Entries Tagged 'CAT' ↓

For admission to MBA program, IIMs hold a Common Admission Test (CAT) every year, generally in the month of November. The test is conducted on all- India basis at several centers, covering almost the entire country.

A notification regarding CAT usually appears in the month of September in several national newspapers as well as in the “Employment News”. The dates of commencement of academic session are different for all the four Institutes.

Exam profile: CAT has been of 2 hour duration till date. However, it has been extended to time duration of 2hrs & 30 min this yr onwards. It is objective type (multiple choices) and includes questions on English language, analytical ability, reading comprehension, data interpretation and reasoning ability.

In addition to the written test, the candidates may also be tested in the following:

(i) group discussion
(ii) leadership tests
(iii) case study; and
(iv) personal interview.

The thrust of the CAT is to choose the candidates with high intelligence quotient, leadership qualities, clear understanding and good expression. The number of seats varies from 100 to 180 and the IIMs have reservation for SC/ST candidates @ 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively.

This article provides with a well organized strategy directory for CAT preparation. Such experiences are really worth reading and following their footsteps can certainly lead us to greater heights.

- Puneet (got 99.23 percentile in CAT 2004)

1. The first 6-8 mocks are for experimentation.
Experiment.
Try out new strategies.
Don’t bother much about your percentiles and ranks…. my avg percentile during the first 6 mocks were 90-95. This usually happens in the months may to July. Engineers might be having their semester exams during this time. Dont bother preparing for cat too much during this time.

2. Mocks 8 - 12 (August): assess yourself thoroughly. Find yourself a preparation partner. This is very important. Your preparation partner should be more or less at a similar level as u r or perhaps slightly higher. Benchmark yourself against him. & both of u should motivate each other to up the level of performance. Start doing sectional tests also at this period of time. My preparation partner was a guy called Vinod (now in IIMB). His avg percentile during this mocks period was 99, mine 97.

3. Mocks 13-18. Takeoff time. Settle down on a strategy. Identify your biggest strength. Also identify the section which u can do best under immense time pressure. In my case, I was very good at di, I also have a reading speed of around 850-900 words per minute. This reading speed ensured that I could finish all my RC’s in about 12-13 minutes time & could devote more time to quant.

I used to start with DI (about 35 minutes, as it was a strong section), then went to quant, spent around 45- 50 minutes over there, and then went to verbal for 30 minutes. Used up the remaining time to go back to any section i wanted to maximize else used to do some checking the omr for errors in marking (In the actual CAT, I spent the last 5 minutes checking the OMR for markings).

Also, the last 15 days b4 CAT, preferably take a leave from work/college & keep yourself focused on the job at hand. Motivate yourself and your preparation partner.

Vinod (my prep partner) got 99.34 percentile in CAT 2004.
He got calls from IIMb & IIMc. Converted & joined IIMB.

I got 99.23 percentile in CAT 2004. .DI - 89.09. (Mild screw up in my strongest section…. what an irony…) Quant - 97.63… Verbal 99.01.
Got AIR 138 in JMET 2004

Calls from MDI, NITIE, SJMSOM IITB, DMS IITD and VGSOM IITKGP.

Converted SJMSOM IITB and NITIE. Joined NITIE.

Both Vinod & I are freshers from R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore.

Hope this will be useful to all u CAT takers.

Take a deep breath and digest this - CAT is designed to test the skill sets you will need to be a great manager.
Continue reading →

“Strategy” is a very powerful word. Strategy is what Bill Gates uses to hire and retain some of the best heads in the software world - by giving them stock options. Strategy is what has made every sound & informed investor rich in the current Indian bull market and strategy is the same as the shot Tendulkar has selected to play or not to play, as per the field set up, if a particular type of ball is bowled to him. It’s hard to imagine all these people without this skill of anticipating and improvising, which they use in their respective unpredictable fields.

A lot has been written and said about catching the CAT that bugs around 1,50,000 aspirants every year. From hard work to picking up questions smartly, from choosing accuracy over speed to managing time effectively & efficiently, from excelling in your strengths to ameliorating in your weak sections by persistence, from applying to the right B-school to aiming for the best & so on. But the fact is, what works for me might not work for you and the otherwise is also true. As I write this, more than a month is left till the D’day. These days CAN change your life. These days CAN create a ladder for that dream gig you always aspired for.

