IIMs do not publish an official CAT syllabus. The topics below come from past CAT papers. QA is roughly Class 8 to 10 maths applied with speed and judgement; VARC and DILR test reading and reasoning rather than facts.
VARC
- Reading comprehension (passages of about 400 to 600 words on humanities, science, economics, philosophy)
- Para-jumbles (TITA)
- Para-summary
- Odd sentence out (TITA)
- Sentence placement
DILR
- Tables, bar and line charts, pie charts
- Arrangements (linear, circular, matrix)
- Scheduling and selection puzzles
- Games and tournaments
- Venn diagrams and set-based puzzles
- Routes, networks and flows
- Quantitative reasoning sets (averages, ranks, scores)
QA
- Arithmetic: percentages, profit and loss, ratio and proportion, averages, mixtures, simple and compound interest, time and work, time, speed and distance
- Algebra: linear and quadratic equations, inequalities, functions, logarithms, progressions
- Number system: divisibility, remainders, HCF/LCM, factors
- Geometry and mensuration: triangles, circles, polygons, coordinate geometry, areas and volumes
- Modern maths: permutations and combinations, probability, set theory
Source: bschool.careers360.com
Topic weightage
Basis: our analysis of CAT 2020-2025 section structure (content/cat/patterns.json: 16 of 24 VARC questions are RC; DILR is 4 sets) and the QA topic split reported by Careers360 (arithmetic 9, algebra 9, geometry 3, P&C 1 in a recent slot)
| Section | Topic | Share |
|---|---|---|
| VARC | Reading comprehension | high |
| VARC | Para-jumbles, summary, odd sentence | medium |
| DILR | Arrangement and scheduling puzzles | high |
| DILR | Pure data interpretation (charts, tables) | medium |
| QA | Arithmetic | high |
| QA | Algebra | high |
| QA | Geometry and mensuration | medium |
| QA | Number system | medium |
| QA | Modern maths (P&C, probability, sets) | low |