CAT 2015: IIMs with 33% Non engineers in 2016; 67590 take test; IIM- A, B, C, L change admission criteria

Updated on December 7, 2015

Right from the beginning CAT 2015 aimed to improve academic diversity in IIMs and therefore brought about structural and content level changes in the exam to attract more non-engineers

The percentage of candidates taking CAT from non-engineering back ground is more than 50% of candidates from engineering back ground taking CAT 2015

CAT 2015 exam right from the beginning aimed to improve academic diversity in IIM class rooms in the academic session beginning 2016. The strategic planning and move to restructure CAT 2015 on the pattern and content with the objective to achieve this goal has turned out to result in more number of non-engineers appearing in the exam than in previous CAT exams.

The testimony to the fact of partial achievement of this goal and vision of convener CAT 2015 is that the percentage of candidates taking CAT from non-engineering back ground is more than 50% of candidates from engineering back ground taking CAT 2015.

Out of 2,18,664 registered candidates for CAT 2015, 179602 candidates appeared in the test. While there were 112,012 engineers who appeared in CAT 2015, 67590 candidates were from other academic streams like commerce, science, arts, humanities who took the test and contributed to the vision of CAT 2015 convener Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay.

IIMs change admission criteria: More non-engineers expected in class rooms
CAT 2015 achieved a new feat as its aim to achieve academic diversity in IIM class rooms has begun to take shape with the significant increase in number of non-engineers going for CAT 2015.

To turn the vision into reality in 2016, the top rated IIMs like IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta among others have reduced the weightage to CAT 2015 scores and have increased the weightage to academic profile and academic diversity in their admission process for PGP batch 2016-18.

Sharing his vision with MBAUniverse.com about the academic diversity in PGP 2016-18 batch in IIM class rooms much before the registrations for CAT 2015 had begun, Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, convener CAT 2015 and faculty at IIM Ahmedabad said “one of our concerns is, score in Quant dominates the percentile rank in CAT. As a consequence it brings in skewness to the selection process towards a particular set of candidates from a particular background. This year we intend to address it by making some changes in the test content and also by rationalizing weights assigned to different components of the test. This we hope will create a level-playing field for all candidates, no matter what educational background they come from, and will remove skewness to a large extent that we referred to above. We believe such a move will help us identify candidates from varied backgrounds who will become future leaders in their chosen profession.”

Registration for CAT 2015 also got a shot in the arm as there was a tremendous rise in number of applicants from non-engineering back ground as compared to last 5 years. Out of the total 218664 registrations, non-engineers constituted about 46%. There were 37% candidates from non-engineering back ground who registered for CAT in 2014.

Present and expected diversity scenario in top B-schools
All the top rated B-schools in the country whether IIMs or non-IIMs, have very high number of engineers while candidates from other academics are very few in number. The present move of CAT 2015 convener can sure bring more academic diversity in the class rooms of these B-schools in 2016. Following statistical data will share a glimpse of academic diversity in top rated B-schools

B-School	Total students in class	Students from Engineering background	Students from non-Engineering background	Current Percentage of Engineers in the class room	Expected percentage of engineers for 2016-18 batch
IIM Ahmedabad	396	361	35	91	75
IIM Bangalore	414	357	57	86	74
IIM Calcutta	458	430	28	94	78
IIM Lucknow	440	336	104	76	70
XLRI Jamshedpur	360	335	25	93	80
FMS Delhi	217	188	29	87%	76
SPJIMR, Mumbai	227	186	41	82	75
MDI Gurgaon	345	305	40	88	76

Source: MBAUniverse.com Research

CAT is the mandatory exam for admission to IIMs and is also the most sought after and wide spread MBA entrance test to the coveted B schools in India. The test has seen perceptible changes in paper pattern, size and type of examination since 2009 and has been gaining more and more popularity. The paper pencil based test was shifted to computer based test in 2009. Another modification took place in 2010 when three sections were clubbed into two. Earlier there were Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability, DI & LR sections then they were clubbed into 2 sections Quant & DI and Verbal Ability & LR. In CAT 2015 this composition was changed again and 3 sections namely VARC, DILR and Quant were restored as were there in CAT 2009.