CAT 2015: All queries answered with official exam notification on July 26; No chaos; focus on preparation

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
July 25, 2015
The details and information regarding CAT 2015 which were in air till now will be authenticated and stamped in the morning tomorrow on July 26, 2015 when the official notification of CAT 2015 is out
IIM Ahmedabad, the CAT 2015 convening IIM is going to release the notification for the largest management entrance exam 2015 on July 26, 2015 with big changes in the schedule, testing and scoring weightage

All the queries related to CAT 2015 exam will be answered with the official announcement by CAT Centre 2015 on July 26, 2015. Things creating confusion in the minds of CAT aspirants due to earlier news items in the media will also become stale after release of notification by CAT 2015 convening IIM Ahmedabad.

The details and information regarding CAT 2015 which were in air till now will be authenticated and stamped in the morning tomorrow on July 26, 2015 when the official notification of CAT 2015 is out in all leading news papers of the country. The chaos that spread on July 23, 2015 like forest fire due to tit-bits of information leak, the source of which is not even known to CAT 2015 convener and faculty of IIM Ahmedabad Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay will also come to rest.

A day after, Indian Institute of management (IIM) Ahmedabad, the CAT 2015 convening IIM is going to release the notification for the largest management entrance exam 2015 on July 26, 2015 with big changes in the schedule, testing and scoring weightage. After one day, the big changes as predicted by MBAUniverse.com would come to be notified by the CAT 2015 convening IIM Ahmedabad in partnership with testing agency TCS.

Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay  CAT 2015 convener and faculty at IIM Ahmedabad has shared with MBAUniverse.com “The official CAT 2015 notification will be released on 26th July, 2015.”
While it has been confirmed that CAT 2015 would be held on Novermber 29, 2015 as against anticipated in the month of October, the notification with all the authentic details on Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 would be published tomorrow.

Registration for CAT 2015 will be online and is proposed to be opened on August 6, 2015. The registration process is expected to continue till the end of September, 2015.

The notification shall be comprehensive for CAT 2015 with all about the cost of the voucher, availability of CAT 2015 voucher, online registration process, application form, examination dates, date of issue of admit card, result declaration date among other important items of information.

Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 will be the mandatory exam for admission to flagship post graduate management programme in 20 IIMs and other top rated B schools for the academic session beginning 2016. While admission in top rated IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta and Lucknow may need a very high sectional as well as overall percentile of 99+ in CAT 2015, other top B schools like FMS, MDI, JBIMS, SPJIMR, IMI, IMT will also need a high percentile of 97 to 99 in CAT 2015 to shortlist the candidates for final admission round.

Newer IIMs will also not lag behind, they will also need a high CAT 2015 percentile of not less than 97.

Plan your preparation as per notification details now
CAT 2015 aspirants, who have been preparing with the target to appear in CAT 2015 in the month of October 2015, will have one more month to consolidate their preparation. You may consolidate your preparation plan accordingly and according to Prof S K Agarwal expert on Verbal Ability and mentor on CAT 2015 preparation the additional one month should be utilized in attempting more mocks, their analysis and doing away with the mistakes committed. As of now you should focus more on building your basics and attempting more exercises.

CAT 2015: Proposed Key changes
1 day-2 session CAT 2015
CAT 2015 is proposed to be conducted in a single day in 2 sessions on November 29, 2015. This would not only accelerate the collation of CAT 2015 data but also would smoothen the process of score normalization

After the computerized CAT in 2009, CAT 2014 was the first exam conducted in a 2 day testing window on November 16 & November 22, 2014 in 4 sessions of morning and afternoon instead of 21 days and 42 sessions testing window that took place in CAT 2013.

CAT 2015 with 115 test cities
Sharing with MBAUniverse.com CAT 2015 convener and Admission Chair at IIM Ahmedabad, Professor Tathagata Bandyopadhyay says “In order to increase accessibility, the number of cities where CAT will be held is increased to 115 this year from last year's 99”

For the first time in CAT 2014 the exam was held in 99 cities at 354 testing sites as against 40 testing cities with 76 testing centres in earlier CAT years. This number of 99 cities has further been increased to 115 test cities in CAT 2015 signifying more accessibility and more test cities nearby.  CAT 2015 convener Prof Bandyopadhyay has planned more test cities to make the one day exam more aspirants’ friendly and to cope with the high number of CAT 2015 aspirants across the country.

Since there would be 16 more test cities in CAT 2015, number of test venues may also increase by 30 to 40 along with yet higher number of test labs as each of the test venues has 3-4 test labs. It is anticipated that this will increase the test venues to 400+.

Special facility for girl candidates
To fulfil the target of inculcating interest among girl candidates and to avoid any hardship they face while going to take CAT 2015 at some test centres in remote area, the CAT 2015 convener Prof Tathagata is proposing to chalk out the plan “to accommodate the female candidates in centres near the city areas as far as possible so that travel for them could be reduced” 

It may be noted that around 12-15% CAT aspirants do not take the exam despite submitting their registration form. This number includes hundreds of women candidates who skip the test due to non-accessibility of test centre from their place, long journey hours, problem of transportation among other issues. CAT 2015 centre in the convenership of Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay proposes to do away with all these problems so that the girl candidates may not remain absent and are able to take CAT 2015 without any difficulty.

Varying Weightage to sections
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.

CAT 2015 proposes to bring greater academic diversity in IIMs. According to Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, Convener CAT 2015, the move to provide level playing field “will also help IIMs bring in greater diversity in the classrooms and will go a long way in enriching the learning experience.” 

In fact when the candidates from Humanities, commerce, Arts, science, medical & paramedical streams get the opportunity to score high in CAT 2015 with more questions related to their study domain, they will sure be able to score high percentile and thereby will have better chances of getting shortlisted for final admission round. With some of the weightage awarded for gender diversity, the vision of CAT 2015 convener to improve academic and gender diversity in class rooms of IIMs may become a reality in academic session 2016-17.

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