Analysis: CAT 2006

Karthik · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 12:32 pm Post subject: Analysis: CAT 2006

Expected Cutoffs for CAT2006

Section-I Section-II Section-III
Area VA/RC DI QA
Cut-offs 18-20 marks 26-28 marks 32-34 marks

Overall Cutoff

1 IIM Call : 100-102 marks
6 IIM Calls : 124+ marks

Comprehensive Analysis

The most nervous ten minutes that the takers of CAT 2006 would undoubtedly have been those ten minutes that they spent staring at the cover page of their respective test booklets as the instructions were being announced over the public address systems. Gulping down today’s “surprise” – which, in the light of the CAT pattern of the last few years, cannot actually be termed a surprise – would have taken most students the entire two and half hours. CAT 2006 was in fact a real tough nut to crack. With just 25 questions per section, an out of the blue five-choices-per-question format, and an obviously malicious feel to it, this CAT was more of a wild tiger than a tame feline.

However, students of T.I.M.E. AIMCATs would have faced the “tiger” 2006 in a much more composed manner when compared to the unfortunate many who missed out on the creatively prognostic and perceivably “quirky” AIMCATs. This is because of the simple fact that, through the huge number of AIMCATs they had already taken, they were already quite familiar with many patterns of papers that were very closely similar and in fact even exactly identical – something with which only those who chose not to miss out on AIMCAT0702 would concur – to the pattern of the actual CAT 2006.

A careful analysis of the paper reveals that the VA/RC section was stripped of all its VA. It had in fact donned an “infer-me-if-you-can” look – a relatively familiar sight from the AIMCATs. The QA section was stripped of its aura of toughness and was presented in a platter of simplicity – a fact that unfortunately could not be exploited to the fullest considering the tricky choices and time consuming nature of most of the questions. The DI/Reasoning section virtually completed its gradual transformation – being witnessed over the past couple of years – into a completely Reasoning oriented paper.

Let us take a closer look at each of the three sections in the paper:

Quantitative Aptitude:

The Quant section this time had a distinct feel of “easiness” to it. But that should not fool one to concluding about how the students would have actually performed in it. That’s because what we are referring to is the CAT - as precocious a thing as could be!

This section would have proved to be a relief for all those who had a torrid time with the AIMCATs! For a change even the so called ‘Weak in QA’ students were able to identify and solve quite a few questions.

The kind of questions asked were intuitive in nature and required a very analytical and logic based approach which is a significant deviation from the standards established by CAT in the previous years. For starters the questions weren’t verbose and neither was the wording complex which worked to the advantage of the many with poor reading speeds and/or comprehension.

Given this any attempts in the range of 12-15 would be considered good with an accuracy of 80%.

The cutoff in this section is all set to create a record new ‘high’ and would be in the range of 32-34. A score of 35-44 would be considered good and anything above 45, excellent. This might seem to be on the lower side but given the misgivings that one has with this section historically and considering the overall difficulty level we would stand with this range.

DI/Reasoning:

After having barely survived the carnage in the most “scoring” of all sections (for all those who started with RC/VA), students would have been quite demoralized and would not have been in the right frame of mind to pick out the easy sets (Did I just hear ‘EASY’?).

There were quite a few sets where one could go for the kill and gain the lost ground. The table on ‘Class X board exams’ had at least 3 questions that could be solved with just observation alone. However, the very idea of the unusual manner in which the averages were to be calculated would have made many a student too uncomfortable to have been in his/her elements while tackling the set. Students could also have looked at attempting around 2-3 questions each on the Network problem and the reasoning set on team selection. The sets on ‘Erdos’ and ‘MCS’ shares were quite difficult and anyone who did a ‘well-left’ on these sets should be complimented on their judgment. Given the luxury of commenting on this section from the cool confines of our office we would say that 15-17 attempts would be par for the course but given the intense stress filled environment that a student faced in the arena, 10-12 would be considered to be a good number of attempts (with an accuracy of around 80%).

A score of 29-35 was quite possible. Any score in the range of 35-45 would be considered good and anything above 45 would be excellent.

The cut-off in this section would be in the range of 26-28 marks.

