CAT Exam Pattern 2025: Marking Scheme, Exam Day Requirements & Total Marks

The CAT (Common Admission Test) is a National Level Management Entrance Test which is conducted once in a year. The CAT Exam Pattern 2025 has been prescribed by the IIM Calcutta (conducting body). Every student who is thinking of appearing in the exam must familiarise themselves with the CAT paper pattern 2025. This helps students in having proper understanding about the CAT pattern 2025 and its marks scoring system.

In this article, candidates can get detailed information about the CAT exam pattern 2025. This will assist students in knowing about how many questions in the CAT exam will be there, marks of the questions, duration of the exam, etc.

CAT Paper Pattern 2025 is intended to evaluate the ability of the student’s to answer mathematical and logical reasoning problems. The CAT 2025 exam pattern has 66 questions (multiple choice and TITA). The total limit to solve the paper is 120 minutes which is categorised as 40 minutes for a section.

For a proper understanding of CAT question paper 2025, candidates are advised to have required knowledge about CAT exam pattern and syllabus.

CAT is a computer based exam which is categorised into 3 main sections which are as follows:

• Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC)
• Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DI & LR)
• Quantitative Aptitude (QA)

The below given table highlights the essential points of CAT 2025 paper pattern:

Candidates should have proper knowledge about the CAT Syllabus and the ability to solve difficult questions. The following table contains the section wise question and marks distribution of CAT Test Pattern 2025:

It is very important for the candidates to have proper understanding about the CAT 2025 marking scheme before appearing for the exam. In the CAT, both MCQs and Non-MCQs have different marking system which is explained below:

• CAT exam pattern total marks: 198
• Marks for correct question: 3 marks
• CAT exam pattern negative marking for MCQs: -1 mark for a wrong question.
• No negative marking for unanswered and TITA questions.

According to the CAT exam format, the time limit of the test is 120 minutes (2 hours) and aspirants are required to solve each section in 40 minutes. After the allotted time is over, aspirants cannot make any changes.

Moreover, persons with disability (PwD) candidates are allotted 160 minutes to solve the CAT paper. Section wise time limit for PwD candidates is 53 minutes and 20 seconds.