CAT 2023 Application Form, Exam Dates, Eligibility, Pattern and Syllabus

The CAT exam is conducted once a year in November. It is known as one of the most difficult exams in India. The IIMs issue the authority notification regularly, usually in July. So, CAT 2023 official notification is expected in by the end of July. The exam will be held in three slots, and the authority communication will include all relevant information such as test dates, eligibility, pattern, etc. In addition, applicants can review the prior year's notice from IIM.

The following table contains more information on the subject:

IIMs can access the candidate's eligibility criteria at the different stages of the selection process. Don't try to fill in any incorrect information while filling out the application form. If your data is detected as incorrect at any stage, you would be declared ineligible, and the CAT official authority would cancel your candidature. Henceforth, Candidates must meet the qualification requirements before filling out the application form.

• To apply for CAT, Candidates must hold a graduate degree from a university recognized by the HRD, Government of India.
• Before applying for the exam, make sure you're eligible. Students with CGPA scores are recommended to convert their scores to percentages using a reliable and recognized method.
• The CAT eligibility criteria for 2023 are simple and have been the same for many years. If the candidates cannot meet the eligibility criteria, they are not eligible for the exam.

The following are the detailed eligibility requirements for the CAT 2023 examination:

• Qualification- To appear for the exam, the candidate must have a bachelor's degree or equivalent from any of the recognized institutions
• Qualifying Marks- The candidate must have scored a minimum of 50% marks (45% marks for reserved category) in their graduation degree
• Appearing- The students who are in their final semester of graduation can also appear for this exam
• Age limit- There is no set age limit for the examination. Anyone who has a graduation degree could appear for the exam.
• Applications having a professional degree like CA, CS or ICWA are also eligible for CAT
• The exam does not have any restriction on the number of attempts that a candidate could take
• The category, once filled, cannot be changed under any circumstances
• Candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC/PwD category must upload their category certificate at the time of registration.

Some very important requirement regarding academic details has been noted below.

• Can any candidate who has scored 50% (45% for reserved category) in their graduation, even with supplementary, apply for the exam
• They provide reservation to category students and the seats in percentage form are distributed as for General- 75%, OBC- 27%, SC- 15%, EWS- upto 10%, ST- 7.5%, and PwD- 5%
• The total number of seats available in all the IIMs is about 4000, of which only 1900 seats are for the general category, and the rest are reserved for category candidates.
• It is not necessary to fulfill the work experience criteria, but if any candidate holds work experience, he would be given some weightage during the final examination.

The eligible students can fill out the form via online mode. Students must complete the online CAT application form with all essential details and documentation before the deadline. As per the tentative schedule, the CAT 2023 Registration process will begin in the first week of August 2023. The authority will soon announce the CAT 2023 application form release date officially. Students must also ensure the last date for CAT 2023 Registration.

How to apply for the CAT 2023 exam?

• Step 1- Begin by registering on the official website of the exam at iimcat.ac.in.
• Step 2- Fill out the CAT Application form, including all required information and valid details.
• Step 3- Scan all the relevant documents and upload them in the proper format.
• Step 4- Pay for application form fees via credit/debit card or net banking.

CAT 2023 registration fees have been increased, and the current fee for general candidates is INR 2,200 and INR 1,100 for the SC/ST/PwD.

Application form status of CAT 2023:-

• Once the application form is properly submitted, a pop-up will appear asking you to pay the application form fees.
• After your payment, you will receive a confirmation email and an SMS text to your registered mobile number.
• If the form is successfully submitted, the application status will be 'Successfully submitted'; else, it will be 'Application Rejected.'

CAT 2023 Application form correction:-

If anything wrong is being filled in the form, then no need to worry about it. The exam authorities activate the Application Correction Window after the main registration process. The tentative 2023 application form correction facility schedule will be available from the third week of September 2023. Candidates who have completed the registration process by paying the stipulated fees will only be able to make corrections in the CAT  2023 entrance exam form.

Only the following details can be edited in the form:

• Photographs
• Signatures
• Test City Option
• Other documents can be modified
• Details that cannot be edited in the Application Form
• Candidates Name
• Date of Birth
• Mobile Number
• Date of Birth

According to the exam pattern, there would be 3 sections to attempt, and the duration will be two hours. The aspirants to crack the exam need to make a section-wise strategy. Some of the top institutions which aspirants must focus on are IIMs, FMS New Delhi, IMT Ghaziabad, and SPJIMR Mumbai.

• The exam will be held in CBT mode.
• The question paper will have 66 questions in total.
• CAT 2023 exam paper will have three sections: data interpretation & logical Reasoning, verbal ability, and quantitative ability
• The duration of the exam will be 2 hours.

