CAT 2024: Exam Date (Nov 24), Registration (Started), Eligibility, Syllabus, Question Papers

Overview
Highlights
Purpose Of Exam
Important Exam Dates
Eligibility Criteria
Registration Process
Exam Fee
Admit Card
Examination centres
Syllabus
Important Books
Exam Pattern
Top Colleges
Selection Process
Result
Reservation
Previous Year Question Papers
Mock tests
Answer Key
Cut Off
Expected Cut Off
Exam Day Guidelines
Preparation Tips
FAQs
CAT 2024- is a national-level entrance exam to admit students to MBA programmes. The components of the CAT exam include Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, and Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning.
ParametersDetails
Full FormCommon Admission Test (CAT)
No of session3
CAT 2024 Exam tmimngsSession 1: 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM Session 2: 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM Session 3: 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM
CAT 2024 Exam FeeINR 2,500 (General category) and INR 1,250 (Reserved category)
No of test takers3.30 lakh (as of 2023)
Mode of examinationcomputer-based test mode
Scores validity Valid for admission to 21 IIMs and various other MBA colleges in India.
Conducting Institute for CAT exam 2024IIM Calcutta (to be confirmed)
CAT exam websiteCAT 2024
CAT is conducted on a national level as an entrance exam to postgraduate management programmes such as MBA- Masters of Business Administration catering to students who aspire to pursue their careers in management across various specialisations. Several business schools and management institutes in India accept CAT scores.
DateEvent
August 1, 2024, ThursdayCAT 2024 registration begins at 10:00 AM (IST)
August 1, 2024, ThursdayCAT 2024 registration ends at 5:00 PM (IST)
November 5, 2024, TuesdayCAT 2024, Admit Card Download Begins
November 24, 2024, SundayCAT 2024, Test Day
First week of December 2024CAT 2024, answer key releases
The first week of December 2024Answer key challenge process
Last week of December 2024 or First week of January 2025Declaration of CAT 2024 result

Candidates appearing for CAT 2024 must hold a Bachelor’s degree and score at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA and Score 45% in the case of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons with Disability (PwD) categories.

Candidates applying for CAT 2024 should have any one of the following

Completed Bachelor’s degree with the required percentage of marks*.
Completed professional degree (CA/CS/ICWA (CMA)/Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of India (FIAI)) with required percentage*.
Should be in the final year of your bachelor’s degree with the required percentage*.
*SC/ST/PwD candidates should have a minimum of 45%. For General, EWS and NC-OBC candidates, the minimum is 50%.

1. Registration for User ID and Password

On the website, www.iimcat.ac.in, click the ‘Register’ button under the New Candidate Registration header to create your user profile. The Registration form window will open in your browser.

Note: The recommended browsers to fill out the Application form are: Mozilla Firefox (version 94 to 112), Google Chrome (version 88 to 113), Microsoft Edge (version 88 to 113).

To complete the registration process, generate the OTP by clicking on the “GENERATE OTP” button. You will be redirected to CAPTCHA to fill and submit the OTP received on your mobile for verification.The entries on this form cannot be changed once submitted, hence, please ensure that you enter the required information correctly.

2. Log in to the CAT 2024 Website

Using the system-generated User ID and Password that you received at the completion of Step 1, you can log in as a “Registered Candidate” on the website and fill out the Application Form for CAT 2024.

In future, if you forget your User ID/Password, click the Forgot Password button on the Registered Candidate login window. The User ID & Password will be sent to your registered email address, and not to the registered mobile number.

After logging in to the form, you will be redirected to the Applicant Details page. The Applicant’s personal details will be displayed on this page. Next to Personal Details, a link “GO TO APPLICATION” is available. Click this link to go to the application page.

3. Fill Application Form

The Application Form is categorized into the following six sections:

Personal Details, academics, work experience, programmmes test city, declaration.

After you complete the last section, i.e., Payment, your application for CAT 2024 will be considered complete and you will receive a confirmation mail. After this, changes to any information provided on the application form are not possible. You can only print or save the form. Details are available on the application submission page.

