CAT 2013 First Day - 16th October Analysis and Estimated Cut Offs - Morning Paper

CAT 2013 First Day - 16th October Analysis and Estimated Cut Offs - Morning Paper

Finally the exam window of CAT 2013 started from today (16th October). As this was the first day of CAT 2013 the number of test takers were very less as serious CAT takers avoid taking CAT on the first day as they are wary of some last minute changes.

So finally the First Day Morning Shift paper of 16th October CAT 2013 is over and loads of candidates who are having their paper lined up in upcoming days of CAT 2013 window would be vigorously searching the internet trying to know about the difficulty level of this paper. So below I am quoting down a detailed analysis of CAT 2013 First Day Morning Shift Paper - 16th October.

Analysis of CAT 2013 First Day Morning Shift Paper - 16th October-

1st Section  - Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation of CAT 2013 16th October Morning Shift Paper

The pattern of this section was similar to the previous year pattern of 30 questions to be attempted in 70 minutes. 9-10 questions were from Data Interpretation and 20-21 questions were of Quantitative Aptitude. An important thing to notice in this window was that some questions of Venn Diagrams were seen. Venn Diagrams is a very important topic to cover and the most peculiar thing about this topic Venn Diagrams is that it can appear in any one of the three sections - be it Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation. 

Coming to the difficulty level of the questions that were encountered by the students in this section, the difficulty level of the questions was very evenly distributed across the paper. By saying this, I mean that you can not say the paper to be extremely easy or easy and at the same time you can not say the paper to very hard or even hard. So if I want to define the difficulty level of this paper in a phrase I would say that the paper was "Moderately Difficult But Totally Doable". Their were no such questions that were based on very tough and complex theorems such as Wilson Theorem, Euler Theorem and others. All the questions would be easy for you if you have developed an aptitude approach towards questions during your preparation. Mathematical approach would not help you a lot in this sort of paper but if you have done your preparation in a way in which you have looked for concepts and shortcuts involved in different questions you can give a very good shot at this paper. Many of my students who have attempted this question paper say that found the paper to be very easy and they were able to attempt even 25 questions out of 30 with full accuracy. But I have also heard reviews of some other aspirants who say that they wasted too much of time in questions that were tough and thereby ended up not attempting the easy ones and sitters. 

How many attempts in Section 1 (Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation) of CAT 2013 can be considered good - 

(a) If you have attempted 25 questions with a possibility of not having more than 2 or 3 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 99.62 in Section 1 

(b) If you have attempted 20 questions with a possibility of not having more than 2 or 3 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 98.30 in Section 1 

(c) If you have attempted 15 questions with a possibility of not having more than 2 or 3 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 94 in Section 1

Analysis of CAT 2013 First Day Morning Shift Paper - 16th October-

2nd Section  - Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning of CAT 2013 16th October Morning Shift Paper

The break up of the questions that appeared in Section 2 of CAT 2013 is as follows - 

1. 9 Questions of Logical Reasoning

2. 10 Questions of Reading Comprehension

3. 11 Questions of Verbal Ability that includes Vocabulary Questions, Fill in the Blanks Questions, Para Completion Questions, Para Jumbles, Wrong Usage Questions.

This Paper was also evenly distributed in terms of difficulty level. Of the three Logical Reasoning Case-lets that were encountered by students one was very easy, one was moderately difficult but doable but one was lengthy and tricky and was said to be tough. The students who would have solved all the three case-lets correctly definitely have sought an upper hand in this section of CAT 2013. However this pattern is the same general pattern of difficulty level of Logical Reasoning Case-lets that was seen in last year exam(CAT 2012).

Same pattern was seen in case of Reading Comprehension Passages. There were three passages in which one was easy, one was moderately difficult and one was very tricky. 

11 questions of Verbal Ability - some were difficult and some were easy. My students discussed some questions that were present in their question sets and I found that those questions were not very difficult, they were definitely doable. Unfortunately I can not post those questions here as that would be unlawful, but by totally analyzing the paper in deep, I can sum up that if you have done enough practice of questions of English in Mocks and in your study material you would be able to do a fair amount of questions with good accuracy.

How many attempts in Section 2 (Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning) of CAT 2013 can be considered good - 

(a) If you have attempted 30 questions with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 99.82 in Section 2

(b) If you have attempted 25 questions with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 99.17 in Section 1 

(c) If you have attempted 20 questions with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 97 in Section 1 

(d) If you have attempted 15 questions with a possibility of not having more than 1 or 2 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 95 in Section 1 

CAT 2013 Estimated Percentile Score -

(a) If you have attempted 45 questions out of 60 with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 99.50 in CAT 2013

(b) If you have attempted 50 questions out of 60 with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 99.80 in CAT 2013

(c) If you have attempted 55 questions out of 60 with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 99.92 in CAT 2013

(d) If you have attempted 60 questions out of 60 with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 99.97 in CAT 2013

(e) If you have attempted 40 questions out of 60 with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 99.10 in CAT 2013

(f) If you have attempted 35 questions out of 60 with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 97.5 in CAT 2013

(g) If you have attempted 30 questions out of 60 with a possibility of not having more than 4 or 5 questions wrong than you will score a percentile in excess of 95 in CAT 2013

At the end guys to quote it simply, paper was easy for aspirants who have done hard work for the whole year and was difficult for those who were not well prepared. So if you have worked hard and have made decent attempts(around 40) with accuracy, you will score good percentiles definitely and one more thing. Nowhere in this article I have mentioned that you have to maximize your attempts. In your CAT paper only attempt those questions of which you know the answer. I do not take the responsibility that what I have written would really happen, no body can take this responsibility, even the biggest coaching institutes say that the cut offs released by them are their tentative guess. It is only an effort from my side to help you guys.  BEST OF LUCK.....

All of the above analysis is my personal experience and also by the knowledge that I have gathered by interacting with Test Takers of the last 3 years online CAT. If you think that their is some genuine issue in this analysis please post your opinion below in the comments.

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