As of November 24, 2025, the IIMs have not officially rated the CAT 2025 exam’s difficulty. However, by combining official exam structure details with trend‑based analysis from past years, students can form the difficulty expectations about the CAT 2025 Exam, which is to take place on November 30, 2025.
Official CAT 2025 Exam Structure
The exam is scheduled on November 30, 2025, and will be conducted as a computer‑based test by IIM Kozhikode.Candidates can check out the exam structure as given below:
- Duration: 120 minutes, with 40 minutes allocated per section.
- Sections: VARC, DILR, QA.
- Total Questions: 68.
- Marking Scheme: +3 for correct MCQ or TITA; – 1 for wrong MCQ; no negative marking for non-MCQ.
Trend-Based Analysis: What Past CAT Exams Suggest About Difficulty
While there is no official difficulty level, previous patterns from recent CAT exams can help students understand the likely difficulty trends:
- Sectional Consistency & Challenge
- In past years, the QA section has often been viewed as mathematically intensive; many aspirants report “moderate to difficult” QA questions.
- DILR (Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning) tends to contain puzzles and data sets; difficulty often depends on the nature of the sets, but trend analysis suggests that tricky sets may appear in high-weightage questions.
- VARC typically features reading comprehension, para-jumbles, and grammar-based questions. The level of difficulty usually depends on the length and complexity of passages.
- Time Pressure
- With only 40 minutes per section, time management remains a key challenge.
- Given the mixed format (MCQ + TITA), aspirants may find balancing speed and accuracy difficult, especially under negative marking rules.
- Scaling and Normalisation Effects
- CAT uses a normalisation process (across sessions) to compute percentiles. This means that even if some sessions are “slightly tougher,” raw‑to‑scaled score conversion can moderate score differences.
- Trend‑based analysis suggests that IIMs may design the test to maintain a challenging but fair distribution, avoiding extreme difficulty in all sessions.
- Mock Tests as Indicators
- The official mock test released by IIM gives a realistic sense of question types and likely challenge zones.
- Experts analysing previous mocks often note that the difficulty in mock tests is calibrated to closely mirror the real exam environment. Thus, performance in mocks may be a strong predictive signal.
Read More: CAT Exam Analysis 2025
Expert Prediction for CAT 2025 Difficulty Level
Based on the above trends and the official exam design, the following expected difficulty scenario is plausible:
- Quantitative Aptitude (QA): Likely to be moderate to moderately difficult, especially due to complex problems and tight time constraints.
- DILR: Expected to be moderately difficult; a few data sets may be tricky, but not all.
- VARC: Expected to lean moderately, with passages that test comprehension and reasoning rather than heavy academic vocabulary.
Overall, the expected difficulty level for CAT 2025 appears to be balanced but challenging, designed to test both speed and logical reasoning.
Difficulty for Aspirants
Check out the tips given below to cope with the difficulty:
- Candidates should strengthen fundamentals in QA, especially on algebra, arithmetic, and geometry.
- Develop puzzle-solving speed for DILR, since tricky sets may appear.
- Practice reading comprehension regularly for VARC — focus not only on long passages but tight ones that need quick interpretation.
- Use the official mock test as a benchmark. Analyse performance to understand weak zones and adapt strategy.
