The Most Neglected Topics in CAT That Appear Every Year

When preparing for the CAT exam, students often focus on high-weightage areas like Arithmetic, Reading Comprehension, or Puzzles. However, year after year, a few lesser-known or underrated topics quietly appear in the exam and catch many aspirants off guard. Ignoring these “neglected topics” can result in missed scoring opportunities and negatively affect the overall percentile.

In this blog, we explore the most commonly ignored topics in each section, i.e., VARC, DILR, and QA, that continue to appear in CAT year after year. If you are serious about maximising your CAT 2025 score, it’s time to stop skipping these hidden gems in your preparation.

Why Aspirants Overlook These CAT 2025 Topics

Before diving into specific topics, let’s understand why students tend to neglect certain areas:

• Low frequency in mocks: Coaching institute mocks often under-represent these topics.
• Lack of clarity or resources: These topics are not always explained in standard study material.
• Underestimation of importance: They are seen as “less important” or “not worth the time”.
• Time-consuming preparation: Some topics demand extra effort to master despite fewer direct questions.

However, CAT is unpredictable, and questions from these very areas often appear, especially in TITA format or as trap questions designed to test your depth of understanding.

Most Neglected Topics in VARC (Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension) for CAT 2025

While Reading Comprehension dominates the VARC section, the Verbal Ability part contributes crucial TITA questions. Here are the underrated topics you must not ignore:

1. Odd One Out

• Question Type: Primarily asked as TITA (Type In The Answer) in recent CAT exams, where no options are provided and candidates must type the correct sentence number.
• Why it’s ignored: It seems like a guessing game; it is often skipped due to a lack of strategy.
• Why it matters: Appears almost every year; 1–2 questions.
• Tip: Practice recognising the logical theme that binds the sentences together.

2. Para Completion

• Question Type: TITA/ MCQ
• Why it’s ignored: It is often mistaken for similar topics like Summary or Odd One Out.
• Why it matters: It appears intermittently but is easy to solve with a good reading habit.
• Tip: Focus on tone, logical flow, and structural completeness.

3. Grammar & Sentence Correction

• Question Type: Rare but present
• Why it’s ignored: It's not part of recent CATs; it's often sidelined in favour of RCs.
• Why it matters: It occasionally appears as part of RC sub-questions or in TITA.
• Tip: Study basic grammar rules and do short practice exercises weekly.

Also Check: CAT Syllabus 2025

Most Neglected Topics in DILR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning) for CAT 2025

DILR is one of the most unpredictable sections in CAT. Students generally practise common puzzles and data sets but miss out on important subtypes that have made frequent appearances in recent years.

1. Blood Relations

• Why it’s ignored: Seems simple at first glance, but becomes difficult with extended relationships and layered conditions. Often skipped due to lack of visualisation skills.
• Why it matters: It can appear part of a larger logical reasoning set. Tests your ability to decode relationship clues under pressure.
• Common formats: Family tree puzzles, coded relations, and multiple generations.
• Tip: Practice drawing quick family trees and use shorthand notations to track relationships clearly.

2. Clocks and Calendars

• Why it’s ignored: Considered outdated or formula-heavy; many assume it won’t appear in modern CAT papers.
• Why it matters: It occasionally appears in caselets or integrated reasoning sets. Good for scoring if you know the formulas.
• Common formats: Time-based angle questions, odd days, leap year patterns.
• Tip: Learn the key formulas for angle calculation and the “odd days” concept. Revise periodically.

3. Binary Logic

• Why it’s ignored: Seen as abstract or confusing due to ‘truth-teller/liar’ logic and conditional statements.
• Why it matters: Tests deep logical reasoning; can appear as an easy standalone set if understood well.
• Common formats: Two or three-person truth/lie puzzles, group logic-based statements.
• Tip: Use truth tables or the elimination strategy. Practice using Venn diagrams for overlapping logic.

4. Less Common Graph Types (Radar Charts, Histograms)

• Why it’s ignored: Not frequently seen in mocks or books, so candidates focus on bar/line/pie charts instead.
• Why it matters: CAT occasionally includes unconventional data presentations to test adaptability.
• Common formats: Radar/spider charts, histograms, combo graphs (line + bar).
• Tip: Practice reading the axis and legends carefully; accuracy is key over speed in these sets.

5. Complex Puzzles and Caselets

• Why it’s ignored: High difficulty level and time-consuming nature make them unpopular in timed practice.
• Why it matters: One well-solved puzzle/caselet can fetch 12–15 marks. Also tests multi-step reasoning under constraints.
• Common formats: Grid-based puzzles, multiple constraints, incomplete data caselets.
• Tip: Don’t aim to solve every set—focus on identifying solvable ones early. Use elimination.

Also Check: How to Prepare for CAT 2025 in 6 Months, Check Toppers’ Advice

Most Neglected Topics in QA (Quantitative Aptitude) for CAT 2025

Students often stick to Arithmetic and Algebra but forget that CAT sometimes rewards those who cover even the low-weightage topics with high accuracy.

1. Geometry – Coordinate Geometry

• Why it’s ignored: Perceived as difficult and less important.
• Why it matters: One question from straight lines, circles, or triangles in coordinate geometry appears almost yearly.
• Tip: Focus on basic formulas for distance, section, slope, and area.

2. Logarithms and Surds

• Why it’s ignored: Not part of the school-level syllabus for many students.
• Why it matters: Appears every alternate year in TITA format.
• Tip: Master fundamental laws of logarithms, change of base, and simplification.

3. Set Theory and Venn Diagrams

• Why it’s ignored: Perceived as a “DSA topic” that is more relevant to interviews.
• Why it matters: DI-LR often merges Venn logic with quant, especially in caselets.
• Tip: Practice basic 2-set and 3-set problems. Focus on union, intersection, and the principle of inclusion-exclusion.

4. Trigonometry & Heights-Distances (Basic Level)

• Why it’s ignored: Considered irrelevant or too advanced.
• Why it matters: At least one conceptual or formula-based question has appeared in past CATs (especially TITA).
• Tip: Learn sine, cosine values and basic triangle ratios.

How Ignoring These Topics Affects CAT 2025 Performance

Overlooking important or commonly asked topics in CAT 2025 can seriously affect your exam performance. It can lead to time loss, missed cutoffs, lower confidence, and a noticeable drop in overall percentile.

How to Include These Topics in Your CAT Preparation

Here’s how to work smarter and cover these topics without overwhelming your schedule:

1. Dedicated Weekly Slots: Set aside 2–3 hours per week exclusively for underrated topics. Rotate between sections each week.

2. TITA-Specific Practice: Since many neglected topics appear in TITA format, practise them without options to develop intuition and accuracy.

3. Revise Previous Year Papers: Use CAT papers from 2017 to 2023 to identify actual appearances of these topics and test your preparedness.

4. Micro-Topic Based Quizzes: Use topic-wise mock platforms or QA/DILR/VARC-specific apps that allow micro-practice (e.g., just Para Completion or Coordinate Geometry for 20 mins).

5. Peer Group Challenges: Discuss neglected topics with peers—solving together improves clarity and retention.

Final Takeaway

Every year, CAT throws in a few surprise questions from topics many aspirants don’t prepare seriously. These neglected but recurring topics could be your shortcut to improving your percentile, especially through TITA questions with no negative marking. By giving 10–15% of your total prep time to these underrated areas, you build a strong fallback strategy for the actual exam. Don’t let easily scorable questions slip away just because they didn’t seem important enough during your preparation. Be smarter. Cover everything that counts—even the quiet topics.