There is no hard rule for the number of questions to be attended to get certain percentile. It depends on the difficulty level. In 2015 CAT, people who scored 35 (normalised scores, around 12 questions without any negative) scored 80+ percentile in QA and DILR section. But people scored same score in VALR, secured around 65 percentile. The number of questions to be attended is depends on difficulty level, others performance etc.

It depends on the level of difficulty of the paper and also on the category you belong to. Considering you as a general category student you should be aware of the fact that different slots have a different difficulty level. In a paper with easier questions, the performance of candidates appearing everywhere at the same time slot will shoot up, whereas it will go down if the paper is difficult. Hence, your performance is affected on a relative scale. This means when you notice that the questions in your paper are difficult, try to solve easy problems and moderate/difficult ones as many as possible. In the more comfortable slot, you would need to address more questions, accuracy becoming very important. Accuracy is important in every case, but if you make a mistake in an easy question, obviously you will pay a higher cost.



According to myestimate, 15+ questions should get you 80%ile on a moderate slot day and 12+ on a groove which is tougher. I am writing these numbers keeping a bit on the safer side.

At all times you should think about maximizing your scores in all the sections. And for that you need to correctly attempt as many questions as possible in every section. Believe me when I say that it is very difficult to attempt all the questions in all the sections. The best way to ensure that you ensure as many questions as possible is to practice as much as possible. Give as many mock tests as you can so that you are familiar with the kind of questions asked and also can manage your time well.



As far as the number of questions you should attempt, there is no fixed number that can be given. It varies year from year according to the difficulty of the paper. In the verbal ability and RC section make sure you go through every question. Answer only those which you are confident about. You need to check how many questions you are confident about answering and based on that take risks. In the DI and logical section, I could attempt around 20 questions. That was the toughest section when I gave CAT and I ended up getting 99.8 percentile in that section. The Quant section was easier than previous years and I could attempt 23-24 questions and got 97.8 percentile in that. On an average when you start giving mock tests you will realize that 20 correct attempts per section can get you a very good percentile in all the sections.

First of all percentile is a relative phenomenon and hence it can vary according to the difficulty level of exams and the number of applicants.



For example in a simpler paper you might get 80 percentile by getting 20/34 questions correct and in a tough paper you will be getting 80 percentile by getting only 10/34 correct. Please note that this is just an example.



Also in the same paper you get 80 percentile in different sections by getting different number of questions correct that is according to the difficulty level of the sections. For example it might take 20 questions in QA to get 80 percentile but only 12 in DILR to score the same.



Hence it  is recommended to solve the questions you are confident about and get the maximum marks. Also make sure that you have a high level of accuracy.

Your CAT percentile is not only a function of how many questions you have answered, but it depends a lot on how many questions you have answered correctly.



I think during my time, each section of the exam had a minimum percentage of attempt of 40-60%. I might be wrong with the figures, but anyways, make sure you attempt more than that.

See there is no fixed number of questions that you need to attempt for gaining any percentile. Maybe you might attempt many more questions got many questions wrong then you might end up with the same score which you could have got with the less attempt but more accurate attempt.



To get above 80 percentile you need to atleast get marks above 100 for that you need to have atleast 34 questions correct without any wrong answer which seems to be very difficult. So assuming your accuracy rate to be 80% you need to attempt around 50 questions to get above 100 marks.



As you can see above its all a guesstimate with so many assumptions which need not to be true. So it depends on all.your speed and accuracy whether you want to go for more questions in order to cover loss of your wrong answer or stick with the questions which you know.



This thing you could better know after giving mock test and analysing them thoroughly about your strength, weakness and accuracy rate.



So keep on attempting your mock test, analyse them and then you can make a strategy of attempting the paper.



From my point of view of you have a decent preparations then attempting around 50 questions should fetch you above 80 percentile.



All the best!!

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