CAT maintained its standard to throw surprises !

Just 90 questions! That's the talking point of everyone- canddidates,Academiciansy, Training institutes and above all aspiring preparing minds. Based on the trend,While every one expecting a northward journey, no one expected a sub-100 number of questions. General test takers feeling is the cut-offs would not be very high.

Notable surprises:
1. Sixty two mark questions/problems.
2. Explicitly announced Negative marks
3. And above all just 90 questions.

It is quite obvious from the simpe fact less number of questions more difficulty, So that is what everyone expected but the reality is moderately tough 90 questions. And definitely Verbal and RC comes with toughest questions.

Section wise Analysis

Quantitative Section: An intresting pattern with around six relatively easy questions in the 1 marker variety and another six to seven in the 2 markers. However, as most people would have prefered to spent more time on the two markers, overall marks attempted would be on the higher side. We expect the people to solve 24-25 marks worth of questions in 40 minutes, and get a score of about 20. 16-17 for a 98 plus percentile. 14–15 for a 93 plus percentile, which would also be the cutoff for most IIMs. A score of around 12 would get you 85 + percentile, which would be for calls from other B-schools.

Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension: With 30 questions people might have thought that they can  attempt all of them. But the fact is answer options in RC were very close and some of the verbal questions were even unanswerable to heavily prepared . A score of 25 + would be good. Most people would attempt around 35-38 marks worth of questions and hence the cut-off is likely to stand at last years level. Cut-off would be around 22 + and a score of 25 will be 98 plus percentile, and 22 at 93 percentile, sufficient for call from the IIMs and a score of around 18 would give you a 85 plus percentile.

Data Interpretation: A lot of close call must have ensued in DI. The ten 1-markers alone
would have taken 20 minutes to answer; as one of them was calculation intensive (area under cultivation) and the other was very logical (average ages). If a student answers these 10 and manages to attempt a few 2 markers, he would sail through.
Our expectation is that the cut-off in DI would be very low. So a 15 would get you 98
plus percentile, and 12 would get you a 92 plus percentile, which would be sufficient for IIM cut-offs. A score of 10 would be required for 85 percentile.

Overall
It was moderately difficult paper and very easy compared to other CATs. Certainly we can expect some very tough paper next year