CAT Exam

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is the national entrance exam for management programmes at the Indian Institutes of Management and many other business schools. CAT 2026 is conducted by IIM Indore, and the computer-based test is scheduled for Sunday, 29 November 2026 in three sessions.

This page brings the CAT 2026 cycle together: key dates, eligibility, exam pattern, syllabus, selection process and a preparation plan. Registration for this cycle has already closed, so the dates that matter now are the admit card, exam day and result. Several details below are marked as reported or tentative because the official site could not be checked line by line while drafting. Confirm everything on iimcat.ac.in before you act on it.

Table of Contents

CAT 2026 at a Glance

Important Dates

The schedule below follows the CAT 2026 timeline as reported from the notification. Candidates should treat the admit card and result dates as the ones most likely to move.

Tentative dates come from the notification schedule and reports, and they can change. Track the official website and your registered email. For comparison, the CAT 2025 exam was held on 30 November 2025 and its result was reported on 24 December 2025.

Eligibility Criteria

To apply for CAT, you need a bachelor's degree with at least 50% marks or an equivalent CGPA. The minimum is 45% for candidates in the SC, ST and PwBD categories. Final-year students can register, and a candidate who has completed a recognised professional qualification such as CA, CS or ICWA (CMA) is also covered. No upper age limit is reported for CAT 2026.

Meeting the CAT criteria does not guarantee a shortlist, because every IIM and institute applies its own admission criteria on top. Read the full rules, including category lists and the final-year certificate requirement, on the CAT eligibility criteria page.

Exam Pattern

CAT has three sections, and each is timed separately. The pattern below follows the last two cycles. We could not confirm the CAT 2026 paper structure line by line on the official site, so verify it in the official notification and on your admit card.

A correct answer earns 3 marks. A wrong multiple-choice answer costs 1 mark, while type-in-the-answer (TITA) questions carry no negative marking. Older pages may still show a 180-minute paper with different section sizes, so follow the official notification. The CAT exam pattern page explains marking and time use in detail.

What this means for you

• Time is the real constraint: You get about 100 seconds per question in VARC and about 109 seconds in DILR and QA, so choosing questions matters more than solving everything.

• Sections cannot be revisited: Once a section's 40 minutes end, you cannot return to it, so plan each section as a separate paper.

• TITA rewards accuracy: With no negative marking, an attempted TITA question can only add marks if you are right.

Syllabus

The CAT notification names the three sections but, as in earlier cycles, we did not find a topic-wise official syllabus. The topic areas below are built from sample papers and the kinds of questions asked in previous years. Use them as a working checklist, not as an official list.

The CAT syllabus page breaks each area into topics and shows where to start.

Selection Process After CAT

CAT only gives you a score and percentile. Admission to an IIM or another business school happens in later steps that each institute designs for itself.

1. CAT scorecard: You receive scaled scores and percentiles for each section and overall.

2. Shortlisting: Institutes shortlist using the CAT percentile together with factors such as academic record, work experience and diversity, often with sectional minimums.

3. Written ability test and personal interview: Shortlisted candidates are usually assessed through a written ability test and an interview, with different weightage at each institute.

4. Final offer: The final merit list combines CAT, profile and the interview-stage performance as per each institute's policy.

Check each institute's admission brochure for its exact weightage, because it changes from year to year.

How to Prepare

A steady plan matters more than a heavy last-minute push, especially with the exam only weeks away.

• Weeks 1 to 2: Revise core concepts in arithmetic, algebra and number system, and read editorials or long articles for 30 to 40 minutes a day.

• Weeks 3 to 4: Solve topic-wise sets, practise two or three DILR sets daily and review each one for the method, not just the answer.

• Final weeks: Attempt full-length mocks at the real exam timing, analyse them the same day and revise from an error log.

Short, organised CAT study notes on Testkart can help you revise formulas, vocabulary and shortcuts quickly in these last weeks. Pair them with previous-year and sample papers from the official website to understand real difficulty.

Cut-off Reference

CAT has no single pass mark. Each institute sets its own percentile and sectional cut-offs after the result, and they change every year with difficulty, vacancies and the number of applicants. Treat last year's figures as a benchmark only, and aim for a clear margin above them rather than a bare pass. See the CAT cut-off page for how to set your target.