VA/RC:

Most people would agree that this section was more a nightmare than merely a difficult section. All those who had counted on this as their mainstay would have been thoroughly mauled (for sheer the lack of a more sinister word). Students who have always found this section to be their bane would have now found that the ‘Relative Gap’ that they had vis-à-vis their more vaunted peers would have shrunk drastically. And all those who wished to ride into glory on their most trusted ‘steed’ had to make do with a ‘mule’. Talking of beasts, this feline had too many tricks in its bag!

Facts, Inferences and Judgments are back again after a long hiatus and most students would concede that their absence all these years was welcome. Many who had marked choice ‘X’ for a particular question would have felt that they were ‘Absolutely’ correct yet so would have many others who had marked ‘Y’ for the very same question. These 5 Q’s, along with the 5 choices, were the most tricky that CAT has ever thrown at us. Good attempts here would be around 3-4 with a 50% accuracy (translating into a score of around 3-5 marks).

The three RC passages were straight from HELL with most of them being so dense as to give serious competition to the densest element on this planet!! The students would have found that reading the philosophical treatises of Plato or the Psycho Analysis of Freud to be child’s play compared to what was on offer today! However, one of the three passages was not really as bad to read but had a setback of having several really close answer choices. All the fancy talk of time management would have been dealt a severe blow here as most would have tried to spend additional time here to compensate for the difficulty level. All said and done attempting 6-8 questions in two out of the three passages with a strike rate of 70% would be quite an achievement (thus translating into a score of around 10-12).

Many a student would have desperately looked at the paragraph completion questions for the elusive marks and would have come a cropper with all the five choices looking like ‘excellent’ answers. 3-4 attempts with a 50% accuracy is what one could expect here as well (translating into a score of around 3-5 marks).

Click here to view the Sources for RC Passages in CAT2006

The cut-off in this section is all set to create a record new ‘low’ and would be in the range of 18-20. A score of 21-24 would be considered good and anything above 25, excellent.

The overall cutoff in this paper for atleast one IIM call is expected to be 100-102 marks. A score of 124+ marks should fetch all six IIM calls.

Key for CAT2006

QNo. Test Form No.
111 222 333 444
1 1 3 3 2 & 3
2 3 4 1 1
3 4 1 4 5
4 5 5 2 4
5 5 1 5 3
6 3 2 1 4
7 1 4 5 5
8 1 2 2 & 3 5
9 4 3 4 1
10 5 2 3 3
11 4 3 2 3
12 2 5 3 4
13 2 2 2 5
14 2 4 2 1
15 3 1 4 1
16 3 2 & 3 3 2
17 2 5 1 2
18 1 4 5 3
19 5 1 5 4
20 4 3 4 2
21 5 5 3 3
22 2 & 3 5 1 4
23 1 4 5 1
24 4 3 1 5
25 3 1 4 2
26 3 4 5 3
27 1 3 3 4
28 2 1 1 4
29 3 5 4 3
30 4 4 4 **
31 2 3 2 3
32 1 3 1 1
33 3 2 3 4
34 1 4 1 2
35 3 1 3 4
36 3 3 3 2
37 4 4 4 1
38 4 4 4 3
39 3 3 3 1
40 4 4 4 3
41 3 3 3 3
42 1 1 1 1
43 4 4 4 2
44 2 2 2 3
45 4 4 4 4
46 1 2 4 3
47 5 1 3 4
48 4 3 1 5
49 4 1 2 4
50 3 3 3 1
51 1 2 1 2
52 2 2 5 1
53 1 1 2 5
54 2 5 2 1
55 5 1 4 2
56 ** 4 * 3
57 2 5 5 2
58 4 2 5 3
59 * 2 2 5
60 4 3 4 2
61 2 4 3 4
62 4 4 1 1
63 1 2 2 4
64 4 4 4 2
65 4 1 4 4
66 3 5 1 2
67 2 4 4 5
68 5 * 5 5
69 1 3 ** 4
70 5 2 5 *
71 5 2 2 4
72 5 1 2 5
73 2 5 1 2
74 5 5 3 5
75 3 5 5 1

* Correct answer not present among the choices
** Data printed incorrectly

The attached file is the complete solution from TIME.

Karthik · Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:13 am Post subject: CAT 2006 Results

The results of the CAT 2006 will be released today. Good luck aspirants!!!