Is GMAT easier than CAT? Check Major Differences and Similarities

Is GMAT easier than CAT? CAT is the Common Admission Test conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and GMAT is Graduate Management Admission Test which is conducted by Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). Many aspirants often question that GMAT vs CAT which is difficult, or GMAT vs CAT which is easy. You can find the answers to your queries in the sections below.

Both CAT and GMAT are the two most popular exams that B-school aspirants appear for in huge numbers and although both are similar in a lot of aspects, certain differences determine which makes either one of them suitable for a student and their career path to a B-school.

Is GMAT Easier than CAT? 

Although both the exams are conducted to test your ability and the prospect of joining an MBA program in a reputed business school, there are quite a few differences in the structure, pattern, topics covered and other aspects of both. Following these details you can understand the GMAT vs CAT difficulty easily.

GMAT

The Graduate Management Admission Test or GMAT is a computer-adaptive test that assesses your knowledge and ability in analytical writing, quantitative skills, verbal and writing skills in standard English. It is conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council or GMAC and is considered by you who wish to expand your choices of MBA programs and business schools to a global extent. 

CAT

The Common Admission Test or CAT is a computer-based exam that assesses your verbal, reading and comprehension ability in English, quantitative ability, logical reasoning and knowledge of data interpretation. It is administered by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and is a national-level exam that helps you pursue admission primarily in the IIMs and business schools in India.

GMAT and CAT Key Difference

The points of difference in the key areas of both the exams are very crucial for you to keep in mind before deciding on which exam you should opt for. The differences between GMAT and CAT are mentioned in the table below.

Point of Differences between GMAT and CAT

Particulars	GMAT	CAT
Number of Questions	80 questions in total, divided into 4 sections	100 questions in total, divided into 3 sections
Duration of Test	3 hours	2 hours
Sections	Quantitative Reasoning (QR), Verbal Reasoning (VR), Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA), Integrated Reasoning (IR)	Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR), Quantitative Ability (QA)
Qualifications Required	No minimum academic qualifications required	A bachelor's degree from a recognized university or equivalent qualification
Age Limit	The candidate should be at least 13 years old (in which case written consent from parents/guardians is required), there is no upper age limit.	No lower or upper age limit
Number of Attempts	A total of 8 attempts overall and 5 attempts in a single academic year is considered valid	No limit is placed on the number of attempts
Frequency	All-year (Can be taken any time of the year with a 16-day gap between each attempt)	Conducted only once a year (End of November or beginning of December)
Adaptiveness	Question-Adaptive	Non-adaptive
Negative Marking	Not present	Present
Marking Scheme	0-6 for Analytical Writing Assessment	3 marks are awarded for each correct answer
	1-8 for Integrated Reasoning	1 mark is deducted for each incorrect answer
	0-60 for Verbal Reasoning	-
	0-60 for Quantitative Reasoning
Score Validity	5 years (Global)	1 year (India only)
Score Format	Both absolute score (out of 800) and percentile score reported	Only percentile score reported
Acceptance	Accepted for B-school admissions globally	Accepted for B-school admissions only in India
Test Fee	$250 (approx 17,000 INR)	INR 2,000

GMAT vs CAT Exam Pattern

The basic assessment of candidates that both GMAT and CAT aim to make is essentially the same but the routes and technique of assessment is the major difference between these two exams.  The GMAT has a very well-defined range of topics and subject areas based on which candidates are examined, whereas in the case of CAT the syllabus is not as well-defined as the GMAT.

This makes the preparation time that students take for both the exams very different, where students manage to score a 700+ out of 800 in GMAT with just an average of 121 hours of study time, whereas students prepare for months on end to fetch a similar score in CAT.

GMAT tends to focus on the verbal ability and English proficiency of the candidates which proves to be a challenge for candidates who are non-native English speakers like Indians, whereas CAT exam pattern focuses more on a candidate’s logical and quantitative abilities. This also can be concluded from the fact that GMAT has an extra section named Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) as opposed to CAT.

Another major difference between the structure of the two exams is that GMAT is an adaptive test i.e., the difficulty of the questions is dependent on how well an examinee is performing. If a student answers a question correctly, the next question will be of a slightly higher difficulty in GMAT. In the case of CAT, the exam is very straightforward where the questions are selected randomly from a question bank and presented to an examinee and they have the option to attempt the question or not. Thus, we can understand that GMAT focuses more on the ability of the candidate whereas CAT focuses more on accuracy.

