CAT 2007 Analysis: 2007

Friday, November 23, 2007

The Top Business School in India

BEST is a very relative term! But anyways let's have a general shoot-out between all the top B-Schools in India...

You simply have to pick the preferred college of the 2 you can see.

You can add your own entry to this pack by going HERE.

You can similarly create such Polls and specific Face-Offs for a particular genre at Contests2Win.com

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

CAT 2007 - Detailed Solution and Explanatory Answers

Almost all the coaching institutes have come up with the detailed solutions of the CAT 2007 paper.

Here are some links you should check out if you haven't been able to find the detailed solutions yet.

IMS:

111 - Explanatory Answers

222 - Explanatory Answers

333 - Explanatory Answers

444 - Explanatory Answers

TIME:

DETAILED SOLUTIONS - Click Here

Fraud in CAT? Ex-IITian caught red-handed

Via: IBN Live

Two engineering students, including a former IIT student, have been arrested in Chandigarh on charges of attempts to cheat in the Common Admission Test (CAT) on Sunday.

The arrests have put a question mark on the validity of the test that 2.5 lakh students took on Sunday.

The police apprehended the two in Chandigarh while they were taking the test. The arrests were made by a joint team of the Kolkata police and the Chandigarh police.

Police claim the ex-IITian has been running the CAT fraud racket for sometime now.

The two youths had appeared for CAT using false identities so as to help some of the candidates cheat during the examination. They reportedly used to slip in their applications for the exam along with those of the real candidates.

The accused have been booked under charges of fraud, impersonation and cheating. They will be presented before the District Court in Chandigarh on Monday.

Over 2.5 lakh students took the CAT in 23 cities across the country for admission into B-schools on Sunday. The 150-minute test evaluates candidates on their quantitative skill, verbal ability and logical reasoning.

The total number of seats in IIMs this year is expected to be in the range of 1700. Currently, 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent seats are reserved for SCs and STs respectively, while 3 per cent of the seats are reserved for people with disabilities.

This year the number of seats in IIM Indore and Bangalore have been increased and IIM Shillong is the new addition to the current list of IIMs.

Original Article: IBN Live

Monday, November 19, 2007

Error in CAT 2007

Saw this at the Career Launcher website.

LRDI Section:

• Question 41 in Set 111
• Question 33 in Set 222
• Question 48 in Set 333
• Question 33 in Set 444

The question says, “In the secondary section, 50% of the students are vegetarian males.” There are 640 students in the secondary section, that means 320 of them are vegetarian males. But from the data given in the first column, we can conclude that there are only 288 males in secondary section. So it is not possible to have 320 vegetarian males.

Anyways I think Career Launcher has the the worst website as they have limited their answer keys just to registered users. Losers!

Paragraph Completion Sources - VA (CAT 2007)

PT's come up with the sources of the Paragraph Completion questions.

You can download the file HERE.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

CAT 2007 - RC Sources

I'm sure most of you must be wondering where do these guys get such 'awesome' passages to feature in the CAT?

Well here are the sources for the RC passages:

Passage Ref: Paradigms in Scientific Traditions
Source: Knowledge and Post modernism in Historical Perspective" by Joyce Oldham Appleby (Page 347)

Passage Ref: Expressions of Experience
Source: "Logological Investigations" by Barry Sandywell (Page 421)

Passage Ref: Ethnology
Source: "Guns, germs and steel : The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M.Diamond

Passage Ref: Sociology
Source: "Sociology: A Very Short Introduction" by Steve Bruce (Page 22)

If you are planning to sit for CAT 2008 - you know what kind of books to start reading!

CAT 2007 - Answer Key

We will be linking the answer keys of all the coaching institutes here.

Here are the ones which have come out so far:

IMS - CAT 2007 Answer Key

Download the Answer Key HERE

TIME - CAT 2007 Answer Key

Download the Answer Key HERE

PT - CAT 2007 Answer Key

Cerebral Heights - CAT 2007 Answer Key

Solid Gyan - CAT 2007 Answer Key

Download detailed solutions HERE

TenADay - CAT 2007 Answer Key

CAT 2007 Analysis and Cutoffs (By PT Education)

Source: PT India

Cutoffs:
Quant: 30-32
VA: 30-32
DI/LR: 38-40

PT representatives just mentioned on TV (Zee News) that a score of 110+ is going to guarantee an IIM call.

