Future CAT - less daunting for non-engineers?
There’s good news for IIM aspirants from non-technical backgrounds! The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) is toying with the idea to modify the Common Admission Test (CAT) to make it more accommodative of students from diverse academic backgrounds, besides engineers, reported India Today.
Looking at the present numbers, the IIM admissions reveal a skewed proportion towards as much as 80 per cent engineers. For instance, IIM Ahmedabad has had 95 per cent technocrats for the past three years.
Although no dates are announced to introduce any changes to the present CAT format, the idea came about at a recent meeting in Kochi where heads of older IIMs discussed the future outlook for the test.
Some IIM directors confirmed to Mail Today that the B-school is looking to review the CAT format to make it more "inclusive" to rope in talent from the humanities stream as well.
This does not mean that IIMs would be less favourable to engineers joining the premier B-schools, but that they would like to adopt a test format that promotes a more level playing field to students across disciplines. As per the news report, Debashish Chatterjee, director of IIM-Kozhikode, which is organising CAT 2012 stated clearly that no changes are being made to CAT this year.
After the revamp of CSAT (Civil Services Aptitude Test), it’s good to hear of IIMs willing to giving a fresh look to CAT, known to be the toughest management entrance test in this part of the world.
There’s no clarity yet as to what measures would widen the scope of CAT for students from all streams, but it is likely to be achieved by simplifying the quantitative section. Another possibility is to make the test computer adaptive like GMAT, whereby the computer selects questions to match the individual ability level of students taking the test.
CAT is conducted every year and has two sections (quantitative and verbal) which tests the candidate’s quantitative ability, data interpretation, verbal ability and logical reasoning.
Ulhas Vairagkar, director of T.I.M.E, a Delhi-based coaching institute, points out that GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test), which also tests quantitative and verbal ability does not make the mathematics part of the test as difficult as CAT. And that helps non-engineering students do better at GMAT. Read more
