CAT Mock Test Paper

CAT Mock Test Paper

CAT Mock Test Paper

Total Questions: 66
Total Time: 120 Minutes
Sections: 3

  • VARC – 24 Questions
  • DILR – 20 Questions
  • QA – 22 Questions

Suggested sectional time: 40 minutes per section

Question Types

  • MCQ: Choose one correct option.
  • TITA: Type the numerical answer.

SECTION I – VARC

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

24 Questions | 40 Minutes

Reading Comprehension – Passage 1

The modern fascination with measurement often disguises a philosophical assumption: that what can be counted is necessarily more real, more useful, or more worthy of attention than what cannot. Institutions increasingly translate complicated human activities into numerical indicators because numbers appear to offer neutrality. Yet a metric does not merely describe an activity; once attached to rewards or penalties, it begins to reshape the activity itself. A university that measures research productivity through publication counts may encourage scholars to divide substantial work into smaller papers. A hospital judged primarily by waiting times may become adept at moving patients through its system without necessarily improving their care.

The problem, therefore, is not that metrics are inaccurate. Some are remarkably informative. The deeper problem is that the act of measurement changes the incentives surrounding the measured phenomenon. A metric that initially serves as a proxy can gradually become the target, and the target can then diverge from the original objective.

This does not mean institutions should abandon measurement. Rather, they must recognize that measurement is an intervention rather than a transparent window onto reality. Good governance therefore requires not only better indicators but also periodic questioning of what those indicators encourage people to do.

1. The central argument of the passage is that:

A. Quantitative indicators are fundamentally incapable of representing human activities.
B. Institutions should abandon numerical evaluation because it distorts behaviour.
C. Metrics can alter the behaviour they are intended merely to evaluate, requiring careful use.
D. Institutional performance can be accurately assessed only through qualitative judgments.

2. Which of the following best illustrates the author’s concern?

A. A school uses examination results to identify students who need academic support.
B. A company rewards employees according to the number of tasks completed, leading employees to choose easier tasks.
C. A hospital records patient recovery rates over several years.
D. A university publishes the average number of research papers produced by its faculty.

3. The phrase “measurement is an intervention” most nearly means:

A. Measurement is usually performed by external authorities.
B. Measurement can influence the behaviour being measured.
C. Measurement is necessarily politically motivated.
D. Measurement prevents objective evaluation.

4. Which statement, if true, would most weaken the author’s argument?

A. People sometimes change their behaviour in response to numerical incentives.
B. Institutions frequently revise metrics after observing unintended consequences.
C. In most institutions, measured indicators have no meaningful influence on rewards, penalties, or decision-making.
D. Some metrics are more reliable than others.

5. The author would most likely agree that:

A. The validity of a metric depends partly on what behaviour it incentivizes.
B. Numerical indicators should always be replaced by expert judgment.
C. Metrics become useful only when they are difficult to calculate.
D. Institutional objectives cannot be evaluated objectively.

Reading Comprehension – Passage 2

When a society celebrates innovation, it often tells the story backward. The successful invention appears inevitable once its benefits become visible, while the failed alternatives disappear from collective memory. This creates the illusion that progress is a straight path travelled by particularly gifted individuals. In reality, technological change is usually a process of experimentation in which numerous ideas compete, overlap, fail, and occasionally reappear under altered circumstances.

The retrospective heroism attached to inventors also obscures the role of infrastructure. An invention may be technically brilliant yet historically irrelevant if the surrounding economic, legal, and social systems cannot support its adoption. Conversely, an apparently modest innovation can transform society when institutions happen to be prepared for it.

Understanding innovation historically therefore requires attention not only to creativity but also to selection: which ideas are adopted, by whom, under what constraints, and for what purposes. Progress is not simply the production of new possibilities; it is the social process through which some possibilities become durable realities.

6. Which of the following best captures the passage?

A. Technological progress is mostly determined by individual genius.
B. Innovation depends on both invention and the conditions that determine adoption.
C. Most successful inventions are accidental rather than deliberate.
D. Social institutions generally prevent technological development.

