CAT 2017 sees change of guard: IIM Lucknow to convene CAT 2017; takes charge from IIM Bangalore

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow is the convening IIM for CAT 2017. TCS the testing partner for CAT since 2014 remains unchanged. The exam is expected to be held in the months of November/December 2017 in the similar format as that of past 2 years. Sharing the information, the sources have categorically stated that instead of assigning the responsibility of conducting CAT 2017 to any other IIM, it has been decided that the one of the top four IIMs, namely IIM Lucknow should carry on the process of convening CAT 2017.

IIM Lucknow takes over from IIM Bangalore
Last 2 CAT exams in 2015 and 2016 were convened by IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore respectively. In CAT 2016 an issue of paper leak also came up and IIM Bangalore had to issue a clarification on it.
Now, IIM Lucknow is assigned with the responsibility to convener CAT 2017. Prior to that for 2 successive years CAT 2013 and CAT 2014 was convened by IIM Indore successfully with Dr Rohit Kapoor firmly in saddle as CAT convener for both the years. Even the change in testing partner from Prometric to TCS for CAT 2014 for next 5 years, did not make any change in the CAT Convener.

CAT: Largest MBA entrance exam
CAT is the largest MBA entrance exam in India. Around 2 lakh candidates appear in CAT every year. In 2016 around 2.32 lakh candidates registered for CAT out of which 1.95 lakh appeared in the examination. There are 20 IIMs alone where admission is offered to various management programmes on the basis of CAT scores and many other top B-schools like SPJIMR, MDI, IMI, IMT, JBIMS, IITs, NITIE, XIMB among others who also accept CAT scores and offer admission on the basis of CAT percentile.

CAT 2017 Notification, Registration & Application
IIM Lucknow is expected to release the CAT 2017 Notification on July 30, 2017. The CAT 2017 registration is proposed to open in the 1st week of August 2017. CAT 2017 online registration form and CAT 2017 application form would be a single document divided in 5 pages.

CAT 2017 Exam Pattern
IIM Lucknow is expected to conduct CAT 2017 exam as a computer based test in the 1st week of December as was held in 2016. CAT exam pattern 2016 was on the same lines as that of CAT 2015 pattern and CAT 2017 format is also expected to remain on the same lines.

CAT 2017 Syllabus
The key point in syllabus for CAT exam is that there is no repetition of CAT questions in any CAT exam although difficulty level of the questions in CAT exam would not go out of CAT exam syllabus
5 years of Common Admission Test (CAT)

CAT has seen many changes during last 4-5 years. Not only the change in convener, the CAT testing agency was also changed and the test pattern has totally been revamped.

CAT Year
CAT Convening IIM
Key Changes

CAT 2013
IIM Indore
On the same pattern as of 2012

CAT 2014
IIM Indore
Testing partner changed from Prometric to TCS; Testing window reduced from 20 to 2 days; Number of questions increased from 60 to 100

CAT 2015
IIM Ahmedabad
Number of sections increased from 2 to 3; Non-MCQs introduced alongwith MCQs; testing window got shortened to 1 day

CAT 2016
IIM Bangalore
Number of non-MCQs reduced from 28 to 25

CAT 2017
IIM Lucknow
May bring more changes

Expect more changes in CAT 2017
During last 3 years CAT has seen many changes with the objective to improve the academic and gender diversity in IIM class room. It is expected that CAT 2017 despite being on the similar pattern, may bring about more changes in the exam with the same objective of increasing diversity in IIM class rooms. the changes could be in the testing duration; type of questions; number of questions among others.