CAT 2026 Sessions: Reported Timings and Admit Card Checks

Exam Updates

CAT 2026 is on Sunday, 29 November 2026, and it runs in three sessions. Which session you get is printed on your admit card, and that card, not a blog or a coaching site, is the final word on when you report and when the test starts.

This guide lists the three timings that third party sources report, makes clear which parts the official site does not confirm, and gives you a checklist for the admit card. The admit card download is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, so the checklist is useful in the next few days.

What Is Official and What Is Reported

The official CAT website, run by the organising IIM, confirms that the exam is on Sunday, 29 November 2026, and that the admit card download begins on Wednesday, 4 November 2026. The page we read does not list timings for the three sessions.

The session timings you will see on coaching sites come from earlier cycles and from candidate reports. They are probably right, since the format has been stable, but they are third party. Treat them as a planning guide until your own admit card shows your slot.

That one rule saves a lot of anxiety. If a timing in a forum post disagrees with your card, your card is right. If a friend in another slot tells you what time they reached, it tells you about their slot and not yours.

The Three Session Timings Reported

Third party sources report the three sessions as follows. The morning session runs from 8:30 to 10:30, the afternoon session from 12:30 to 2:30, and the evening session from 4:30 to 6:30. Each session is two hours of exam time, split into three sections of 40 minutes each.

The same sources report reporting times of 7:00, 11:00 and 3:00, which is 90 minutes before the start. They also report that entry to the centre closes at 8:15, 12:15 and 4:15. The pattern is easy to remember: report about 90 minutes before the start, and expect the gate to close 15 minutes before it.

Your admit card may print different numbers, and the card is the one that counts. If it does, replace everything in the table below with what your card says.

Session	Exam time (reported)	Reporting time (reported)	Entry closes (reported)
Morning	8:30 to 10:30	7:00	8:15
Afternoon	12:30 to 2:30	11:00	12:15
Evening	4:30 to 6:30	3:00	4:15

What to Confirm on Your Admit Card

When the card is available from 4 November, download it the same day, and read it line by line. Do not skim it. Small errors are easier to fix three weeks before the exam than three days before it.

First, check your personal details. Name, date of birth, category and photograph must match your identity document. A mismatch is a problem at the gate, and the helpdesk listed on the official site is the channel for corrections.

Second, check the logistics. Note the session, the reporting time, the time the gate closes, and the test centre name and address. If the centre is in a city you do not live in, plan the stay now, before the cheaper options go.

Third, read the instructions printed on the card. They list what you may carry, what the centre provides and what is not allowed. Our guide on CAT 2026 exam day guidelines expands on this, and the readiness checklist in the pre admit card readiness guide covers the days before download.

How Your Session Changes Your Last Weeks

A morning session means early wake ups. If you are not an early riser, start moving your sleep and your mock timings now. A shift of about 15 minutes every few days is easier on most people than a sudden change. Sleep advice varies from person to person, so if you have trouble sleeping, a doctor is the right person to ask.

An afternoon or evening session gives a longer morning. The risk is different: people fill the hours with last minute revision and arrive tired. Decide before the day what the morning will contain, and keep it light.

Whichever session you get, align your full length mocks with it. If your exam is at 8:30, a mock at 8:30 on weekends tells you things a late evening mock cannot, such as how your focus is in the first section on a cold start. Our piece on the exam day strategy from morning routine to the last minute shows how to build the routine.

A Timeline for the Morning of the Exam

Work backwards from the gate closing time that your card shows, not from the start time. If your gate closes at 8:15, plan to be at the centre well before the reporting time, which is reported at 7:00 for the morning session. That means leaving home early enough to absorb a late cab or a closed road.

A simple structure helps. Wake up with enough time to eat without hurry, check the bag one last time, leave with a buffer, and reach the centre before the reporting time. Then use the waiting period to sit quietly, not to revise. Last minute revision on a formula sheet rarely adds marks, and it often adds worry.

For the afternoon and evening sessions, the same logic holds, but the day is longer. Eat a normal meal at a normal time, keep the morning light, and set a fixed time to leave. Food and sleep advice differs between people, so keep to what you already know works for you, and avoid trying anything new on the exam day.

If Something Does Not Match

Mismatches happen. A photograph may be unclear, a name may be spelt differently from your ID, or the centre may be far from where you live. The right response is the same each time: act on the day you notice. Use the contact details on the official site, and keep a record of what you sent and when.

Do not rely on a forum post or a coaching site for a fix. The organisers publish the process for corrections in their notices, and only that process changes your card. If a change is allowed, it will have a window, and the window will close.

If you cannot travel to your allotted centre, read the notice on centre changes before you assume anything. We have not seen a rule on this in the official text we read, so we cannot say what is allowed. Check the notices, and ask the helpdesk if the answer is unclear.

A Simple Mock Week Around Your Slot

Once your slot is known, build one week as a template and repeat it. On the weekend, take a full length mock at your session time. On the day after, spend the time to review it, not to start a new one. During the week, take short sectional tests in the section where you are weakest, and keep one day lighter.

The point of matching the timing is not superstition. It is that your attention, your appetite and your energy change through the day, and the exam will meet you at one particular point in that cycle. Practising there makes the surprises smaller.

Keep the review honest. Write down where the time went, which questions you should have left, and which you got wrong from a careless step. If you need a structure for that, our guide on exam day strategy and the practice pages on the practice hub are good places to pick up.

What We Do Not Know Yet

Some things are open as of 29 October 2026. The official site does not list session timings in the text we read. We cannot tell you how candidates will be distributed across sessions. The result date is unconfirmed, and any date you see for it before the organisers announce it is a guess.

Normalisation is the other open item people ask about. Scores in different sessions are brought to a common scale, because the papers differ in difficulty. The details of the process are in the official notices, and they should not decide your slot preference, since you do not choose it.

So the useful way to spend the next few days is not to guess which session is easier. It is to prepare for yours.

If you want a second pair of eyes on how you use the last month, you can talk to a CAT mentor, or send your plan for a strategy review.