Students' Speak: How is CMAT exam different from MAT and CAT?

By: Abdullah Salman

Abdullah Salman highlights the major difference between CMAT and other major MBA entrance examinations.

There are various competitive exams conducted to get you admitted to the best of the management schools or B-schools etc.

In order to take admission in any of the Top B-Schools in India, any management aspirant has to undergo top exams like CAT, CMAT or MAT or any other top management exam.

Few major differences between these top three exams are as follows-

• Abbreviations

• • CAT stands for Common Admission Test
  • MAT Stands for Management Admission Test
  • CMAT stands or Common Management Admission Test

• Exam Dates and Conducting Authority
  • IIMs conduct the CAT exam every year once either in the month of November or December.
  • AIMA(All India Management Association) is the conducting body for MAT exam, four times a year mostly in the month of February, May, September and December

        Note: Months mentioned are tentative.

• • CMAT is conducted once every year in January/February by the AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education).
• College accepting Scores
  • The biggest difference or advantage of taking CAT is that 99% of the B-School in India accepts it along with IIMs.
  • MAT helps you get through colleges viz., VIT, SRM, Amity, Jaipuria, etc.
  • Through CMAT you can apply to most of the B-Schools approved by AICTE
• Exam Pattern and Duration
  • CAT consists of 3 basic sections viz.,
  • Quantitative Aptitude
  • Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension
  • Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation

There will be 3 sections and each section will be allocated with 60minutes and the overall duration of the exam is 180 minutes without any break.

• MAT consist of the following sections:
  • Quantitative Aptitude
  • Logical Reasoning
  • Verbal Ability
  • Data Analysis
  • Indian and Global Environment

Online/Offline based exam with a duration of 150 minutes consisting of 200 marks with 200 questions.

• CMAT consist of the following sections:
  • Quantitative Aptitude
  • Verbal Ability
  • Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation
  • General Knowledge

This exam spread across 180 minutes similar to CAT with 100 questions for 400 marks of total with 4 sections and each section contributing 100 marks.

• Application or registration fees for the exams
  • For CAT - Rs 1900 for General category candidates, Rs 950 for SC/ST, etc.
  • For MAT - Rs 1500 for all.
  • For CMAT - Rs 1400 for general category, Rs 700 for Females, SC/ST, etc.
    
    
• CMAT Syllabus & Cuttoff

If you want to get into top B-School under CMAT you should score above 300+

• The syllabus for the CMAT exam includes topics named below:
  • Geometry
  • Mensuration
  • Number Systems
  • Fraction and Decimals
  • Analytical Reasoning
  • Matrix Arrangements
  • Coding and De-coding
  • Non-Verbal Reasoning
  • General Awareness
  • English Grammar
• Top 10 colleges accepting CMAT Scores
  • JBIMS - Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
  • SIMSREE - Sydenham Institute of Management Studies Research and Entrepreneurship Education
  • Great Lakes Institute of Management
  • GIM - Goa Institute of Management
  • SIES College of Management Studies
  • Department of Management Sciences, Pune University (PUMBA)
  • IFMR Graduate school of Business, KREA University
  • WeSchool Mumbai - Welingkar Institute of Management
  • St. Xavier's College Kolkata
  • Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon

About the Author:

Abdullah Salman M. is currently pursuing an MBA in General Management from TSM, Madurai. He has 15 months of work experience as a Network Engineer. He hails from Vellore, Tamil Nadu and has previously completed BE (ECE), from Anna University, Chennai.