The CAT 2025 exam all slots have finally been concluded. During the exam, students faced challenges navigating the DILR section and QA questions at some places. VARC was reported to be easy and doable across all 3 sections. The DILR section was surprisingly challenging across all 3 slots. It included questions from Spider, Bar charts, Seating Arrangements, Train Tickets, Feet Tapping, Distribution Puzzle, Rank Arrangements and so on.
As per student reviews, DILR section of CAT 2025 demanded more time to solve the complex caselets across all 3 slots. Due to the overall difficulty level of CAT 2025 being moderate, with QA and DILR sections reported to be difficult, students having a CAT score range between 70-80 may apply to colleges like Amity University, Asia-Pacific Institute of Management, Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida, etc.
The CAT 2025 results are expected to be released by December 19-20, 2025. IIM CAT 2025 response sheet along with the provisional answer key which will help students calculate their raw score will be released soon. For a 95% and above score, students are expected to correctly answer around 16 to 17 VARC questions, attempt about 12 correct DILR questions and 12-13 QA questions. The CAT 2025 cutoff for IIM ABC is expected to be 85%-90%.
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CAT 2025 Slot 1 vs Slot 2 vs Slot 3 Overall Difficulty Level
The overall difficulty level across all the 3 slots of the CAT 2025 exam have been analyzed based on expert reviews by TIME, IMS and student feedback. CAT Slot 3 was reported as the most difficult section with lengthy questions and tricky nature. Check the detailed CAT slot 1 vs Slot 2 vs Slot 3 overall difficulty level analysis in the table given below.
| Difficulty Level | |
| CAT Exam Slots | Overall Difficulty |
| CAT Slot 1 | Moderate |
| CAT Slot 2 | Moderate |
| CAT Slot 3 | Moderate to Difficult |
| Overall CAT 2025 Difficulty | Moderate |
CAT 2025 Section-wise Difficulty Level
Each section of the CAT 2025 examination was challenging in its own way. CAT 2025 was not an easy exam. Students having completed the CAT 2025 exam reported that the DILR and QA sections both were difficult and challenging to solve compared to VARC. The VARC section remained doable, easy and the most accessible across all 3 CAT exam slots.
| Difficulty Level | |
| CAT 2025 Sections | Overall Difficulty |
| VARC | Moderate |
| DILR | Moderate to Difficult |
| QA | Moderate to Difficult |
CAT 2025 Slot 1 vs Slot 2 vs Slot 3: Number of Ideal Attempts
An ideal attempt is important to know if you will be able to clear the sectional cutoff. Students must have found difficult, challenging and tricky questions in the CAT 2025 examination yet they had to correctly answer a few questions to be able to clear the sectional cutoff and score 90 to 99% percentile marks. Section wise CAT slot 1, slot 2 and slot 3 total number of ideal/doable attempts/questions are listed in the table below.
| Ideals Attempts | |||
| CAT’ 25 Sections | Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 |
| VARC | 12 | 10-12 | 12-13 |
| DILR | 10 | 8-9 | 8-9 |
| QA | 11-12 | 6-7 | 8-9 |
| Net Total | 25-27 | 24-28 | 25-27 |
CAT 2025 Slot 1 Overall Expected Score vs Percentile
CAT 2025 score vs percentile for CAT slot 1 have been released. Slot 1 of the CAT 2025 exam which was held in the morning was reported to be fairly challenging across all the 3 slots. Below are the expected percentile scores for the overall raw scores across CAT 2025 Slot 1. Students may use the table given below to know their relative performance by estimating their expected CAT percentile based on their expected score.
| Slot 1 | |
| Overall Expected Score | Expected Percentile CAT 2025 |
| 120 | 99.9% |
| 100 | 99.5% |
| 88 | 99% |
| 75 | 98% |
| 65 | 95% |
| 54 | 90% |
| 45 | 85% |
| 40 | 80% |
| 30 | 75% |
CAT 2025 Slot 1 Expected Sectional Score vs Percentile
Once the CAT response sheet and CAT answer keys are out, students may utilize the table given below to compare their expected section wise score with the overall percentile. The below mentioned score ranges and estimated percentile scores are valid only for those students who took the CAT 2025 exam in slot 1(morning slot).
| Expected VARC Score | Expected DILR Score | Expected QA Score | Expected Percentile |
| 54 | 45 | 44 | 99.9% |
| 44 | 37 | 36 | 99.5% |
| 40 | 30 | 32 | 99% |
| 35 | 25 | 27 | 98% |
| 30 | 20 | 21 | 95% |
| 24 | 18 | 16 | 90% |
| 20 | 15 | 13 | 85% |
| 18 | 12 | 11 | 80% |
| 15 | 9 | 9 | 75% |
CAT 2025 Slot 2 Overall Expected Score vs Percentile
As the CAT exam is held in 3 slots, each slot will have a separate expected score vs percentile range. For the CAT 2025 slot 2, the overall expected score and percentile are provided in the table below. Students having scored above 67 marks will likely have a 95% CAT score similarly for a higher percentile between 99.5% to 99.9%, you will need a score between 102 to 121 marks.
