CAT 2018 (Common Admission Test) is a national level management entrance exam for admission into top IIMs and B Schools for the academic year 2019-20. Every year it will be conducted by one of the IIMs at the rotational basis. CAT 2018 exam will be conducted by IIMs in the month of November or December. Check more details regarding the CAT 2018 such as important dates, application form, exam pattern, syllabus, result, selection criteria, exam analysis and previous year question papers from the article below.
CAT 2018
Various IIMs shortlist candidates on the basis of their performance in CAT 2018, Class 10th, 12th, Work Experience or Diversity. Candidates can check expected schedule for CAT 2018 in the table below:
| Important Event | Dates |
| Release of notification for CAT 2018 | Last week of July 2018 |
| Commencement of registration | First week of August 2018 |
| CAT 2018 Last Date for Registration | Third week of September 2018 |
| Start Date For Form Correction | Last week of September 2018 |
| End Date For Form Correction | Last week of September 2018 |
| Availability of Admit Card | Third week of October 2018 |
| CAT 2018 Exam Date | Last week of November 2018 |
| CAT 2018 Result date | First week of January 2018 |
The responsibility of organizing institute, IIML, is only up until conduct of exam and declaration of its result. In order to get MBA admission 2019-2020 through CAT 2018, the candidate must apply separately to colleges.
Quick Links
Courses Offered in IIMs
CAT 2018 Application Form
- The CAT Application form 2018 will be available online at the official website of CAT 2018, iimcat.ac.in.
- Applicants firstly register for the exam. At the time of registration, applicants need to choose 04 exam centers.
- Then, the candidate needs to enter Personal Details, Educational Qualification and Contact Details in the online application. Also, applicants need to upload scanned image of the photograph, signature and category certificate (if applicable) as per the specifications.
- Then proceed to make payment for the application fee through online mode via Credit Card, Debit Card or Net Banking.
- On completion of the above-given steps, it is advised to the candidate to take a print of the completed application form and keep it to themselves for future reference.
Application Fee
The applicants have to pay the following amount of the application fee:
| Categories | Application Fee charges |
| SC, ST, PwD | Rs. 900 |
| Other category candidate | Rs. 1800 |
IIM CAT 2018 Admit Card
- IIM Lucknow will be made available online at official website of CAT 2018, iimcat.ac.in.
- The procedure to download admit card is to click on the admit card download link on the official website or on the link above, then enter user ID and password and click on login.
- On logging in, e-admit card displays on the page. Printed it on a plain white sheet of paper to take on exam day.
- Candidates must read instructions in hall ticket to be aware of exam day procedure.
- Also, take photo ID proof along with admit card of CAT Exam to the exam center.
- The admit card conveys candidate name, exam date, and session, exam venue, important instructions for exam day.
CAT Exam Pattern 2018
Mode: IIM CAT is an online exam.
Sections: It has 3 sections of 1 hour each namely
- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
- Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning
- Quantitative Ability.
Types of questions: Multiple choice questions, and TITA (type in the answer) type questions
Note: While in one section, you must attempt questions of only that section. The on-screen calculator will be provided.
The number of questions in VARC, DILR, QA will be revealed on the day of the test.
Last year’s CAT Exam Pattern
| Section | MCQs | TITA | Total |
| VARC | 24 | 10 | 34 |
| DILR | 24 | 8 | 32 |
| QA | 27 | 7 | 34 |
| Total | 75 | 25 | 100 |
- Marking scheme: For MCQs, correct answer fetched +1 mark, and incorrect answer led to deduction of 0.33 mark as negative marking. For TITA, correct answer fetched +1 mark, there was no negative marking.
- Caveat: It was reported last time that while the instructions page of exam showed +3, -1 as marking scheme, the questions showed +1, -0.33 as marks against them. However, as the ratio remained the same it was not a big concern.
IIM CAT 2018 Question Papers along with keys
IIM Lucknow will release Question Papers along with keys of CAT 2018 held on the official website. Candidates will be able to check the papers and also raise objections (if any) from the official website by login through their User Id & Password. The direct link to check the same will also be provided on this page for the sake of candidates.
