Common Admission Test, CAT 2019 Exam Date, CAT Exam Pattern, CAT Syllabus, CAT 2019 Important dates, selection procedure, CAT cutoff score,CAT Admission process
Business Management CAT MBA Entrance Exams Preparation & Admission

CAT 2019 Exam Date, Pattern, Syllabus and Eligibility

CAT, Common Admission Test is a national level qualifying exam for MBA, PGDM and other postgraduate management courses admission in India. This MBA Entrance Exam is conducted annually by one of the IIMs on a rotational basis. The CAT examination is held in 2 sessions at around 140 exam centers. This year, CAT 2019 exam will be conducted by IIM Kozhikode.

The difficulty of the paper ranges from moderate to difficult. Check out the complete article to know more CAT 2019 such as eligibility criteria, important dates, application fees, expected cut off, etc.


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CAT 2019 Keypoints

Mode of examination Online based
Official website www.iimcat.ac.in
Eligibility Graduation degree with 50% aggregate
CAT 2019 Participating Institutes IIMs, IITs, FMS and other Business Schools
Official Notification July 2019
Examination November 2019
Duration of test 3 hours (180 minutes)
Test Sections 3 sections namely: Quantitative Ability, Verbal and Reading Comprehension, and Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning.
Sessions The test is conducted in 2 sessions: Session 1: 9:00 am to 12:00 pm; Session 2: 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm

READ Too: Top Entrance Exams For MBA Admission In 2020

CAT 2019 Important Dates

Below is the table regarding the important dates related to CAT 2019 examination, such as official notification,  u date of application form etc.

Events Dates  (tentative)
Official Notification for CAT 2019 July 29, 2019
Application Form August 8, 2019
Form Correction Window September 27- September 30, 2019
Release of Admit Card October 24 – November 24, 2019 
Exam Date of CAT 2019 November 24, 2019 
Result Date of CAT 2019 Second Week of January 2020

CAT 2019 Eligibility Criteria

Just like previous years, CAT examination has some eligibility criteria that need to be taken care of, in order to appear for the test.

Age Criteria: There is no age restriction.


Criteria for Qualification:

  • Qualifying Exam: The Candidates appearing for the test should have a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent degree. Final year candidates can also apply.
  • Minimum Marks: The candidates of General Category must at least have at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA in their Graduate Degree. For SC/ST/PwD categories, the minimum CGPA is 45%.

CAT 2019 Application Fee

Category Fees
NC- OBC INR 1900
SC/ ST INR 900
PwD INR 900

READ ALSO: 13 Top National MBA Entrance Exams In the Year 2019-20

CAT Syllabus

There are certain topics where the questions are being asked. Below are some topics which are considered important by the examination point of view.

Verbal and Reading Comprehension

Analogies and reverse analogies, antonyms and synonyms, fill in the blanks,  sentence correction, facts inference judgments, critical reasoning, syllogism, summary questions, passage-based questions.

Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning

Line and Pie Charts, Column and Bar graphs,  Area graph, Venn diagram, Caselets and Tables.

Binary Logic, Coding-decoding, Number and letter series, Syllogism, Clocks, calendars and cubes, Directions, Blood relations, Logical sequence, Matrix and linear arrangement

Quantitative Aptitude

Ratio & Proportion, Logarithm, Time & Work, Number system, Geometry, Algebra, Permutation and Combination, Mixtures and Alligations, Functions, Trigonometry, Coordinate Geometry and Mensuration

CAT Exam Pattern

  • The examination will be held online with a total of 100 questions. There are two types of questions asked in the examination – MCQ and Subjective type of Question. The total time duration of the exam is of 3 hours.
  • For each correct answer, 3 marks would be awarded to the candidate and One mark will be deducted for the wrongly attempted in MCQ type questions.
  • Note: for subjective type questions, there will be no negative marks.
Type of section Duration Number of questions (Tentative) Total marks
Section I Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) 1 hour 34  102
Section II Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) 1 hour 32 96
Section III Quantitative Ability (QA) 1 hour 34 102

ALSO READ: 10 Top Executive MBA Programs: QS EMBA Rankings 2019

CAT Cut Off Score

Considering the factors like the number of applicants, the difficulty level of exam, seats available and previous years’ cut off decide the cut-off. Both the sectional and overall cut off must be cleared to be eligible for the subsequent rounds.

Below is the expected CAT Cut off for top management institutes :

Institute Expected cut off percentile
IIM, Ahmedabad 99.6
IIM, Bangalore 99.5
IIM, Calcutta 99.5
IIM, Lucknow 99.5
IIM, Shillong 98.5
FMS, Delhi 99
JBIMS 99
IIT, Bombay 98.5
IIM, Kozhikode 96.3
IIM, Indore 94.7

CAT Selection Procedure

The different IIMS have their own selection procedure. Nevertheless, rounds such as Group Discussion (GD), Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI) rounds are some of the rounds conducted by IIMs and other top B-School as a selection procedure.

  • Written Ability Test: The topic from areas such as socio-political issues, current affairs or some idea is given and an essay has to be written within 30 minutes.
  • GD round: After the division of candidates into groups of 8-10 members discussion on the given topic is done.
  • PI round: This is the final round where an interview is taken by a panel of 4-8 judges. The profile of individuals is assessed to see if he is fit for the programme.

READ MORE: 10 Top MBA Colleges In India: NIRF Ranking 2019

All the very Best to CAT 2019 Aspirants. Here you got the details of CAT 2019 Eligibility Criteria, Registration, Exam Pattern,  and other details. Please post your Feedback or Comments regarding this article, on our Aftergraduation Forum.

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