Common Admission Test (CAT)

What is CAT? CAT stand for common admission test is to get the admission to Institute of Management (IIM), at Baglore, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Kozhikode and indore. Many other institutes like institute of management and technology (IMT), Nirma Institute of Management, MIICA.S.P, also give admissions on the basis of score and performance in CAT.

The exam contains four parts which are Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation, verbal ability and problem solving. All the questions are multiple choices and you should shade your choice of answer (only with a HB pencil) in the computer coded answer sheet. There is negative mar king in CAT test means for every correct answer, one mark is awarded and for every wrong answer, 1/4th of a mark is deducted.

The exam is conducted once in a year on the second Sunday of December. The academic eligibility to give the exam is must be a graduate or studying in the final year. The advertisements for the exam start appearing in the national dailies as early as August 23rd. The centre for the examination is allotted according to the preference of the candidate.

Few tips for exam:-

The most important factor is time in this exam; there are no ranks as such.

Keep more then one (H.B) pencils in your stock.

Try to attempt simple question. No need to waist time in a tough question it might be wrong and your ¼ marks will be deducted from your numbers.

After the written exam, the candidates are ranked and then only the very best are called by the IIMs. The other institutes also start sending offer letters to get admissions in to their respective colleges. Candidate also has to buy the application forms of these other institutes and apply to them individually.

After the exam, the selected candidates have to give a interview called a group interview. This will be more like a stress interview where the candidates are posed with real problems, for which they have to discuss and arrive at a friendly solution. Often these group interviews, turn into mammoth shouting matches filled with chaos as everybody talks at the same time. After this the final Interview is also taken by the school authorities.

Here we are giving some interview tips:-The interview panel will want to assess if you have a one-track personality or a well-rounded, intellectual, multifaceted one. Do some serious introspection over your hobbies and extracurricular activities. Try and formulate answers to the following questions:

Is there any synergy between this activity and my chosen career?

How will I continue with this activity after I start work, when I am faced with time constraints?

What does this activity/ hobby say about me as a person?

What have I learnt from this activity?

Always prepare yourself for some specific fields like:

Personality:

This broad area covers everything that has been left out in the above areas. The purpose is to allow the panel to form a more holistic picture and consolidate the opinion they may have formed about you through your answers in the other areas.

Career goals:

The purpose is to assess how much clarity you have when it comes to your career. They need to know what is your motivation?, whether you have given a reasonable amount of thought to your career before choosing it, whether you have your priorities clear. It consist quite a long list of tricky questions.

General awareness:

this is a good idea to brush up on your general awareness by going through national level news magazines and news channels. Try to develop your own perspective on current issues and events. You can also read the letters to the editor column in the national daily newspapers.

Extra-curricular/ Hobbies

The forms for the exam can be bought from the State Bank of India & the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).