CAT Syllabus 2018
IIM Lucknow will notify exam pattern only for CAT Exam 2018. The syllabus is inferred from past year papers and as per the analysis by education experts.
It is hard to arrive at any specific syllabus for CAT since the exam pattern suggests that the syllabus is nonstatic. However, CAT experts mention that some of the questions are from class 8th to graduation level. They have divided CAT syllabus into 3 sections.
Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
Correction in Sentence, Grammar or English Usage, Synonyms, Antonyms, Fill in the blanks, Jumbled Paragraph and Close Passage, Analogies and Reverse Analogies, Meaning/Usage Match, Verbal Reasoning, Summary Questions, Reading Comprehension and Facts Inferences Judgements.
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning
Caselets and Tables, Bar Graphs and Column Graphs, Venn Diagrams, Number and letter Series, Line Charts & Pie Chart, Calendars, Cubes and Clocks, Binary Logic, Seating Arrangement, Syllogism, Logical, Matching, Logical Sequence, Logical, Connectives, and Blood Relations.
Quantitative Ability
Number Systems, Logarithm, LCM & HCF, Profit, Loss & Discount,Percentages, Speed, Time & Distance, Time & Work, Simple & Compound Interest, Ratio & Proportion, Averages, Binomial Theorem, Quadratic & Linear Equations,Sequences & Series, Complex Numbers, Surds & Indices, Inequalities, Set Theory, Mixtures & Allegations, Probability, Permutation and Combination, Functions & Geometry, Trigonometry and Coordinate Geometry & Mensuration.
CAT Result 2018
The IIM CAT Result 2018 will be announced online at official website of CAT 2018, iimcat.ac.in. IIMs will publish a list of candidates shortlisted for GD PI on college websites. Each IIM will send interview letters to the shortlisted candidates directly. The criteria for shortlisting vary from IIM to IIM.
Admission Process in IIMs
Each IIM shortlists candidates for the second stage of selection which may differ from other IIM’s selection process. The selection process may include Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interviews (PI). However, it is important that candidate should perform well in CAT 2018 examination. Some IIMs may additionally use other factors like the previous academic performance of the candidates, relevant work experience and other similar inputs in short listing and ranking of candidates at various stages of the admission process.
Is it necessary to obtain 99+ Percentile in order to receive a call from IIMs?
This is one of the most common perceptions which students have that only those who score 99+ percentile are shortlisted for WAT and PI by the IIMs. Last year a student who scored 89.67 percentile in CAT refutes all such claims that a student got to score 99 percentile for selection to top IIMs. There is a certain weightage assigned to each criterion based upon which the shortlist for interview and writing test is done. So even though someone scores 99+ percentile in CAT, they may not get a call because of their poor academic record.
CAT 2018 Cut Off
Here we have given a list of top 10 IIMs and their cut off marks to be eligible for further process of admission.
