The Common Admission Test 2017 (CAT 2017) will be held on November 26 in test centres spread over 140 cities in India, according to Prof. Neeraj Dwivedi, Convenor, CAT 2017.
IIM, Lucknow, the designated Institute to conduct this year’s test, has issued the notification for the examination with the registration opening on August 9. CAT is a mandatory exam for admission to flagship post graduate management programs in the 20 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other top rated B schools. Each of the IIMs takes up the responsibility of conducting the exam on a rotational basis.
Prof. Dwivedi, who is IIM Lucknow PGP Admission Chair, said the registration will close on September 20. The test will be held on November 26 in two sessions.
Candidates will have the option to select 4 Test Cities in order of preference. Test Cities and Centres will be assigned to the candidates only after the last date for registration. Thus, there is no need for candidates to rush and block slots in the initial days of registration.
“We will try our best to assign candidates to their first preferred city. In case it is not possible, they will be assigned a city following their given order of preference. In the rare case that a candidate is not allotted any of the preferred cities, he/she will be allotted to an alternate city, Prof. Dwivedi said.
However, candidates will not be able to select the session because it will be assigned randomly. The applicants will have to pay the registration fee through online payment modes only, which include credit cards, debit cards and net banking.
After submission of the application, candidates will be permitted to download their Admit Card from October 18 onwards, till the date of the test.
The 180-minute computerised online test comprises three sections. Section I will be Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Section II, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and Section III on Quantitative Ability.
Some questions in each section may not be of multiple choice type. Instead, direct answers will have to be typed on the screen. Candidates will be allowed to use the basic on-screen calculator for computation.
Candidates will be allotted exactly 60 minutes for answering questions in each section. They would not be able to switch from one section to another while answering questions in a particular section.
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A Tutorial to understand the format of the test will be available on the CAT website from October 18. Candidates are advised to work on the tutorials for a fuller understanding of the test pattern and nature of questions
The website also contains a section on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), which addresses candidates’ queries regarding CAT 2017. They may also contact the CAT helpdesk over email or phone.
Based on the CAT test scores, candidates shortlisted for the second stage of selection to IIMs may have to undergo Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interviews (PI) though the basis of selection varies from IIM to IIM. The process of Normalisation is used in evaluating mark sheets. Also adopted by Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), it helps in comparing aspirant scores across multiple forms.
Apart from the 20 IIMs, more than 100 B-schools across India will accept CAT 2017 scores for the two-year full-time management programmes for the academic year 2018-19.
