CAT 2015: Notification out on July 26; what new is anticipated

CAT 2015 exam notification which is going to be out on July 26, 2015 is expected to have new announcements and changes in the exam schedule and content. Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 will be convened by IIM Ahmedabad, the undisputed number-1 B school of the country. IIM Ahmedabad plans to put back CAT 2015 to its pristine glory and has planned to bring more user friendly positive changes in the exam with an aim to improve academic and gender diversity in IIM class rooms.

Apart from 20 IIMs and top rated B-schools like FMS, MDI, SPJIMR, IMI, IMT, NITIE, BIMTECH hundreds of highly ranked management institutes will accept CAT 2015 scores for admission to their flagship MBA/PGP programmes 2016-18.

Expected New announcements in CAT 2015
CAT Centre 2015 proposes to bring new announcements in regard to exam dates, schedule, weightage, testing centres in its notification to be out on July 26.

One of the most important changes that IIM Ahmedabad proposes to notify in conduct of CAT 2015 exam is its shortest testing window. CAT 2015 is expected to be held in a single day in 2 sessions. CAT till 2013 after computerization in 2009 had very long testing window of 20 days which was curtailed to 2 days in CAT 2014. Prior to the computerized CAT the exam used to be a single day affair with more number of questions. IIM Ahmedabad proposes to make CAT 2015 a single day event again.

CAT 2015 is also expected to be held earlier than CAT 2014. Although the exact dates will be announced along with the CAT 2015 exam notification on July 26, the exam is expected to be held in the 3rd weekend of October 2015 as against CAT 2014 which was held in the third week of November 2014. So CAT 2015 is expected to be scheduled a month before than CAT 2014. It could facilitate an early announcement of CAT 2015 result and early start of academic session 2016-17 in IIMs.

To improve academic diversity and more representation of different education domain in IIMs, it is expected that weightage to questions in different sections in CAT 2015 may vary and a different scoring pattern might emerge to achieve this goal. So far around 80% students in IIM class rooms are from Engineering back ground. Concerned on lack of representation from other academics, IIM Ahmedabad is expected to put in place the exam pattern that could increase the academic diversity.

CAT Centre 2015 is also concerned about the low ratio of female candidates despite the fact that number of IIMs award weightage to gender diversity. To overcome this problem, due measures to attract more women candidates to IIM class rooms may be announced by IIMs while deciding weightage on different components of CAT 2015.

Another important feature in CAT 2015 exam notification is expected to be more number of test cities and testing venues.  CAT 2015 exam is proposed to be conducted in 115 test cities as against 40 cities till CAT 2013 and 99 cities in CAT 2014. This number of 99 cities has further been increased to 115 test cities in CAT 2015 signifying more accessibility and more test cities nearby. In fact CAT Centre 2015 would like to allot CAT testing venue to the girl candidates to their nearest place and in the city area so that they may not absent themselves from appearing in CAT 2015 exam due to long travelling or any other problem.

The CAT 2015 convening IIM Ahmedabad proposes to open registration for CAT 2015 in the first week of August, 2015. The registration is also expected to be only an online process.

CAT 2015 exam: Basic requirement for admissions in 20 IIMs
At present 19 IIMs have become functional and the 6 new IIMs that were proposed in Union Budget 2014 have also started their admission process for the PGP batch 2015-17 based on CAT 2014 scores. Another IIM, the IIM J&K is also proposed from academic session 2016-17 and will offer admission on the basis of CAT 2015 to its flagship PGP batch 2016-18. The 20 IIMs in 2016 will include both the old and new IIMs shared below

List of Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in 2016

Expected intake in IIMs in 2016
CAT 2015 is expected to cater to around 5700 seats in 20 IIMs  for PGP 2016-18 batch. As per the policy of these IIMs, candidates around 10 times of intake are shortlisted for PI round. Accordingly it is expected 50000 CAT 2015 takers out of 200000 (Expected to register for CAT 2015) would be shortlisted after declaration of CAT 2015 result. In addition to it, top B schools of India like FMS, MDI, SPJIMR, IITs, NITIE, IMI, IMT, BIMTECH, TAPMI, Great Lakes among many others offer admission on the basis of CAT scores.

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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CAT 2015