In what could be seen as a positive pointer to the demand for postgraduate management education in the country, the number of registrations for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2012 has gone up by 9,000 from last year.

According to the preliminary registration data made available by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Prometric (IIMs’ partner in developing and delivering CAT 2012), as many as 2.14 lakh vouchers were sold by the time the registration closed at midnight on September 19. This is 4 per cent above the 2011 figure of 2.05 lakh.

CAT 2012 for admissions to the IIMs will be held from October 11 to November 6. It will be coordinated by IIM-Kozhikode.

The release quoted CAT 2012 convener S.S.S. Kumar as saying, “Registration numbers have increased slightly over last year, which is a positive indication that postgraduate management programmes at the IIMs and other prestigious B-schools that accept CAT scores still offer an attractive future to many aspirants.”

The registration of female candidates has also gone up this year — 28 per cent of registrations are of female candidates, 1 per cent up from last year. However, not moving away from previous trends, the cities in which the highest numbers of candidates are scheduled to take the test are New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune. The full report on registration data is expected to be available from October 5.

Soumitra Roy, managing director of Prometric India, said in the release: “We have a team of Candidate Care representatives providing additional support for unique needs like special testing accommodation. It is important that all candidates bring the right documents and turn up punctually at the right place. I encourage all candidates to view the test day video that is available on the CAT website to familiarise themselves with the test day procedures.”

The test comprises two sections — each of 70-minute duration. There will be 30 questions in each section which are to test quantitative ability and data interpretation, verbal ability and logical reasoning.