The test that is to kick off today will be taken by 70,000 odd candidates across the country. The online test will be conducted over a period of nine days in 69 centres. About 7500 students will take it on the first day. CMAT which was expected to be taken by about 2.5 lakh students, suddenly may have fizzled out. The exam, from the next year, will be the key to all management seats except for those in the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM's).
AICTE had decided not to make it mandatory in the first year and to offer it along with the other entrance tests. The Chairman of AICTE- All India Council of Technical Education S.S.Mantha said “Based on a supreme court interim order, the dates of exam was declared late. By that time, many states had already announced their CET- Common Entrance Test and students had started preparing for it. Otherwise, state governments are open to CMAT and have written to us saying that they will comply to it from next year”.
Mumbai, Pune and Jaipur are the cities that have had the maximum registration. Sources reveal that the numbers from Bangalore are not very encouraging. The Governing Council member of AIMA- All India Management Association, Hari Krishna Maram said “I think the problem was that the authorities were not able to give enough publicity to it. The awareness among stake holders, students and colleges were quite low”.
However, the exams are conducted twice a day and results are expected to be declared on March 11.
Source : TOI