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| Parameters | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Form | Common Admission Test (CAT) |
| No of session | 3 |
| CAT 2025 Exam tmimngs | Session 1: 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM Session 2: 12:30 PM to 2:30 PM Session 3: 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM |
| CAT 2025 Exam Fee | INR 2,500 (General category) and INR 1,250 (Reserved category) |
| No of test takers | Over 2 lakh |
| Mode of examination | computer-based test mode |
| Scores validity | Valid for admission to 21 IIMs and various other MBA colleges in India. |
| Conducting Institute for CAT exam 2025 | Kozhikode |
| CAT exam website | https://iimcat.ac.in/ |
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| August | CAT 2025 registration |
| August | CAT 2025 registration ends |
| November | CAT 2025, Admit Card Download Begins |
| November | CAT 2025, exam day |
| December | CAT 2025, answer key releases |
| December | CAT exam answer key challenge |
| December | Declaration of CAT 2025 result |
Candidates appearing for CAT 2025 must hold a Bachelor’s degree and score at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA and Score 45% in the case of Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons with Disability (PwD) categories.
Candidates applying for CAT 2025 should have any one of the following
On the website, www.iimcat.ac.in, click the ‘Register’ button under the New Candidate Registration header to create your user profile. The Registration form window will open in your browser.
Note: The recommended browsers to fill out the Application form are: Mozilla Firefox (version 94 to 112), Google Chrome (version 88 to 113), Microsoft Edge (version 88 to 113).
To complete the registration process, generate the OTP by clicking on the “GENERATE OTP” button. You will be redirected to CAPTCHA to fill and submit the OTP received on your mobile for verification.The entries on this form cannot be changed once submitted, hence, please ensure that you enter the required information correctly.
Using the system-generated User ID and Password that you received at the completion of Step 1, you can log in as a “Registered Candidate” on the website and fill out the Application Form for CAT 2025.
In future, if you forget your User ID/Password, click the Forgot Password button on the Registered Candidate login window. The User ID & Password will be sent to your registered email address, and not to the registered mobile number.
After logging in to the form, you will be redirected to the Applicant Details page. The Applicant’s personal details will be displayed on this page. Next to Personal Details, a link “GO TO APPLICATION” is available. Click this link to go to the application page.
The Application Form is categorized into the following six sections:
Personal Details, academics, work experience, programmmes test city, declaration.
After you complete the last section, i.e., Payment, your application for CAT 2025 will be considered complete and you will receive a confirmation mail. After this, changes to any information provided on the application form are not possible. You can only print or save the form. Details are available on the application submission page.
| City/State/ Union Territory | City/State/ Union Territory | City/State/ Union Territory |
|---|---|---|
| Port Blair | Guntur | Nellore |
| Vijayawada | Kakinada | Rajahmundry |
| Visakhapatnam | Kurnool | Tirupathi |
| Vizianagaram | Itanagar | Dibrugarh |
| Silchar | Guwahati | Tezpur |
| Jorhat | Aurangabad-Bihar | Darbhanga |
| Arrah | Muzaffarpur | Bhagalpur |
| Patna | Mohali | Chandigarh |
| Bhilai Nagar | Bilaspur | Raipur |
| Delhi | Faridabad | Gurugram |
| Ghaziabad | New Delhi | Greater Noida |
| Noida | Meerut | Panaji |
| Ahmedabad | Mehsana | Vadodara |
| Anand | Rajkot | Gandhinagar |
| Surat | Ambala | Hisar |
| Karnal | Kurushetra | Panipat |
| Rohtak | Shimla | Jhansi |
| Haldwani | Durgapur | Kolkata |
| Siliguri | Hamirpur | Jammu |
| Bokaro | Dhanbad | Hazaribagh |
| Jamshedpur | Ranchi | Belagavi(Belgaum) |
| Bengaluru | Hubballi(Hubli) | Mysuru(Mysore) |
