CAT Exam Cheatsheet Cheatsheet

🎓

CAT Exam Overview

FUNDAMENTAL

Exam Structure

Conducting Body

Mode

Sections

Duration

Marking

Non-MCQ (TITA)

Eligibility

Top Colleges

Section-wise Breakdown

Section	Questions	Time	Weightage
VARC	24 (16-18 MCQ + 6-8 TITA)	40 min	34%
DILR	20 (14-16 MCQ + 4-6 TITA)	40 min	33%
QA	22 (16-18 MCQ + 4-6 TITA)	40 min	33%
Total	66	120 min	100%

Score vs Percentile Guide

╔══════════════════╦══════════════╦═══════════════╗
║ Target Percentile ║ Expected Score║ Raw Marks     ║
╠══════════════════╬══════════════╬═══════════════╣
║ 99+ percentile   ║ 145 - 165    ║ 72-83 / 198   ║
║ 95-99 percentile ║ 120 - 145    ║ 60-73 / 198   ║
║ 90-95 percentile ║ 100 - 120    ║ 50-60 / 198   ║
║ 85-90 percentile ║ 85 - 100     ║ 43-50 / 198   ║
║ 80-85 percentile ║ 72 - 85      ║ 36-43 / 198   ║
║ 75-80 percentile ║ 60 - 72      ║ 30-36 / 198   ║
╚══════════════════╩══════════════╩═══════════════╝

Note: Scores vary by difficulty; these are approximate ranges.

💡

CAT is a speed test, not just an accuracy test. The key differentiator is attempting the right questions and avoiding time traps. A 99%iler typically attempts 42-48 questions with 80-85% accuracy. Focus on accuracy first, then build speed.

🔢

Quantitative Aptitude (QA)

QUANT

QA Topic Distribution

Topic	Questions	Difficulty	Prep Priority
Arithmetic	8-10	Easy-Medium	⭐ Highest
Algebra	5-7	Medium-Hard	⭐ High
Geometry	3-5	Medium	⭐ High
Number System	2-3	Medium	⭐ Medium
Modern Math	2-4	Easy-Medium	⭐ Medium
Trigonometry	0-2	Easy	Low

Key Formulas to Remember

Topic	Formula
Time & Work	M₁D₁/W₁ = M₂D₂/W₂
TSD	Speed = Distance/Time; Relative speed (same dir) = \|a-b\|
SI/CI	SI = PRT/100; CI = P(1+r/n)^(nt) - P
AM-GM-HM	AM > GM > HM for positive numbers
Permutation	nPr = n!/(n-r)!
Combination	nCr = n! / (r!(n-r)!)
Quadratic	Sum = -b/a, Product = c/a

CAT QA Problem Solving

TOPIC-WISE STRATEGY
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════

1. ARITHMETIC (40% of QA) — Must do all
   → Percentages, Ratios, Profit & Loss
   → Time, Speed & Distance (trains, circular tracks)
   → Time & Work (pipe & cistern, efficiency)
   → Mixtures & Alligations
   → Simple & Compound Interest

2. ALGEBRA (30% of QA) — High ROI
   → Linear & Quadratic equations
   → Inequalities, Modulus, Functions
   → Logarithms, Surds & Indices
   → Sequences (AP, GP, AGP)

3. GEOMETRY (15% of QA) — Formula heavy
   → Triangles (congruence, similarity, area)
   → Circles (tangents, chords, cyclic)
   → Polygons, Mensuration (2D & 3D)
   → Coordinate Geometry (basics)

4. NUMBER SYSTEM (10% of QA)
   → Divisibility rules, remainders
   → HCF, LCM, Factors
   → Base systems, Digital roots

⚠️

Arithmetic is king in QA: 8-10 questions come from arithmetic every year. Master percentages, ratios, and time-speed-work — these are high-accuracy topics. Skip lengthy algebra if stuck; return later. TITA questions in QA are usually easier than MCQs.

📖

VARC (Verbal Ability & RC)

VERBAL

VARC Structure

Type	Questions	Weightage	Approach
Reading Comprehension	16 (4 passages)	67%	Read critically; map structure
Para Jumbles	3-4	12%	Find mandatory pairs
Para Summary	3-4	12%	Eliminate extreme options
Odd Sentence Out	2-3	8%	Find theme mismatch
Fill in Blanks	0-2	3%	Context + grammar

RC Passage Topics

Category	Examples	Difficulty
Philosophy/Ethics	Free will, morality, justice	Hard
Science/Tech	AI, genetics, space	Medium
Economics/Business	Trade, policy, markets	Medium
History/Culture	Civilization, art, society	Medium-Hard
Sociology	Gender, inequality, education	Medium
Psychology	Behavior, cognition, emotion	Medium-Hard

