Exam: The Common Admission Test (CAT)

Conducted by: Conducted jointly by the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management -- Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore, Lucknow, Indore, Calicut)

Eligibility criteria: Pretty much anyone who has a recognised bachelors degree from a recognised university is eligible for the CAT examination. Students who are to graduate the following year can appear as well. Note, however, that the CAT score is accepted by many institutes, and different institutes might have their own entrance requirements. Many typically ask for a minimum of 50% marks at the graduation level.

Exam applicable to: There is no university that accepts the CAT scores. Since CAT is conducted by the IIM, which is a set of autonomous institutes, only autonomous institutes accept CAT scores. Note that until very recently, the exam was only for the IIMs. The list however, changes every year and there is no way of knowing the exhaustive list. However, a good sample would include the following...

The Indian Institutes of Management

1. MICA (Mudra Insitute of Communication)
2. TA Pai, Manipal
3. IMT, Ghaziabad
4. MDI, Gurgaon
5. Goa Institute of Management
6. Institute of Technology and Management (multiple locations all over India).
7. Institute of Management Development & Research, Pune

Exam Dates: The CAT exam usually takes place on the second Sunday of December.

Pattern of the paper: Although slight changes could be observed every year, typically the pattern is as follows...

Maths - 50 marks (including the regular topics -- percentage, numbers, ratios, geometry, distance, interest and the likes for 40 marks and Data Sufficiency for 10 marks)
Data Interpretation - 35 marks
English - 50 marks (including unjumbling of jumbled sentences, analogies, error spotting, finding the odd word and the likes)
Reading Comprehension - 50 marks (typically 6 to 8 passages)

Pros:

On attempting the test, one feels that indeed the test was well-designed. The questions that are tough are not tough simply because of mindless calculations, but because of the conceptual knowledge required.

The exam is designed such that memorisation, rote learning, endless hours of slogging and other such brute force methods do not yield results all by themselves. Conceptual understanding is a must. The exam is fairly standardised in format.

Cons:

Absolute lack of transperancy. No one knows how much they scored. No one knows how the institutes interpret/use their scores. No one knows how much of the admission decision is dependant on the CAT score alone. Such lack of transperancy is not expected from a managment institute.

Though many non-IIM institutes have started accepting CAT scores, the application fee of these institutes is still inexplicably high.

The CAT is primarily an exam of Math and English. Logical and Analytical Reasoning is nearly absent (except for some verbal reasoning).

Students who have not studied math at the graduation level stand little chance of scoring the bare-minimum marks required in the quantative section.

On Preparation

Ajeet Khurana, the Director of KITS, a Bombay based institute that has been coaching students for MBA entrance exams in India feels that, "Like most exams, good study material, a study plan, a group of friends for group-study, some coaching are all required. However, due to CAT being one of the older MBA entrance exams, a lot of the study material is outdated. Then again, if you have even somewhat above average vocabulary, then spending weeks learning a list of words and their synonyms shall be a very bad investment. But several students spend weeks, often months learning synonyms. (This might make sense for the GRE, but will yield poorly for CAT). Also, one needs to ensure that one indeed understood a particular question and topic before proceeding. Too often, students are satisfied simply by getting the right answer. The idea is to focus on the right approach and speed building."

On coaching classes: According to Khurana, "As a medium, coaching classes do provide an opportunity to reduce the ambiguity associated with the extent and scope of the syllabus. The biggest service they do is provide is to ensure that the students is disciplined enough and keeps on preparing. The peer pressure also helps a lot. However, coaching classes certainly are no magic pill and even the best amongst them can clain to only 25 per cent of the credit for their student's success. The rest is the candidates own dedication and sincerity.

"It is also noteworthy to distinguish between one coaching class and another. Students should certainly check the credentials, methodology and faculty of the coaching classes before enrolling. The CAT coaching class industry is characterised by a lot of institutes that start with a big bang and are non-existent in a year or two.

If at all you do get a call: Different institutes have different procedures that follow. Most have a filteration process before final selection on the basis of Group Discussions and Personal Interviews. Some institutes (e.g. MICA), conduct a supplementary exam of their own.

Helpful tips for the Group Discussion and interview:

Keep up with the latest news by reading newspapers and magazines regularly. Prepare a career plan Improve communication skills (Some coaching classes like KITS, for instance helps with this too.)

Note: Typically calls from the IIMs come during the end of February to the mid of AprilAs far as other institute are concerned, they continue as long as July. Sometimes, the dates of the final exams of T.Y.B.Com. students clashes with the dates of the G.D or the interview. Not too much can be done about the clashing of dates. However, if one is prepared in advance, one just needs to invest half a day for the GD and interview sessions. If indeed you have an exam at the same time as your GD and interview, you could try talking to the MBA institute about it. But past instances reveal that this does not usually bear fruit.

Sections In The CAT

The four sections in the CAT examination are

Comprehension - This section requires examinees to read passages (about 700 words in length), following which they answer three to four questions relating to the passage. Rachita Loke, who gave the CAT exam last year, says, "This section is the toughest, as one has to read the passage with utmost concentration. Answering questions from the passage is even tougher, as they are hidden somewhere deep in the throes. Speed and concentration are extremely necessary here." Grimly, Kuresh says "It takes about five minutes to read a passage, leaving us with only 30-40 seconds to answer each question. That's injustice!"

Mathematics - This section has questions that deal with the basics of algebra, geometry and trigonometry. Being an expert in mathematics, Rachita had no problem in solving this section. She says, "Each question in this section looks simple and straightforward, but on closer inspection, there was a smart trick cleavaged behind each query. I had to keep my eyes wide open to identify such stratagem." About his experience in solving this section, Kuresh says, "Practise made me perfect. After solving dozens of practice test papers, I identified where I made mistakes, and worked on rectifying them. When I did the Maths section in the CAT, I felt I was on home stretch."

Verbal - In today's corporate world, having good language skills are extremely important, especially in English. The "Verbal" section tests the grammatical and verbal skills of an applicant to check their understanding of the English language. Included amongst the questions are small passages (of which the examinees are expected to draw inferences), analogies, antonyms and synonyms, fill in the blanks, correcting sentences, arranging sentences in order, etc. Kuresh says, "This section was no sweat." Rachita agrees. Fondly remembering her CAT days, she adds, "In fact, I didn't know I was this good in English."

Data Interpretation - Popularly known as "DI", this section tests the analytical and logical skills of examinees by seeing how well they interpret data, which is in form of graphs, charts and tables. Explaining this section, Kuresh says, "We were required to answer questions based on the data available in graphs and tables. Analyzing the tables took some time, but once I got the hang of it, it was a breeze." Rachita was disappointed by the way she performed in this section. "It took loads of time to deal with the first 3 sections," she says, "so I wasn't left with a minimal amount of time to solve this section. I didn't answer a lot of questions because I wasn't sure of some answers. My logical skills took a thorough beating."

While answering a question, an examinee has to choose one out of four choices provided. This rule is consistent in all four sections.

Like all the exams, the CAT also has a few surprises in store. "While solving the CAT," says Rachita, "I realised that a few questions in the paper were completely new, as I didn't encounter them in the study material. It seems like the paper-setters of CAT don't follow a rigid structure while setting the test paper."

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