| Shivamogga(Shimoga) | Dharwad | Mangaluru(Mangalore) |
| Udupi | Kannur | Ernakulam |
| Kollam | Kottayam | Kozhikode |
| Thrissur | Trivandrum | Bhopal |
| Jabalpur | Ujjain | Gwalior |
| Sagar | Indore | Satna |
| Amravati | Jalgaon | Nagpur |
| Pune | Solapur | Navi Mumbai |
| Ahmednagar | Kolhapur | Nanded |
| Raigad | Thane | Vasai |
| Aurangabad | Moradabad | Roorkee |
| Bankura | Hooghly | Srinagar |
| Mumbai | Nashik | Satara |
| Palghar | Ulhasnagar | Shillong |
| Aizawl | Kohima | Balasore |
| Cuttack | Sambalpur | Berhampur |
| Dhenkanal | Bhubaneswar | Rourkela |
| Puducherry | Pathankot | Ludhiana |
| Amritsar | Bhatinda | Patiala |
| Jalandhar | Sangrur | Ajmer |
| Jaipur | Sikar | Alwar |
| Jodhpur | Udaipur | Bikaner |
| Kota | Madurai | Chennai |
| Salem | Trichy | Coimbatore |
| Vellore | Tirunelveli | Hyderabad |
| Karimnagar | Warangal | Allahabad |
| Bareilly | Kanpur | Muzaffarnagar |
| Agra | Gorakhpur | Lucknow |
| Varanasi | Aligarh | Dehradun |
| Asansol | Burdwan | Kalyani |
| Imphal |
| Topic | No of Questions | Level of difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Reading Comprehension | 16 | Moderate to Difficult |
| VA-Para jumbles | 3 | Moderate to Difficult |
| VA-Odd Sentence | 2 | Easy to Moderate |
| VA-Summary | 3 | Easy to Moderate |
| Overall | 24 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Topic | No of Questions | Level of difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Relations | 3 | Easy |
| Clocks and Calendars | 3 | Moderate |
| Syllogism | 4 | Moderate to Hard |
| Series | 3 | Moderate |
| Statements | 3 | Moderate |
| Venn Diagram | 3 | Moderate |
| Proposition | 3 | Moderate |
| Data Sufficiency | 4 | Moderate |
| Assumptions | 3 | Moderate |
| Seating Arrangement | 4 | Moderate to Hard |
| Pie Charts | 3 | Moderate |
| Puzzles | 5 | Hard |
| Sets & Caselets | 3 | Moderate |
| Bars & Line Graphs | 3 | Moderate |
| Data Arrangement | 4 | Moderate to Hard |
| Data Structures | 3 | Moderate |
| Direction Sense | 3 | Moderate |
| Family Tree | 3 | Moderate |
| Tables | 3 | Moderate |
| Coding-Decoding | 4 | Moderate |
| Binary Logic | 3 | Moderate |
| Topic | No of Questions | Level of difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Set 1 (Data Interpretation) | 5 | Easy |
| Set 2 (Data Interpretation) | 5 | Moderate |
| Set 3 (Logical Reasoning) | 5 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Set 4 (Logical Reasoning) | 5 | Moderate |
| Overall | 20 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Topic | No of Questions | Level of difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Arithmetic | 8 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Algebra | 7 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Geometry | 3 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Modern Maths | 2 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Number System | 2 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Overall | 22 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Books | Books |
|---|---|
| How to prepare for Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension - Arun Sharma & Meenakshi Upadhyay | Word Power Made Easty - Norman Lewis |
| High School English Grammar & COmposition - Wren & MArtin | Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for CAT - Nishit K. Sinha |
| How to prepare for Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning - Arun Sharma | Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for CAT - Nishit K. Sinha |
| A Mordern Approach to Logical Reasoning - R.S. Aggarwal | Cracku DILR Book - Crack |
| How to prepare for Quantative Aptitude for CAT - Arun Sharma | Quantum CAT - Sarvesh K. Verma |
| Quantitative Aptitude for CAT - Nishit K. Sinha | NCERT Maths (CLass 6-10) - NCERT |
CAT exam will follow the pattern of multiple choice questions. The duration of the paper will be 120 minutes and the candidates will be attempting 68 questions from the Verbal Ability & Reading COmprehension(VARC), Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning(DILR), and the Quantative Aptitude (QAO sections during the exam.
The CAT exam is held in three sessions. Each session lasts for a duration of 120 minutes.
