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CAT 2023 Syllabus

  • By Bhavya Thakkar
  • 29 November 2022
CAT 2023 Syllabus

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CAT is one of the most popular entrance exams for an MBA Program in India. While the CAT syllabus is vast, if you plan and start preparing in a focused manner, you can cover it within two-three months. The CAT Exam Syllabus covers most concepts that you have learned in school.

While many people consider the test to be very difficult, the best way to prepare for it is to understand the CAT syllabus and pattern and create a study plan accordingly. Many ex-students and coaching institutes offer tips to crack the CAT exam. You can make a note of these tips to be better prepared for the test. In this article, we will talk about MBA CAT Syllabus in detail.

CAT Paper Syllabus 2022

Three CAT subjects constitute the CAT Syllabus:

  1. Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) – including various topics of English Grammar and your ability to read and comprehend efficiently along with verbal reasoning topics.
  2. Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) – including topics that assess your skills for interpreting data in different forms
  3. Quantitative Aptitude (QA) – including Mathematics from Class 9 and Class 10

Important Topics for CAT 2022

Based on an analysis of the types of questions asked in the past few years, we have compiled a list of important topics for CAT 2022.

  • VARC – 
    • Verbal Ability – around 10% weightage to topics like Inferences, Para jumbles, Para summary, and Sentence Completion
    • Reading Comprehension – around 24% weightage to questions based on passages
  • DILR – 
    • Data Interpretation – around 16% weightage to topics like Graphs, Pie Charts, Tables, and Venn Diagrams
    • Logical Reasoning – around 16% weightage to questions relating to blood relations, caselets, seating arrangements, and syllogisms.
  • QA – around 34% weightage to questions from algebra, arithmetic, geometry, mensuration, and the number system

Changes in the CAT Entrance Exam Syllabus

In the last 10 years, in CAT paper syllabus, the cat subjects for MBA have not been changed or shuffled. However, the exam pattern has undergone some tweaks in the last two years. Here is a quick look:

CAT Exam Pattern 

Changes made in CAT 2020

Changes made in CAT 2021

CAT 2022

Total questions asked

Reduced from 100 in 2019 to 76 in 2020

Reduced from 76 in 2020 to 66 in 2021

66 questions

Total questions in VARC section

Reduced from 34 in 2019 to 26 in 2020

Reduced from 26 in 2020 to 24 in 2021

24 questions

Total Questions in DILR section

Reduced from 32 in 2019 to 24 in 2020

Reduced from 24 in 2020 to 20 in 2021

20 questions

Total Questions in QA section

Reduced from 34 in 2019 to 26 in 2020

Reduced from 26 in 2020 to 22 in 2021

22 questions

Total marks

Reduced from 300 in 2019 to 228 to 2020

Reduced from 228 in 2020 to 198 in 2021

198 marks

CAT Detailed Syllabus

Here is a look at the CAT portion and syllabus for 2022:

Section 1 – Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension

The first section of CAT Paper is VARC. This section has two parts:

  1. Verbal Ability
  2. Reading Comprehension

You need to solve this section within 40 minutes. 

Verbal Ability – important topics

Analogies

Antonyms

Articles usage

Fill in the blanks

Errors in tenses

Different usage of the same word

Idioms

Grammar

Foreign language words used in English

Jumbled paragraphs

One-word substitution

Phrases modifiers

Para jumbles

Parts of speech

Para completion, and inference

Preposition

Reading comprehension

Sentence completion

Sentence correction

Subject-verb agreement

Syllogisms

Types of clauses

Verbal logic

Verbal reasoning

VARC – Paper Pattern

Here is a quick look at the paper pattern of 2021.

VARC Topics

No. of Questions

Reading Comprehension

16

VA-Para jumbles

3

VA-Odd Sentence

2

VA-Summary

3

Overall

24

The VARC section is expected to have a similar pattern in 2022 too.

Things to remember about the VARC section

  • Typically, there are 8 questions on Verbal Ability
  • These are non-MCQ questions. Therefore, you have to type your answer.
  • No negative marking in Verbal Ability
  • The Reading Comprehension section has MCQ-type questions
  • Expect around 3-4 long passages ranging from 600-900 words
  • The Reading Comprehension section has a negative marking of one mark for a wrong answer

Section 2 – Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning

DILR is the second section of CAT. This section has two parts:

  1. Data Interpretation
  2. Logical Reasoning

Data Interpretation – important topics

Blood Relations

Clocks and Calendars

Syllogism

Series

Statements

Venn Diagram

Proposition

Data Arrangement

Data Structures

Direction Sense

Family Tree

Tables

Coding-Decoding

Binary Logic

Pie Charts

Assumptions

Seating Arrangement

Data Sufficiency

Puzzles

Sets & Caselets

Bars & Line Graphs

VARC – Paper Pattern

Here is a quick look at the paper pattern of 2021.

DILR Topics

No. of Questions

Data Interpretation

8 (4 easy and 4 moderate)

Logical Reasoning

12 (6 easy-to-moderate and 6 moderate-to-difficult)

Overall

20

The DILR section is expected to have a similar pattern in 2022 too.

Things to remember about the DILR section

  • Typically, there are around 14 questions on Data Interpretation and around 10 questions on Logical Reasoning
  • These are MCQ and non-MCQ-type questions. 
  • MCQs have a negative marking for wrong answers. There is no negative marking for non-MCQ-type questions

Section 3 – Quantitative Aptitude

QA is the third section of CAT. You need to solve this section within 40 minutes. 

Quantitative Aptitude – important topics

Algebra

Binomial theorem

Geometric Progression

Geometry

Inequalities

In-equations Quadratic and linear equations

Logarithms

Mean, mode, median

Mensuration

Number System

Percentages

Partnership (Accounts)

Probability

Profit & Loss

Ratios and Proportion

Surds and Indices

Square Root and Cube Root

Simple interest and compound interest

Work and Time

Trigonometry

Time-Speed-Distance

QA – Paper Pattern

Here is a quick look at the paper pattern of 2021.

QA Topics

No. of Questions

Algebra

5

Arithmetic

10

Modern Maths

4

Geometry

3

Overall

22

The QA section is expected to have a similar pattern in 2022 too.

Things to remember about the QA section

  • This section has 22 questions
  • These are MCQ and non-MCQ-type questions. 
  • MCQs have a negative marking for wrong answers. There is no negative marking for non-MCQ-type questions

In Conclusion

We hope this article helped you learn more about the CAT syllabus and pattern. After you apply for the CAT exam, keep following the official website to stay updated about the announcements and also to download the CAT Admit Card.

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