| Slot 2 | |
| Overall Expected Score | Expected Percentile CAT 2025 |
| 121 | 99.9% |
| 102 | 99.5% |
| 90 | 99% |
| 77 | 98% |
| 67 | 95% |
| 56 | 90% |
| 47 | 85% |
| 42 | 80% |
| 32 | 75% |
CAT 2025 Slot 2 Expected Sectional Score vs Percentile
The detailed section wise expected score vs percentile for CAT slot 2 have been displayed in the table below. Students must try to maintain scores between 42-54 across the VARC, DILR and QA sections to achieve an overall percentile of 99.9%.
| Slot 2 | |||
| Expected VARC Score | Expected DILR Score | Expected QA Score | Expected Percentile |
| 54 | 46 | 42 | 99.9% |
| 46 | 38 | 34 | 99.5% |
| 41 | 33 | 31 | 99% |
| 35 | 28 | 27 | 98% |
| 30 | 23 | 20 | 95% |
| 25 | 16 | 16 | 90% |
| 21 | 13 | 13 | 85% |
| 18 | 11 | 11 | 80% |
| 15 | 9 | 9 | 75% |
CAT 2025 Slot 3 Overall Expected Score vs Percentile
Students across different news and educational platforms have reported the CAT slot 3 exam as the hardest of all the 3 slots. Slot 3 of CAT 2025 took place in the evening hours and had more tricky questions compared to CAT slot 1 and CAT slot 2. An overall score of 115 marks is expected to place students among the 99.9% category which a slightly lower 85 marks is likely to correspond to a CAT 2025 Slot 3 99% score range.
| Slot 3 | |
| Overall Expected Score | Expected Percentile CAT 2025 |
| 115 | 99.9% |
| 97 | 99.5% |
| 85 | 99% |
| 72 | 98% |
| 65 | 95% |
| 52 | 90% |
| 42 | 85% |
| 38 | 80% |
| 30 | 75% |
CAT 2025 Slot 3 Expected Sectional Score vs Percentile
Each section of the CAT 2025 Slot 3 had difficult questions and challenging nature. Students found CAT 2025 slot 3 the most difficult compared to slot 1 and slot 2. Students are expected to secure close to 54 marks in VARC. 42 in DILR and 38 in QA for a net CAT 2025 Slot 3 expected percentile of 99.9%.
| Slot 3 | |||
| Expected VARC Score | Expected DILR Score | Expected QA Score | Expected Percentile |
| 54 | 42 | 38 | 99.9% |
| 46 | 36 | 33 | 99.5% |
| 41 | 30 | 28 | 99% |
| 35 | 27 | 26 | 98% |
| 30 | 22 | 20 | 95% |
| 25 | 17 | 16 | 90% |
| 21 | 12 | 12 | 85% |
| 18 | 10 | 11 | 80% |
| 15 | 8 | 9 | 75% |
CAT 2025 Slot 1 vs Slot 2 Detailed Analysis
On a thorough comparison of CAT slot 1 and CAT slot 2, it is found that CAT slot 2 was slightly less challenging compared to CAT slot 1. Slot 1 is the first slot which slot 2 is held during the afternoon hours. The QA section in its difficulty level remained the same as CAT 2024 for both CAT 2025 slot 1 and CAT 2025 slot 2. Based on a detailed CAT slot 2 analysis in comparison with CAT slot 1, students with good time management skills appearing in CAT slot 2 are likely to find the paper easily manageable and score higher marks.
| Slot 1 vs Slot 2 | ||
| Particulars | CAT Slot 1 | CAT Slot 2 |
| Structure | Less Balanced than Slot 2 | More balanced than Slot 1 |
| DILR Section | Less Accessible | Most Accessible |
| VARC | Less Accessible | Most Accessible |
| QA Section | Similar to Previous Year | Similar to Previous Year |
| Higher Attempts | Difficult due to limited time | Possible with time management |
CAT 2025 Slot 3 Detailed Analysis
A detailed analysis of different aspects of the CAT slot 3 such as difficulty level, section wise accessibility and challenging areas has been made below. Students who took the CAT 2025 exam in the last slot (slot 3) found the exam more challenging compared to slot 1 and slot 2 due to the QA section which was the most demanding in terms of time and efforts.
| Slot 3 | |
| Particulars | Details |
| Difficulty | Some areas were marginally difficult |
| Accessible Section | VARC |
| Section with Challenges | DILR |
| Most Demanding Section | QA |
| Technique Needed for a Good Score | Smart question selection |
| Most Difficult Section Compared to Slot 1 and Slot 2 | QA |
Overall Sectional Analysis Across All 3 CAT 2025 Slots
After a detailed comparison of each CAT 2025 section, it is best to quickly sum up the difficulty level or the overall nature of each of the CAT exam sections. Across all the 3 sections, VARC was labelled as manageable with QA and DILR remained challenging and time consuming.
- DILR was the most difficult section across all 3 slots.
- QA was slightly challenging.
- VARC was easy.Â