The fee structure is as follows: ₹1250 for SC, ST and PwD candidates.₹2500 for all other candidates.
The CAT exam 2024 admit card is an important document for the students appearing for the exam to hold. All the candidates are required to carry this admit card to the exam centre allotted on the day of their examination. Once the card is officially released by the CAT exam authorities, you can go to the official website of IIM CAT, which is iimcat.ac and use your ID and password to log in to download the admit card.
Note the following while acquiring the admit card:
Only candidates who have successfully registered and paid the CAT processing fee can download the CAT 2024 admit card.
The admit card contains information such as the test centre, exam date, rules and other details related to the examination.
Candidates must verify that all the information on the admit card is accurate. In case of any errors, candidates should immediately contact the authorities.
City/State/ Union Territory City/State/ Union Territory City/State/ Union Territory
Port BlairGunturNellore
VijayawadaKakinadaRajahmundry
VisakhapatnamKurnoolTirupathi
VizianagaramItanagarDibrugarh
SilcharGuwahatiTezpur
JorhatAurangabad-BiharDarbhanga
ArrahMuzaffarpurBhagalpur
PatnaMohaliChandigarh
Bhilai NagarBilaspurRaipur
DelhiFaridabadGurugram
GhaziabadNew DelhiGreater Noida
NoidaMeerutPanaji
AhmedabadMehsanaVadodara
AnandRajkotGandhinagar
SuratAmbalaHisar
KarnalKurushetraPanipat
RohtakShimlaJhansi
HaldwaniDurgapurKolkata
SiliguriHamirpurJammu
BokaroDhanbadHazaribagh
JamshedpurRanchiBelagavi(Belgaum)
BengaluruHubballi(Hubli)Mysuru(Mysore)
Shivamogga(Shimoga)DharwadMangaluru(Mangalore)
UdupiKannurErnakulam
KollamKottayamKozhikode
ThrissurTrivandrumBhopal
JabalpurUjjainGwalior
SagarIndoreSatna
AmravatiJalgaonNagpur
PuneSolapurNavi Mumbai
AhmednagarKolhapurNanded
RaigadThaneVasai
AurangabadMoradabadRoorkee
BankuraHooghlySrinagar
MumbaiNashikSatara
PalgharUlhasnagarShillong
AizawlKohimaBalasore
CuttackSambalpurBerhampur
DhenkanalBhubaneswarRourkela
PuducherryPathankotLudhiana
AmritsarBhatindaPatiala
JalandharSangrurAjmer
JaipurSikarAlwar
JodhpurUdaipurBikaner
KotaMaduraiChennai
SalemTrichyCoimbatore
VelloreTirunelveliHyderabad
KarimnagarWarangalAllahabad
BareillyKanpurMuzaffarnagar
AgraGorakhpurLucknow
VaranasiAligarhDehradun
AsansolBurdwanKalyani
Imphal
Topic No of Questions Level of difficulty
Reading Comprehension16Moderate to Difficult
VA-Para jumbles3Moderate to Difficult
VA-Odd Sentence2Easy to Moderate
VA-Summary3Easy to Moderate
Overall24Moderate to Difficult
Topic No of Questions Level of difficulty
Blood Relations3Easy
Clocks and Calendars3Moderate
Syllogism4Moderate to Hard
Series3Moderate
Statements3Moderate
Venn Diagram3Moderate
Proposition3Moderate
Data Sufficiency4Moderate
Assumptions3Moderate
Seating Arrangement4Moderate to Hard
Pie Charts3Moderate
Puzzles5Hard
Sets & Caselets3Moderate
Bars & Line Graphs3Moderate
Data Arrangement4Moderate to Hard
Data Structures3Moderate
Direction Sense3Moderate
Family Tree3Moderate
Tables3Moderate
Coding-Decoding4Moderate
Binary Logic3Moderate
Topic No of Questions Level of difficulty
Set 1 (Data Interpretation)5Easy
Set 2 (Data Interpretation)5Moderate
Set 3 (Logical Reasoning)5Moderate to Difficult
Set 4 (Logical Reasoning)5Moderate
Overall20Moderate to Difficult
Topic No of Questions Level of difficulty
Arithmetic8Moderate to Difficult
Algebra7Moderate to Difficult
Geometry3Moderate to Difficult
Modern Maths2Moderate to Difficult
Number System2Moderate to Difficult
Overall22Moderate to Difficult
BooksBooks
Quantitative Aptitude Quantum CatHow to Prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT
Cat 2024 Full Course ProQuantitative Aptitude for Competitive Examinations
How to Prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT | 9th EditionWord Power Made Easy
Data Interpretation & Data SufficiencyThe Pearson Guide to Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning for the CAT:
Mini Mock TestA Modern Approach to Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning
Oswaal CAT 15 Mock Test Papers for 2024 ExamData Interpretation for CAT
Past Year's Cat PapersData Interpretation by Nishit Sinha
Verbal Ability And Reading

CAT exam 2024 will follow the pattern of multiple choice questions. The duration of the paper will be 120 minutes and the candidates will be attempting 66 questions from the VARC, DILR, and the QA sections during the exam.

The CAT exam is held in three sessions. Each session lasts for a duration of 120 minutes.

The CAT exam paper is divided into three sections – VARC, DILR, and QA.The total number of questions in the exam is 66.

A sectional time limit of 40 minutes is allocated for each section.Candidates secure three marks for every correct answer. Additionally, for each incorrect answer, 1 mark is deducted.There is no negative marking for non-MCQs, and skipping questions incurs no penalty.

The maximum achievable score in the CAT exam is 198.Attempting all questions is not mandatory.