7. The author criticizes “retrospective heroism” primarily because it:

A. exaggerates the importance of failed inventions.
B. ignores the contribution of institutions and historical circumstances.
C. assumes that inventors deliberately conceal their competitors.
D. prevents society from investing in new technologies.

8. Which inference follows most strongly from the passage?

A. An invention’s usefulness can be independent of its technical sophistication.
B. Technologically superior inventions always defeat inferior alternatives.
C. Failed inventions have no historical significance.
D. Social institutions are more important than inventors in every case.

9. Which of the following, if true, would best support the author’s argument?

A. Several technically similar inventions succeeded in different countries at different times.
B. Most inventors work independently of government institutions.
C. Many famous inventors received awards after their inventions became popular.
D. Technological inventions are becoming increasingly complex.

10. The final sentence suggests that progress involves:

A. generating as many inventions as possible.
B. eliminating technically inferior ideas.
C. converting possibilities into widely sustained practices.
D. ensuring that every invention becomes commercially profitable.

Reading Comprehension – Passage 3

People often describe attention as though it were a limited container: one either has enough of it or does not. But attention is better understood as a system of selection. At every moment, the mind receives more signals than it can process with equal depth. To attend is therefore not merely to concentrate; it is to determine what will receive cognitive priority.

Digital environments complicate this process because they make selection increasingly responsive to external prompts. Notifications, recommendations, trending lists, and algorithmically arranged feeds repeatedly propose what deserves attention next. The problem is not simply distraction. A person may remain intensely focused while still having little control over what the focus is directed toward.

This distinction matters because concentration and autonomy are not identical. Someone can be highly attentive yet insufficiently self-directed. A useful conception of digital literacy, therefore, should include not merely the ability to locate and evaluate information but also the ability to decide which information deserves one’s attention in the first place.

11. The primary distinction made in the passage is between:

A. attention and intelligence.
B. concentration and autonomy.
C. information and knowledge.
D. technology and education.

12. According to the passage, digital distraction is problematic mainly because:

A. digital devices prevent sustained concentration.
B. online information is usually inaccurate.
C. external systems can influence what receives our attention.
D. algorithms deliberately reduce people’s intelligence.

13. Which situation best exemplifies the author’s argument?

A. A student studies for three hours without taking a break.
B. A reader checks several books before choosing one.
C. A person spends an hour researching a topic because a recommendation system repeatedly directs attention toward it.
D. A researcher ignores notifications while analysing data.

14. Which of the following would the author most likely reject?

A. Attention involves selection.
B. Being focused does not necessarily mean being autonomous.
C. Digital literacy includes evaluating information.
D. Sustained concentration automatically guarantees control over one’s attention.

Verbal Ability

15. Para Summary

Arrange the following ideas into the most coherent summary:

  • Innovation rarely follows a single predictable path.
  • Successful technologies are often remembered as if their success had been inevitable.
  • Historical circumstances influence which inventions survive.
  • Therefore, understanding innovation requires examining both invention and adoption.

Which option best summarizes the ideas?

A. Innovation is unpredictable because successful technologies are usually accidental.
B. The history of innovation is distorted when successful inventions are treated as inevitable; adoption depends on broader circumstances.
C. Most technologies fail because institutions are unable to support them.
D. Historical analysis should focus primarily on successful inventors.

16. Para Summary

People often assume that having more choices increases freedom. Yet beyond a certain point, additional options can make decisions harder, encourage postponement, and create dissatisfaction with whatever choice is eventually made. The issue is therefore not simply how many alternatives are available, but whether the decision-maker can meaningfully evaluate them.

A. Freedom requires eliminating most available choices.
B. More alternatives always reduce satisfaction.
C. The value of choice depends on the ability to evaluate alternatives meaningfully.
D. People should avoid making complex decisions.

17. Odd Sentence Out

Choose the sentence that does not fit logically with the others.

  1. Urban trees can reduce local temperatures through shade and evapotranspiration.
  2. Their benefits can be especially significant in densely built neighbourhoods.
  3. Many cities have therefore begun incorporating tree cover into climate adaptation plans.
  4. Trees also provide habitats for insects and birds.
  5. However, planting trees without considering soil, water, and maintenance requirements can lead to poor outcomes.

