Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow, has released the information brochure of Common Admission Test (CAT) 2017. It was made available today, on July 29, 2017, on the official website of the examination. All the important dates and details about the exam has also been announced. Graduates in any discipline, with more than 50% marks, can apply for CAT.
As per the notice, the CAT 2017 will be held on November 26, 2017 and the online registration for it will begin on August 9, 2017. The candidates will be allowed to submit the application form until September 20, 2017. The entire procedure of form filling, including the fee payment, will be online. Apart from the official CAT 2017 registration portal, the candidates will not be able to apply via any other medium.
It should be noted that the exam will be held on same date as IIFT MBA IB 2018 Entrance Exam. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade had, just a few days ago, started registrations. Its entrance exam is also scheduled on November 26, 2017. Aspirants who were going to appear in both are now worried over what to do. However it is advised that they be calm and look forward to IIFT to change its exam date. Since CAT exam date has come later, chances of that being changed are slimmer.
Comically, IBPS PO 2017 Mains examination date is also November 26, 2017. So any bank job aspirant who clears Probationary Officers prelims and is also wishing to appear for management admissions, will have to choose between them.
Over 100 B-Schools, including 20 IIMs, around India consider the score of the CAT exam. The selection through CAT is done individually by each IIM and the B-School. In all, approximately, 4000 seats are offered through CA. However, after clearing the exam the candidates are first called for Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview Round. Few institutes may also call candidates for Written Aptitude Test (WAT).
To register, the candidates will have to submit few basic details like Name, Date of Birth, E-mail ID, Mobile Number, etc. Once registered successfully, the User Name and Password will be allocated to the candidates. With the help of these credentials, the candidates will be able to access the CAT application form.
The amount of application fee for CAT 2017 is Rs. 1800. However, reserved category candidates have been granted relaxation of Rs. 900 on the fee and are required to pay Rs. 900 only. Candidates, belonging to any category, is suppose to remit fee online only. Candidates can use either Net Banking or Debit/Credit Card to submit the fee amount.
More than 2 lakh aspirants apply for the IIM-CAT every year. Since 2013, the number of applicants for the examination has been increasing. Hence, it is expected that even this year, it will be no less.
CAT 2017 will be a computer based mode and will be divided into sections for Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning. However, as always, IIM-L has not announced the distribution of questions and marks in the examination. In 2015, Non-MCQs were introduced in CAT and it is expected to prevail in the upcoming examination as well.
The candidates will only get 3 hours to attempt all the questions in the exam. To assist candidate with the preparation and to make them familiar with online question paper, IIM will also release mock test. It will also be provided on the official website, on iimcat.ac.in. With the help of the mock test and the previous year question papers, the candidates can prepare well for the exam.
Apart from these, numerous other factors are also considered while selecting the candidates. These factors can vary hugely in range. While selecting a candidate, IIMs looks at numerous factors like marks in Boards, marks in graduation, communication skills, performance in job, etc. Aspirants of CAT can use the comment section below to ask their queries. The candidates are also invited to leave a suggestion and speak up their mind about the CAT 2017 and IIFT clash.
