Welcome to the New CAT India Forum!

Nice initiative

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Thanks!
Are you thinking of taking the CAT? Or have you taken it?
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bb Have taken twice, then switched to GMAT

CAT is more about Calculation & Accuracy. Quant will be bit tougher as compared to GMAT. And reverses for Verbal.
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Hi bb

I took CAT twice a few yrs back.. it is computer based test but a non adaptive one.


The quant is a bit tricky and verbal is easy. Anybody who is a bit good in reading and logical thinking will be able to ace it.

Of course there are a few coaching institutions which train people to ace the exam.

The makers keep throwing surprises every year

So I guess the GMAT would be a new frontier potentially then for those who have taken and prepped for CAT? Seems the adaptive part and verbal would be harder. Quant easier. Is that accurate?

Posted from my mobile device
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Actually GMAT follows a set pattern on the number of topics and sub topics which it tests.

The question mix changes in GMAT...

CAT quant involves logical puzzles at times. If i take DS into account, CAT would be easy. But overall it is tricky.

Verbal is a minefield. They test anything. The only thing one needs to remember is be aware.

Also attempting just 50% of the total questions with 95% accuracy will fetch a higher percentile

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bb Quant is tougher with a vast syllabus that includes Logarithm, Mensuration, etc... and is non-adaptive.

Verbal is easier than GMAT
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This is a terrific idea! I am prepping for CAT this year and was looking for a GMATclubesque platform to get a few CAT doubts resolved. Is it cool if I post a few quant questions in this thread or should I post it in a new thread with an Out of Scope tag?

Or else, it would be great if the forum could add a 'CAT' filter?

P.S Feel free to ask me any general questions about the CAT exam. This is my second attempt and I would love to help!

Great!

If you would like to discuss quant or verbal questions, we can post them in this forum or we can create sub forums here for quant and verbal questions and enable the timer. Or I am open to any other ideas

Posted from my mobile device
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Bunual would be happy. CAT quant is supposed to be more difficult.

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It would also be a great initiative if you make a forum for SAT students-they're so young that they need your help for making a platform, i guess.
Thanks__
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I had taken the CAT a few years ago. It would be really good to discuss the quant section specifically.

In fact there is a section called Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning which takes GMAT IR to the next level and also has interesting puzzles to solve.

The Data Interpretation section would be a lot of help for GMAT IR as well.

I completely agree with you! Since the quant portion is almost similar, there is a great collection of questions that can help the GMAT aspirants out as well. In a few days, I will get this forum active by posting a few each day.

The DILR standard may be a notch higher when compared to the IR section but the basic practice material can be beneficial for both aspirants as it will help build a solid foundation. As for the Verbal section, the GMAT RC and CR question bank along with regular reading should be more than enough. I will ensure to post a few interesting Parajumble and Para completion questions (not tested on the GMAT) as well.

Just created the 2 subforums for Quant and Verbal Questions.
- Added Timer (it has 5 answer choices, which should be OK for now)
- No tags yet but we can add those easily too

What else do we need?
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Hi bb,
Another thing I dint see mentioned here on CAT is that each question has a set number of marks and wrong attempt fetches a negative score. And in attempting a particular section, you get to go back to a previously attempted question and change answer, unlike GMAT where the question says now or never :P Also, in CAT, answering a question wrong attracts more penalty (negative mark) than leaving it unattempted(0 mark). So, the mindset when sitting for these two exams is very different.
Good to see a CAT forum. I have given CAT twice now and will be attempting the one scheduled this year as well
Cheers!
J

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Thanks for sharing and posting! I am still learning about this test and it is fascinating! I have been so used to the GMAT, and so baked into it, and I feel all these different approaches are kind of cool and refreshing and exotic. It is great to have options is the bottom line - GMAT, GRE, CAT, etc!




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...one more thing that makes challenging is that while one can go back to questions and change their responses, they can give this test only once in a year! So the pressure is really really high.

Also I think the main difference between CAT and GMAT quant section is that, in CAT you often get more technical jargons such as "find alpha,beta, maxima" etc as compared to GMAT. Also, some questions are far more difficult than hardest ones in GMAT.

Unlike GMAT, in 5 to 6 questions, one needs to type-in their responses and are required to have pinpoint accuracy in calculations. In verbal and DI we need to choose from drop downs and the set of 3-4 such drop downs will constitute 1 correct response.

+3 for correct responses and -1 for incorrect ones (this may change from year to year).

Most of the DI is like IR of GMAT! You get a big data set containing complicated relationships or numbers running upto 6-7 digits and answer a set of questions based on this data. It takes GMAT IR to a new level.

Number of questions is also high. In computer adaptive tests, few questions are easy but in CAT all questions have high difficulty level.

Verbal has so many types of questions but still one can easily get a decent score because many questions are based on some kind of reasoning or the other.

But non adaptive nature makes it easy to score decent percentile (I have scored close to 95 percentile thrice with 2-3 months of prep) but one needs to put in very dedicated and sincere effort to break into the 99 percentile which is needed to get into top tier colleges.

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That is pretty much the basic difference. There is a whole new section called as DI&LR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning) which has been a tough one for past 3 years now If I am not wrong. I have taken CAT 2013 through 16 (4 attempts) and finally gave up on it. I have started to prepare for GMAT and planning to take it in Sept of this year (with no agenda of which colleges and when to apply; just the exam). Great initiative. Looking forward to learn from you more and more in coming future.

wow very nice....