According to CAT 2023 marking scheme, 3 marks will be given for every right answer, and 1 mark will be deducted for every wrong answer. But no marks will be given if the candidate does not attempt the question.

The below-given table will explain the CAT 2023 exam format for better understanding.

CAT question paper pattern

CAT 2023 Exam Syllabus:

According to the exam trends, the syllabus for the exam is derived from the 10^th to 12^th standard chapters and largely remains undefined. IIM releases the CAT 2023 mock test annually, highlighting the question types and syllabus.The candidates must work according to their capacity and strategy to crack the exam. Candidates can check the section-wise topics below.

• Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC):
• Reading Comprehension- In this section, the questions will be asked from the comprehensive passages of medium length. The passage would be about 250-500 words. The questions from the passage would be direct.
• Verbal Ability- In this part of the VARC section, the questions will be asked from Grammar, fill in the blanks, verbal Reasoning, sentence correction, Antonyms, Synonyms, etc
• Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DI & LR):
• Data Interpretation- Data sufficiency, Combination of Graphs, Tables, Bar Graphs, Pie charts, etc.
• Logical Reasoning- Binary Logic, Matching Puzzles, Blood Relations, Family Tree, Proposition, Sets Seating Arrangement, Syllogism, Venn Diagram, Statements, Clocks, and Calendars, etc
• Quantitative Ability (QA):
• Algebra, Number System, Geometry, Arithmetic, Higher Maths, Modern Mathematics, Trigonometry, Mensuration, etc

In the below-given table are important topics if CAT 2023 Syllabus:

Books for CAT 2023 Preparation:

Candidates planning to appear in the exam can refer to a few of the books listed below. These books will help in improving the understanding of the topics.

• NCERT Maths 8^th to 10^th- NCERT
• Quantitative Aptitude for MBA Entrance Examinations- Abhijit Guha
• Word Power Made Easy- Norman Lewis
• Business English and Communication- Clark Grade C
• All about Words- Rosenblum and Nurenberg
• How to Prepare for the Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT- Arun Sharma & Meenakshi
• Higher Algebra- Hall and Knight
• Crack The CAT Quantitative Aptitude & Data Interpretation- Vivek Gupta and Sandeep Amar
• How to prepare for Quantitative Aptitude for CAT- Arun Sharma/TATA McGRAW HILL
• Puzzles and some other number books- Shakuntla Devi
• Course in Mental Ability and Quantitative Aptitude         - Edgar Thorpe
• Fundamental of Reasoning A Logic Book- Robert M. Johnson

The CAT exam admit card for 2023 will only be issued on the official website. Candidates who have completed the exam application process will be given the admit cards. The candidates can download cards through the official website using the same login details they used during the registration process.

Candidates must bring their admit cards to the exam centers as a physical printout copy.

They must also carry a valid photo ID proof along with CAT admit card.

The admit card will mention all the important details regarding the exam center and timings.

To be precise, the admit card will have the following details

• Name of the candidate
• Roll number of the candidate
• Date of the exam
• Timing of the exam
• Address of the exam center

Candidates will not be allowed in the exam hall without a CAT admit card. So candidates must carry their admit cards before leaving their homes for the exam. The admit card will be released on October 27, 2023.

After the CAT entrance exam concludes, IIM usually releases the result in January 2024. The result would be declared on the official website. Candidates can only check the result for CAT 2023 online by logging into the website.

• It is easy to know the result as candidates must enter the same login details as the registration process to log in and check the CAT 2023.
• The CAT scorecard is valid for one year. Candidates have been advised to print out the scorecard and keep it safe until they complete their admission process.
• The scorecard consists of all the detailed marks and percentile of the candidate and their section-wise performance.

The below table explains the process of downloading the CAT 2023 scorecard.

• Visit the CAT official website
• Click on "Download CAT 2023 scorecard."
• It will be landed on the login page.
• Will land on the candidate's page account
• Download the scorecard for future reference

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) releases a separate list for the CAT cutoff after declaring the results yearly. The cutoffs are released after the result to shortlist the candidates for the other selection. It includes two cutoffs, are sectional cutoff and an overall cutoff

The sectional CAT 2023 cutoff is the one based on the candidate's score in each section to qualify for the exam

• The overall CAT cutoff is based on the overall score varying between 90 to 99%
• The cutoff list will be released in later January after the declaration of the CAT result
• Every year the cutoffs vary from college to college, and for each category
• The only student with marks equal to or above the cutoffs is eligible for the admission procedure.

Some of the predicted CAT 2023 for different IIMs are listed below

In the case of other category candidates, the cutoff score ranges from 61-82.  

