CAT Exam

What is CAT Exam?

CAT (Common Admission Test) is a national level entrance examination, which is conducted for admission to management programs in Indian Institutes of Management (IIM's) and top B-Schools across the country. It tests a candidate on his quantitative ability, data interpretation skills, verbal ability and logical reasoning.

CAT also serves as the eligibility criteria for being admitted into the business administration courses in various IIM's spread across the country. The test is designed to evaluate the management aptitude of students by testing his analytical and communication skills. It demands up to three to four months of intense preparation.

The test is open to all graduates. Usually, CAT examination will be held on November 25, 2018, in two sessions. CAT is conducted online at the examination centres.

In August 2011, it was announced that Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) would also use the CAT scores, instead of Joint Management Test (JMET).

CAT exam will have three sections: 1. Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension, 2. Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning, 3. Quantitative Ability. The examination would be for 180 minutes, candidates have to be answered 100 questions in the stipulated time.

As per the legal requirements, 15% of the seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC), 7.5% for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, 27% of seats for Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates belonging to the “Non-Creamy” layer (NC-OBC), and 5% for Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwD).

The categories of disability are:

• Blindness and low vision
• Deaf and hard of hearing,
• Locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy
• Autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness, and
• Multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d)
• Other 'specified disabilities' mentioned in 'The Schedule' of the RPwD Act 2016

CAT 2018 Application Fee:

For SC/ST/PwD Category Candidates - INR 950/-
For All Other Categories - INR 1900/-

CAT 2018 Registration:

The registration has started on August 8, 2018, and it will close on September 26, 2018, at 5:00 PM. A candidate needs to pay the registration fee only once, irrespective of the number of institutes he/she is applying for. SC/ST/PwD candidates must upload a copy of their SC/ST/PwD certificates at the time of registration. Fee once paid cannot be refunded under any circumstances.

Note:

All the candidates must declare and maintain a valid and unique email id and a mobile phone number throughout the selection process.

CAT 2018 Test Centres:

The test is going to be conducted across 147 test cities. Test cities will be mentioned below and the name of the test centre will be indicated in the Admit Card. IIMs reserve the right to change or cancel any test centre/city/change the test time and date at their own discretion.

CAT 2018 Results and Shortlisting:

The CAT 2018 results will be tentatively available starting from the second week of January 2019 on the CAT official website. The list of candidates shortlisted for the next level of selection will be made available on the website of the respective IIM's.

Each IIM will send interview letters to the shortlisted candidates directly. The criteria for shortlisting vary across all the IIM's.