Thankfully, one thing that we can be really sure of is that CAT is very unpredictable. Having a strategy or a set of strategies is as important as hard work that we all put in, and opening the test and starting from 1st question is not a good one. One should always start from s’thing he/she is really good at. First know your strength / strengths and then your second strength. It makes perfect sense to give your favorite section more time and limiting to the cut-off in the others, rather than by going 50-50-50 in the 150 minutes allotted. Now there are two ways of going about it, either by giving the 45-55 minutes in one go to your favorite section or by 30-35 in first go & coming again in the last 10-15 minutes of the test.

For example, you start with Quantitative Analysis Section and give it 10 more minutes in the dying moments. Nobody can analyze the entire paper perfectly in the first two minutes, like we are all told to do. By going back to my favorite or second favorite section in the end, I end up having more knowledge about the paper thus having more chances of selecting the attemptable set of questions. Try this strategy in the mocks and see how it works for you.

Begin with a reality check. With only 45 odd days of studies, you are at a disadvantage since you will be matching your wits with those steadfastly studious fellas who have been at it for over six months, if not a year. If you have not been practising your mathematics or mugging your word list and attempting your data interpretation regularly, you have to do all that and more by way of solving timebound mock tests and devising strategies to make optimum use of your skills and speed.

Practice, practice and more practice — that’s your magic mantra & There’s no substitute for perseverance and regular learning. Fix your daily schedule, allocate a fixed number of hours for each segment and get started.

CAT is really a test about your basic fundas & it is also about your ability to apply and co-relate them. Once you get your basics clear, lateral thinking is the next step to success. So brush up on your spellings, brush up your BODMAS (Brackets, Order, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction), relearn your theorems and equations and apply them in more ways than one.The more you swot, the more you improve. Data Interpretation involves a wide volume of data and graphs. The more you study and handle them, the clearer they get. Do learn your word list for English. Look for comprehension passages that deal with subjects and issues beyond your reading preference. If you are a fiction lover, try attempting non-fiction passages on scientific discoveries, theories and philosophy.

Deepak Makhija, a counsellor from Space Online Technologies, an online counselling company for MBA aspirants, says, “I would stress on comprehension passages instead of word lists. The more you attempt the passages, the easier they get, and that added confidence minimises chances of negative marking.” Try reading the smaller editorials in the edit pages of newspapers and recalling the main points. Check your speed. You should be able to get it done in five minutes. Logic section is a grey area for many. Only repeated practice within a time limit coupled with your gut instinct can help you there.

Speed plays a key role in your overall performance. Nothing gets done without a time frame. Remember, you will not get more than 30 to 45 seconds to answer each question. So try to answer them in a single go. Don’t go back and waste precious seconds. Take a calculated risk and attempt answers to questions that you are half-sure of rather than trying to figure them out later. This works best for the Logic section, where timing and accuracy are crucial.

Move on to mock tests only after you are reasonably sure of your basic fundas and have improved your speed. Taking 25 to 30 of these tests will not help if they are not analyzed properly. What is important is not ‘how many,’ but ‘how’ you take these tests. After every test, do a thorough analysis. It is quite useless solving mock tests for hours or doing too many of them (you need to solve at least 10-15in two months) when you could use that time fruitfully to develop your core areas and increase your speed. Once you are reasonably confident, attempt them and finish them on time.

To clear all doubts on confusion regarding the new admission and eligibility conditions for Common Admission Test (CAT 2006) the CAT group comprising representatives from the six IIMs, has put out a clarification note on the eligibility criteria, in addition to what is mentioned in the July 16, CAT 2006 bulletin.

CLARIFICATIONS PROVIDED BY CAT GROUP FOR CAT 2006:

It has been mentioned clearly in the CAT Bulletin and the advertisement which appeared on July 16, 2006 that a candidate to be eligible for admission to Post Graudate Programme(s) in Management of IIMs must hold a Bachelor’s degree with at least 50 per cent marks or equivalent CGPA (45 per cent marks or equivalent CGPA in case of candidates belonging to SC/ST/PWD categories).

IIMs have received several queries regarding the eligibility criteria from the candidates interested in appearing for CAT 2006. Most of these queries are either from candidates who have appeared in their final year examinations and awaiting results or from the candidates who are in their final year of Bachelor’s degree.

