CAT exam past 5 years analysis
The CAT exam conducted by IIMs is well known for its dynamic way of conducting test every year. Over the last 5 years, the CAT exam pattern has changed frequently. While you are preparing for the CAT exam, you need to know the trends of the past 5 years and the new CAT paper pattern.
To analyse the CAT exam conducted in past 5 years, lets understand the exam pattern in detail first.
| Number of Question | Sections | Marking Scheme | Duration |
| 66 questions (VARC: 24, DILR: 20, QA: 22) |
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CAT Year Wise Analysis and Trends
Now let us have a look at the year-wise CAT analysis and trends of the CAT exam.
CAT 2023
The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow conducted CAT 2023 across the country. CAT exam was held in three slots. The overall difficulty level of CAT 2023 was moderate with Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), and Quantitative Aptitude (QA) being tough.
CAT 2022
This year had some stability in the context of CAT exam difficulty with no surprises and the conducting body, IIM Bangalore, continued the pattern of last year and avoided any other changes in the CAT exam pattern. CAT 2022 had a total of 66 questions in the 3 usual sections of the exam. In terms of CAT exam pattern, structure, and difficulty level, the exam was of similar lines to the previous CAT exams. The Verbal Ability part of the CAT exam was moderate in nature with Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning being the toughest for the candidates this year.
CAT 2021
The CAT 2021 has few surprises for the aspirants where the number of CAT questions reduced to 66 from 76 in last year. As far as the difficulty level of the CAT exam is concerned, the verbal section of the exam was moderate with DILR the most difficult and the quantitative ability was moderate to difficult in nature.
| Sec. No. | Section Name | Total No. of Ques. |
| 1. | Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension | 24 |
| 2. | Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning | 20 |
| 3. | Quantitative Ability | 22 |
| Total | 66 |
CAT 2020
The CAT 2020 Slot 1 had 76 questions in total, with 26 questions in VARC, 26 in QA, and 24 in the DILR section. In terms of the level of difficulty, the Slot 1 VARC section was long and tedious, the DILR section level was similar to CAT 2016-18 and the QA section level was similar to CAT 2019.
In terms of the level of difficulty, CAT 2020 Slot 2 was similar to Slot 1 for the VARC section and QA section, while the DILR section was slightly tougher.
The CAT 2020 Slot 3 remained consistent with Slot 1 and Slot 2 with 26 questions in VARC (including 5 non-MCQs), 24 questions in DILR (including 6 non-MCQs), and 26 questions in QA (including 6 non-MCQs).
An overall 99 percentile was achieved if one scored 42 marks in the VARC section, 34 marks in the DILR section, and 44 marks in the QA section.
Area | Number of Questions |
| Quantitative Ability | 26 |
| Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning | 24 |
| Verbal Ability | 26 |
CAT 2019
CAT 2019, conducted by IIM Kozhikode was an easy to moderate test in terms of difficulty level. The test did not encounter technical glitches. The pattern of the test followed previous years’ pattern and the questions did not throw any surprise in terms of topics and areas.
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation
Some of the questions were very tough and time-consuming. The Data Interpretation sets were also moderately calculation intensive. The Quantitative Ability area included questions on Arithmetic, Algebra, Higher Math, Geometry, Numbers, Logs, Permutation & Combination, and Functions.
Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning
This Verbal Ability section had 3 Reading Comprehension passages out of which 2 were easy and 1 was of moderate difficulty level. The English Usage questions were on para completion, jumbled sentences, grammar, etc.
CAT 2018
CAT 2018 was conducted by IIM Calcutta. The difficulty level of the CAT paper was moderate to tough. The quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation section were moderate and the Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning section was moderate to tough. Logical Reasoning was the toughest part of the exam.