. Sort every question into four boxes: correct and quick, correct but slow, wrong, and skipped but solvable.
4. Fix the slow and the skipped-but-solvable first. These are the easiest marks to gain.
5. Re-solve the DILR sets you left a week later, without the solution.

Practice items in the CAT style

We composed the five items below for this page so you can warm up on the familiar formats; no slot paper was copied. The key sits under them.

1. (QA) A shopkeeper marks an article 40% above its cost price and then gives a discount of 25% on the marked price. What is his profit percentage?
2. (QA, TITA) An arithmetic progression has first term 3 and common difference 4. What is the sum of its first 20 terms?
3. (QA) If log to the base 2 of x, plus log to the base 2 of (x minus 2), equals 3, what is x?
4. (LR) Three boxes are labelled Apples, Oranges and Mixed, and every label is wrong. You may take out one fruit from one box without looking inside. From which box should you pick to relabel all three correctly?
5. (VARC) Choose the best summary: "Cities that plan only for cars soon find that new roads fill with new traffic. Wider roads invite more trips, and the jams return. Planners who invest in buses, trains and walking routes see more lasting gains." (a) Road widening fails because people prefer trains (b) Expanding roads attracts more traffic, so transport alternatives give more durable relief (c) Cars should be banned from cities (d) Traffic jams cannot be solved

Answers: 1: 5% (1.4 times 0.75 is 1.05). 2: 820. 3: x = 4, since x(x minus 2) = 8. 4: the box labelled Mixed; whatever fruit you draw tells you what it really holds, and the other two labels then follow. 5: (b).

Where to get the CAT previous year paper officially

• Answer key window: after the exam, the convenor IIM releases the provisional answer key on the official CAT website and candidates can view the questions with their own responses while raising objections. In recent cycles the slot-wise question papers and keys have been shown during this window; download them while the link is open.
• Official mock test: the CAT website provides a free mock with the real interface a few weeks before the exam. Use it to get used to the screen, the TITA box and the on-screen calculator.

Papers circulated elsewhere are usually reconstructed from these releases or from memory, so cross-check the question count and section order before relying on any copy.

Turning paper scores into a target

Your raw score on a past paper does not directly give a percentile, because scaling depends on that year's candidates. Use past papers instead to track trends in your own accuracy and attempts per section. If you are consistently weak in one section, remember that IIMs apply sectional minimums; see the CAT cut off page for how shortlisting works. Many aspirants also compare their level with other MBA papers such as the XAT.

Should you buy a CAT previous year question paper book?

A compiled book of solved CAT papers is convenient for offline practice, especially for older three hour papers. Check two things before you buy: that it states the exact year and slot of each paper, and that it has full explanations rather than just keys. For recent years, the papers and keys shown on the official website are the authentic source, and the original on-screen format is closer to what you will face on exam day.