RC Reading Strategy — The 3-Pass Method

PASS 1 — SCANNING (1-2 min)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• Read first and last paragraph fully
• Read first line of each body paragraph
• Identify: topic, tone, author&apos;s stance
• Note: keywords, transitions (however, but, therefore)

PASS 2 — FIRST QUESTIONS (2-3 min)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• Answer main idea / tone questions immediately
• Answer specific detail questions you noticed while scanning
• These are quick wins from your initial reading

PASS 3 — DEEP DIVE FOR TOUGH ONES (5-8 min)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
• Re-read relevant paragraphs for inference questions
• Match evidence in passage to option statements
• Eliminate: extreme words, out of scope, opposite of passage

TOTAL TIME PER PASSAGE: 8-13 minutes

💡

RC is 67% of VARC: If you can consistently solve 3 out of 4 passages with 80% accuracy, you score 70%+ in VARC. Focus on reading diverse topics (The Economist, Aeon, Scientific American) daily. Speed reading at 300+ wpm with comprehension is the skill to build.

📊

DILR (Data Interpretation & LR)

LOGIC

DILR Structure

Type	Sets	Questions/Set	Difficulty
Tables + Charts	1-2 sets	4-6	Easy-Medium
Arrangements	1-2 sets	4-5	Medium-Hard
Games & Tournaments	0-1 set	4-5	Medium-Hard
Puzzles (Constraint)	1-2 sets	4-5	Medium
Venn Diagrams	0-1 set	3-4	Easy-Medium
Caselets	1 set	4-5	Medium
Binary Logic	0-1 set	4	Hard

Set Selection Strategy

Golden Rule

Easy Indicators

Hard Indicators

Time per Set

All-or-Nothing

TITA Advantage

DILR Problem Types & Approach

DI SETS — Data-Heavy
══════════════════════
• Table/Chart → Read title, labels, units FIRST
• Calculate averages, ratios, percentages mentally
• Look for trends and patterns before solving
• Mark up data you need; skip what you don&apos;t

LR SETS — Logic-Heavy
══════════════════════
• Linear Arrangement: North-South, floor-based
  → Draw grid; fill definite info first
• Circular Arrangement: Seating, round table
  → Fix one person; build relative positions
• Scheduling: Days, time slots, subjects
  → Use table; eliminate constraints one by one
• Grouping: Teams, committees
  → Use Venn or table; track included/excluded
• Games: Round-robin, knockout
  → Track W/L/D; deduce from points table

🎯

Exam Day Strategy

STRATEGY

Section-wise Time & Attempt Plan

╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║                 CAT EXAM STRATEGY (120 MINUTES)               ║
╠═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║                                                               ║
║ VARC (40 min) ─────────────────────────────────────────────── ║
║   0-2 min:   Scan all passages; select 3 easiest             ║
║   2-22 min:  Solve 3 RC passages (3.5 min each + Qs)        ║
║   22-32 min: Solve VA questions (para jumbles, summary)      ║
║   32-38 min: Attempt 4th RC passage (if time permits)        ║
║   38-40 min: Review and mark doubtful questions              ║
║   TARGET: 20-22 attempts, 80%+ accuracy                      ║
║                                                               ║
║ DILR (40 min) ────────────────────────────────────────────── ║
║   0-3 min:   Scan all 4 sets; pick 2 easiest                ║
║   3-15 min:  Solve Set 1 completely (4-6 Qs)                ║
║   15-27 min: Solve Set 2 completely (4-6 Qs)               ║
║   27-35 min: Attempt Set 3 partially (2-3 easy Qs)          ║
║   35-40 min: Review marked questions                        ║
║   TARGET: 14-16 attempts, 85%+ accuracy                      ║
║                                                               ║
║ QA (40 min) ──────────────────────────────────────────────── ║
║   0-2 min:   Scan all questions; categorize Easy/Medium/Hard║
║   2-20 min:  Solve 8-10 easy questions (2 min each)         ║
║   20-32 min: Solve 4-5 medium questions (2.5 min each)      ║
║   32-38 min: Attempt 2-3 hard/TITA questions               ║
║   38-40 min: Review and unmark doubtful                    ║
║   TARGET: 18-22 attempts, 85%+ accuracy                      ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Attempt Optimization

Scenario	VARC	DILR	QA	Total
Target 99%ile	20-22	14-16	18-22	52-60
Target 95%ile	16-18	12-14	15-18	43-50
Target 90%ile	14-16	10-12	12-15	36-43
Accuracy Target	80-85%	85-90%	85-90%	83-87%

When to Skip a Question

Signal	Action
No idea after 30 sec	Skip immediately
Two plausible options after 90 sec	Pick one and move on
Complex calculation needed	Skip; return later
unfamiliar passage topic	Still attempt; answers in text
2nd question in a set wrong	Skip entire set
Last 5 minutes of section	Only attempt sure shots