| Top 10 IIMs | Category | VARC | DILR | QA | Total Overall Percentile Rank |
| IIM- Ahmedabad | General | 70 | 70 | 70 | 80 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | 65 | 65 | 65 | 75 | |
| SC | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 | |
| ST | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 | |
| PWD | 60 | 60 | 60 | 70 | |
| IIM-Banglore | General | 85 | 80 | 80 | 90 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | 75 | 70 | 70 | 80 | |
| SC | 70 | 65 | 65 | 75 | |
| ST | 60 | 60 | 75 | 75 | |
| PWD | 50 | 60 | 50 | 75 | |
| IIM-Calcutta | General | ≥ 80 | ≥ 80 | ≥ 80 | ≥ 90 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | ≥ 75 | ≥ 75 | ≥ 75 | ≥ 85 | |
| SC | ≥ 65 | ≥ 65 | ≥ 65 | ≥ 70 | |
| ST | ≥ 60 | ≥ 60 | ≥ 60 | ≥ 70 | |
| PWD | ≥ 65 | ≥ 65 | ≥ 65 | ≥ 70 | |
| IIM-Lucknow | General | 85 | 85 | 85 | 90 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | 77 | 77 | 77 | 82 | |
| SC | 55 | 55 | 55 | 70 | |
| ST | 50 | 50 | 50 | 65 | |
| PWD | 50 | 50 | 50 | 65 | |
| IIM-Kozhikode | General | 90 | 80 | 60 | 60 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | 80 | 70 | 60 | 60 | |
| SC | 65 | 50 | 55 | 55 | |
| ST | 55 | 40 | 55 | 55 | |
| PWD | 55 | 40 | 55 | 55 | |
| IIM- Indore | General | 80 | 80 | 80 | 90 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | 70 | 70 | 70 | 80 | |
| SC | 55 | 55 | 55 | 60 | |
| ST | 45 | 45 | 45 | 50 | |
| PWD | 45 | 45 | 45 | 50 | |
| IIM- Tiruchirapalli / IIM- Raipur | General | 80 | 80 | 80 | 90 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | 72 | 72 | 72 | 81 | |
| SC | 60 | 60 | 60 | 75 | |
| ST | 50 | 50 | 50 | 65 | |
| PWD | 50 | 50 | 50 | 65 | |
| IIM- Udaipur / IIM- Rohtak | General | 80 | 80 | 80 | 80 |
| NC-OBC-cum-transgender | 60 | 60 | 60 | 78 | |
| SC | 50 | 50 | 50 | 60 | |
| ST | 30 | 30 | 30 | 40 | |
| PWD | 30 | 30 | 30 | 40 |
Reservations Details
The following number of seats will be reserved for candidates belonging to the different category:
| Category | Reservation |
| SC | 15% |
| ST | 7.5% |
| OBC | 27% |
Seats in IIMs
As many as 20 IIMs and over 100 B-schools across India accept the scores of CAT. For CAT 2018, the number of participating institutes will be similar or more. Seats offered by IIM’s is given below:
| S.No. | Institute | Seat offered |
| 1 | IIM, Ahmedabad | 385 |
| 2 | IIM, Amritsar | 60 |
| 3 | IIM, Bangalore | 412 |
| 4 | IIM, Bodh Gaya | 60 |
| 5 | IIM, Calcutta | 462 |
| 6 | IIM, Indore | 550 |
| 7 | IIM, Kashipur | 210 |
| 8 | IIM, Kozhikode | 353 |
| 9 | IIM, Lucknow | 436 |
| 10 | IIM, Nagpur | 60 |
| 11 | IIM, Raipur | 210 |
| 12 | IIM, Ranchi | 155 |
| 13 | IIM, Rohtak | 170 |
| 14 | IIM, Shillong | 120 |
| 15 | IIM, Trichy | 120 |
| 16 | IIM, Udaipur | 180 |
| 17 | IIM, Visakhapatnam | 60 |
| 18 | IIM, Jammu | 45 |
| 19 | IIM, Sambalpur | 140 |
| 20 | IIM, Sirmaur | 60 |
Statistics
More than 2 lakh register for CAT exam every year
| S.No. | Year | Number of candidates registered | Number of candidates appeared |
| 1 | 2016 | 232434 | 195000 |
| 2 | 2015 | 218664 | 179602 |
| 3 | 2014 | 196988 | 167829 |
| 4 | 2013 | 194516 | 173714 |
| 5 | 2012 | 214000 | 195000 |
| 6 | 2011 | 205000 | 186000 |
| 7 | 2010 | 204000 | 185000 |
| 8 | 2009 | 241000 | 230000 |
| 9 | 2008 | 290000 | 276000 |
| 10 | 2007 | 250000 | 230000 |
The above figures are as per various sources.
How to prepare for CAT in Last Few Days
Official Website: iimcat.ac.in.
For more details about CAT download 2017’s – Information Bulletin.
Insofar, official details of CAT 2018 have not been announced. Information on this page is as per last year brochure and for reference purpose only. As soon as Indian Institutes of Management releases CAT 2018 information brochure, details will be updated here.
Management Entrance Exams MBA Admission through CAT
