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CAT MBA Exam - Overview
CAT
Exams are conducted for admission to MBA programme of
Indian Institutes of Management of Ahmedabad, Bangalore,
Calcutta, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Shillong, Rohtak
and Ranchi.
CAT
consists of questions that evaluate a candidate’s quantitative,
verbal, logical & data interpretive abilities. Therefore,
there are a total of 3 sections.
Each
IIM will send interview letters to the candidates it
has short-listed. The criteria for short-listing varies
from IIM to IIM. If a candidate is short-listed for
interviews by any IIM, he/she has to comply with the
eligibility verification.
The
IIMs opted for computerized CAT Exam to enhance the
quality of test including providing a more conducive
environment for testing as compared to paper and pencil
test.
CAT Exam Test Sites are -
Ahmedabad,
Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai,
Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Durgapur, Faridabad, Ghaziabad,
Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore,
Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai,
Nagpur, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Patna, Pune, Ranchi, Shillong,
Siliguri and Varanasi.
CAT Exam Eligibility
The
candidate must hold a Bachelor’s Degree, with at least
50% marks or equivalent CGPA [45% in case of the candidates
belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST)
and Differently Abled (DA)categories], awarded by any
of the Universities incorporated by an act of the central
or state legislature in India or other educational institutions
established by an act of Parliament or declared to be
deemed as a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act,
1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognized
by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India. Candidates
appearing for the final year of bachelor’s degree/equivalent
qualification examination and those who have completed
degree requirements and are awaiting results can also
apply.
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CAT Online Test Duration and Pattern
The
duration of the test is 2 hours and 30 minutes including initial
15 minute tutorial. No breaks will be given during the test.
The test consists of questions that evaluate a candidate’s
quantitative, verbal, and logical & data interpretive abilities.
Therefore, there are a total of three sections in the test.
There will be about 60 to 70 questions in the test.
At
the test venue, each candidate will be seated at a desk with
a computer terminal and he/she will be provided with a scratch
paper for calculations. After the test, candidate must leave
the scratch paper at the desk. Candidates can get a feel of
online mock CAT Exam by visiting - http://content.catiim.in/catdemo
CAT Exam Fees
Fee
for the test is Rs.1400. If candidate belongs to the SC/ST
category then he can pay a discounted fee of Rs.700. A prospective
candidate buys a voucher from the designated bank branches,
and later registers online for CAT. Candidate is required
to fill a pay-in-slip at the selected Axis Bank Outlets to
obtain the voucher. There will be two copies of the pay-in-slip.
The bank will retain one copy of the filled pay-in-slip and
the other will be stamped and given back to you. Candidate
has to retain copy of the pay-in-slip during the entire selection
process.
CAT Exam Registration Instructions
Important
Instructions for Online Registration are -
- Candidate must purchase voucher prior to beginning the
online registration process.
- ‘*’ - indicates mandatory field. The boxes marked with
this symbol have to be necessarily filled in.
- Candidate will have 20 minutes to complete each page of
the application, otherwise selections will be lost and will
be required to reenter information.
- Click on the “Register for CAT” link on CAT website www.catiim.in
or visit https://iim.prometric.com. In the opening screen,
candidate must enter voucher number and a special set of
characters that are displayed on the screen. The Voucher
Number and the Security Code are not case sensitive. If
candidate is having trouble reading the characters, they
can either click the audio icon or the refresh icon. Choosing
the refresh icon will display a new set of characters. On
clicking the submit button, the Login Screen will appear
to begin the CAT registration process.
- First step is profile creation in which candidate has
to fill his personal details.
- Next step after filling personal information, candidate
would be again required to input the voucher number before
Scheduling his test. In the Voucher Number section, must
enter voucher number and a special set of characters that
are displayed on the screen.
- “Login” information will include a User ID and a password.
In this section, candidate must create User ID and password
and provide a reminder question and answer. Candidate will
use User ID and password to reschedule test, request a resend
of candidate profile and request a resend of Admit card.
- After candidate has completed the Create Login screen
and pressed the Submit button, Candidate Profile will get
submitted. In order to successfully submit the candidate
profile, all required information must be complete, voucher
number must be a valid voucher number, and User ID and password
must be valid. If any information is missing or not valid,
the system will tell what is needed and will be given an
opportunity to correct the information. Once the candidate
profile has been successfully submitted, a copy of Candidate
Profile will be sent to you via email within 24 hours.
CAT Exam Testing Process
- Arrival: Candidate must arrive two hours before scheduled
appointment. This allows time for sign in and for staff
to verify identification and documentation. If candidate
fails to arrive on time he will not be allowed to take the
CAT.
- Documents Required: Candidate must bring Admit Card, non-expired
form of photo identification, proof of SC/ST eligibility
and Voucher. Acceptable forms of photo identification are
Driver's license, Passport, PAN Card, Voter ID, College
ID, Employee identification card, or a notarized Affidavit
with Photo, Signature, Date of Birth and Residential Address.
- Candidate will not be permitted to carry any personal
items to the test centre, including but not limited to wrist-watch,
pen, cellphones, calculators, etc.
CAT Online Exam Evaluation - Problems faced
Over
2 lakhs, completed the CAT test successfully. It is estimated
that about 8,000 students may have faced difficulty of various
kinds in completing the test. The various problems faced by
these candidates have been categorized based on the emails
received by the Candidate Care Centre of Prometric and by
the IIMs. The categories of problems faced by candidates include
- Premature exit due to inadvertent use of "End" button
on the review screen in the first few days of testing period
- disruptions caused due to malfunctioning of computers
- missing graphics and data
- candidates who experienced any form of disruption/rebooting
of their machine
CAT Exam in Comming year - Update
IIM's
have learnt about the problems faced by candidates in conducting
Online CAT Exam. Prometric, the company that has partnered
with the IIM's to conduct CAT, has come out with changes in
CAT 2010.
- Prometric will no longer have NIIT as its technology partner
for CAT this year
- Networks on which the online test is conducted will be
isolated from other networks used in the colleges / Universities
- All computers used for CAT will have an updated version
of Licensed security software.
- Reduction in testing sites for CAT but there will be an
increase in the testing window period.
All
these effort are being made to make CAT 2010 free from technical
glitches.
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