All About CAT

About CAT

Common Admission Test (CAT) is an all-India Entrance test conducted by IIMs. The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) started this exam and is a prerequisite for selecting students for their business administration programs. This computer-based test is conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) for admission to their 2 year full-time post-graduate programs in management. Other Indian business schools like IITs, FMS, S.P. Jain, MDI, and NITIE also accept CAT exam scores as part of their selection process. Nearly 2 lakh candidates take the CAT exam every year.

Who can apply?

Candidates applying for CAT exam should fulfill any one of the following conditions:

1. Completed Bachelor’s degree with the required percentage of marks*.
2. Completed Professional degree (CA/CS/ICWA) with required percentage*.
3. Should be in the final year of Bachelor’s degree with required percentage*.

*SC/ST/PwD candidates should have a minimum of 45%. For General, EWS, and NC-OBC candidates, the minimum is 50%.

About CAT 2022

CAT 2022 will be conducted on Sunday, 27th November, 2022 in three slots. IIM Bangalore will be conducting CAT 2022.

Important Dates:

Structure & Pattern of CAT 2022

• Mode: Computer-based Test
• Type of Questions – MCQs and Non-MCQs (TITA – Type in the answer).
• Test Duration: 2 hours
• Each section is individually timed. The time to attempt each section is 40 minutes. You cannot move to another section till the individual time of one section is over.
• Marking Scheme: +3 for each correct answer & -1 for each incorrect answer. Non-MCQs do not carry negative markings.

Visit CAT 2022 Official website for more details.

Past CAT Exam Analysis

CAT 2021 – Slot 1 Analysis                              CAT 2021 – Slot 2 Analysis                              CAT 2021 – Slot 3 Analysis

Selection criteria for IIMs

CAT results are tentatively available from the second week of January (subsequent to the year of the CAT exam) on the CAT website. The list of candidates shortlisted for the next level of selection will be made available on the website of the respective IIMs. Each IIM will send interview letters to the shortlisted candidates directly. The criteria for shortlisting vary across IIMs.

IIMs shortlist candidates for the interview stage based on their own criteria, which may be independent of each other. The process may include Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussion (GD), and Personal Interviews (PI). Performance in the CAT examination is an important component of the admission process. IIMs may additionally use other factors such as the previous academic performance of the candidates, relevant work experience, gender, and academic diversity, and other similar inputs in shortlisting and ranking candidates at various stages of the admission process. The processes, academic cut-offs, and the weights allocated to the evaluation parameters may vary across IIMs.

Tests apart from CAT

Apart from the CAT, an MBA aspirant may need to take a few more entrance tests based on the list of B-Schools one is planning to apply to. Some of the important B-School entrance tests are XAT, IIFT, NMAT, SNAP, TISS-NET, CET (Mah), CMAT, MAT, and ATMA. These tests are generally unpredictable in their structure and composition. Whilst the objective of the test is to assess the students’ aptitude in the broad areas of Quantitative, Verbal, Logical, and Analytical Reasoning remains unchanged, the same cannot be said about the weightage given to each area. Increasingly, many institutes are also testing the students’ awareness of current affairs and general knowledge.

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