The CAT Group clarifies the following on the eligibility criteria in addition to what is explicitly mentioned in the CAT Bulletin :

• For candidates who have already appeared for the final year examinations and whose results are awaited, it is clarified that they need to enclose a copy of the certificate (course completion certificate) from their College/Institution that they have already appeared in their final examination. They also need to enclose a copy of the available mark sheets/grade transcripts along with the course completion certificate.

• For candidates who are in the final year of Bachelor’s Degree, it is clarified that they should have obtained at least 50 per cent marks or equivalent CGPA (45 per cent marks or equivalent CGPA in case of candidates belonging to SC/ST/PWD categories) on a cumulative basis even if these marks are not considered by the University/Institute for declaring division/class.

• For candidates who have completed bachelor’s degree, it is already mentioned in the CAT Bulletin and the advertisement that the basis of computing percentage obtained by candidates will be based on the practice followed by the University/Institution from where the candidate has obtained the degree.

While the CAT notification and the CAT bulletin have cleared the air on a number of issues that have been plaguing students, there are still a number of issues about which the test-takers have no clue! Let us look at some of the key issues.

Duration of the CAT - Implications:

Let us look at the issue that is of greatest concern to most test takers – the duration of the test. The CAT bulletin has specified that the duration of CAT 2006 will be two-and-a-half hours , instead of the usual two hours. This has taken a number of students by surprise.

What does this increase in duration mean to you as a test-taker? One possibility is that the number of questions can go up. But, if you look at the issue closely, two things become clear.

The first is that without any change in the duration in the last 15 years, the CAT paper has carried different number of questions in different years. Hence, the change in the duration of the test does not necessarily point to a change in the number of questions.

The second issue is that the highest marks scored in the CAT in the last couple of years is much lower than the maximum mark possible in the paper. For example, in CAT 2005, the highest mark scored was 79 out of a possible 150. This was when the duration of the paper was two hours. With an extra 30 minutes, even if the students can score proportionately more marks, the highest score will touch about 100 out of a possible 150 in a paper like CAT 2005. Hence, there is no need for an increase in the number of questions just because the duration of the test has increased.

Does the increase in the duration of the test mean that there will now be more difficult questions in the CAT paper?

Once again, these two issues are not linked at all. The difficulty level of questions was raised in the past for the same two-hour paper. When the difficulty level of questions can increase even when there is no change in the duration of the paper, there can certainly be more difficult questions when the duration increases. As a prospective test-taker, one should not worry about the difficulty level of the questions, but prepare to the best of one’s ability and try no to loose it on the day of the test. In any case, it is relative performance that matters for selection and not absolute performance.

Minimum marks in Qualifying Exam:

Students should score a minimum of 50% marks in their graduation to be eligible to write the CAT. The notification only lays this condition under the heading “eligibility for applying to PGP” and it does not say that you cannot write CAT if you do not have 50% marks. This, on the surface, implies that if one is not applying to the IIMs and does not have 50% or more in the qualifying exam, he can write the CAT to apply to other B-Schools that use the CAT score as a benchmark. However, a closer examination will reveal that this is not the case. The student will need to satisfy this 50% requirement even to just write the CAT. This is borne out by the list of documents that need to be submitted along with the CAT application form. This list includes the marks memo.

Of course, if the test taker has not completed his graduation, he should have a 50% average till the pre-final year. For this, a letter from the college principal, in the format given in the CAT bulletin, must be included along with the application. Remember, that being allowed to write the CAT is not a guarantee that the test-taker will be granted an admission to the IIMs if he does not score the requisite minimum academic percentage.

However, a concession that the IIMs have made this year is that this 50% can be calculated the same way the university calculates the aggregate – even if the university excludes some subjects in its calculation of academic percentages (in the past, the IIMs have specified that all subjects should be included). This will come as a great relief to some students.

The minimum aggregate marks of 50% mentioned above is only for candidates in the general category; it is 45% in case of candidates belonging to reserved categories like Schedule Castes (SC) / Schedule Tribes (ST) / Persons with Disability (PWD).

Reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs):

The standard reservation for SCs (15%), STs (7 ½%), and PWD (3%) is there this year too. In addition to this, there could also be reservations for OBCs as per the new policy of the Government of India. The IIMs have stated that they have not yet received any official communication on this and they will implement reservations based on the communication they receive from the central government in this regard.

