Common Admission Test (CAT)

Common Admission Test (CAT) is the MBA entrance exam for admission to Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other top MBA colleges in India. CAT is now conducted as  a computer based test.  More than 2 lakh candidates appear in CAT exam every year.

CAT exam is considered as the mother of all MBA entrance exams. Common Admission Test (CAT) is the biggest MBA entrance test in India leading to admission to more than 5500 seats in all the 20 IIMs including IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow.

Apart from the 20 IIMs, hundreds of top MBA colleges including FMS Delhi, SPJIMR Mumbai, JBIMS Mumbai, MDI Gurgaon, IITs, IMT, IMI, XIMB, TAPMI and others also accept CAT score as their key admission criteria.

Who Conducts CAT Exam?

CAT Exam is conducted every year by one of the top six IIMs. For example IIM Kozhikode conducted CAT in the year 2012; IIM Indore conducted CAT exam in 2013 and 2014; IIM Ahmedabad conducted CAT in 2015; IIM Bangalore conducted CAT in 2016; IIM Lucknow conducted CAT exam in 2017 and IIM Calcutta is conducting CAT 2018 exam on November 25, 2018.

What is the CAT Exam Structure?

CAT is a computer based test of 3 hours duration. IIMs release a guide and mock test one month before the CAT Exam date to apprise the CAT aspirants how to appear in CAT exam and what type of questions they will face in CAT exam.

CAT exam over the past 7 years since it was computerised in 2009 has gone for perceptible changes. Till 2008, CAT Exam was paper-pen based. Now the CAT exam format has changed as computer based test. Since 2015, CAT exam has remained almost similar.

10 Key Facts about CAT Exam?

• There are 100 questions in CAT exam
• Overall Time Limit to attempt CAT is Exam is 3 hours
• Sectional Time Limit to attempt each section is 1 hour
• Number of sections in CAT are three
• CAT exam has 70 to 75 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) with 1/3 Negative marking
• Rest other questions in CAT are of Non-MCQ Type without negative marking
• Marking Scheme in CAT is 3 marks for each correct answer
• Section-1 is on Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC) with 34
• Section-2 is on Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR) with 32 questions
• Section-3 is on Quantitative Ability (QA) with 34 questions

Who can appear in CAT Exam?

If you have one or more of following qualifications with you, you can apply and appear in CAT exam

• Completed Bachelor’s degree with the required percentage of marks, or
• Completed professional degree (CA/CS/ICWA) with required percentage, or
• Should be in the final year of Bachelor’s degree with required percentage
• No Age bar is prescribed to register and appear in CAT exam