Cat 2025 Exam: Slot-Wise Analysis & Difficulty Assessment

IIM Kozhikode organized the CAT 2025 exam on November 30, 2025, via three different sessions in 170 cities across the nation. The general difficulty level was considered moderate for all three slots, but the sections varied regarding this aspect.

CAT 2025 Exam Structure: This year CAT 2025 was conducted on November 30, 2025. The CAT exam structure was the same as last year's CAT 2024 exam. No major changes are seen in the exam pattern.

 The CAT Exam 2025  key points were as follows:

• Each section has a time limit of 40 minutes.

• The total number of questions was 68, with a mix of MCQs and TIA (Type In Answer).

• For MCQs, the number allotment pattern was: +3 for each correct answer and -1 for each incorrect answer.

• The TIA sections have no negative marking.

Assessment for each section according to its difficulty level

Most of the analyses propose that all three slots had the same, easy-to-moderate level of difficulty, whereas only a couple of opinions considered Slot 2 as a bit tougher than Slot 1. 

Slot 1: Overall rated as easy to moderate.

Slot 2: Generally considered to be moderate, perhaps a little harder than Slot 1, mainly in the areas of DILR and QA. 

Slot 3: Likewise assessed as moderate; nevertheless, a few sources referred to QA as the most difficult part of the day in this slot.

Section-wise Overview

VARC (Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension): Generally observed that it was assessed to be easy to moderate at all time slots. The section consisted of texts for Reading Comprehension (RC), Verbal Ability (VA) questions, respectively four and eight, where jumbles of paragraphs were included once more.

DILR (Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning): This section was primarily moderate to difficult most of the time slots. There were 5 question sets (2 with 5 questions, and 3 with 4). It was critical to identify the "must-attempt" sets for candidates to score well.

QA (Quantitative Ability): The evaluation of this section ranged from easy to moderate, and it was primarily focused on topics of Arithmetic and Algebra. Some test takers opined that the questions were lengthy and demanded a lot of computation.

What Is Next 

The IIM Kozhikode is planning to publish the official answer key and the response sheets at the beginning of December 2025 for the candidates who answered the exam. Through these, candidates would be able to calculate their expected scores and percentiles.