Commom Admission Test (CAT)
The Common Admission Test(CAT) is an entrance test conducted by IIMs(Indian Institute of Management) for students' admission into their management program. CAT score is also taken into consideration by the other top B-schools of India like MDI,SP Jain..etc.
Through CAT, they look for the candidates who have ability to understand the situation,analyze it and take the right decisions in less amount of time - thus ensuring that the candidates have the qualities of True Managers!
This test conducted every year on the third Sunday of November, is categorized into three sections namely
- Quantitative Ability
- Verbal Ability
- Data Interpretation & Reasoning
The test duration was 2:00 hours till 2005, but it was increased to 2:30 hours from 2006.
The IIMs always keep the students guessing about the number of questions. They usually vary from 75-150 questions with all questions being Multiple Choice questions. (Well, even the no. of options may vary!)
And here comes the concept which every student hates - Negative Marking!
The candidate will be rewarded with a negative mark for every wrong option he/she selects - Just to give you a heads up!
As said rightly in one of the good websites for CAT, CAT is the Mother of all entrance tests!
Eligibility:
- The candidate must hold a Bachelor's Degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA
- In Case of Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST) or Persons with Disability (PWD) category only 45% is sufficient
- The Universities of bachlor degree should be from the universites incorporated by an act of the central or state legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under section 3 of UGC Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India.
- The Bachelor's Degree or equivalent qualification obtained by the candidate must entail a minimum of three years of education after completing higher secondary schooling (10+ 2) or equivalent.
- The basis of computing the percentage obtained by the candidate in the bachelor's degree would be based on the practice followed by the university/ institution from where the candidate has obtained the degree.
- Candidates appearing for the final bachelor's degree / equivalent qualification examination can also apply. Such candidates must produce a certificate from the Principal/Head of the Department/Registrar/Director of the university/ institution certifying that the candidate has obtained 50% marks or equivalent (45% in case of candidates belonging to Sc/ST/PWD category)
Cut-Off's for IIMs:
To make it to the IIM, one has to go through two more rounds in the selection process after CAT, namely Group Discussion(GD) and Personal Interview(PI).
Regarding cut-off's for CAT-2007, IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) said that...
"The selection for the post-graduate programme is done through a two-stage process. In the first stage, candidates to be called for group discussion and/or personal interview are short-listed from among those who have applied to IIMA's post-graduate programme. While short-listing the candidates for group discussion and/or personal interview, candidates belonging to categories for which seats are reserved, are treated differently. The criteria used for short-listing would be disclosed on the CAT web-site (www.catiim.in) and/or the IIMA website (www.iimahd.ernet.in) along with the list of short-listed candidates on 8th January 2008. Please note that the cut off for short listing SC/ST/PWD candidates for group discussion and/or personal interview would not be less than 17% score in each of the three sections of CAT 2007 and no less than 25% score in aggregate. For other categories, it would be no less than 25% in each of the three sections and no less than 33% in aggregate. The actual cut-offs used for short-listing, however, may be higher than the above mentioned percentage scores and would depend upon the performance of candidates in CAT-2007.
In the second stage, candidates to be admitted to the post-graduate programmes are selected from among those who have attended the group discussion and/or personal interviews. In preparing this admission list, inputs such as performance in group discussion and/or personal interview, the CAT score, academic background and achievements, extra-curricular activities, and post-degree work experience, are taken into consideration."
Source: IIM-A Website
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