CAT 2023 Counseling and Admission

IIM releases the dates for CAT Counseling on its official website. After the result declaration, the candidates are expected to download their rank cards. Once this is done, the candidates must check for their CAT counseling date based on their rank cards.  The candidate's necessary documents and certificates are verified on this date. After the result of the candidates are sent to each of the items. The admission and counseling process is different for all IIMs. The admission is made based on the merit of the candidate. The IIMs selection process includes the Personal Interview round, Essay Writing, and Group Discussion apart from the Written CAT exam.

• The candidates are selected based on their exam scores by IIMs for the second stage of the selection process.
• The selection in IIMs is based on the written ability test (WAT), personal interview (PI), and group discussion (GD).
• The candidate's work experience is counted as well, along with the candidate's academic performance.
• CAT 2023 qualified candidates will only be called for WAT, GD, and PI round
• CAT participating colleges do not have any collective counseling

In the below-given table, the different criteria are given for which CAT candidates are selected for PI and WAT rounds.

The final selection of the candidate for the colleges will be calculated based on the criteria given in the below-mentioned table.

The exam is conducted in around 159+ cities all over India. While registering for the CAT exam, the candidates are required to fulfill their preference for exam centers. Four cities are added to the registration form as the CAT 2023 exam center preference. The allocation of the time slot for the exam is done randomly. With every passing year, the number of candidates appearing for the CAT exam is increasing. Below are a few recently added cities as exam centers in the CAT exam.

Here are some of the participating colleges for the CAT exam 2023

When should I start preparing for CAT 2023?

Interested candidates can plan their preparation for the exam by the final year of their graduation degree for better planning and scoring.

  When should I apply for CAT 2023?

The opening for CAT 2023 applications will be available from August 3 2023.

Who can give CAT 2023?

CAT Eligibility Criteria:

• Candidates should be qualified in their Bachelor's degree or equivalent recognized by India's Government.
• The percentage criteria for eligibility is 50% aggregate marks (For SC/ST/PWD candidates, 45% marks).  

Which sections do we have in the CAT 2023 Exam pattern? And I want to know the duration of the CAT exam. 

Exam pattern details:

In the Exam pattern, there will be 3 sections: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability, and Reading Comprehension.

• The exam will be scheduled online via a Computer-based test.
• The exam duration is of 3 Hours.
• Exam pattern, there will be a total of questions 66. 
• Exam, for each correct response, 3 marks will be provided.
• 1 mark will be deducted for every wrong response in the exam. 

I want to know the expected CAT cutoff for IIMS for the General Category.

Expected CAT cutoff for IIMS:

• The expected CAT cutoff for IIM Ahmedabad is 80.
• The expected CAT cutoff for IIM Bangalore is 90.
• The expected CAT cutoff for IIM Calcutta is 90.
• The expected CAT cutoff for IIM Lucknow is 90.

Given above are some of the Expected CAT cutoffs for IIMs. Still, various other factors are involved in the cutoffs, i.e., the number of applicants who appear for the CAT exam and the exam's difficulty level.

I want to know the CAT 2023 Admission Process.

• The Top b-schools and IIMs shortlist the candidates depending on the CAT cutoff marks.
• Shortlisted candidates will be called for WAT (Written Ability Test) followed by Group Discussion and Personal Interview (PI).
• The exam Admission process varies depending on the B-school B-schools.
• IIMs will have their criteria to provide admission.
• The aspirant's academics and work experience matter at the admission time.

Only serious aspirants would look for planning guidance initially, not because others aren't important, but because devotion is. One must outline or strategize regularly to receive a call from a top MBA school or institution. The following are a few tips for passing the CAT Exam.

• Start getting ready from the beginning: If you're in graduation and want to take the CAT, now is the perfect time to start. For the time being, any success would not be possible without careful planning.
• Basics should be more solid: Make sure that your CAT planning includes your final marks from graduation, as marks are required to apply to any institution. Possibly the most important suggestion is to make your basics more grounded, that is, acquire from zero levels, so that any inquiry or difficulty can be dealt with more rationally.
• Keep track of the CAT test date, mock test, and application form: Plan a layout timetable so that you can read, study, and be flexible. Understand the test example and timetable before you begin preparing for the exam.
• There is a market full of CAT exam materials. Obtain the review materials of claimed authors or any assessment groups and list every concept and formula beneficial during the test.
• In addition, if any changes are made to the test pattern that should not bother you, the arrangement should proceed.
• Set goals and timeline for preparations:  To pass these difficult examinations, you must manage your time properly. Set goals for accomplishing the concepts in a short amount of time or passing the exams sooner.
• Do the CAT 2023 preparations online by taking up practice tests and answering questions from CAT 2023 previous papers to help us feel more confident and learn more about how the test will be conducted.