CAT 2018 Answer Key to be released soon

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 4: IIM Calcutta, the conducting body of CAT 2018, is likely to release the answer key of the exam soon. There is a high possibility that the official key gets released towards the end of the first week of December 2018, possibly on December 7. Prof. Sumanta Basu, CAT 2018 Convenor and IIM Calcutta professor and admission chairperson told Careers360, "Concerned authority is working on the CAT 2018 answer key. You may expect an announcement in 10 working days."  Last year, CAT 2017 answer keys were released on December 7. In order to download the keys, candidates would need to visit the official website of the exam and log in with their CAT user id and password.

With the help of the answer key, the management aspirants who appeared for CAT 2018 will be able to check their answers to calculate their estimated score. It will allow them to list down the B-schools where they are eligible to apply as per their score. It is likely that the candidates would be given the option to file objections against one or more question/s by paying a stipulated fee. The concerned authority would scrutinise the questions and answers and take remedial actions. 

Some IIMs have already released their CAT cutoffs and criteria for the admission process. The candidates who meet the cutoff criterion will get into the selection process - WAT/GD and PI. The overall performance of a candidate in all the selection rounds including CAT score, past academic scores, work experience, etc. will be considered for admissions.

To qualify for the admission process of topmost B-schools in the country which accept CAT scores, candidates would need to score at least 90 percentile and above. Some B-schools give preference to CAT score in the final merit list while some prefer the performance in Personal Interview over CAT score. It varies from institute to institute.

CAT 2018 was conducted on November 25, 2018, Sunday, in two slots at 147 centres across the country. Apart from 20 IIMs, 100 other B-schools in the country accept CAT scores for MBA/PGDM admissions. As many as 2,09,405 candidates appeared for the test out of 2,40,338 applicants. The number of candidates who did not appear for the test is 30,933, which is lesser than that of last year.