However, students belonging to OBC category are advised to attach the caste certificate along with the CAT application form to be eligible for any reservation that may be implemented later. If you belong to any of the specified categories, then do not forget to indicate it appropriately in the CAT application form.

There are three additional issues that should be considered. One is the number of sections in the test paper; the second is the cut-offs in each section, and the third is the selection process.

Number of sections : In the past, the CAT did not specify the number of sections in the paper – either in the notification or in the bulletin. Students would know about the number of sections only when they would receive the CAT paper. The only statement that would be made in the bulletin was that the paper would consist of “several sections ”.

This year, however, it has been mentioned both in the notification and the bulletin that there will be three sections in the CAT paper. Though there is no direct mention of the number of sections, the indirect mention of there being three sections in the paper is categorical. Also, there will not be any time limit for each section.

Cut-off : Historically, the IIMs have never confirmed that a minimum cut-off in each section is required for selection and that the cut-off could be different for each IIM. All they said was, “You are expected to show your competence in all the sections”.

For the first time ever, there is a mention in the CAT bulletin of the minimum score required in each section of the CAT paper. IIM Ahmedabad has clearly mentioned, under the head ‘selection criteria’, that test takers have to score a minimum of 25% in each section and 33% overall in the paper to be called for Group Discussions (GD) and Interviews. The actual cut-offs could be higher than these figures depending on the performance of the students in the CAT.

To understand this a little better, let us look at the cut-offs that the IIMs may have considered for CAT 2005. The cut-offs for the three sections – Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Quantitative Analysis and Data Interpretation-Reasoning were 12-13, 10-11, and 9-10 respectively. The maximum mark possible in each of the three sections was 50. Now, with IIM-A specifying that the cut-off will be at least 25% of the marks in the section; it will be 12.5 out of 50 marks.

If one looks at the cut-offs for last year and then considers the fact that another 30 minutes will be available to the test takers this year, the cut-offs could well go up to the 25% level. Same is the case with the 33% overall cut-off that IIM-A specified for this year, which works out to 49.5 out of 150 compared to the cut-off of 44-45 in CAT 2005. So, one need not harbour any apprehensions about the cut-offs being high. This is in line with what has been happening over the last few years.

So, when you look at all the issues associated with CAT 2006, there is almost nothing new while everything appears to be new. Go right ahead and concentrate on your preparation and practicing the All India Mock CATs (AIMCATs). And yes, do not forget that there could be something new in the test, some nasty surprise. All it requires is to be mentally prepared for it!

Admission process / selection process: There are five parameters for final selection into the IIMs – CAT scores, GD performance, Interview performance, Academic performance, and Work Experience. The IIMs have confirmed this in the recent past. In addition, some IIMs give weightage to extracurricular activities too.

However, some IIMs are using only the CAT scores for short-listing for GDs/Interviews whereas the other IIMs are using academic performance and work experience also in addition to CAT scores for short-listing students for GDs/Interviews.

This article includes some common questions frequently asked by candidates appearing for CAT each year. We hope they’ll be able to clear your doubts regarding the same. Just in case you have any other query bumping your head down, don’t think too much. Just leave us a comment right here. Our panel of experts will surely find an answer before your next visit !!

How to get the form of CAT?

Ans. The CAT forms are generally available in the month of July till September every year from the selected branches of SBI or UTI. For more details please visit the website of IIMs or check it out for the same in the leading news paper during the month of July.

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Can final year graduation students apply?

Ans. Yes, Candidates appearing for the final year degree examination in the year 2007 can also apply subject to furnishing the proof of graduation by October 1, 2007. Such candidates if selected, will have to submit a provisional certificate from their Institute/University stating that they fulfill the qualifying criteria of 50% marks latest by
30th June, 2007.

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What does the CAT judge?

The CAT is not a test of intelligence, it only indicates whether you have the necessary aptitude to do well in the course you wish to study. This test also identifies your general scholastic ability.

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When do we get our CAT Scores?

For years the CAT scores were kept secret and were available only to the management institutes affiliated in the form of percentiles. From 2002 however the CAT gives the students a scorecard allowing them to understand their section-wise and overall performance. The scorecards are sent to students in the month of February.

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How is the CAT’s Scorecard?

