As the calendar year reaches the end notifications for various entrance examinations start appearing. To name a few All India Level entrance examinations are CAT (Common Admission Test); GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineers); IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Etc. Thus, the season of exams begin, be it final exams in school, and colleges or entrance examinations, and with this the examination fewer among the students starts rising. Here, bellow, all about CAT exam is discussed in brief.
The Common Admission (CAT) is conducted every year by one of the Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs). This test is used as a criteria for selecting applicants for admissions to IIMs in the world of management schools on all India basis. However, there is a growing reputation of IIMs in the world management education. More over, there is a powerful emergence for IIMs in the global corporate sector. Also, the salary packages for IIM graduates run into several lakhs. These multiple reasons are attracting many students for CAT exam, which number has increased multifold in recent years. Such a situation naturally converges all the toughest youth minds of India over this exam. Consequently, this is leading to make the CAT exam toughest year after year. In others words, youth aspiring to take this exam requires serious preparation. In fact, CAT has been rated as the most difficult entrance test in the world by a survey conducted by Economist Intelligence 2003. Notification for CAT is generally issued in the month of June. The exam is conducted once a year in the month of November / December and the results are released in the month of January.
Eligibility Criteria
The minimum eligibility criteria for post graduate studies in Management is at least a 3 years Bachelors degree or equivalent in any discipline recognized by the Association of All India Universities (AIUs)., All India Counsel for Technical Education (ACTIE). The candidates must posses at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA [45% in case of the candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) / Scheduled Tribe (ST) or Persons with Disability (PWD) category], of any of the Universities 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.
Special Eligibility Criteria
IIM Ahmedabad: PGP in Agri-Business Management (PGP-ABM)
1) All other conditions remaining the same as stated under eligibility criteria above, the candidate must hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Agriculture Sciences or in Agriculture-related disciplines, with at least 50% marks.
Or
2) Other things remaining the same as stated
under eligibility criteria above the candidate must hold at least a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification in any non-Agriculture discipline, with at least 50% marks. Also the candidate should have an interest in Agriculture, Agro/Food Processing, Rural and Allied sectors. Students who are in the final year of their bachelor’s degree education and may have to go back to complete their examination formalities will be granted special leave for this purpose. The provisional admission of students who DO NOT complete ALL their formalities by June 30th, will be CANCELLED. Under no, circumstances will an extension be granted.
Also, please note that the candidates, who are eligible under eligibility criteria (1) by virtue of a Master’s degree in Agriculture Sciences or in Agriculture-related disciplines, also need to fulfill the requirements of their Master’s degree before registration date. For all other eligible candidates, this condition is restricted to their Bachelor’s degree requirements.
IIM Bangalore: PGP in Software Enterprise Management (PGSEM)
Other conditions remaining same as mentioned under eligibility criteria above, applicants need to have a minimum of two years experience in the Software Industry by the time of registering for the course. Applicants having 4 to 5 years or more of work experience are likely to gain most from this program.
CAT applicants applying for PGSEM are required to submit a separate application for PGSEM. The application may be submitted online, or can be downloaded from the website (www.iimb.ernet.in). Application forms will also be issued free of cost on request. Completed applications along with a demand draft worth Rs. 500/- payable to the India institute of Management Bangalore, must reach the PGSEM Office, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560076 by the date as specified in the notification.
IIM Calcutta: Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Aided Management (PGDCM)
Candidates can apply to more than one of the Post Graduate Programmes viz, PGDM and PGDCM. For Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Aided Management (PGDCM), the candidates must meet the minimum eligibility criteria as detailed under “Eligibility for post graduate programmes of IIMs”.
The candidate is required to send a crossed demand draft for Rs. 600/- in favour of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta payable in Kolkata by the stipulated date, along with the following details: (i) Name of the candidate (ii) CAT Application Number and Test Registration Number (iii) email address (iv) Complete Address and (v) Telephone Number. Alternatively, the candidates can also download the application form from the website (www.iimcal.ac.in) and send the same duly filled-in along with the demand draft of Rs. 600/- as stated above. For further details, kindly refer to CAT Bulletin.
IIM Indore: Executive Post-Graduate Programme in Management (Exex-PGP)
In addition to the condition stated under eligibility criteria above graduates must have a minimum of 5 years of managerial / entrepreneurial / professional experience. Work experience obtained only after graduation will be considered. Organizational sponsorship is desirable.
IIM Lucknow: PGP in Agri-Business Management (PGP-ABM)
Candidates should Possess any of the following qualifications:
(a) In addition to the other conditions remaining the same as stated under eligibility criteria above, candidates should posses a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Science / Agricultural Engineering or allied subjects with
at least 50% marks.
