IIMs to conduct CAT 2010 between Oct 27 and Nov 24

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have announced that they will conduct their Common Admission Test (CAT) 2010 during a 20-day testing window between October 27, and November 24 this year.

The CAT is a pre-requisite for admission to various management programmes conducted by the IIMs, including their flagship two-year Post-Graduate Programmes (PGP) in Management. Many other institutions also use the CAT scores to finalise admissions to their management programmes.

The nine IIMs are located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore, Shillong, Ranchi and Rohtak.

Last year, CAT was conducted for the first time as a computer-based online test. It was conducted in the pencil-and-paper format for 33 years before that.

The original schedule for the test was between November 28 and December 7, 2009 which was extended by a day to December 8 to accommodate thousands of students who could not appear during the ten-day window because of technical glitches at several centres across the country. The IIMs ultimately had to schedule a re-test on January 30 and 31 for about 11,000 candidates who faced problems during the original schedule.

A total of 241,582 had candidates registered for CAT 2009. The test is reputed to be the toughest entrance examination for business schools in the world.

Based on the experience of last year, the IIMs appear to have decided to provide for a longer, 20-day window this time.

According to an advertisement published by the IIMs in leading newspapers yesterday, candidates for CAT 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], or possess an equivalent qualification recognised by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.

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.

The CAT 2010 vouchers will be on sale at selected Axis Bank branches between Monday, 30 August and Monday, 27 September 2010 for Rs. 1400/- (Rs. 700/- for SC/ST candidates).

According to the announcement, a candidate needs to buy only one CAT 2010 Voucher irrespective of the number of institutes he/she is applying to.

NNN