The CAT exam paper is divided into three sections – VARC, DILR, and QA.The total number of questions in the exam is 66.
A sectional time limit of 40 minutes is allocated for each section.Candidates secure three marks for every correct answer. Additionally, for each incorrect answer, 1 mark is deducted.There is no negative marking for non-MCQs, and skipping questions incurs no penalty.
The maximum achievable score in the CAT exam is 198.Attempting all questions is not mandatory.
| Colleges | City |
|---|---|
| Indian Institute Of Management | Ahmedabad |
| Indian Institute Of Management | Bangalore |
| Indian Institute Of Management | Kozhikode |
| Indian Institute Of Technology | Delhi |
| Indian Institute Of Management | Calcutta |
| Indian Institute Of Management | Mumbai |
| Indian Institute of Management | Lucknow |
| Indian Institute Of Management | Indore |
| XLRI - Xavier School of Management | Jamshedpur |
| Indian Institute Of Technology | Bombay |
| Management Development Institute | Gurugram |
As per the legal requirements, 15% of the seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, 7.5% for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, 27% for Other Backward Classes candidates belonging to the “Non-Creamy” layer (NC-OBC), up to 10% for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) candidates and 5% for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwD).
As defined in The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act 2016), “Person with Benchmark Disability” means a person with not less than forty per cent (40%) of a specified disability where the specified disability has not been defined in measurable terms and includes a person with disability where the specified disability has been defined in measurable terms, as certified by the certifying authority.“Specified disability” means the disabilities as specified in the Schedule of the RPwD Act 2016. The categories of disability are:
Blindness and low vision
Deaf and hard of hearing,
Locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy,
Autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness
Multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d),
Other 'specified disabilities' mentioned in 'The Schedule' of the RPwD Act 2016.
For the purpose of being considered for reservation, the applicable Central Government list as on the last date of CAT registration shall be binding. No subsequent changes will be effective for CAT 2024 and any subsequent selection process of the IIMs.
The previous year’s question papers for the CAT exam will significantly help you understand the pattern, question format, and level of difficulty. Practising these question papers will enhance your understanding of the topics much better and will give you the confidence to deal with the possible difficulty factors in the exam.
Aspirants can access mock tests that you can access for free in order to learn about how the paper pattern works out for CAT exam 2025. additionally, the marks that you score on a mock test will give you an idea with respect to where you stand in terms of your overall preperation.
Mock Tests
The IIMs release their CAT exam answer key a week after the exam is conducted in the format of a response sheet. The answer key gives an idea about the marks that candidates are likely to score. The following steps explain how to download the CAT answer key and response sheet:
Click on the ‘login’ tab.
Enter the CAT login ID and password.
Click on the ‘CAT 2024 answer key,’ which will be displayed on the screen.
Click on the ‘download’ link to save it as a PDF.
| College/ Posts/ Academy | Cut off for general category |
|---|---|
| IIM Ahmedabad | 80 |
| IIM Bangalore | 85 |
| IIM Kozhikode | 85 |
| IIM Calcutta | 85 |
| IIM Lucknow | 90 |
| IIM Mumbai | 85 |
| IIM Indore | 90 |
| IIM Raipur | 92 |
| IIM Rohtak | 95 |
| IIM Udaipur | 92 |
| IIM Kashipur | 92 |
| IIM Trichy | 92 |
| IIM Ranchi | 92 |
| IIM Shillong | 75 |
| IIM Visakhapatnam | 80 |
| IIM Jammu | Male- 90 Female- 87 |
| IIM Nagpur | 90 |
| IIM Amritsar | 85 |
| IIM Bodh Gaya | 92 |
| IIM Sambalpur | 74 |
| IIM Sirmaur | 92 |
In order to prepare for the CAT exam 2025, students' schedules ensure that they practise the question papers well along with learning the new concepts. The following are the guidelines you should keep in mind for being thoroughly prepared for your CAT exam.
Identify the weak areas of learning and practise them more often than the ones that are relatively your strong areas.Keep track of the time spent on each question to ensure that you attempt the question paper within the time limit.Keep practising the previous years’ question papers in order to strengthen what you learn.Attempt the different mock tests to ensure that the questions are easier for you during the exam.
