CAT 2007: Analysis and expected cut-offs

On the whole, the CAT 2007 paper was tough, with no section providing much of a respite to the aspirants. Comparatively speaking, the students would have found Data Interpretation (DI), with a mix of calculations and logic to be on the easier side. Data Sufficiency in its old format reappeared in CAT after a span of three years, more so in two different sections! The emphasis in the DI section was definitely on speed of calculation.

But Quantitative Ability (QA) proved to be mind bogglingly difficult for the average student. However, on a closer look 7-8 questions could have been solved using options without using deeper mathematical knowledge.

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In Verbal Ability (VA), the number of Reading Comprehension (RC) passages was more than last year, though they were not lengthy. The number of questions per passage was low, just three each. Though, for a change, there were no abstract questions in RC, however, each passage required meticulous reading. As a section, it is safe to infer that the VA section checked almost all the aspects, including verbal logic, vocabulary and grammar.

The Sentence Correction questions in VA were different in nature to last year's, while the Para jumbles provided a bit of a breather in terms of difficulty level.

Overall, even though the paper did not pose any surprise, pattern wise, with the number of questions remaining 75 as last year, the level of difficulty was increased by at least two to three notches.

In conclusion, even with the best of preparations it would be really tough to score 100 in this paper.

Overview
Here is an overview of how you should have attempted this paper.