How Many Questions to Attempt for 99 Percentile Success in CAT 2024 (2024)

How Many Questions to Attempt in CAT 2024 to Get 99+ Percentile: With more than 2.5 lakh students appearing for the CAT exam every year, not only does it increase the difficulty level of the exam but also makes the scoring process more difficult. Every year students appearing for the CAT exam always wonder ‘How Many Questions to Attempt in CAT to get 99+ Percentile?’ As per the CAT exam pattern, there is a negative marking of one mark for every wrong/incorrect answer. So making a shot in the dark will not prove as a successful mantra to score well. Also, candidates can use the CAT percentile calculator to predict their CAT percentile right after the exam.

Also Read:

• How to prepare for CAT while working
• CAT Preparation Time Table

How Many Questions to Attempt in CAT 2024 to Get 99+ Percentile

Candidates must aim at attempting 45-50 questions with accuracy to score 99+ percentile in CAT 2024. Hence, the number of questions attempted with accuracy and CAT exam time management are two very important points that the candidates must keep in mind.

CAT 2024, is one of the most popular MBA entrance exams and is expected to be conducted on November 24, 2024. Let us discuss the question of how to score 99+ percentile in CAT exam and a clear image of how many questions have to be attempted section-wise with accuracy to score 99 percentile. Check out the compiled analysis from various experts and coaching institutes based on the previous year's exam:

Before getting details about how to get 99 and above percentile in CAT exam, students must be familiar with the marking scheme of CAT 2024.

Check here- CAT Percentile Predictor

CAT Exam Pattern and CAT Marking Scheme

How To Get 99.99 Percentile in CAT?

Various factors that must be checked by the candidate while attempting the CAT 2024 are:

1. Accuracy

Accuracy is one of the prime factors which help you gain a good score. If you try to make a shot in the dark without checking its accuracy will only fetch you a negative mark. Hence to improve one’s accuracy you must keep the following tips in mind:

• Lay the Groundwork: Before starting your preparation always begin with clearing your basics of important topics. Practice for basic topics until you master them. Once you start building the process of solving the questions in mind while reading the question you know you have successfully mastered the basic concepts.

• Work On Weak Areas: To score better of course it is important first to focus on strong areas and then on weak areas. Once you focus on weak areas make sure you keep the list of topics ready and polish your weak areas well by referring to appropriate study material.

• Time Efficiency: As the sectional time limit of 40 minutes is given for each section, you must learn to manage time efficiently by setting targets to solve 8-10 questions in a particular time limit.

• Stopwatch to Measure; calculate time: While you solve questions, the best way to measure performance is by setting the stopwatch and calculating the time taken by you to solve a question or a set of questions.

• Mock Test: Once you have thoroughly built your confidence, start solving CAT mock tests and familiarize yourself with the type of questions that were asked in previous years.

• Challenge Yourself: As you solve the mock tests, challenge yourself by setting the stopwatch to solve questions of a section within a time limit. Assess your performance by calculating marks as per the marking scheme.

Shivam Chandak, one of he previous year CAT topper who scored 99.98 percentile lays down the importance of mock test and practice by stating, “I used to regularly take the mock test and used to devote at least four to five hours. I practised a lot of questions so that I could solve exam papers with ease as solving more questions gave me the confidence to respond correctly on the day of the exam.” Many CAT aspirants usually ask the 99 percentile in the CAT means how many marks, so for them, the answer is if a candidate can secure 99 or more than that percentile in the CAT exam then their CAT score will be around 155 to 160.

2. Difficulty Level

Attempting a maximum number of questions in an exam is not the only way to gain accuracy. The difficulty level of the CAT question paper is measured by the number of questions attempted by the candidates. In case you feel that the difficulty level of the paper is high, in that case, you must:

• Read the question paper carefully and assess each section.
• Identify the level of difficulty for each section
• Always begin with the easier section to manage time efficiently
• Make sure you don't make a wild guess as it may lead to negative marking.

Vishesh Garg, another CAT topper who scored 99.99 percentile and aced the exam with flying colours in each section states how he divided the difficulty level of the question paper. He states “In QA, I usually divide the paper into three levels based on difficulty, so I give like 1-1.5 minutes to easy questions, 2-2.5 minutes to medium difficulty and the remaining time to tough ones depending on how many I can solve.”

3. Time and Speed

Knowing that the CAT exam has a sectional time limit, the first and foremost step is to scan the CAT 2024 question paper thoroughly to know which section is easy to attempt first. Once you solve easy questions, you gain confidence and this then saves your time. Gradually move to difficult questions and don’t waste time if you get stuck between any two options.

Ravi Prinshu who scored 99.78 percentile in CAT 2020 and topped XAT 2021 says, "I went through all the questions that were asked in the CAT exam. I identified which were the easy questions and I aimed at solving all the easy questions first and foremost. Later on, I came to solve the slightly difficult questions. In the first attempt, I did not spend more than four to five minutes on each question. The main focus was to solve all easy questions in the paper."

CAT Score vs Percentile

According to the previous year’s CAT exam analysis, below we present the CAT score vs percentile 2024 range prepared by experts: