Most of the people who attempt CAT struggle with the Quantitative Ability section and this struggle comes regardless of your academic background, whether you are an engineer or not. This section has turned out to be Achilles’s heel and is feared to bring down their CAT score.

Therefore, it becomes essential to understand this section of the exam well also because this section does not have a clearly defined syllabus. Given below are the most important questions that are from the Quantitative section that has been observed over the past years in the CAT exam and have been asked frequently. There are certain topics that need to be covered thoroughly so that you can ace your CAT exam with ease.

How much score is necessary for the QA section for a 99 percentile in CAT?

Although the IIMs recommend getting a 70 – 85 percentiles to get admission into IIM for General Category, simply meeting the minimum requirements of the cut-off does not guarantee your admission in any of the IIMs.

It has been observed that because CAT is a highly competitive exam, you must score at least a 95+ percentile in all of the sections to improve your chances of getting into an IIM. In order to achieve the 99^th percentile in the exam, a candidate has to score a minimum of 60+ out of 102 in the QA section. To get a 98+ percentile, a score of 50+ in the QA section is required whereas a score of 30+ in the QA can help you score a 90+ percentile.

How many questions should you attempt to score a 90-99 percentile score in the QA Section?

Assuming that the pattern of the CAT exam does not change for the year 2020, then how many questions should you attempt to get a 90^th – 99^th percentile score on the exam?

The table provided below gathers the minimum number of questions that you must attempt with 100 per cent accuracy to achieve a 90^th, 95^th or 99^th percentile score in the QA section.

It can be observed from the table that the difference between a 99^th percentile and 95^th percentile score is a mere attempt of 6-8 questions whereas the 99^th percentile and 90^th percentile score are apart with the difference of roughly 9-11 questions.

It is extremely important to have conceptual clarity to solve the question in time as it can be seen that in order to get a 99^th percentile score, you will have about 3 minutes per questions while for 95^th percentile score, you will have 4 minutes per question to solve it with 100 percent accuracy. The clarity of the concepts can help you solve the questions in time, and this speed can help you stand out from the rest of the candidates giving the exam.

It is important to attempt 45 – 60 percent of the section with 100 percent accuracy to achieve a 95^th – 99^th percentile score on the CAT exam. You need not attempt the question paper 100 percent in order to get the 99^th percentile. You need to be quick and precise while solving the 60 percent of the paper, and that can help you boost your score without attempting the complete question paper.

Therefore, speed, accuracy and the correct selection of question can help you stay ahead of others in the CAT exam. These skills can be easily achieved with regular practice and by attempting the mock tests and sectional tests.

Which Quant Topics are most weighted in the exam?

The QA section of the exam comprises of majorly five sections that are Algebra, Arithmetic, Geometry, Modern Math, and Numbers. All of these are vast topics and will require months of practise to master each of these.

But if we study the pattern of the CAT exam for the last five years, it can be seen that Arithmetic is the most asked topic in the QA section with 30-40 percent of the question being asked to form this topic.

Comparing it with the above pattern, even if you attempt only the arithmetic section completely with accuracy, you can easily score a 90+ percentile score in your exam. The other most-asked topics from the QA section are Geometry and modern Mathematics. In the past five years, each of these topics has been asked for about 18-25 percent weightage.

So, if you could attempt the questions of Arithmetic, Geometry and Modern Math with speed, the accuracy you can stand a chance of scoring 98+ percentile score on your CAT exam.

Numbers, which is the vastest and therefore feared topic of the CAT exam accounts for 6-7 percent questions in the exam and hence it need not be feared. Though it is not suggested to neglect any topic, you can prioritize the topics and work more for the frequently asked topics.

Most Asked Quant Sub-topics in CAT exam 

As the Quant section consists of a vast category of question and it is not easy to define the most asked sub-topics from each topic as there are multiple concepts involved in the questions that could be asked in isolation or with the combination of other concepts.

While it can be difficult to determine the trends around the sub-topics asked for each topic as they may vary each year, so it is advised that the candidate must prepare for the all the sub-topics of each category with same amount of dedication and practice so that no matter the sub-topic, the candidate must be able to solve the questions with speed and precision.

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