A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4
E. 5

18. Odd Sentence Out

  1. Memory is not a perfect recording of past events.
  2. Recalling an event can alter how that event is subsequently remembered.
  3. Photographs can sometimes help people reconstruct details that they have forgotten.
  4. Memory is therefore influenced by reconstruction as well as by original experience.
  5. Cameras have become considerably cheaper over the last two decades.

A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4
E. 5

19. Para Jumble – TITA

Arrange the following sentences in the correct order:

A. Yet this apparent efficiency can conceal a transfer of work from institutions to individuals.
B. Digital platforms often advertise convenience as their primary advantage.
C. The user, rather than an employee, may now be expected to enter information, resolve errors, or track the progress of a request.
D. What looks like a faster service may therefore involve greater unpaid effort from the consumer.

Enter the correct sequence: __________

20. Para Jumble – TITA

A. Such systems can make decisions appear objective because they produce numerical outputs.
B. But numerical precision does not guarantee conceptual validity.
C. An algorithm may process data flawlessly while relying on an inadequate definition of success.
D. The apparent neutrality of automated decision-making therefore deserves scrutiny.

Enter the correct sequence: __________

21. Sentence Completion

The spread of information does not necessarily produce a better-informed public. __________. The difficulty lies not merely in obtaining information but in deciding which information deserves confidence.

A. Information is always politically manipulated.
B. People can encounter more claims while becoming less capable of distinguishing reliable claims from misleading ones.
C. Digital technology has eliminated the need for traditional journalism.
D. Public debate becomes impossible when information is abundant.

22. Sentence Completion

A policy can fail even when its stated objective is widely supported. __________. Consequently, evaluating a policy requires examining not only what it intends to achieve but also the incentives it creates.

A. Policies are generally designed by experts.
B. Implementation can change the behaviour of the people affected by it.
C. Public opinion rarely influences government decisions.
D. Every policy produces unintended consequences of equal magnitude.

23. Critical Reasoning

A city argues that expanding public parks will reduce traffic because residents will have more recreational opportunities within walking distance. Which of the following most seriously weakens the argument?

A. Some residents prefer indoor recreation.
B. The proposed parks are concentrated in neighbourhoods already having low car usage.
C. Parks can improve the quality of urban life.
D. Maintaining parks requires substantial municipal expenditure.

24. Critical Reasoning

A company claims that its new training programme increased employee productivity because productivity rose by 12% after the programme was introduced. Which fact most weakens the claim?

A. Employees reported enjoying the programme.
B. Productivity had increased steadily for six months before the programme began.
C. The programme was developed by external consultants.
D. Some employees missed several training sessions.

SECTION II – DILR

Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning

20 Questions | 40 Minutes

Set 1: University Admissions

Five departments — A, B, C, D and E — received applications from three categories of students: X, Y and Z.

The following information is available:

  • Total applications received by all departments = 2,400.
  • Department A received 20% of the total applications.
  • B received 25% more applications than A.
  • C received 80% of the applications received by B.
  • D received 150 fewer applications than C.
  • The remaining applications went to E.
  • In A, X:Y:Z = 3:2:1.
  • In B, X:Y:Z = 2:3:1.
  • In C, the number of X applicants was equal to the number of Z applicants.
  • In D, Y applicants were 40% of total D applications.
  • E had 180 X applicants and 120 Z applicants.

25. How many applications did department E receive?

A. 450
B. 480
C. 510
D. 540

26. How many Y applicants applied to department A?

A. 120
B. 160
C. 180
D. 200

27. What percentage of all applications received by B were from category X?

A. 25%
B. 30%
C. 33⅓%
D. 40%

28. How many Z applicants were there in C?

A. 120
B. 140
C. 160
D. 180

29. What percentage of all X applicants across the five departments came from A and B together?

A. 30%
B. 35%
C. 40%
D. 45%

Set 2: Investment Portfolio

An investor divides ₹12 lakh among four assets — P, Q, R and S.

