More professionals apply for CAT this yr

Anurag Deshmukh has taken a break from his job at a bank to take the Common Admission Test (CAT), which begins for a 20-day testing period on October 22.

Anurag Deshmukh has taken a break from his job at a bank to take the Common Admission Test (CAT), which begins for a 20-day testing period on October 22.

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Deshmukh is among the growing number of candidates with work experience taking the exam, which is the entrance criterion to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and 150 other B-schools.

This year, the percentage of candidates with work experience has gone up significantly, from 27.35% in 2010 to 32%. Of these, 13% have worked for a year to two years and 12.5% have worked for more than two years. The rest have worked for six months to a year.

“While the majority of candidates are still fresh out of college, more professionals are feeling the need for a post graduation in management for career progression,” said Janakiraman Moorthy, CAT 2011 convenor.

Deshmukh, too, has similar reasons. “I have had two years of work experience but in most jobs nowadays you can’t go beyond a certain level with a post-graduation and an IIM degree just catapults your career,” said the commerce graduate.

This year has also seen a spurt in applications from engineers: 64% of the candidates are engineers compared to 60.39% last year. This was expected with the B-schools of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) also subscribing to the CAT for the first time this year. Usually, several IITians would opt for the JMAT (the IIT’s management entrance test that was scrapped this year) for B-schools on their campuses.

This year the CAT pattern too has changed. The first section will focus on quantitative ability & data interpretation and the second on verbal ability and logical reasoning. Candidates will get 70 minutes to answer questions in each section. Once the 70 minutes lapses, they cannot return to the section.