Or
(b) All other conditions remaining the same as stated under eligibility criteria above 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 or equivalent with at least two years experience or strong interest in the field of Agriculture or allied sector.
The candidates eligible under criteria (b) must submit a special form available with the Admission Office, IIM Lucknow. The form can also be downloaded from the IIML website www.iiml.ac.in. This form should be directly submitted to Admission Office, Indian Institute of Management, Prabandh Nagar, Off Sitapur Road, Lucknow-226013.
Other Management Institutes
Besides the IIMs, some other top management institutes like Management Development Institute, S.P. Jain Institute, Nirma Institute of Management, T.A. PAI and IMT also shorlist the applicants on the basis of CAT.
Syllabus
CAT is an aptitude test. There is no set or defined syllabus for the exam. What can we said about CAT is it is designed to assess the natural ability of a person towards their desired objective. Hence, CAT is designed to test the inclination of the applicant towards managerial tasks and roles.
Test Pattern
The Basic Test pattern is not stable. The Test Pattern varies from year to year. CAT tests the skills of candidates in five broad areas
1. Verbal ability and reasoning
2. Reading Comprehension
3. Quantitative Skills
4. Data Interpretation
5. Analytical and Logical reasoning
The duration of the test is of 120 minutes. Number of questions varies every year. A typical CAT question paper can have anywhere between 75 and 150 questions. All the questions are of multiple choice in nature with four / five alternate answer choices. The candidate has to choose the best answer for each question and mark it on a special optical reader answer sheet. For every correct answer, one mark is awarded and for every wrong answer, 1/4th of a mark is deducted. Differential marks are allotted to the questions. A question may be of 0.5 marks, 1 mark or 2 marks.
Reservations
As per Government of India requirement 15% and 7½% seats are reserved for SC and ST candidates. 3% seats are reserved for Persons with Disability (PWD) of which 1% each is reserved for low-vision/blindness, hearing impairment and locomotor disability / cerebral palsy.
Scholarships / Financial Assistance
It is the endeavour of the IIMs that no student be denied opportunity to pursue the Post-Graduate Programme in Management for want of adequate financial resources. Substantial need-based scholarship schemes covering even up to 100% of expenses are available. (Please see the write-up on each IIM included in the CAT bulletin for details).
Tips
While the actual preparation may have started an year or a couple of years ahead, the last days before the exam are very important for candidates. According to some trainers who train for CAT examination opine that revising the concepts already learnt earlier is very important. Various kinds of people like trainers of CAT, and ex-students have expressed their opinions which are presented here below.
1) Even though the students have had worked out their fundamental problems, and have had several mock tests, it is very important to revise the concepts to refresh ones memory.
2) Candidates must revise the tricks and techniques to tackle the questions relating to reasoning and quantitative ability sections.
3) Candidates should be caution about not getting too worked up about the test scores.
4) As a word of caution it is suggested that the candidates should not allow themselves to be negatively effected by the performance in mock tests if the scores are not to their expectation. On the other hand they should make an objective assessment of their performance, and try to address the weaknesses.
5) Candidates should remain cool and should not be worried about their performance at this point of time when the actual examination date is nearing.
6) It is also suggested that selection of question and prioritization also plays a vital role in performance of the candidates.
7) It is opined that having finished with the basic preparation now, with very little time left for the final CAT exam, students need to workout a strategy and stick to it which best suits them.
8) One should go through all the questions carefully. This will ensure that the candidate doesn’t miss choosing potentially easy questions.
9) Concentrating on time management and distribution of the available time to the sections wisely is also important. This could make huge difference to the performance opines trainers.
10) Trainers and some successful students of previous CAT examination, feel that students must identify their strong points and weak points in different sections of CAT and workout the weaknesses systematically. At the same time they should focus to maximize ones strong points also.
11) Each candidate must set a test strategy for oneself. if the strategy to score high is scanning the paper then one must stick to it and not try new methods at this point of time (i.e. at least from one month before the actual test date).
12) Students should analyse their misses and hits in their mock tests. They should fine tune the method of solving the questions and check if an easier alternative method is available. This would help the student in the actual CAT examination by alerting one not to miss attempting any of the easier questions.
As said CAT is more than just technical tips. It is about the candidate’s endurance to carry oneself through the three hours with concentration and not break down pressure. A planned preparation is sure to sail the students successfully. So, as the final examination day is nearing students should relax and see that the remaining days of preparation is funmixed.
With barely a week left for CAT examination, the three Thumb Rules the candidates ought to follow to crack the CAT;
Be Cool ! Revise concepts ! Don’t over work !