Candidates from non-engineering back ground and appearing in CAT 2016 on December 4, 2016 are worried whether IIMs really want to increase the number of non-engineers in their class rooms or it is only a gimmick. The facts also support the thought as IIMs remain dominated by the engineers despite their drive and efforts to increase the academic diversity in the class rooms.
But going by the past 2-3 years trend, it appears that these dream B-schools seriously need more non-engineers to get a good mix of academics in IIM class rooms and therefore have not only revamped the CAT exam structure during last 2 years but have also tweaked their admission criteria to attract the non-engineers.
The fact cannot be placed better than the CAT 2016 convener, Prof Rajendra K Bandi, faculty and admission chair at IIM Bangalore when he shared in an exclusive interview with MBAUniverse.com “We would like to see an increase in the number of applicants from the non-engineering background and from female applicants as well.”
Emphasising that IIMs have a dire need of candidates from Non-Engineering background, Prof Bandi clarified “We believe that having a good mix of candidates from both the genders, and from all academic backgrounds enriches management education.”
Last year also, Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, convener CAT 2015, faculty and admission chair at IIM Ahmedabad revamped the entire test structure with a view to attract more non-engineers in IIMs and exclusively shared with MBAUniverse.com about the vision behind this move “We believe such a move will help us identify candidates from varied backgrounds who will become future leaders in their chosen profession. Such a move will also help IIMs bring in greater diversity in the classrooms and will go a long way in enriching the learning experience.”
Accordingly, there is no doubt on the intention of IIMs that they are hell bent upon to increase the number of non-engineers in class rooms but it appears that the need is to inculcate more interest and awareness among the candidates with non-engineering back ground to take CAT and get into IIMs or other highly ranked B-schools.
To achieve this goal, CAT 2016 exam pattern follows the last year pattern while IIMs have modified their admission criteria awarding higher weightage to other factors.
Engineers: Influx in IIMs
In fact almost all the 20 IIMs have been facing massive influx of engineers after every CAT exam in their class rooms. Out of 17 candidates scoring 100 percentile in CAT last year, it was difficult to find one or two non engineers. Besides, the ratio of female 100 percentilers during the past 2 years has remained 1 female to 15 or 16 male candidates.
Non Engineers: 46% Ratio in CAT registration-increasing trend
Last year CAT registration which clicked the closing mark at 218664 applicants contained 46% Non-engineers. The ratio was increased from 37% in 2014. Besides there were 69176 girls constituting 31.63% of total candidates increasing from 27% in 2014 registered for CAT.
Out of total 2,18,664 registered candidates for CAT 2015, 179602 candidates appeared in the test. While there were 112,012 engineers who appeared in CAT last year, 67590 candidates were from other academic streams like commerce, science, arts, and humanities.
CAT 2016 has crossed 2.32 lakhs total registrations. The ratio of female candidates in CAT 2016 has also increased to 33%. It is expected that the total registered candidates with non engineering back ground must have also increased in CAT 2016, although IIM Bangalore is yet to share this data with MBAUniverse,com. Going by the last year increase it is very much possible that around 50% registered candidates might account for the candidates coming from Non-Engineering back ground. Prof Bandi believes ‘a number of bright students opt for a whole range of non-engineering disciplines as well and we would like to encourage more of these candidates to appear for CAT.’
CAT made non-engineer friendly
The movement to find the ways and means to increase the number of non engineers in IIM class rooms was started with CAT 2014 when number of questions in the exam were increased from 60 to 100.
Taking the movement forward with a serious and well devised thought process, IIM Ahmedabad who convened CAT 2015 totally revamped the CAT exam pattern and increased the number of sections from 2 to 3 along with an innovative step of introducing Non-MCQ type of questions. Now IIM Bangalore who is convening CAT 2016 is continuing with the same exam pattern which includes MCQs and Non-MCQs and proposes to improve the academic diversity further in IIM class rooms.
28% of CAT consisted of Non-MCQs without any penalty last year and CAT 2016 would also be on the same pattern that includes sufficient number of no-penalty Non MCQs. So if the candidate not good enough in Quant or DI need not to worry as wrong answers to non-MCQs would not attract any negative marking penalty.
The content level changes, according to Prof Tathagata Bandyopadhyay, Convener CAT 2015, faculty and admission chair at IIM Ahmedabad were brought about as “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.”
