CAT 2021, in the evening slot, was similar to what was seen in the morning and afternoon slots with 66 questions across the three sections. The number of questions were reduced across all the sections, as announced by the CAT authorities,

The following was the pattern of examination in the evening slot.

Section	Number of Questions	MCQs	Non MCQs	Sectional time limit
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension	24	19	5	40 Minutes
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning	20	15	5	40 Minutes
Quantitative Ability	22	14	8	40 Minutes
Total	66	48	18	120 Minutes

The evaluation scheme remained the same as that of the earlier years. Three marks for a correct answer and a negative mark for a wrongly marked MCQ. There were no negative marks for non-MCQs

The tougher Quant section compensated for the relatively easier section in this slot, keeping the overall difficulty of the section at the same general level of the other two slots, while the sectional difficulty levels have fluctuated a fair bit in this slot.

Section-wise analysis

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

The VARC section had 24 questions in the evening slot, a reduction of two questions from the last year.

The RC passages were four in number, similar to last year's papers. The number of RC questions, however, dropped to 16 from 18 of last year. The number of VA questions remained at 8.

The RC passages this year were not lengthy and one of them did not make for an easy read. One could attempt passages in a straightforward manner except for the passage on psychoanalysis. While the testing points were a mixed bag of specific detail, organization of the passage and thought flow, and inference, the presentation of the questions may have tricked some students. With a careful understanding of the question stem and the answer choices, one should have answered with good accuracy, because in several questions, it was easy to eliminate two of the choices. The remaining two were close and difficult to select from.

The distribution of the passages is as below

Passage	Number of Questions	Readability	Overall Difficulty Level
Nanotechnology	4	Moderate	Moderate
Language Instinct	4	Moderate	Moderate
Time Accuracy Entropy	4	Moderate	Difficult
Unconscious and Psychoanalysis	4	Difficult	Very Difficult

The verbal ability questions were a shade easier than the RC passages/questions, but the sentences were lengthy. The para summary/essence questions and the para forming questions were moderate to difficult. Linking these sentences was a bit time consuming. Students with a good amount of practice would have been able to this crack these. The OMO questions were slightly on the tougher side, but as they are non-MCQs, they should have been attempted.

The distribution of the questions in the Verbal Ability area is as below

Question Type	Number of Questions	Difficulty Level
Para Formation Questions (PFQs)	3	Easy to Moderate
Odd Man Out	2	Moderate
Para Summary	3	Moderate

A net score of 23-25 would be a decent score for a test-taker to be able to get 85 percentile (sectional cut-off).

Logical Reasoning & Data Interpretation

The LRDI section of the evening slot seemed to be the relatively easier one across the LRDI sections in the three slots of this CAT. Since the number of sets dropped to four compared to earlier, with two sets in the easy-moderate levels, students who identified these and persisted with them would reap better dividends over those who did not attempt these sets.

The two 6-question sets were tougher to crack, as one would have naturally expected from a paper like the CAT.

The set on bar graphs, a constant fixture across the three slots this year, continued to be the easier set to solve in this slot too.

The 2nd 4-question set was the next set to be chosen, given its relatively lesser difficulty. While the questions needed some involved logic, the set was far from uncrackable for those who persisted with it. One question, however, in this set was on the tougher side. It pushed the difficulty level of this set up, and also prevented this section from being the easier LRDI section across the slots and pegged it at the same general level of the afternoon slot.

The interesting set on Javelin Throw was a tough nut to crack given the huge amount of info that one had to process. Given that one had to crack the set to be able to attempt any question in the set, one was risking a win all-lose all scenario. This added to the difficulty of the set.

The other six-question set on Question evaluation too had a lot of information to be processed, and many would have, wisely, stayed away from this set. Some of the questions clearly indicated multiple possibilities, with the word "Definitely" in a few of them. Those who have spotted this and stayed away from this set would have saved their valuable time. The fact that this is a 6-question set would have tempted many to attempt it and it is doable if one could spend time on it.

The set-wise details are as below

LRDI	Set Type	No. of Questions	Difficulty level
Bar graph on Employee Schedules	DI	4	Easy-Moderate
Purity of Solutions	LR	4	Moderate
Javelin Throw	LR	6	Very Difficult
Question Evaluation	DI	6	Moderate-Difficult

A net score of 17-19 would be a decent score for a test-taker to be able to get 85 percentile (sectional cut-off).

Quantitative Ability Section

The Quant section had a lesser number of questions compared to the VARC section, as was the case in the morning and afternoon slot. 22 questions were present in this section, two lower than that of the VARC section.

Unlike the case of the first two slots, this section did not have many easy questions to pick from. Some questions were also lengthier, as compared to those from the other two slots, pushing the difficulty of this section slightly over that of the other two slots.

The topics of Geometry & Mensuration along with ERPV had the highest representation in this slot with four questions each. Numbers, was conspicuously absent in this slot too.

The distribution of questions in this section across topics is as below

Topic	No. of Questions	Difficulty Level
AMA	1	Moderate
Averages	1	Moderate
ERPV	4	Moderate - Difficult
Function	1	Moderate
Geometry & Mensuration	4	Moderate-Difficult
Indices & Logs	2	Difficult
Inequalities	1	Difficult
Special Equations	1	Difficult
Percentages	2	Moderate
sequence	1	Difficult
SI CI	1	Difficult
Time & Work	2	Moderate
Time & Distance	1	Moderate

A net score of 19-21 would be a decent score for a test-taker to be able to get 85 percentile (sectional cut-off).