  • Investment in P is twice the investment in Q.
  • Investment in R is ₹1 lakh more than Q.
  • Investment in S is ₹1 lakh less than P.
  • P earns 8% annually.
  • Q earns 12%.
  • R earns 10%.
  • S earns 6%.

30. What is the amount invested in Q?

A. ₹1.5 lakh
B. ₹2 lakh
C. ₹2.5 lakh
D. ₹3 lakh

31. What is the total annual return from all four investments?

A. ₹96,000
B. ₹1,02,000
C. ₹1,08,000
D. ₹1,12,000

32. If the return from R increases by 20% while all other returns remain unchanged, what is the new total annual return?

A. ₹1,12,000
B. ₹1,14,000
C. ₹1,16,000
D. ₹1,18,000

33. What percentage of the total investment is invested in P and S together?

A. 50%
B. 55%
C. 60%
D. 65%

34. If Q and R are merged into a single investment earning 11%, what is the annual return from the merged investment?

A. ₹33,000
B. ₹35,000
C. ₹36,000
D. ₹38,000

Set 3: Scheduling Puzzle

Six speakers — P, Q, R, S, T and U — are scheduled from Monday to Saturday, one speaker each day.

  • P speaks before R but after Q.
  • S speaks immediately after T.
  • U speaks on Wednesday.
  • R does not speak on Saturday.
  • T speaks before Q.

35. Who speaks on Monday?

A. P
B. Q
C. R
D. T

36. Who speaks on Thursday?

A. P
B. R
C. S
D. T

37. Which pair occupies consecutive days?

A. Q and P
B. P and R
C. T and S
D. Both B and C

38. If R and S exchange their days, who will speak on Friday?

A. P
B. R
C. S
D. T

39. Which of the following must be true?

A. Q speaks on Tuesday.
B. P speaks on Thursday.
C. R speaks on Friday.
D. T speaks on Monday.

Set 4: Sales Data

A company sells three products — X, Y and Z — in four cities.

CityXYZ
Delhi240180120
Pune180240160
Jaipur300150200
Surat280210140

40. Which city has the highest total sales?

A. Delhi
B. Pune
C. Jaipur
D. Surat

41. What is the ratio of total X sales to total Z sales?

A. 5 : 3
B. 10 : 7
C. 12 : 7
D. 15 : 8

42. If the profit per unit on X, Y and Z is ₹50, ₹40 and ₹60 respectively, which city generates the highest profit?

A. Delhi
B. Pune
C. Jaipur
D. Surat

43. If Z sales in Pune rise by 25%, what percentage of Pune’s revised total sales will Z represent?

A. 25%
B. 28%
C. 30%
D. 32%

44. If 10% of X sales in Jaipur are shifted to Surat, what will be the new X sales in Surat?

A. 300
B. 305
C. 310
D. 315

SECTION III – QUANTITATIVE APTITUDE

22 Questions | 40 Minutes

Questions 45–66

45. A positive integer N leaves remainder 4 when divided by 7 and remainder 5 when divided by 9. What is the least possible value of N?

A. 32
B. 40
C. 58
D. 67

46. If (x + \frac{1}{x}=5), where x is positive, find (x^2+\frac{1}{x^2}).

A. 21
B. 23
C. 25
D. 27

47. A number is increased by 20% and then decreased by 20%. The resulting number is 48 less than the original number. What was the original number?

A. 1,000
B. 1,100
C. 1,200
D. 1,250

48. If (a:b=3:5) and (b:c=10:7), then what is (a:c)?

A. 3:7
B. 6:7
C. 7:6
D. 9:14

49. The average of 11 consecutive integers is 46. If the smallest integer is removed, what is the average of the remaining 10 integers?

A. 46.5
B. 47
C. 47.5
D. 48

50. A two-digit number is 4 times the sum of its digits. If its digits are reversed, the new number is 18 greater than the original number. Find the original number.

A. 24
B. 36
C. 42
D. 48

51. A shopkeeper marks an article 40% above its cost price and offers two successive discounts of 10% and 5%. What is his profit percentage?

