CAT 2021: What all can change this year? Know details here

Common Admission Test (CAT) might see some changes this year in terms of the paper pattern, number of questions, exam duration, etc. COVID-19 pandemic is one of the factors that might lead to these changes in CAT 2021.

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Sundararajan | June 30, 2021 | 05:59 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Common Admission Test 2021 will be conducted by IIM Ahmedabad. Assistant Professor at IIMA, MP Ram Mohan, has been appointed as the convener of CAT 2021. IIM Ahmedabad hosted the first online CAT exam in 2009 and then in 2015. It has been observed in the past that whenever IIM Ahmedabad is delegated with the responsibility of conducting CAT, changes are introduced in the exam. Moreover, this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CAT 2021 might see some changes in terms of duration, exam pattern, or the number of questions, etc

The official CAT notification 2021 will be released in July in line with the previous year's trends. However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 in the country this year, the conduct of CAT 2021 remains a question.

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CAT notification: Expected changes in CAT 2021

  • So far, no details regarding CAT 2021 have been released by the authorities. However, considering that IIM Ahmedabad is convening CAT 2021, it is expected that some changes will be made in the CAT exam.

  • Since 2015, when IIM Ahmedabad conducted CAT, several changes were made in the CAT exam pattern, the number of CAT sections were increased from two to three, and descriptive questions were introduced.

  • After that, minor changes were introduced in the CAT. IIM Ahmedabad has not yet announced any changes for CAT 2021 this year.

Changes introduced in CAT exam last year

  1. The CAT application fee was increased from Rs 1,900 to Rs 2,000 for general category students and from Rs 950 to Rs 1,000 for SC/ ST students.

  1. The duration of the CAT exam was reduced from 180 minutes to 120 minutes, so students were given a section-time limit of 40 minutes.

  1. The number of test slots was increased by three compared to previous years when the exam was conducted in two slots.

Particulars

Changes in CAT that happened last year

Duration of the CAT exam

3 hours (180 minutes)

2 hours (120 minutes)

Section-wise duration

60 minutes per section (Total 180 minutes)

  • 40 min for each section (VARC, DILR, QA).

  • 53 min 20 sec for PwD candidates for each section.

Number of questions

100 questions

76 questions (54 MCQs and 22 Non-MCQs)

CAT exam total marks

300 marks

228 marks

Expected CAT exam pattern 2021

CAT Particulars

CAT 2021 pattern (if COVID situation improves)

CAT 2021 Pattern (if COVID situation does not improve)

CAT exam duration

3 hours

2 hours

Test slots

2 slots

3 slots

Total number of questions

100 questions

76 questions

Total marks

300 marks

228 marks

No. of questions in VARC section

34 questions

26 questions

No. of questions in DILR section

32 questions

24 questions

No. of questions in QA section

34 questions

26 questions

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