CAT Section-Wise Weightage: 2025 Papers

The 2025 CAT papers had 68 questions: 24 VARC, 22 DILR and 22 QA. At 3 marks per correct answer, the maximum raw score was 204. Because all questions carried equal positive marks, each section's question share and maximum-mark share were the same.

Percentages are rounded to one decimal place, so their displayed sum can differ slightly from 100%. These are historical shares, not an official 2026 allocation. The CAT pattern guide separates current timing and marking from completed-paper counts.

VARC Topic Weightage in the 2025 Slots

Each of the three 2025 VARC papers had 16 reading-comprehension and 8 verbal-ability questions. The verbal part contained two questions each of summary, paragraph ordering, odd sentence and sentence placement.

RC therefore represented 66.7% of VARC questions, not 66.7% of the entire CAT paper. Across the whole 68-question paper, its 16 questions represented about 23.5%. The denominator changes the meaning of a weightage claim.

The count stayed the same, but the locations of tasks within the papers differed. The VARC paper analysis identifies the question ranges rather than assuming all verbal questions appear together at the end.

QA Topic Weightage with a Consistent Grouping

The QA grouping uses one preparation area per question. Progressions, functions, logarithms and equation/inequality constraints are grouped under Algebra; digit and factor questions are Number Properties. Contextual rate, mixture, return and fee problems are Arithmetic. Other analyses may place some of these under Modern Mathematics.

Arithmetic accounts for 8, 8 and 9 questions in this grouping: about 36.4%, 36.4% and 40.9% of the respective QA sections. Algebra accounts for 9, 9 and 7 questions. These counts describe this explicit classification, not an IIM-issued chapter table.

For example, Slot 1 Q13 is grouped under Algebra because it asks for an unknown number of shares using linked value equations. An alternative classification might call the same financial context Arithmetic. Moving it between groups changes the labels, not the paper itself.

The QA analysis lists the question numbers assigned to every area. Each question is counted once, so the row total remains 22.

DILR Weightage: Sets Are Not Equal-Sized Chapters

Each 2025 DILR slot had five sets and 22 questions: three sets with four questions and two with five. A four-question set represented about 18.2% of that DILR paper; a five-question set represented about 22.7%.

A label such as Data Interpretation can overlap with Logical Reasoning. The pollution-index set, for example, combined weighted averages with assignment and ordering conditions. Splitting it into a pure-DI percentage without defining the method conceals that overlap.

The DILR slot analysis gives the individual set ranges. A topic missing from these three papers is not automatically excluded from future preparation.

Using Past Weightage for CAT 2026 Preparation

Historical counts can help you divide practice, but CAT does not prescribe chapter-wise question quotas. They cannot establish that completing a small group of chapters will secure a particular percentile.

RC occupied a large share of the 2025 VARC papers, so full passages deserve substantial practice. That does not make the eight verbal questions disposable: summary, ordering and sentence fit require separate skills. Likewise, arithmetic and algebra connect to many QA questions, but geometry and number restrictions remain distinct preparation areas.

Use the CAT syllabus guide to check coverage, then test it with 2025 papers. A weightage chart cannot show whether you can solve a particular question under a section timer.

1. 2025 Section Shares
2. 2025 VARC Task Shares
3. 2025 QA Topic Counts

1. DILR Set Size and Share
2. What Weightage Does Not Predict