CAT Global
The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are now working towards creating an independent agency to conduct Common Admission Test (CAT). So far the CAT has been conducted by the IIMs and each year one IIM take charge of the tests. The IIMs are also looking at taking the competitive exam to international students as well.
CAT 2010, the entrance test for admission to seven Indian Institutes of Management and 100-odd other B-schools across the country, has been conducted by IIM, Lucknow. Post success of CAT, director of IIM, Lucknow, Devi Singh said, “Eventually CAT should be a global offering and should be web based like the GRE or GMAT. We are working on the process to finally create CAT as an independent system where a team of professionals would manage the test. A committee under professor Pankaj Chandra, director IIM, Bangalore is working on it and some progress has been made. It can take six to 12 months.’’
On the immediate changes one can see in CAT 2011, convener of CAT 2010, Himanshu Rai of IIM, Lucknow said,“Two things we are definitely going to improve on in CAT 2011 is the sale of vouchers. We will make the sale online wherein candidates can purchase it using credit, debit cards and internet banking. Another change is substantially reducing the 90-minute waiting time as students have complained about the long waiting right from entering the centre and sitting on their computers before actually taking the test.’’
On dissociating CAT from the IIMs and making it a globally recognised competitive exam for admission to B-schools, Singh said that the time has come to make it an independent identity as the number of IIMs is also increasing. “Some B-schools in France are already accepting CAT scores. So the acceptance is there, just that we need to take it offshore. Moreover, we have seven IIMs and six more are coming up making it 13. There will be other areas where IIMs would need to coordinate among themselves. So it is better we let the CAT be managed by a dedicated group of professionals whose focus would be exclusively on CAT,’’ he explained.
Source: TOI
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