For the CAT aspirants across the nation, November 18, 2007 was the special day. As it was probably the final test in which their performance will be responsible for their destiny ahead. The pressure to perform well was obvious. Students were warming up for the final race by their own ways. Some students were trying to entertain themselves by murmuring and giggling, some were just seated quite and some have closed their eyes and hands for a prayer. All these activities suddenly changed into a pin-drop silence when at 10:30 sharp the bells rang and the invigilators announced to start the test. The test papers were opened now and the reverse count of 9000 seconds was started.

After initial checking and planning of the test paper the students were busy in solving the questions; things started taking shape. For those who had - for months together - dreamt of nothing but the best, each moment brought immense joy and exhilaration.

The major surprise in this year’s CAT was that there were negligible amount of Logical Reasoning questions in the paper and the return of DS questions. The MA section of the paper was moderate, while the DI + DS section was easy and the Language sections was tough. An overall attempt of 38+ questions with 80-85% accuracy will be decent.

The majority of the questions in MA section were from Number Systems, other topics covered were Averages, Function, Area and Volume, Linear and Quadratic Equations, Mensuration, Time, Speed and Distance, Stocks and Shares, Permutation and Combination, Maxima and Minima and Plane Geometry. The difficulty level of questions were moderate. One set of four questions were on Data Sufficiency with four options. The following table gives the detail breakup of the section.

The second section of the test was dedicated to DI and DS questions. Total 21 questions from DI and four questions from DS were asked. There were total five DI sets based on tables, four of which had four questions each and one had five questions. The DS questions in this section had five answer choices.
Following table represents the detail breakup of the section.

In the third section there were questions from Reading Comprehension (RC) and English Usage (EU). There were four RC passages of three questions each. The EU questions were on Grammar, Logical Completion of Paragraph, Para Jumble and Sentence Correction. The RC passages were tough and the answer choices were close. The following table gives the detail breakup of the section.

CAT 2007 Analysis and Cutoffs (by IMS)

Source: IMS

What did not change in CAT 2007 was the structure of the test - 75 Questions, 3 Sections, 5 answer choices, 4 marks for correct and negative 1 mark for incorrect. However, there were quite a few changes with regards to the kind of questions asked in CAT 2007.

Quant:
The Quant section was tougher than last year, as some of the questions not only demanded a higher level of reasoning but also were based on tougher concepts. Conceptual clarity and a strong reasoning ability were a must to clear the cut-offs in this section. Quite a few questions were option based and one could get them right if one had the patience and the perseverance to go the distance. Another salient feature of this section was the return of the Data Sufficiency questions. The 4 DS questions had an average level of difficulty and one could have solved at least two of them. Overall, the section was difficult with a few easy questions interspersed within it. The key to succeed in this section was to select the right questions. Possible cut-off: 25-28

Data Interpretation:
On first glance, one would have thought that the CAT has gone back to the nineties when the DI in CAT used to be calculation intensive. The last few years had witnessed a major change in DI with questions getting more and more reasoning based and correspondingly a decrease in the need for intensive calculations. The DI in CAT 07 had no Logical reasoning questions. The DI sets were calculation based but with a difference: one needed a fair level of reasoning and comprehension ability before getting into the calculation mode. LR based Data Sufficiency made an appearance in this section after a gap of 2 years and they were relatively easy. Overall, most of the DI sets were easy but time-consuming thus bringing down the number of attempts in this section.
Possible cut-off: 30-33

Verbal:
After the CAT 06 Verbal experience, all of us had our fingers crossed for this one. The Verbal section was relatively easier compared to last year, but only relatively. There were 4 RC passages with 3 questions each. The onus was on understanding the passage as a whole rather than specific parts of the passage. All the questions were inferential and reasoning based. Some of the options were too close for comfort. This meant that one needed to have a strong reasoning and comprehension ability to get them right. The 4 ‘Jumbled para’ questions were tough but solvable and so were the 3 ‘complete the para’ questions. The 6 usage and grammar based questions were relatively easy to score in.
Possible cut-off: 30-33

Discuss the CAT 2007 Paper here...

