Almost 2 lakh nervous students are going to throng into exam centres across the country, their heartbeats racing for one of the most competitive entrance exams in India. The Common Admission Test was held on November 30, 2025 in three slots. It was more difficult than last year and some parts were a lot harder. Let’s understand what exactly made these sections tick and why DILR turned out to be the section that had aspirants sweating bullets.
VARC: The Surprisingly Approachable Section
Starting with the section which allowed students a fighting chance—Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension came in at 24 questions to be answered in 40 minutes. Here’s what made VARC the relative breeze compared to the others. The section continued the following pattern: 4 RC passages (reading comprehension question) with 16 questions, and 8 Verbal Ability questions based on parajumbles, para-summaries, and odd sentences out.
What took many students by surprise was that although VARC had a few tough passages, it was more-or-less the same as last year’s CAT. One highlight was a tract on the ill effects of dams that proved to be amperable, while tracts on AI ethics and The Forest Act 1982 presented mild difficulties with knotty questions and extended options.
No Rule-Breaking Surprises in the distribution of topics (or in the format). For those students planning to go for a decent percentile, somewhere close to 18-20 correct attempts out of 24 can easily take you till 85 percentile.
DILR: The Monster Everyone Feared
Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room — DILR or as many started calling it, “the nightmare section.” With 22 questions distributed in five sets, this section turned out to be the toughest part of CAT 2025. DILR was reportedly “much harder” than the previous year, according to candidates across all three sessions.
There were about 11 Data Interpretation and 11 Logical Reasoning questions, and about 11–12 questions were to be Type In The Answer (TITA). But here’s the real kicker: DI sets were moderately solvable, LR sets were much more demanding in terms of analytical thinking and puzzle solving skills. One set on a pollution index using weighted averages left many candidates baffled, while simpler sets such as the Spider + Bar graph gave some relief.
The psychological effect was true. Students observed that in this section, smart question choice became an absolute must. 8–10 good questions with high accuracy was the realistic target to get 90 percentile, as against that year it might have been the need of similar accuracy in 10–12 questions. This was the part that really tested not only what you know, but how you prioritize when you’re under fire.
QA: Deceptively Moderate but Tricky
Quant may be described by experts as “medium-difficult having a flavor of difficulty and toughness. With 22 questions from the areas of Arithmetic (8), Algebra (5), Geometry (3), Modern Math (4), and Numbers (2), the pattern was pretty much the same. But this is where CAT 2025 surprised many aspirants—each question appeared doable, but a large number of them required multi-step thinking and fast computations while under heavy time pressure.
Geometry questions, though easier, could be answered quickly, but the other portions were more calculation-intensive and tested not only your speed but your accuracy. To score well, answering 12-15 questions correctly appeared to be the magic number, with somewhere around 13-14 potentially pushing you towards the 90 percentile.
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Overall CAT 2025 Analysis
Here’s the hard truth about CAT 2025: the paper was overall a shade more challenging than CAT 2024. DILR took center stage as the villain in the storyline of this year, while VARC surprisingly ended up as the hero. QA swung to the challenging side, particularly in the afternoon and evening slots.
| Section | Total Questions | Difficulty Level | Comparison to 2024 | Good Attempts | Target Percentile |
| VARC | 24 | Moderate | Similar | 18-20 | 85% |
| DILR | 22 | High | Tougher | 8-10 | 90% |
| QA | 22 | Moderate-High | Slightly Tougher | 12-15 | 90% |
So What Does That Mean for You and Your Prep?
Quality trumps quantity Every bit as much as in volume matters in this area. Increased difficulty on all three positions also means as you go through the percentiles, the score ranges will be more condensed. You can’t let yourself be sloppy. Smart question selection Knowing when to skip and managing your time ruthlessly become your superpower.
To those who are readying themselves for CAT 2026 or are giving it another shot, this is what I want you to take away — practice consistently, analyze your errors and know your weak links in each section, that is what will give you an edge. It’s not just testing what you know anymore, it’s testing how you think under pressure.
Conclusion
CAT 2025 was a testament to how this exam is not only about knowledge of concepts but also about stamina, being flexible and taking razor-sharp decisions under pressure. VARC was somewhat relaxing, DILR was the real game changer which stretched even the best candidates to the brink. QA struck a difficult calculation-heavy balance, rewarding calm precision.
For future aspirants, the biggest take away is simple — “Accuracy is the key, build strong basics and selective solving is the art”. As long as you keep your cool, read patterns fast and fight your battles wisely in the exam, you will always be having that extra edge – Whatever way CAT chooses to dance!