CAT 2020 exam notification will be released in July and it will be held in different cities all over India. Read everything you need to know about CAT 2020 to start your preparations for admissions into the top MBA colleges in the country.
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The common admission test or CAT 2020 notification will be out in July and will be held in the last Sunday of November or the first Sunday of December 2020. This exam will help gain entry to the IIMs as well as to over 1200 B-schools spread across India. Each year, a particular IIM selected on a rotational basis conducts the exam and the institute name is announced in May. CAT 2020 was conducted by IIM Kozhikode on November 25, 2020, and the CAT result was announced on January 5, 2021.
Registration for CAT 2020 will begin from August and will continue till the end of September. About 2.4 lakh candidates register for CAT exam every year.
CAT 2020 result will be announced in the first week of January 2021. Following this, IIMs will start shortlisting candidates for admission. Go through this article to know all about CAT 2020 exam including eligibility criteria, dates, registration process, fees, exam pattern, syllabus, result, cut off and CAT 2020 preparation.
Also check CAT Eligibility Criteria
Note: The percentage of marks obtained is calculated on the basis of the formula set by the institution/university of study. In case the particular institute does not have a system for arriving at the equivalent marks from the CGPA, the same can be arrived at by dividing the candidate’s CGPA by the maximum attainable CGPA, and multiplying this result with 100.
Given below is a tentative list of CAT 2020 dates. Once the notification is released these dates will be updated.
| CAT 2020 Events | CAT 2020 Dates |
| CAT 2020 notification release | Last week of July |
| CAT Registrations start | The first week of August |
| Registrations end | Last week of September |
| CAT form correction | Last week of September |
| CAT mock test and official tutorial release | The second week of October |
| Admit card release | The third week of October |
| CAT 2020 exam | Last Sunday of November or first Sunday of December |
| Answer key release | The second week of December |
| Result declaration | The first week of January |
CAT 2020 registrations will start from the first week of August. The candidates can register for the exam by filling an online application that will be available on IIMCAT (CAT 2020) website. Given below is the detailed process of CAT 2020 registration:
CAT 2020 registration fee is based on the candidate’s category. Mentioned below is the exam fee for each category:
| Category | CAT fees |
| General/NC-OBC | Rs 1900 |
| SC/ST/PWD/EWS | Rs 950 |
The following table has the list of cities across India where CAT 2020 is expected to be conducted by IIMCAT.
| Port Blair | Hamirpur | Mumbai |
|---|---|---|
| Guntur | Jammu | Nashik |
| Nellore | Bokaro | Satara |
| Vijayawada | Dhanbad | Palghar |
| Kakinada | Hazaribagh | Ulhasnagar |
| Rajahmundry | Jamshedpur | Shillong |
| Visakhapatnam | Ranchi | Aizawl |
| Kurnool | Belagavi(Belgaum) | Kohima |
| Tirupathi | Bengaluru | Balasore |
| Vizianagaram | Hubballi(Hubli) | Cuttack |
| Itanagar | Mysuru(Mysore) | Sambalpur |
| Dibrugarh | Kalaburagi(Gulbarga) | Berhampur |
| Silchar | Shivamogga(Shimoga) | Dhenkanal |
| Guwahati | Dharwad | Bhubaneswar |
| Tezpur | Mangaluru(Mangalore) | Rourkela |
| Jorhat | Udupi | Puducherry |
| Aurangabad-Bihar | Kannur | Pathankot |
| Darbhanga | Ernakulam | Ludhiana |
| Arrah | Kollam | Amritsar |
| Muzaffarpur | Kottayam | Bhatinda |
| Bhagalpur | Kozhikode | Patiala |
| Patna | Thrissur | Jalandhar |
| Mohali | Trivandrum | Sangrur |
| Chandigarh | Bhopal | Ajmer |
| Bhilai Nagar | Jabalpur | Jaipur |
| Bilaspur | Ujjain | Sikar |
| Raipur | Gwalior | Alwar |
| Delhi | Sagar | Jodhpur |
| Faridabad | Indore | Udaipur |
| Gurugram | Satna | Bikaner |
| Ghaziabad | Bhopal | Kota |
| New Delhi | Jabalpur | Madurai |
| Greater Noida | Ujjain | Chennai |
| Noida | Gwalior | Salem |
| Meerut | Sagar | Trichy |
| Panaji | Indore | Coimbatore |
| Ahmedabad | Satna | Vellore |
| Mehsana | Amravati | Tirunelveli |
| Vadodara | Jalgaon | Hyderabad |
| Anand | Nagpur | Karimnagar |
| Rajkot | Pune | Warangal |
| Gandhinagar | Solapur | Allahabad |
| Surat | Navi Mumbai | Bareilly |
| Ambala | Ahmednagar | Kanpur |
| Hisar | Kolhapur | Muzaffarnagar |
| Karnal | Nanded | Agra |
| Kurushetra | Raigad | Gorakhpur |
| Panipat | Thane | Lucknow |
| Rohtak | Vasai | Varanasi |
| Shimla | Aurangabad | Aligarh |
| Jhansi | Moradabad | Dehradun |
| Haldwani | Roorkee | Asansol |
| Durgapur | Bankura | Burdwan |
| Kolkata | Hooghly | Kalyani |
| Siliguri |
CAT 2020 exam pattern is mostly expected to be along the same lines as CAT 2019 except for minor changes in the number of questions from each topic. The key points of the exam pattern are featured below.
