CAT 2008 Bulletin

The Common Admission Test for admission into Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) will be held on November 16 this year.

The IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow Kozhikode, Indore and Shillong today said in a notification that the sale of application forms for CAT will start from Monday at the Axis Bank branches across the country till August 8.

The application forms could also be obtained from the IIMs counters till August 13, the notification said.

The intake at the elite B-schools have been increased this year with the government having set up a new IIM in Shillong.

More than 2.5 lakh candidates had appeared in the CAT examination held in November last year.

The last date of submitting the CAT application forms is September 5.

The number of seats will also be increased by the IIMs to implement the reservation for OBC candidates from this year.

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Application Process for CAT 2008 has started.

CAT 2008 Bulletin

CAT 2008 Eligibility

Test Centres and Dates

An oft repeated query of CAT aspirants is: “How much time do I need to prepare for the CAT?”A suitable analogy to this query would be the question: “How much time would it take to reach New Delhi railway station?”

The answer is dependant on three things:

a) What is your starting point?

b) At what speed would you be travelling? and most importantly

c) Would you be taking the straight line approach to the destination or would you be taking a circuitous route?

Experience and past records show that unlike university exams, where there is more clarity about minimum and maximum preparation time, the CAT is an exam which subscribes to neither. One sees students clear the CAT in as less as three to four weeks and then there are students at the other end of the spectrum, who do not clear it even after three or four years.

ISSUE 1: When planning your preparation, be task-oriented and not time-oriented

In simpler terms, focus on defining the quantum of work rather than defining the time schedules for the work. Your focus should be on what work you need to do, rather than focusing on the time dimension of your preparation.

So instead of trying to explore questions like: “How much time should I devote to which subject on a daily basis?,” think of how much work you would need to do on a particular subject in order to shift your ability level from your starting level to the desired level.

For instance, if your current ability in the subject of quantitative aptitude is in the below 50 percentile level and you aspire to move your percentile to the range of 95 percentile plus — you would broadly need to do anywhere between 4000 to 6000 questions during your preparations. (Depending on how much you can learn from every question).

Thus, how much time it would take on a per day basis then is immaterial. All that matters is whether you have completed your work or not.

Similarly, you should try to define the outline of work based on the following parameters:

-How many questions do you plan to do in each area of Quants before you go for the CAT?
-How many passages on reading comprehension do you intend to solve before you take the CAT?

-How many questions on areas like reasoning, data interpretation etc do you intend to solve prior to taking the CAT?

-How many tests do you intend to solve prior to taking the CAT?

Once you have drawn outlines for each area, you can easily work out how much work you need to finish by the end of the current week.

ISSUE 2: Do not try to balance your preparations on a daily basis, but balance your work on a weekly basis

Attempts to balance work in areas such as English, verbal ability, reading comprehension, quants and data interpretation and reasoning on a daily basis, would only lead to frustration. Instead, you need to ensure that you maintain equal emphasis on each area of preparation on a weekly basis. In other words, on a weekly basis you could plan days on which you are only doing Quants and other days where you might only be doing reading comprehension.

ISSUE 3: Learn to enjoy your work and do not look at it as a burden

Aristotle had once remarked: “Find a job you love and you will never have to work a single day of your life.”

Preparations for aptitude exams especially the CAT, if taken up through the right intelligence development approach, could turn out to be the most entertaining study process you have ever gone through. In fact, the enjoyment of the preparation process is one of the common features observed among successful students.

So, take a reality check on how much you are enjoying quants, data interpretation, language and vocabulary preparation. In case you have started to look at any of this as a burden, there is something seriously wrong in the way you are approaching the exam. Try to change the way you perceive the work you are trying to do. CAT preparation, and all its components, is extremely enjoyable if you approach it in conjunction to improving your thought process, basic intelligences and your exposure.

ISSUE 4: A paradox: Make CAT the most important thing in your life at the same time reduce the importance of CAT in your life

Paradoxical as the above statement may seem, there is a perfectly logical explanation. While you are preparing for the exam, you would be required to make sacrifices and adjustments to your life in such a way that you will have to be mentally prepared to leave everything else in the process of CAT preparation. Thus, while preparing you should be working as if there is nothing more crucial in your life than the CAT.

At the same time, by design, you should try to reduce how important the result of the CAT is for your life. Hence, you should have a back up plan for a situation wherein you would be failing in the CAT. Having this plan ready ironically would help you take the pressure of performance off your shoulders resulting in your best chance of belling the CAT.

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This year’s results have reaffirmed that CAT is a tough exam to crack. Only the very best can hope to obtain admission into an IIM. That, however, does not deter lesser mortals from trying to get in.

The results of CAT 2007 has flit past leaving lakhs of eager and hopeful students, who had been hoping to get admission into the most reputed B-Schools in the country, high and dry. The high standards of testing ensured by this body ensure that only the crème de la crème can obtain admission into the portals of these prestigious institutes.

