CAT 2017: Details you cannot miss

Do you wish to increase your prospects for employability? Do you wish to gain an edge over your colleagues? Is it the coveted MBA degree that you aspire for?

Here’s everything important that you need to know about the much hyped – Common Admission Test or the CAT –the gateway to MBA.

It is the all India Management  Entrance exam conducted annually on a rotational basis by the IIM's for admissions to the post graduate programs in several top management institutes in India.

Other than a perfect score, the top colleges also look for an extra edge or a quality that sets you apart from the rest of work experience or internships.

A total of 100 questions are asked from 3 sections -

• Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning
• Quantitative Ability
• Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension

The distribution of the questions from each section varies slightly each year.

Admission is based on merit followed by a rigorous selection procedure comprising of Group Discussions, Personal Interviews, and Written ability tests.

Other than for admission into IIM’s, the  CAT scores are also used as a qualifying exam for a number of prestigious institutes in the country like the IITs, NITS, and FMS.

CAT Details

1

Duration

3 hours

2

Sections

3

3

Sectional Duration

1 hour

4

Questions

100

3 Marks are allotted for each correct answer and 1 mark deducted for each incorrect answer . However, there is no negative marking for non MCQ questions.

ELIGIBILITY: A Bachelors  degree in any discipline with minimum 50% marks for general category students

However, if you are in the final year of your bachelors or if your results are awaited, your admission process won't be hampered once you submit a certificate from the principal of your university stating that you have completed the necessary requirements.

It is a highly competitive exam and having a  high IQ would not suffice here. You need to be well armed with the right preparation along with a high EQ (emotional quotient ) to be able to complete the 100 questions in 3 hours without taking the stress.The cutoff for the top 25 B+ schools always lie in the 90 + percentile

The scores of the candidate are usually normalized.After normalization across different forms, the scores are further normalized across different sections.These scaled scores are then projected as percentiles to avoid any unfairness since the exam is held is two slots every year.

2016 saw a rise in the number of candidates achieving a  perfect 100 percentile in CAT  i.e 20, all of whom happened to be males with engineering backgrounds. It is no doubt that engineers dominate in this exam but women as well as nonengineers have routinely achieved perfect scores in the individual sections.

Application forms for CAT 2017 will be released by the first week of August.Stay tuned for more updates.