CAT Common Admission Test

October 21, 2008 by vikas

CAT or Common Admission Test is one of the largest MBA entrance exams conducted in India, anually. The CAT score is also accepted by more than 75 non-IIM institutes across India, some of which are as reputed as the IIMs. (non IIM Institutes Accepting CAT Scores). The CAT is one of the world's most demanding entrance examinations for any graduate institute

Eligibility for the postgraduate programmes in management at all IIMs and to appear for IIM-CAT is at least a three-year bachelor's degree in any discipline from a recognised university with 50% Marks in graduation. (changed from CAT 2006 onwards - Read News).

Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), the premier business-schools of the country (and counted among the best in the world) conduct this test for selecting potential students for the next round of admission process (comprising of a personal interview and a group discussion) for their MBA and Fellowship programmes.

Those appearing in the final year examination of graduation are also eligible to appear in Common Admission Test. Some People feel that Common Admission Test (CAT) is more of a rejection procedure than a selection process.It rejects those who can’t make their minds work at break neck speed for two and a half hours non-stop.

CAT covers questions in five broad areas such as verbal ability and reasoning, reading comprehension, quantitative skills, data interpretation and logical reasoning.

The number of questions asked in Common Admission Test vary every year and a typical CAT question paper can have anywhere between 75 and 150 questions. Common Admission Test evaluates the candidate's presence of mind and his ability to perform under pressure. Announcement of the procedure for appearing in the Common Admission Test is made in leading newspapers in August every year for admission to the programme beginning in the second half of June of the following year. The test will be conducted during November.

Usually, CAT tests three of your abilities:- Problem Solving- Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. CAT demands competency across all sections of the paper. So, the number of sections in the test don't really matter; what matters is whether you are competitive and have answered questions in all the sections. CAT has evolved from a speed based simple test into a test which demands more proficiency in concepts and fundamentals rather than just speed.

All the questions are of multiple-choice nature with four/five alternate answer choices and the candidate has to choose the best answer for each of the questions and mark it on a special Optical Reader answer sheet. Differential marks are allotted to the questions. The test comprises 150 to 200 objective type questions and is usually divided into three to four sections. The number of questions in the test has been coming down steadily, from nearly 200 in the 1990s to 90 in 2005 and just 75 in 2006. Very little strategy could be applied in selecting the easiest questions. Cut that down and don't waste time on questions which are lengthy.

It is neither expected, nor possible, that all the questions be answered, so the CAT also tests the candidates' ability to prioritise under pressure: a quality necessary in the competitive environment of IIMs' courses. The misconception that you need to slove the whole Question Paper is wrong. If you can solve 38 to 40 per cent of the questions, CORRECTLY, you are through.

Not an Engineer - No Problems , You don’t need to be an Engineer to get into an IIM . Infact being a non-engineer may help in the Interview part. IIMs encourage diversity. And being a non-engineer you may be compared with other non-engineers. Rather than with engineers who may be compared with IITians.

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