This is certainly a very commendable move in a country like ours that is shackled with infinite constraints with reference to just about any policy under the sun. The candidates who sail through the onerous protocol set for them by the organisation will assure you that it is no mean exercise, for they have had to work very hard to get a seat in the most coveted establishment. As they say, “The proof of the pudding lies in the eating” and year after year we find that IIM students land themselves lucrative jobs at the end of the course.

Placement

In fact recent statistics show that there has been one hundred per cent placement of candidates who emerge as post graduates from these institutes in the current year with an enviable package, while his counter part from a lesser known institution is usually treated as a lesser mortal in the job market.

Apparently, the secret of success of candidates from the IIMs is not only based on their consistent academic performance but also on their ability to face bi-lateral challenges which cross their way during their tenure at the institutions. A talk with the high-brow faculty at IIM-B reveals that the unvarying accomplishment of their candidates lies in the kind of training they receive to hone their intrinsic skills besides hard core academics. For instance, the pioneering entrepreneurial cell — NSRCEL (Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning) at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, grooves in the concept of value-creation through “informed entrepreneurship” which helps potential entrepreneurs to experiment with the trends of the market even before they enter it formally. While it is a matter of pride for the institutions and the students themselves, it appears to be a matter of growing concern to the society at large which is not able to make it to these high-profile institutes.

The rat race to beat the CAT is taking new demoniac dimensions year after year. The recent examination saw two lakh candidates taking up the exam across the country. Apparently all of them could not get in because of stringent filtration processes which are a part of the admission procedure.

Response

When a cross section of students who had appeared for the CAT exam from Bangalore were consulted on the subject just about everybody said that they did not do very well not only because the paper was very tough but also because the university semester exams commenced two days after CAT and their concentration was divided between the two exams.A random survey revealed that more than fifty per cent of the candidates were merely “giving it a shot” and another thirty per cent hoped to do well in their XLRI or GMAT exams after undergoing a rigorous training to take up the CAT.

Some of them hoped to “get through” the next time and were quite satisfied with getting a taste of the paper. A few of them confided that they had taken up the exam to mollify the ego of their parents or family and it really did not matter one way or the other if they failed to make it.It is quite possible that with the exception of a section of earnest candidates who have really been working hard for the exam the scene is more or less the same everywhere.

Yet this year a couple of candidates did not mind undergoing a laborious and expensive exercise which had them scheming and planning for months together to pull wool over the eyes of the authorities on the “Red Letter Day.” Fortunately, they were caught ‘red handed’ which will certainly make studious, earnest students repose their faith in the organisation which believes in keeping its flag flying high.

The craze to enter these esteemed IIMs has become an obsession with the student community that is pursuing the last leg of their under-graduate studies in a variety of streams but then these very candidates are also aware of their capabilities and their diverse dreams which are sometimes miles away from their educational pursuit. At the outset, the situation appears to be a reasonable wish of a good student to aim high, but a scratch at the surface apparently reveals a very different picture which showcases indifferent students who are not highly perturbed at not getting in.

Private colleges

Of late, the MBA scene has changed radically as there are several private colleges offering the MBA course under local universities and many of them function on the lines of the IIMs. They have tie-ups with the corporate world and run placement cells and entrepreneurial cells to launch their students into the big bad world on their own two feet.

Many students who have passed out appear to have no regrets about not having been to the IIMs while to the others these mega institutes are spoken about on the lines of “a case of sour grapes.”

Such being the case, perhaps it will be a wise move for the IIMs to stick to their standards and maintain it at all costs. Perhaps they could add a couple more institutes after careful consideration to their body that can cater to the serious undergraduates, but certainly it is disgraceful and unwarranted to cry over the rooftops and make a big fuss for large scale expansion because it is bound to dilute the aura that has made the organisation stand apart.

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New Delhi: The results of Common Admission Test, for admission to prestigious IIMs and other leading management institutes, will be announced this coming Tuesday.

Over two lakh B-school aspirants appeared for the written entrance test, CAT. The CAT results would be declared on its website as well as with all the IIMs on January 8.

Out of the vast number of initial aspirants only 2.5 per cent or around 5,000 will get short listed for group discussion and personal interviews. “The scores can be accessed by keying in the test registration number and either the date of birth or the CAT application number,” as per the information on the website.

However, the details of the date and venue would be made available by post as well as on the individual IIMs web sites only after a few days.

The scores can also be obtained telephonically and through SMS.
For accessing results via SMS, one should send a message to 57333. The text should be: CAT — a space, the registration number, one more space and the date of birth.

Students who are not able to get into one of the IIMs, can try their luck at one of the 111 management schools which use CAT scores for students intake.

Some of the best B-schools in this category are — International Management Institute, K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research, Management Development Institute, Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad and S P Jain Institute of Management & Research. Registration procedure for most of these management schools are already over and only those who filled up forms for individual institutes apart from their CAT forms would be eligible for selection.- PTI