CAT 2025 slot 3 toughest overall, quant most challenging; VARC, DILR doable

The Common Admission Test (CAT 2025) has concluded without major glitches in all slots. Students who appeared in slots 1 and 2 reported that the exams went through smoothly; however, slot 3 was significantly tougher– especially the quant section. CAT 2025 Live updates .

About 2.58 lakh candidates took the CAT 2025 entrance exam out of the 2.95 lakh who were registered and eligible. The overall attendance was approximately 86%.

The CAT 2025 consists of three sections: data interpretation and logical reasoning (DILR), quantitative aptitude (QA), and verbal ability and reading comprehension (VARC). A total of 66 questions were asked in the CAT 2025 question paper.

However, the number of questions in all the sections remained the same as that of the previous year. The VARC section had 24 questions, while the DILR and QA sections had 22 questions each.

Also read CAT 2025 exam pattern unchanged; all you need to know about section-wise questions, selection process

According to the marking scheme of CAT 2025, 3 marks will be awarded for every right answer, and for every incorrect answer, one mark will be deducted.

Slot-wise analysis after CAT 2025

Check the overall CAT 2025 slot-wise analysis here, including slot 1, slot 2, and slot 3, along with section-wise difficulty levels and student reactions.

CAT Slot 1: Easy to moderate start

Many termed the first slot of the CAT 2025 exam, which was conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) Kozhikode between 8:30 am and 10:30 am, as "easy to moderate".

According to the analysis of the CAT 2025 slot 1 , DILR was found quite doable by the test takers, while Quant proved to be tricky, especially in the arithmetic section.

The pattern of the CAT 2025 test was similar to previous years: a total of 68 questions divided among VARC, DILR, and Quant.

CAT Slot 2: Balanced difficulty, quant harder than slot 1

Overall, the slot 2 that held from 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm was seen to be "moderately difficult". Students observed that Quant was tough when compared to slot 1.

Abhimanyu, who took the CAT 2025 slot 2 , reported that VARC was easy, DILR had long questions, and Quant was "complex but manageable".

Also read CAT 2025: Four IIMs exit Common Admission Process to join JAP 2026, leave MBA aspirants confused

CAT Slot 3: Quant tough, VARC and DILR manageable

The final slot of the CAT exam, from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm, was considered moderately difficult to challenging overall.

VARC section: 24 questions, including four RC passages - two rated difficult, one manageable; verbal ability includes parajumbles, para summaries, odd-one-out, and para-completion questions.

DILR was labelled easy to moderate – overall manageable – with a mix of sets such as circular arrangements, scatter-plot DI, dual sets, and call-based reasoning.

Quant was the most difficult, with 8–9 arithmetic questions, many involving heavy calculations, making the CAT exam, 2025 slot 3 much tougher compared to slots 1 and 2.