Understanding CAT

Ranjan K Baruah *

Many students want to get engaged in a profession where they can earn money and support their families and also live a healthy lifestyle. One of the areas of study which may give a quick job is none other than management.

The best institutes in India to study courses related to are the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) which have campuses across different parts of the country. There is no doubt that IIMs are considered India’s premier national institutes providing quality management education and research. IIMs primarily offer post graduate, doctoral and executive education programmes.

Admission to the two year post graduate programmes in IIMs is based on merit and involves a rigorous selection process consisting of a Personal Interview, Written Ability Test/Group Discussions, and scores in the Common Admission Test which is commonly known as CAT.

CAT is a management aptitude test conducted by the IIMs primarily to evaluate and shortlist candidates for the post graduate programme. It is a computer-based exam and a candidate has to follow the due process of registering in order to appear for this exam conducted once a year.

IIMs are leading institutions providing management education in India with the older IIMs having been established more than 50 years ago. Today, there are 20 IIMs established in different parts of India.

Bachelors from different fields may appear for the CAT. The candidate must hold a Bachelor’s Degree,
with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA 45% in case of candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST)
and Persons with Disability (PwD) categories],
awarded by any University or educational institution as incorporated by an Act of Parliament or State legislature in India
or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956,
or possess an equivalent qualification recognised by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India.

The percentage of marks obtained by the candidate would be calculated based on the practice as followed by the respective University/Institution.

As per the legal requirements, 15% of the seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, 7.5% for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, 27% for Other Backward Classes candidates belonging to the “Non-Creamy” layer (NC-OBC), up to 10% for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) candidates and 5% for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwD).

CAT will be conducted in centres spread across around 158 test cities. Test cities will be mentioned in the CAT website and the name of the test centre will be indicated in the Admit Card. Registration for CAT 2021 opened on Wednesday, August 04 at 10.00 am and closed on Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 5.00 pm.

CAT 2021 will be conducted on November 28, 2021 (Sunday) in three sessions. The duration of the test will be 120 minutes and there will be three sections which include Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension; Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Ability.

Candidates will be allotted exactly 40 minutes for answering questions in each section and they will not be allowed to switch from one section to another while answering questions in a section. Candidates are advised to regularly check the CAT website for the latest information.