Barely 10 days away, the revamped yearly CMAT 2016 is waiting for you to explore admission opportunity in one of the 400 AICTE approved MBA/PGDM programmes beginning 2016. Since you are waiting for CAT 2015 result and are not sure of getting a very high percentile to get an IIM of your choice, the CMAT 2016 may offer you a big opportunity to get a B-school of your choice, the need is to decide judiciously and prepare well in next 10 days as the CMAT 2016 will be held on January 17, 2016 in a single session as against in earlier 8 sessions in 4 days.
Be careful: Don’t gamble with your career
As you are aware CAT 2015 result is still awaited and may be declared at the nick of the time when you are left with no time or with very less time to prepare for CMAT 2016. If you are expecting a high sectional percentile of 90+ and overall of 95+ in CAT 2015, you can weigh the pros & cons whether to appear in CMAT 2016 or remain content with whatever you get in CAT 2015 result.
In case you miss a high percentile in CAT 2015 or miss the qualifying minimum sectional percentile of 80 or 85, you will not be considered by IIMs even for shortlisting. So be careful and don’t gamble with your career prospects.
As already announced by IIM Ahmedabad, the CAT 2015 result is expected to be declared in the second week of January 2016. This second week would begin on January 8 and will end on January 14, 2016. If the result is declared on January 12 or January 14, you may not even be able to revise whatever you had already learnt while preparing for CAT 2015. It is therefore advisable to utilize next 10 days judiciously to prepare well for CMAT 2016 which will be on the similar pattern like CAT with the difference that no sectional time constraints will be applicable and the entire exam will consist of only MCQ type questions.
How important is CMAT 2016
CMAT 2016 is the official gateway for admissions into the University MBA programs in thirteen states including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana and Karnataka. The governments have officially notified CMAT as their official test. In addition, many B-schools offering PGDM programs will also be using the CMAT scores. The scores of CMAT 2016 are proposed to be accepted as the basis for shortlisting the candidates in AICTE approved MBA/PGDM programmes beginning 2016 in hundreds of B-schools.
AICTE has revamped CMAT 2016 and from now on it will be a yearly exercise instead of being conducted twice a year. The structure and content of CMAT 2016 remains the same as of earlier CMAT exams. Please note that as against earlier CMAT exams to improve scores in second exam, there will not be any other CMAT for MBA/PGDM admission 2016. You have to score well in one CMAT if you wish to get a good B-school. Earlier if a candidate used to take both the tests, the better of two scores would be used for admission.
The states that have notified CMAT as the official examination for their state university MBA programs are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Haryana, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.
CMAT 2016: Prominent National level MBA entrance test
There are more than 10 prominent management entrance exams in India. These are CAT, XAT, CMAT, NMAT, SNAP, MICAT, MAT, ATMA among others. In 2012, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the government appointed regulator for technical education in India, announced and started conducting its own entrance test – Combined Management Admission Test or CMAT. AICTE recommends all institutes offering MBA and PGDM courses to use CMAT for their admissions.
CMAT 2016 scores are proposed to be used by 415 institutes across the country as the shortlisting criteria for final admission round. The list of CMAT 2016 score accepting B-schools will shortly be updated by AICTE on its site. It is expected that more top rated B-schools will figure in the AICTE list of institutes accepting CMAT 2016 scores for admission 2016.
Check and decide
You will have to prepare and improve your General Knowledge along with other sectional topics which are common both for CMAT 2016 and for CAT 2015. CMAT 2016 will consist of 4 sections on Quantitative Techniques & Data Interpretation; Logical Reasoning; Language Comprehension and General Awareness. Each section will have equal weightage. There will be 25 questions in each section. The total duration is 3 hours. The test taker can move back and forth among the four sections. There will be negative marking of one mark for each wrong answer.
Your preparation for CAT 2015 and XAT 2016 would come handy for you to attempt CMAT 2016 on January 17, 2016. A high score in CMAT 2016 can offer you better opportunity than a low score in CAT 2015 or XAT 2016. It is therefore suggested to get ready for CMAT 2016 instead of waiting for unpredictable CAT 2015 result.
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Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on CMAT 2016