CollegesCity
Indian Institute Of ManagementIndore
S. P. Jain Institute of Management and ResearchMumbai
Indian Institute Of ManagementUdaipur
Indian Institute Of ManagementBangalore
Indian Institute Of ManagementTiruchirappalli
Indian Institute Of ManagementAhmedabad
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune
The ICFAI FOUNDATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATIONHyderabad
XLRI - Xavier School of ManagementJamshedpur
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
Indian Institute Of Management–Mumbai Mumbai
Please note that IIMs shortlist candidates for the interview stage based on their own criteria, which may be independent of each other. Performance in the CAT 2024 examination is an important component in the admission process. The process may include the Writing Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interviews (PI).IMs may additionally use other factors such as the previous academic performance of the candidates.They may also consider relevant work experience, gender and academic diversity and other similar inputs in shortlisting and ranking candidates at various stages of the admission process.
Candidate's CAT 2024 scorecards will be made accessible on the CAT website. Candidates may also be informed individually by SMS. The CAT results are likely to be declared by the second week of January 2025. The CAT 2024 score is valid only till December 31, 2025, and will accordingly be accessible on the website. Thereafter, no queries related to the issuance of CAT 2024 scorecards will be entertained.

As per the legal requirements, 15% of the seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, 7.5% for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, 27% for Other Backward Classes candidates belonging to the “Non-Creamy” layer (NC-OBC), up to 10% for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) candidates and 5% for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwD).

As defined in The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act 2016), “Person with Benchmark Disability” means a person with not less than forty per cent (40%) of a specified disability where the specified disability has not been defined in measurable terms and includes a person with disability where the specified disability has been defined in measurable terms, as certified by the certifying authority.“Specified disability” means the disabilities as specified in the Schedule of the RPwD Act 2016. The categories of disability are:

Blindness and low vision

Deaf and hard of hearing,

Locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy,

Autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness

Multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d),

Other 'specified disabilities' mentioned in 'The Schedule' of the RPwD Act 2016.

For the purpose of being considered for reservation, the applicable Central Government list as on the last date of CAT registration shall be binding. No subsequent changes will be effective for CAT 2024 and any subsequent selection process of the IIMs.

The previous year’s question papers for the CAT exam will significantly help you understand the pattern, question format, and level of difficulty. Practising these question papers will enhance your understanding of the topics much better and will give you the confidence to deal with the possible difficulty factors in the exam.

Given below are the mock tests that you can access for free in order to learn about how the paper pattern works out for CAT exam 2024. additionally, the marks that you score on a mock test will give you an idea with respect to where you stand in terms of your overall preperation. For accessing these tests and more, visit

Mock Tests

The IIMs release their CAT exam answer key a week after the exam is conducted in the format of a response sheet. The answer key gives an idea about the marks that candidates are likely to score. The following steps explain how to download the CAT answer key and response sheet:

Click on the ‘login’ tab.

Enter the CAT login ID and password.

Click on the ‘CAT 2024 answer key,’ which will be displayed on the screen.

Click on the ‘download’ link to save it as a PDF.

Each IIm has its own separate CAT exam cut-offs. Even for the 2024-26 batch of management candidates, there will be an individual list of colleges. The cut-off score will be the minimum mark candidates must achieve to secure admission to IIMs. The newer IIMs follow a Centralized Admission Process (CAP).
College/ Posts/ Academy Cut off for general category
IIM Ahmedabad80
IIM Bangalore85
IIM Kozhikode85
IIM Calcutta85
IIM Lucknow90
IIM Mumbai85
IIM Indore90
IIM Raipur92
IIM Rohtak95
IIM Udaipur92
IIM Kashipur92
IIM Trichy92
IIM Ranchi92
IIM Shillong75
IIM Visakhapatnam80
IIM JammuMale- 90 Female- 87
IIM Nagpur90
IIM Amritsar85
IIM Bodh Gaya92
IIM Sambalpur74
IIM Sirmaur92
The CAT exam 2024 will follow certain guidelines which are a set of instructions that are required to be adhered to by the candidates in order to endure the safety, integrity, and the smooth conduction of the examination.
Candidates must be aware of their assigned shift and arrive at the examination centre well in advance. Punctuality is emphasized, with a suggested arrival time of preferably 90 minutes before the exam.
It is important to note that masks will be allowed only beyond the frisking point, if applicable, for the year. Candidates should be prepared to follow any health and safety protocols in place during the examination. Latecomers will not be allowed entry, so arriving on time is crucial.
Candidates are required to carry all necessary identity CAT documents, with the CAT admit card being compulsory. Government-issued photo identification is also essential for verification purposes.
Electronic devices such as mobile phones, calculators, watches, wallets, and other prohibited items should not be brought to the CAT exam location. Complying with these rules is essential to prevent disqualification.
Candidates must adhere to the dress code specified in the exam day guidelines. Certain clothing items, such as those with large buttons or thick-soled shoes, may not be allowed inside the exam room.
Guidelines related to biometric attendance, seating selection, and other exam-related procedures should be carefully followed before the exam day.

In order to prepare for the CAT exam 2024, students' schedules ensure that they practise the question papers well along with learning the new concepts. The following are the guidelines you should keep in mind for being thoroughly prepared for your CAT exam 2024.

Identify the weak areas of learning and practise them more often than the ones that are relatively your strong areas.Keep track of the time spent on each question to ensure that you attempt the question paper within the time limit.Keep practising the previous years’ question papers in order to strengthen what you learn.Attempt the different mock tests to ensure that the questions are easier for you during the exam.

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