The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2018 was successfully conducted by IIM Calcutta on November 25th, 2018. The exam was held in two slots that is morning and afternoon whereby lakhs of candidates appeared for this coveted management entrance test from across India.
Now, those of you who have taken the CAT 2018 exam on Sunday might be looking forward to the paper analysis and safe attempts estimation so, as to get a fair idea about your performance in the CAT exam.
Well, to provide you with that crucial bit of information we have done all the hard work and research. Yes, we are going to provide you all what you need to know as an aspirant about the recently concluded CAT 2018. So, let’s get started.
CAT 2018 Section-wise difficulty level
To get an overall idea about how the CAT 2018 exam fared please take a look at the section-wise difficulty of the paper that is tabled below.
| S.No | Section | Level of Difficulty |
| 1 | Quantitative ability | Difficult |
| 2 | DI and Logical reasoning | Moderate |
| 3 | Verbal ability and Reading Comprehension | Easy to moderate |
Now, since you have got an idea about the section-wise difficulty level of the CAT 2018 exam it’s time to give you an idea about what would be the safe number of attempts under each section? So, take a look at the below-mentioned table:
| S.No | Section | Safe number of attempts | Total number of questions asked |
| 1 | Quantitative ability | Around 15 | 34 |
| 2 | DI and Logical reasoning | Around 18 | 32 |
| 3 | Verbal ability and Reading Comprehension | Around 28 | 34 |
So, if you have attempted questions around what that is mentioned above in respective section in the CAT 2018 exam then you can feel good about your chances of clearing the exam with flying colors (provided you have maintained the accuracy in your attempts).
Section-wise paper analysis
Overall the CAT 2018 paper was moderate however as we saw in the above-tabled data the Quantitative Aptitude section was on the difficult side and students find it difficult to tackle the questions asked under this section.
To get a more comprehensive view of all the sections lets discuss each of them separately. So, let’s get started.
Quantitative Aptitude
If you were scared of the Quantitative section then this time things might have gone worse for you. The questions demanded students to be at the best of their logical and calculation skill to get the right answers.
However, those with an engineering background might have found the section manageable. Out of 34 questions that were asked under this section 12 were non-MCQ questions.
Experts have rated the section as toughest in the last four years and have predicted that anybody with an accuracy of 80% to 85% in its attempts would have good chances.
Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning
The Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section came as a positive surprise for most of the candidates, especially after the quantitative aptitude shock. 8 out of a total of 32 questions that were asked in the sections were of the non-MCQ type.
Logical reasoning had sets that were varying from easy to moderate on the difficulty scale. The calculation was not an issue in the Data Interpretation section and those students who have practiced a sufficient number of mocks might have found the section a scoring one.
Verbal ability and reading comprehension
The section is touted as the easiest among all the three sections and bought an opportunity for students to score heavily. A total of 5 reading comprehension passages were asked. Each (except one) passage had 5 questions based on its content.
In Verbal ability part the questions easy, however, some of the questions were tricky in nature and required the student’s to put in their efforts and logic. In summary based questions the passages were short but the following questions were a bit confusing in nature.
The Para-Jumble type questions were a mix of the easy and tricky type whereby those with a practice of mocks and section-wise test might have found the questions a sitter.
Student’s reaction
Student’s across the country who took the CAT 2018 exam on Sunday responded in a similar manner in regards to their view on the exam paper. Most of them founded the Quantitative section (as we discussed above) a tough nut crack and said that the other two sections were easy to manageable.
Now, all eyes are set on CAT 2018 exam official answer keys so, that students can get an idea about their performance in the exam. For the time being coaching centers like TIME have published the unofficial answer keys on their websites which the students can refer for now.