GMAT vs CAT Syllabus

The topics covered by both these exams might be similar in essence but each exam has its agenda for including a certain topic or excluding one. The topics included in the verbal, quantitative section of both the exams are given below: 

Syllabus for GMAT and CAT

GMAT		CAT
Verbal	Quantitative	Verbal	Quantitative
Verb tense	Number properties	Fill in the blanks	Geometry
Pronoun	Multiples and factors	Grammar	Trigonometry
Subject-verb agreement	Fractions	Para Completion and inference	Mensuration
Modifiers	Decimals	Reading Comprehension	Ratios and Proportion
Idioms	Percentages	Verbal Logic	Number system
Parallelism	Averages	Para jumbles	Work and time
Comparison	Powers and roots	Verbal Reasoning	HCF & LCM
Inference	Profit and loss	Syllogisms	Algebra
Assumption	Simple and compound interest	Contextual usage	Profit & Loss
Evaluate	Speed, time, and distance	Analogies	In-equations Quadratic and linear equations
Strengthen and weaken	Pipes, cisterns, and work time	Different usage of the same word	Geometric Progression
Boldface	Ratio and proportion	Antonyms	Percentages
Paradox	Mixtures and alligations	Sentence completion	Averages
-	Descriptive statistics	Jumbled paragraphs	Partnership (Accounts)
	Set theory	Foreign language words used in English	Time-Speed-Distance
	Probability	Sentence correction	Surds and Indices
	Permutation and combination	Idioms	Inequalities
	Monomials, polynomials	One word substitution	Logarithms
	Algebraic expressions and equations	-	-
	Functions
	Exponents
	Arithmetic and geometric progression
	Quadratic equations
	Inequalities and basic statistics
	Lines and angles
	Triangles
	Quadrilaterals
	Circles
	Rectangular solids and cylinders
	Coordinate geometry

Scope after Qualifying GMAT and CAT

Both GMAT and CAT are entrance exams for seeking admission in some of the top MBA colleges, but the scope of either one of the two is vastly different. A student’s aims and ambitions regarding where they want to pursue their MBA from and which courses are best suited for them is what divides you into CAT candidates and GMAT candidates.

GMAT scores are accepted by business schools around the world and Indian business schools as well, making the range of options for a student much wider. Not only does the choice of B-schools increase for you after taking GMAT, but courses other than MBA, like Masters in Management, Masters in Finance, M.Sc. in Marketing and various other related management courses also accept and require GMAT scores from applicants as a part of the admission process and eligibility criteria.

However, If you are inclined towards pursuing a management course from an Indian institute/university, in that case, CAT has the obvious advantage over GMAT. Conducted by the IIMs, CAT scores are accepted in nearly 1000 B-schools across India. A good CAT percentile will provide an edge to the ones who wishes to pursue courses like a Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Management, Post Graduate Diploma in Management and other related courses.

GMAT Accepting Colleges

CAT Accepting Colleges

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Massachusetts Stanford University The University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Harvard University, Massachusetts The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology The University of British Columbia, Vancouver The University of Western Ontario, Ontario University of Toronto National University of Singapore, Singapore Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) London Business School, London University of Oxford, England The University of Melbourne, Melbourne The University of Sydney, Sydney

Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) New Delhi SPJIMR, Mumbai Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon SJMSOM IMI Delhi TAPMI BIM Trichy MICA SPJIMR IMT Ghaziabad MDI Gurgaon DMS IIT Delhi Goa Institute of Management BITS Pilani Jagdish Sheth School of Management

GMAT vs CAT: Choice of Examination

The decision of which exam to consider is dependent on various major factors. Evaluating every aspect and weighing every alternative will help you come to a conclusion regarding which exam should be undertaken. Factors that influence this decision are:

• Career Goals - If you aim to pursue higher studies abroad and gain international experience and exposure, then taking the GMAT is the best option. If your career goal is to study and pursue a career in India, then going for CAT is the logical choice.
• Location Preferences - Location preferences of a student are based on various factors like quality of student life, future career prospects, the proximity of employers in the target industry, etc. Based on these factors a student can shortlist their target colleges and appear for either GMAT or CAT whichever is best suited.
• Course Preferences - The choice of courses to pursue, For Example: whether a student wants to pursue a 2-year full-time MBA from IIM for which a CAT score will be required or a Masters in Management for which the duration will be less than or equal to 1 year and for which a GMAT score is preferred, will determine which exam the student will appear for.
• Financial Outlook - A postgraduate degree in Management is an expensive investment that might not be affordable for many students dependent on their financial situation. The fees for an MBA or MiM course from an international institute ranges anywhere from INR 25 lakhs to beyond INR 1 crore, which in most cases excludes living and accommodation expenses. The application fee for GMAT itself is $250 (INR 17,000) which is quite costly. For many students, such an investment might not be feasible, making the option of an MBA program from an Indian institute the only choice left. 

Can I Prepare for CAT and GMAT Simaltaneously? 

In conclusion, the answers to questions like “Is GMAT tougher than CAT?” or “Which is better, GMAT or CAT?” can be multi-layered. Although the level of difficulty and preparation time required for GMAT is comparatively less than CAT, in terms of exam structure and assessment aspects like time management, tackling the question-adaptiveness of the exam and maintaining consistency of quality of answers in the verbal and analytical writing part of the examination,

GMAT tends to be a bit more complicated. In the end, both exams need rigorous and dedicated preparation and both exams are quite tough to crack, it depends on the student’s abilities and knowledge in certain areas and subjects which provide an edge to some students in GMAT and some students in CAT.

Additionally, GMAT vs CAT preparation can be done together to save time, as there are not many differences that can be made to the preparation process of any student.