CAT Syllabus 2026

About CAT 2026

CAT (Common Admission Test) is India's most prestigious MBA entrance exam, conducted by IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) on a rotational basis. It is the gateway to all 20 IIMs and over 1,200 B-schools across India.

CAT 2026 is typically held in the last Sunday of November. Notification: July–August 2026. Registration: August–September 2026. Result: January 2027. IIM GD-PI calls: February–March 2027.

Eligibility: Bachelor's degree in any discipline with minimum 50% aggregate (45% for SC/ST/PwD). Final-year graduation students can apply provisionally.

CAT scores are valid for one year (the admission cycle immediately following the exam). IIMs use a composite score combining CAT score (60–70%), Class 10 marks, Class 12 marks, graduation marks, work experience, gender diversity, and WAT-PI performance for final selection.

CAT 2026 Exam Pattern

Duration: 2 hours (120 minutes). Mode: Computer-based test (CBT). Three sections with separate time limits.

Section 1 — Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC): 40 minutes. Approximately 24 questions. Reading Comprehension passages (RC) + Verbal Ability (VA) questions. Marks: each MCQ = +3, −1 penalty; TITA (Type In The Answer, non-MCQ) = +3, no penalty.

Section 2 — Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR): 40 minutes. Approximately 20 questions. Sets of 4–6 questions each. Mix of MCQ and TITA. Same marking scheme.

Section 3 — Quantitative Ability (QA): 40 minutes. Approximately 22 questions. Mix of MCQ and TITA.

Total: approximately 66 questions. Total marks: approximately 198. Scaled score reported as percentile. IIM calls are based on overall percentile AND sectional percentile cutoffs (you must clear all three sections separately).

Note: CAT 2024 had 66 questions (changed from 76 in earlier years). The 2026 pattern may be announced in the official notification — always verify.

VARC Syllabus (Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension)

Reading Comprehension (RC) — 70–75% of VARC section: 3–4 passages (300–600 words each). Question types: direct comprehension, inference, tone of passage, main idea, purpose, vocabulary in context, logical flow. Passage topics: economics, social science, philosophy, science, history, literature — the passages themselves are dense and require close reading.

Verbal Ability (VA) — 25–30% of VARC section: - Para-jumbles: 4–5 sentences to be arranged in the correct order (TITA — no negative marking) - Para-completion: Choose the sentence that best completes or starts a paragraph - Odd sentence out: Identify the sentence that doesn't fit the paragraph - Summary: Choose the best summary of a short passage

What CAT VARC tests: Critical reading speed, inference ability, and logical coherence of text — not grammar rules or vocabulary lists. VARC rewards students who read widely and can quickly identify the author's argument.

Preparation: Read quality English daily — The Hindu editorial, The Economist, or long-form articles from journals. The RC skill is built over months of consistent reading, not formula practice.

DILR Syllabus (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning)

DILR is considered the most variable and unpredictable section of CAT. It has evolved significantly — recent CATs have de-emphasised traditional LR puzzles in favour of mixed DI-LR sets.

Data Interpretation: Tables, bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, Venn diagrams, network diagrams. Calculations involve percentages, ratios, averages, growth rates. Speed of calculation is critical — develop mental maths for DI.

Logical Reasoning: Arrangements (linear, circular, matrix), scheduling, grouping, blood relations, direction sense, constraint satisfaction problems, games and tournaments.

IMS/TIME DILR types frequently seen: Team selection, sports league results, survey data with constraints, route/network problems, production/allocation tables. These require careful reading of conditions — one missed constraint makes the entire set wrong.

Strategy: CAT DILR is 4–5 sets of 4–6 questions. The key skill is set selection — identify the 3 most approachable sets and attempt them fully rather than partially attempting all 5. Practice set selection from previous CAT papers.

QA Syllabus (Quantitative Ability)

QA covers mathematics at approximately Class 10–12 level, but with higher problem complexity.

Arithmetic (high weightage, 30–35% of QA): Percentage, Profit and Loss, Simple and Compound Interest, Ratio and Proportion, Mixture and Alligation, Time and Work, Time, Speed and Distance, Averages.

Algebra (20–25%): Quadratic equations, inequalities, functions, logarithms, number theory (HCF, LCM, factors, divisibility, remainders), sequences and series.

Geometry and Mensuration (20–25%): Lines, angles, triangles, circles, quadrilaterals — properties and area. 3D mensuration (cube, cylinder, sphere). Coordinate geometry basics.

Modern Maths (15–20%): Permutations and combinations, probability, set theory (Venn diagrams), functions.

Number Systems: Properties of integers, divisibility rules, unit digit problems, remainders (cyclicity), surds and indices.

What makes CAT QA hard: The problems are not computationally difficult — they require selecting the right approach quickly. Many CAT QA questions have elegant shortcuts; brute-force calculation runs out of time. Practice mental maths and shortcut techniques.

CAT 2026 Preparation Strategy

Timeline: 6–9 months of focused preparation. Ideal starting point: February–March 2026 for November 2026 exam.

Phase 1 (Months 1–3): Build foundations. QA — revise Class 9–10 Maths concepts. VARC — start daily newspaper reading. DILR — solve basic DI and LR sets. No mock tests yet. Use NCERT Maths for QA foundation, then TIME/Career Launcher material.

Phase 2 (Months 4–6): Build speed and accuracy. QA — solve 20 problems daily across all topics. VARC — read 1–2 RC passages daily, solve VA questions. DILR — solve 2 sets daily. Take 1 sectional mock per week. Analyse mistakes deeply.

Phase 3 (Months 7–9): Full mock tests + IIM prep. Take 1–2 full CAT mock tests per week. Analyse every mock comprehensively — identify your weakest areas and strongest. Solve all previous CAT papers (available from CAT 2000 onwards at cracku.in or iimcat.ac.in).

Mock test strategy: Don't judge yourself by mock percentile — use mocks to identify patterns in your errors and to test section-switching strategies. The best CAT students take 25–30 full mocks before the actual exam.

Target scores by IIM tier: IIM A/B/C = 99+ percentile overall, 95+ in each section. IIM newer campuses (Shillong, Ranchi, Rohtak etc.) = 95–97 overall. Good non-IIM schools (FMS Delhi, SPJIMR, MDI Gurgaon) = 90–95 overall.