Here are some links from the biggest Indian MBA Forum: PaGaLGuY.com

CAT 2007 - The Overall Picture

CAT 2007 - DI and LR Section (Complete discussion)

CAT 2007 - Verbal Section (Complete discussion)

CAT 2007 - Quant Section (Complete discussion)

Discuss the paper with 1000's of other IIM aspirants and figure out where you stand!

Preliminary Analysis and CAT 2007 Cutoffs (By TIME)

Source: TIME

CAT 2007: Preliminary Analysis

CAT 2007 evoked a sense of deja-vu but the similarity ended with the total number of questions and the 5 choice format. This animal was like the sphinx when compared to CAT2006 – similar in some respects and different in others. For starters the Verbal section retained its trickery and was just as difficult as last year. The DI section afforded many opportunities for scoring and was the easiest of the three sections in CAT2007. The Quant section was a revelation - it went back to the good old days where it was ‘the’ section to be dreaded. Quant by far was the most difficult of the three sections in this paper.

QA: The QA section did not have any question that could be classified as easy. DS saw a major comeback in this paper with as many as 4 Qs. The cutoffs in this section will touch a record ‘low’ and would be in the range of 19-21 marks.

LR&DI: The DI section saw a return of the calculation intensive papers that were the hallmark of CAT prior to 2005. The return of DS proved to be a pleasant surprise for the students as these questions were easy and very doable. Overall this section definitely had many sets which were easy and the cutoff is expected to be around 30-32 marks.

VA: The major relief was the fact that the pesky FIJ questions were not to be seen and the paper saw a return of the Grammar and Para Formation questions albeit with a twist. The RCs were definitely tougher than last year and were definitely not easy to read and understand. The cutoff is expected to be in the range of 18-20 marks.

The overall cutoff for at least one IIM call would be in the range of 88-90 marks.

As per T.I.M.E.'s assessment, the following are the cut-offs for getting IIM Calls:

Quant: 19-21 marks
LR-DI: 30-32 marks
VA/RC: 18-20 marks

CAT 2007: A Detailed Analysis (by Rediff)

Original Article: Rediff

"This was the real CAT"

"Thank god there was DI in CAT 2007"

"They would have given us a newspaper instead -- why these RCs!!"

These are some of the impulsive comments given by the test takers the moment they came out of the examination centers. The tradition of CAT being a tough nut to crack was carried forward by CAT 2007 that had all the essential elements of difficulty, in-depth understanding of concepts and ability to read faster and better. The pattern of CAT 2007 was exactly the same as that of CAT 2006 except the internal hike in the difficulty and trickiness of the questions. The length of question statements was also on the higher side leaving less time for the test takers to understand and attempt the questions. TCY experts predict that a score of around 38 per cent or above to expect a call from IIMs.

DI: This was the only section that had most questions attempted in the first round of the attempt. There were DS questions in the DI section which were absent in the CAT 2006. Students found the questions trickier but answerable within the time frame. This year also the stress was on logic rather than mere calculations. TCY experts predict a cut-off of around 40 - 48 per cent for all IIMs in DI.

Quant: This was the gem of a section in the CAT 2007 whom every one would like to discuss, keep and wonder about but touch. Meant only for students with science background, it was the most difficult of all in CAT 2007. However, some questions were still answerable using answer options. TCY experts predict a cut-off of around 32 - 36 per cent for all IIMs in this section.

Verbal: This was literally the lengthiest of all the sections. There were 4 RCs as compared to 3 (in CAT 2006); Grammar, Para jumbles and Vocabulary were re-introduced in the CAT this year. There was more text to be read and lesser questions to be answered not only in RCs but also in Para jumbles. TCY experts predict a cut-off of around 38 - 45 per cent in the verbal section.

A comparative analysis on the basis of cut-offs and hence difficulty is as follows:

Original article can be found here.

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