The CAT scorecard does not give any absolute or actual scores. The CAT being an aptitude test grades students on the relative scale. The scores are presented in two formats Percentage score (%score) and Percentile for each section and the overall test. A sample representation of the scores is given below.

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What does Percentage (%)score mean?

The % score represents normalized percentage of scores secured by the candidate. It is a relative method of representing the score. This is not the actual % score.

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What is meant by Percentile?

Percentile indicates student’s relative performance position among the total students who took the CAT. For example 98 percentile means that the student is among the top 2 percent of the population who took the CAT. For ex.

Logic & DI Quantitative Verbal Total
% Score Percentile % Score Percentile % Score Percentile % Score Percentile
75.15 99.32 60.02 99.13 64.25 96.35 66.47 99.95

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This article includes some common questions frequently asked by candidates appearing for CAT each year. We hope they’ll be able to clear your doubts regarding the same. Just in case you have any other query bumping your head down, don’t think too much. Just leave us a comment right here. Our team of experts will surely find an answer before your next visit !!

Is there any fixed structure for CAT?

No there is no fixed structure of CAT. The test can be in various combinations like 4 sections (each timed for 30 mins or non-timed), 2 or 3 sections again timed or non-timed etc.But the questions are based largely on the four areas, Problem solving, Data Interpretation, Reading Comprehension and Verbal ability.

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What is the minimum score required to clear the CAT?

There is nothing like a minimum score to clear the CAT, the score cut-off varies every year, as it is relative scoring.

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Do we have to clear every section separately?

Yes, you have to clear each section and do well in all the areas that are being tested.

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What is the minimum cut-off for each section?

Again the cutoff for each section varies for every year and the minimum cut-off is not known. But from our years of experience we believe that as a thumb rule an attempt of 70% of the questions with an 80% accuracy rate is required to clear the cut-off score.

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What is generally the cut off percentile to qualify for GD & Personal Interview?

Ans. This depends / varies from year to year. CAT scores also play an important role.

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Is the cut-off same for each section?

The cutoff for each section also varies within a test and is not fixed.

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I am an average student can I clear CAT?

We believe that discipline, determination and purposeful practice will lead you towards success in the CAT. CAT is neither a test of intelligence nor is a measure of your intellectual capability. You can achieve a good score by extensive preparation and purposeful practice.

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What are the other institutes, which accept CAT scores I don’t get into IIMs?

There are various institutes, which accept the CAT score as a pre requisite for admission. Some of the institutes are good and well recognized. Please click here for the list of other institutes.

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What is an interview?

An interview is a personality test. In an interview, the panel looks for a sound grasp of your discipline, self-awareness, clarity of goals, and a well-rounded personality.

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Why do management institutes conduct interviews?

The institutes call you for an interview because they don’t know you, and they want to get to know you in order to assess if you have the qualities that would make a good manager. In a GD these qualities are revealed by your participation in the group. In an interview, the panel deduces these qualities from your answers.

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What is a GD?

A GD is a methodology used by the institute to gauge the candidates capability to function as a part of a team. In this methodology, the group of candidates are given a topic or a situation, given a few minutes to think about the same, and then asked to discuss the topic among themselves for 15-20 minutes.

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Why are GDs conducted?

The reason why institutes put you through a Group discussion and an interview, after testing your technical and conceptual skills in an exam, is to get to know you as a person and gauge how well you will fit in their institute.The Group discussion tests how you function as a part of a team. As a manager, you will always be working in teams, as a member or as a leader. Therefore how you interact in a team becomes an important criterion for your selection. Managers have to work in a team and get best results out of teamwork. That is the reason why management institutes include GD as a component of the selection procedure.

The following trends are clearly noticeable in CAT in the last few years.

a. The weightage of Math based questions has increased. Until 1998, we would have 85 out of 185 questions that were Math based. This is about 45%. In 2002, 2003 and 2004 almost 81-90 out of 150 questions. This is between 55-60%!!

b. The Problem solving section would constitute 1 out of 4 sections in the test until 1998. In the last 6 years, it has been 1 out of 3 sections. The importance of this section has therefore tremendously increased (from 24% of the total paper to 33.33% of the total paper)

c. CAT has been getting progressively tougher and thereby low scoring by the year. You no longer need fantastic scores of 100+ to clear the CAT. Over the years, SharpMinds students who have cleared the CAT and made it to the IIMs have had in the range of 75-90 attempts in the paper.