Accordingly, aspirants coming from non-engineering background should expect a little easier passage to top IIMs with more weightage awarded to other factors than CAT scores. However, even the non-engineers will have to score high percentile in CAT 2016 to get shortlisted at the 1st stage.
IIMs: Admission criteria award higher weightage to other factors
Highly ranked Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) namely Ahmedabad, Bangalore Calcutta, Lucknow and Kozhikode have announced their admission policy and have announced to award lower weightage to CAT 2016 scores as against last year. Now the academic profile, non-engineering background with Arts/Commerce/Humanities will get higher weightage at the 1st stage shortlisting.
Accordingly, even a candidate who has scored above 90% marks in his/her class 10 to bachelor’s degree but does not go beyond 95-96 percentile score in CAT 2016, can expect to be shortlisted by the top IIMs who will award more weightage to other factors than to CAT 2016 scores only.
IIM Ahmedabad: 70 percentile in CAT needed to Qualify
IIM Ahmedabad has reduced its qualifying sectional percentile in CAT 2016 from 80 to 70 so that non-engineers who find it difficult to score high in Quant and Data Interpretation can also qualify and can be shortlisted at the 1st stage. The overall percentile has also been drastically reduced to 80 only.
IIM Bangalore: 60% weight to academics & others
IIM Bangalore while announcing its admission policy for PGP 2017-19 batch has made it clear that it would award only 40% weightage to CAT 2016 scores and rest 60% weightage will go to excellent academics, academic diversity, work experience and gender diversity.
Non-engineer with 90 percentile stands a better chance
Now if a candidate cracks CAT 2016 with 100 percentile but has only 60% or less marks in his academics will get 40% weightage only and almost 0% weightage in academics. The chances to get shortlisted are remote as against those candidates who have scored 90 percentile in CAT 2016 but have 90% and above marks in their academics from class 10 to bachelor’s degree.
The second category candidate will get 36% weightage for CAT 2016 scores; 50% for academic profile and on the top of it, if he has 3 years or above work experience, an additional weightage of 8% will be given to him. 2% weight will be awarded to female candidates.
IIM Calcutta: 56% weight to CAT 2016
IIM Calcutta has also reduced the weightage to CAT 2016 scores. For the first stage shortlisting for Personal Interview round, IIM Calcutta will award only 28 out of total 50 points to CAT 2016 score. This weightage was 67% last year but for admission to PGP 2017-19 batch it has been reduced to only 56%.
IIM Calcutta has increased award of weightage percentage from 30% to 40% upto class 12 marks to shortlist candidates at the first stage.
IIM Lucknow: 60% weight to CAT
18% less weight to CAT 2016 score will be awarded IIM Lucknow this year. IIM Lucknow has reduced the weightage to CAT 2016 scores in 1st stage shortlisting to 60% from 78% in last year. In the final selection also CAT 2016 scores will be awarded weightage of only 30%.
CAT 2016 aspirants with non-engineering background and with excellent academic profile, seeking admission in PGP 2017-19 programme at IIM Lucknow should expect to be shortlisted even if they score a little low in CAT exam this year.
Non-Engineers: Better opportunity in IIMs this year
IIMs are working towards the strategy to improve the ratio of non-engineers and female candidates in their class rooms to effect a good learning experience with optimum academic and gender diversity.
This was the reason that with effect from the 2015 CAT convened by IIM Ahmedabad concrete efforts were made to revamp CAT exam by inserting more number of sections and introducing different types of questions. This yielded good result and now carrying the initiative forward, CAT 2016 convener Prof Bandi proposes to move on the same pattern although there may be slight changes in the content level of the exam.
If you have academic background in Arts, Humantities, Commerce, Economics and have consistently been a good student with good percentage of marks in class 10, 12 and graduation, you will be awarded higher weightage by IIMs in 1st stage shortlisting and in final selection round for your academics as compared to the weightage awarded to engineering students.
This is the basic reason due to which all the top ranked IIMs and other B-schools have lowered their qualifying overall and sectional percentile scores in CAT 2016 so that a candidate does not lag behind only because he/she is a non-engineer.
Admit card for Common Admission Test (CAT) 2016 to be held on Sunday December 4, 2016 is proposed to be made available from October 18, 2016 onwards. CAT 2016 is the mandatory exam for admission to management programmes at 20 IIMs and other top B schools in India.
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