| CAT exam pattern: Highlights | |
| Exam timings | Slot 1: 9 am to 12 pm; Slot 2: 2 pm to 5 pm |
| Number of sections | Three |
| Names of the sections | ·Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) ·Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) ·Quantitative Aptitude (QA) |
| Duration of exam | 60 minutes per section (Total 180 minutes) |
| Language of question paper | English |
| Total number of questions | 100 |
| Section-wise number of questions | ·VARC -34 ·DILR- 32 ·QA – 34 |
| Number of answer choices | Four |
| Type of questions | MCQs and Non-MCQs |
| Section-wise difficulty level | ·VARC – Easy to moderate ·DILR- Moderate to difficult ·QA – Difficult |
| Total marks | 300 |
| Marking Scheme | ·3 marks for each right question ·Negative marking of 1/3 for each wrong MCQ ·No negative marking in non-MCQs |
CAT syllabus 2020 will contain important topics from the following three sections:
CAT 2020 admit card issued only to the registered candidates has to be downloaded from the official website. The admit card will be available for download till the date of the exam.
Here’s how the admit card for CAT 2020 can be downloaded
CAT admit card is a must for entry into the examination hall. The candidates should remember to carry two copies of CAT 2020 admit card along with a photo ID card issued by the Government of India to the exam hall.
It is also important to note that a digital copy or a photocopy of the admit card is not valid. The candidates must download their admit cards on an A4 size paper and affix their photo on it.
Before the CAT results are announced, the answer key, individual response sheet and the question paper are released by IIMCAT on their official website. This answer key has two stages to it – Preliminary and Final. Once the preliminary key is released, objections can be raised if a candidate feels that a certain answer is incorrect. Once each of the objections if any, are verified, the final answer key is released.
Also Check CAT 2020 Answer Key
The CAT result of 2020 will be declared in the first week of January 2021. The result that also
contains the scorecard will be available for download on the official website of the IIMCAT. The scorecard contains each candidate’s scaled scores (sectional and overall) and percentile (sectional and overall). This result will be valid for admission to the MBA batch of 2021-2023.
Steps for downloading CAT 2020 result
Also Check CAT 2020 Analysis
Also Check CAT Score Vs Percentile, What is the difference
For admission into the IIMs candidates are screened on the basis of CAT 2020 score, WAT-GD/PI round and Final selection. Candidates who meet the defined CAT 2020 cut off will be called for the WAT-GD/PI round.
After the completion of WAT-GD/PI round, each candidate will be scored on the basis of their performance in CAT 2020, WAT-GD/PI and other parameters:
Listed below are the parameters taken into account by the IIMs for admission through CAT exam:
| *Parameters | *Weight |
| CAT 2020 | 25 |
| WAT | 10 |
| PI | 30 |
| 10th board | 10 |
| 12th board | 5 |
| Graduation | 10 |
| Weighted Work Experience | 10 |
| Total | 100 |
*These parameters and weights are of IIM Bangalore admission criteria and for reference purpose only. Each IIM allots different weight to these parameters.
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