About 1.95 lakh candidates across the country took the CAT 2016 on December 4, 2016.
The exam was scheduled from 9 am to 12 pm (first slot) and 2 pm to 5 pm (second slot).
It was speculated that the question paper will throw a surprise at the test-takers which was in the form of Geometry. In the QA section, higher weightage was allotted to Geometry than other topics.
CAT 2016 Analysis:
Here's section wise analysis of CAT 2016 exam from MBA expert Mikin Shah, ForesightSchool.
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Verbal : Moderate Difficulty Level. Emphasis on Reading comprehension, sentence sequencing and central idea. Difficulty level was average. The topics for RC passages were quite manageable. There were about 5 Non-MCQ questions. Average student could have attempted 18-20 questions while scholars could have gone upto 25-27.
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DI-LR : High Difficulty Level. Although easier compared to last year. Trick was to identify easier sets. For the easier sets, calculator proved to be very useful. It was easy to get lost and waste time in this section. An attempt of 10-12 questions will be sufficient to clear the sectional cut-off.
QA : Moderate to High Difficult Level. This was a well designed section. The surprise was higher weightage of geometry questions. Challenge was to go through all questions as there were a lot of speed breakers. An attempt of 18-20 questions would have been optimum. However the sectional cut-off could be cleared with about 15 attempts.
Overall Difficulty Level : Moderate to High : Optimum attempts - 48 to 55.
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- CAT 2016 analysis by MBA Expert Rahul Singh, CATKing
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CAT scores are used for admission to 19 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and various other top B-Schools. Are you eligible for the IIMs? To know more, click on the image beside. |
About the Expert: Mikin Shah is a serial topper. He cracked CAT in 2003 with 99.11 percentile score. He was ranked first in GCET 2004, 2009 & 2010. He topped CMAT 2012-13 and was ranked fifth in CMAT 2013-14. In 2015, he cracked CAT once again with 99.53 percentile. He is the co-founder and director at foresight school – an educational institute which specializes in entrance exams, MBA Tuitions and financial courses such as CFA.

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Student Forum
Answered 15 hours ago
CAT is one of the accepting exams for MBA admission at Karunya School of Management. However, it is not compulsory. Aspirants can also apply through XAT, MAT or KMAT scores. Candidates must also complete graduation to apply for MBA at KSM Coimbatore.
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Guide-Level 15
Answered 20 hours ago
CAT is one of the accepting exams for admission to MBA programme at Amity University Bengaluru. However, it is not compulsory. Aspirants can also get admission in MBA via MAT, GRE or CMAT scores. Candidates with scores in these entrance exams can also get scholarship provided they meet the criteria.
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Guide-Level 15
Answered 20 hours ago
No, CAT exam is not mandatory for VIT-AP MBA admissions. Candidates who are interested in the MBA course offered by the institute can also apply through the scores in the XAT and MAT as well.
VIT-AP also accepts the scores obtained in the VITBEE for the MBA admissions. However, candidates with a high
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered Yesterday
No, CAT scores are not compulsory for enrollement into MBA course at IIS Jaipur. As per the info. available on the website of the institute, the institute give prefrences to those students who have secured scored in the management entrance exams, such as CAT/ XAT/ CUET PG/ MAT. Thus, CAT scores can
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Contributor-Level 9
Answered Yesterday
Yes, Manipur Institute of Management Studies, Manipur University does accept CAT scores for admission to its MBA course. Students can also submit scores of other national-level exams, such as MAT/ XAT/ CMAT/ GMAT/ ATMA etc.
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered Yesterday
No, CAT scores are not compulsory for enrollement into MBA course at International School of Informatics and Management. As per the info. available on the website of the institute, the institute give prefrences to those students who have secured scored in the management entrance exams, such as CMAT/
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered Yesterday
CAT registrations generally start from the month of Aug. Candidates wanting to get into IBMR MBA course can apply with a valid CAT score. The application window closes by Sep. Both the applications for CAT exam and IBMR Kolkata MBA course are separate.
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Contributor-Level 9
Answered Yesterday
FMS Delhi CAT Cutoff 2025 has been released for admission to the MBA/PGDM programme. The CAT Cutoff list is not available to the public but only to those who appeared for the exam. According to the cutoff trends over the last three years, the cutoff was around 90 percentile for the General category
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 4 days ago
The CAT 2025 examination results have been officially published. Candidates who took this test may now access their respective IIMCAT scorecards by visiting the IIMCAT web portal and entering their registration ID and password. Each candidate's scorecard contains information concerning his/her secti
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Contributor-Level 10
Answered 4 days ago
Certain top-tier MBA colleges accept CAT results from the previous year, and instead of looking at each section's cut off, these schools place more weight on the overall percentile. This includes schools such as SPJIMR Mumbai, which uses a profile based selection process; Great Lakes Institute of Ma
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Contributor-Level 10


Vipra Shrivastava is MA in English Literature from Delhi University with extensive experience in content writing of over 14 years. She has been handling content for Management, Accounting and Commerce streams for 8
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