💡

Preparation Tips & Resources

PREP

6-Month Study Plan

Month	Focus Area	Daily Hours
1-2	Build basics (quant formulas, grammar rules)	3-4 hrs
3-4	Section-wise practice + 1 mock/week	4-5 hrs
5	Full-length mocks + analysis (2-3/week)	5-6 hrs
6	Revision + mocks + weak area focus	4-5 hrs

Recommended Resources

Resource	For Section	Type
Arun Sharma (Quant)	QA	Book
RS Aggarwal (Quant)	QA Basics	Book
Nishit Sinha (DILR)	DILR	Book
Ajay Singh (VARC)	VARC	Book
The Hindu / Economist	RC Reading	Daily habit
TIME / CL / IMS mocks	Full mocks	Online platform
Cracku / 2IIM	Topic-wise practice	Free/Free-mium

Mock Analysis

Reading Habit

Calculation Speed

Weak Area Focus

Consistency over Intensity

💡

CAT interview tips: Explain your section strategy and time allocation. Discuss how you handle negative marking decisions. Know the formula for percentiles. Explain how mock analysis improved your scores. Understand the difference between accuracy and attempts. Be ready to discuss your college preferences and why MBA.

⏳

Loading cheatsheet...

Section

Questions

Time

Weightage

VARC

24 (16-18 MCQ + 6-8 TITA)

40 min

34%

DILR

20 (14-16 MCQ + 4-6 TITA)

40 min

33%

22 (16-18 MCQ + 4-6 TITA)

40 min

33%

Total

120 min

100%

╔══════════════════╦══════════════╦═══════════════╗ ║ Target Percentile ║ Expected Score║ Raw Marks ║ ╠══════════════════╬══════════════╬═══════════════╣ ║ 99+ percentile ║ 145 - 165 ║ 72-83 / 198 ║ ║ 95-99 percentile ║ 120 - 145 ║ 60-73 / 198 ║ ║ 90-95 percentile ║ 100 - 120 ║ 50-60 / 198 ║ ║ 85-90 percentile ║ 85 - 100 ║ 43-50 / 198 ║ ║ 80-85 percentile ║ 72 - 85 ║ 36-43 / 198 ║ ║ 75-80 percentile ║ 60 - 72 ║ 30-36 / 198 ║ ╚══════════════════╩══════════════╩═══════════════╝ Note: Scores vary by difficulty; these are approximate ranges.

Topic

Questions

Difficulty

Prep Priority

Arithmetic

8-10

Easy-Medium

⭐ Highest

Algebra

5-7

Medium-Hard

⭐ High

Geometry

3-5

Medium

⭐ High

Number System

2-3

Medium

⭐ Medium

Modern Math

2-4

Easy-Medium

⭐ Medium

Trigonometry

0-2

Easy

Low

Topic

Formula

Time & Work

M₁D₁/W₁ = M₂D₂/W₂

TSD

Speed = Distance/Time; Relative speed (same dir) = |a-b|

SI/CI

SI = PRT/100; CI = P(1+r/n)^(nt) - P

AM-GM-HM

AM > GM > HM for positive numbers

Permutation

nPr = n!/(n-r)!

Combination

nCr = n! / (r!(n-r)!)

Quadratic

Sum = -b/a, Product = c/a

TOPIC-WISE STRATEGY ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════ 1. ARITHMETIC (40% of QA) — Must do all → Percentages, Ratios, Profit & Loss → Time, Speed & Distance (trains, circular tracks) → Time & Work (pipe & cistern, efficiency) → Mixtures & Alligations → Simple & Compound Interest 2. ALGEBRA (30% of QA) — High ROI → Linear & Quadratic equations → Inequalities, Modulus, Functions → Logarithms, Surds & Indices → Sequences (AP, GP, AGP) 3. GEOMETRY (15% of QA) — Formula heavy → Triangles (congruence, similarity, area) → Circles (tangents, chords, cyclic) → Polygons, Mensuration (2D & 3D) → Coordinate Geometry (basics) 4. NUMBER SYSTEM (10% of QA) → Divisibility rules, remainders → HCF, LCM, Factors → Base systems, Digital roots

Type

Questions

Weightage

Approach

Reading Comprehension

16 (4 passages)