A. 17%
B. 19.7%
C. 20%
D. 21%

52. A sum becomes ₹13,310 in two years and ₹14,641 in three years under compound interest. What is the annual rate of interest?

A. 8%
B. 9%
C. 10%
D. 11%

53. A can complete a work in 12 days and B in 18 days. They work together for 4 days, after which A leaves. How many additional days will B require to complete the remaining work?

A. 6
B. 7
C. 8
D. 9

54. A train crosses a pole in 12 seconds and a platform 180 m long in 24 seconds. What is the length of the train?

A. 150 m
B. 160 m
C. 180 m
D. 200 m

55. A boat travels 30 km downstream in 2 hours and the same distance upstream in 3 hours. What is the speed of the boat in still water?

A. 10 km/h
B. 12 km/h
C. 12.5 km/h
D. 15 km/h

56. A mixture contains milk and water in the ratio 5:2. If 14 litres of water are added, the ratio becomes 5:4. What was the original quantity of milk?

A. 30 L
B. 35 L
C. 40 L
D. 45 L

57. A rectangle has area 480 sq. cm. If its length is increased by 20% and breadth is decreased by 20%, what is the new area?

A. 460.8 sq. cm
B. 470.4 sq. cm
C. 480 sq. cm
D. 489.6 sq. cm

58. The sides of a triangle are in the ratio 3:4:5 and its perimeter is 48 cm. What is its area?

A. 84 sq. cm
B. 96 sq. cm
C. 108 sq. cm
D. 120 sq. cm

59. If (x^2-7x+10=0), find the value of:

[
\frac{x_1}{x_2}+\frac{x_2}{x_1}
]

A. 29/10
B. 31/10
C. 33/10
D. 37/10

60. A invests ₹50,000 for 8 months and B invests ₹40,000 for 12 months. If their total profit is ₹31,000, what is B’s share?

A. ₹15,000
B. ₹16,000
C. ₹18,000
D. ₹20,000

61. The population of a town increases by 10% in the first year and decreases by 10% in the second year. If the population after two years is 99,000, what was the original population?

A. 98,000
B. 99,000
C. 100,000
D. 101,000

62. A person spends 70% of his income. His income rises by 20%, while his expenditure rises by 10%. If his original savings were ₹6,000, what are his new savings?

A. ₹8,400
B. ₹9,000
C. ₹9,600
D. ₹10,000

63. The roots of the equation (x^2-kx+16=0) differ by 6. Find the positive value of k.

A. 8
B. 10
C. 12
D. 14

64. A circle is inscribed in a square of side 14 cm. What percentage of the square’s area lies outside the circle? Use (\pi=\frac{22}{7}).

A. 18%
B. 21.5%
C. 21.43%
D. 25%

65. A man travels half of a distance at 40 km/h and the remaining half at 60 km/h. What is his average speed for the entire journey?

A. 45 km/h
B. 48 km/h
C. 50 km/h
D. 52 km/h

66. TITA. A positive integer has exactly 12 factors. If the number is the smallest possible integer having exactly 12 factors and is greater than 100, enter the number.

Answer: __________

Candidate Response Sheet

VARC

1.__ 2.__ 3.__ 4.__ 5.__ 6.__ 7.__ 8.__
9.__ 10.__ 11.__ 12.__ 13.__ 14.__ 15.__ 16.__
17.__ 18.__ 19.__ 20.__ 21.__ 22.__ 23.__ 24.__

DILR

25.__ 26.__ 27.__ 28.__ 29.__
30.__ 31.__ 32.__ 33.__ 34.__
35.__ 36.__ 37.__ 38.__ 39.__
40.__ 41.__ 42.__ 43.__ 44.__

QA

45.__ 46.__ 47.__ 48.__ 49.__ 50.__ 51.__ 52.__
53.__ 54.__ 55.__ 56.__ 57.__ 58.__ 59.__ 60.__
61.__ 62.__ 63.__ 64.__ 65.__ 66.__

End of Mock Test