CAT 2020 | First Thoughts

CAT 2020 has officially ended! I’m sure a lot of your heads are buzzing with CAT 2020 first thoughts, speculations and mental calculations. Let’s explore that further and unravel the obscurities of that 2 hour sprint we just went through. Here’s an analysis and contemplation of CAT 2020!

CAT 2019

Before we jump into the analysis of CAT 2020, let us briefly revisit CAT 2019, so that we can discuss CAT 2020 more comprehensively.

VARC: VARC is a section which holds mixed feelings in the minds of every CAT Aspirant, but the prognosis for CAT 2019 VARC was the same: It had some of the toughest RC Passages and Verbal MCQs the CAT has ever comprised, and was a source of uncertainty w.r.t percentile calculations.

Quant: The CAT 2019 Quant Section was tricky, but one could answer them with a strong foundation in the fundamentals of Quant. The questions were also appealing, in the sense that they challenged an aspirant just enough and did not disappear into the realm of mental exhaustion.

DILR: This is a section that has witnessed a dramatic change in difficulty since 2015. CAT 2019 was no exception to that fact. However, the sets could be decoded if one has spent enough time practicing previous year DILR sets. It helps build a certain approach to solving DILR Sets that may give you an edge!

CAT 2020 First Thoughts

The video above gives you information on how CAT 2020 went, from the most reliable source in CAT Prep!

Let us now jump into the topic at hand. We will go slot-wise and in detail.

Slot 1

Given the pattern change this year, the uncertainty regarding the number of questions and difficulty level was palpable throughout the test center. We at 2IIM had predicted a proportional decrease in the number of questions within each section, which proved to be on point.

VARC: It was a smidgen easier compared to CAT 2019. The passages were tough, the questions were mildly tricky, but ultimately it was doable.

All the sections of CAT 2020 were 40 minutes long. In comparison with CAT 2019, the questions were less tougher…but combined with the duration of the section and the overall difficulty of the paper, it can be considered as on par with CAT 2019.

There were 18 questions from the RCs and 8 from Verbal Ability. Within the verbal ability section, there were 3 para jumble questions, pick the odd questions and para summaries ( 3 and 2). Overall, there were 26 questions in the VARC Section.

One had to make a decision and choose whether to attend all the RC passages, or skip one passage and go for VA instead. Attending all the 26 questions was nearly impossible.

DILR: DILR has been consistently tougher since 2015, as mentioned before. I feel it has retained that state this year as well. There were 2 sets with 6 questions each, and 3 sets with 4 questions each, thereby adding the total number of questions for DILR to be 24.

The puzzles were more inclined towards logical reasoning than data interpretation. The numbers were easy and nicely computable. Some puzzles were of the ‘incomplete data’ type, where we had to extract some chunks of data from the data provided within the sets. It always helps to get your table and data ready, so that you may answer the questions with a solid point of reference.

And now, we shall address the elephant in the room: the Quant section.

Quant: The Quant section had about 10 questions in arithmetic (as I guessed earlier), about 4 in Geometry. The rest were a couple of questions from logarithms, functions, and exponents. 1 or 2 questions were from Number Theory. There were no questions from Permutations and Probability. Overall, the Quant Section had 26 questions.

It was a pretty good mix of questions, as usual. The Quant section felt longish, with many struggling for time. The questions were nice to solve though, provided you had a good hold on your fundamentals.

Slot 2

VARC: This section was similar to Slot 1, with the same first thoughts being applicable to Slot 2 as well.

DILR: The general consensus among aspirants has been that DILR was tougher in Slot 2 than Slot 1, with much emphasis on the lack of time. There were no sets that could be counted as freebies or giveaways.

The types of questions where one can expect to spend 12 minutes (or even 15, for that matter) and get all questions right confidently were minimal.

Quant: This section was similar to Slot 1, with the same first thoughts being applicable to Slot 2 as well.

The Quant section of CAT 2020 Slot 2 had a good number of Arithmetic questions, followed by Algebra.

Slot 3

If Slot 1 and Slot 2 had some elephants in the room, Slot 3 played it difficult. In short, Slot 3 itself was the elephant in the room.

VARC: The VARC of Slot 3 in CAT 2020 was definitely more difficult than that of CAT 2019. The number and type of questions remained the same as the two previous slots.

Out of the 4 RC passages, 1 – or, at best 2 – were readable. The other passages were difficult to follow and comprehend. The questions added to the agony with multiple double negatives, couple of inference-based questions and more.

Like Bharath and Rajesh repeatedly mentioned in the analysis video (linked below), the timing was also unnerving. Completing 4 RC passages along with all VA questions was a nearly impossible game.

DILR: The pattern was the same as the two earlier slots of CAT 2020. The DILR section consisted of two sets containing 6 questions each, and three more sets containing 4 questions each.

There were no freebies as such. If you were expecting that one DI set with charts OR a caselet-based arrangement where you can eliminate possibilities, Slot 3 made no mistake in NOT giving those types of questions.

Quant: Quant was easier than the other two sections of Slot 3. But the crucial differentiator between those who will end up scoring great in Quant vis-a-vis the others is going to be how much one was able to bounce back from the shackles of VARC and DILR.

Refocussing towards this section as if it was a different exam could have made all the difference in the final scores of Quant in Slot 3.

A Final Note:

Head on over to this link (bookmark it!) for more details regarding CAT 2020, including a detailed analysis of all the slots and Score vs Percentile calculation!

Check out Bharath’s Quora answer for key takeaways from CAT 2020 for CAT 2021 aspirants!

Stay Safe, Best Wishes!

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Abhishek Mukherjee works for 2IIM. Apart from solving interesting math questions he likes to eat biriyani and watch movies.