67%

Read critically; map structure

Para Jumbles

3-4

12%

Find mandatory pairs

Para Summary

3-4

12%

Eliminate extreme options

Odd Sentence Out

2-3

Find theme mismatch

Fill in Blanks

0-2

Context + grammar

Category

Examples

Difficulty

Philosophy/Ethics

Free will, morality, justice

Hard

Science/Tech

AI, genetics, space

Medium

Economics/Business

Trade, policy, markets

Medium

History/Culture

Civilization, art, society

Medium-Hard

Sociology

Gender, inequality, education

Medium

Psychology

Behavior, cognition, emotion

Medium-Hard

PASS 1 — SCANNING (1-2 min) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Read first and last paragraph fully • Read first line of each body paragraph • Identify: topic, tone, author's stance • Note: keywords, transitions (however, but, therefore) PASS 2 — FIRST QUESTIONS (2-3 min) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Answer main idea / tone questions immediately • Answer specific detail questions you noticed while scanning • These are quick wins from your initial reading PASS 3 — DEEP DIVE FOR TOUGH ONES (5-8 min) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ • Re-read relevant paragraphs for inference questions • Match evidence in passage to option statements • Eliminate: extreme words, out of scope, opposite of passage TOTAL TIME PER PASSAGE: 8-13 minutes

Type

Sets

Questions/Set

Difficulty

Tables + Charts

1-2 sets

4-6

Easy-Medium

Arrangements

1-2 sets

4-5

Medium-Hard

Games & Tournaments

0-1 set

4-5

Medium-Hard

Puzzles (Constraint)

1-2 sets

4-5

Medium

Venn Diagrams

0-1 set

3-4

Easy-Medium

Caselets

1 set

4-5

Medium

Binary Logic

0-1 set

Hard

DI SETS — Data-Heavy ══════════════════════ • Table/Chart → Read title, labels, units FIRST • Calculate averages, ratios, percentages mentally • Look for trends and patterns before solving • Mark up data you need; skip what you don't LR SETS — Logic-Heavy ══════════════════════ • Linear Arrangement: North-South, floor-based → Draw grid; fill definite info first • Circular Arrangement: Seating, round table → Fix one person; build relative positions • Scheduling: Days, time slots, subjects → Use table; eliminate constraints one by one • Grouping: Teams, committees → Use Venn or table; track included/excluded • Games: Round-robin, knockout → Track W/L/D; deduce from points table

╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ CAT EXAM STRATEGY (120 MINUTES) ║ ╠═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣ ║ ║ ║ VARC (40 min) ─────────────────────────────────────────────── ║ ║ 0-2 min: Scan all passages; select 3 easiest ║ ║ 2-22 min: Solve 3 RC passages (3.5 min each + Qs) ║ ║ 22-32 min: Solve VA questions (para jumbles, summary) ║ ║ 32-38 min: Attempt 4th RC passage (if time permits) ║ ║ 38-40 min: Review and mark doubtful questions ║ ║ TARGET: 20-22 attempts, 80%+ accuracy ║ ║ ║ ║ DILR (40 min) ────────────────────────────────────────────── ║ ║ 0-3 min: Scan all 4 sets; pick 2 easiest ║ ║ 3-15 min: Solve Set 1 completely (4-6 Qs) ║ ║ 15-27 min: Solve Set 2 completely (4-6 Qs) ║ ║ 27-35 min: Attempt Set 3 partially (2-3 easy Qs) ║ ║ 35-40 min: Review marked questions ║ ║ TARGET: 14-16 attempts, 85%+ accuracy ║ ║ ║ ║ QA (40 min) ──────────────────────────────────────────────── ║ ║ 0-2 min: Scan all questions; categorize Easy/Medium/Hard║ ║ 2-20 min: Solve 8-10 easy questions (2 min each) ║ ║ 20-32 min: Solve 4-5 medium questions (2.5 min each) ║ ║ 32-38 min: Attempt 2-3 hard/TITA questions ║ ║ 38-40 min: Review and unmark doubtful ║ ║ TARGET: 18-22 attempts, 85%+ accuracy ║ ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Scenario

VARC

DILR

Total

Target 99%ile

20-22

14-16

18-22

52-60

Target 95%ile

16-18

12-14

15-18

43-50

Target 90%ile

14-16

10-12

12-15

36-43

Accuracy Target

80-85%

85-90%

83-87%

Signal

Action

No idea after 30 sec

Skip immediately

Two plausible options after 90 sec

Pick one and move on

Complex calculation needed

Skip; return later

unfamiliar passage topic

Still attempt; answers in text

2nd question in a set wrong

Skip entire set

Last 5 minutes of section

Only attempt sure shots

Month

Focus Area

Daily Hours

1-2

Build basics (quant formulas, grammar rules)

3-4 hrs

3-4

Section-wise practice + 1 mock/week

4-5 hrs

Full-length mocks + analysis (2-3/week)

5-6 hrs

Revision + mocks + weak area focus

4-5 hrs

Resource

For Section

Type

Arun Sharma (Quant)

Book

RS Aggarwal (Quant)

QA Basics

Book

Nishit Sinha (DILR)

DILR

Book

Ajay Singh (VARC)

VARC

Book

The Hindu / Economist

RC Reading

Daily habit

TIME / CL / IMS mocks

Full mocks

Online platform

Cracku / 2IIM

Topic-wise practice

Free/Free-mium