Bell the CAT

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The new move to accept CAT (Common Admission Test) scores for admission to MBA programmes at IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology),IISc (Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore) and FMS ( Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi) has been met with mixed reactions. While CAT scores are considered for admissions to over 140 business schools in the country including the prestigious IIMs IITs,IISc and FMS had, until last year, conducted their own tests (in addition to considering CAT scores) for admission to their respective MBA programmes.

Now, however, the IITs have unanimously decided to scrap JMET and accept CAT scores to select students for their MBA programmes. While this move was made in a bid to reduce the number of examinations, students and MBA aspirants feel that this has put them under more pressure.

Vaishnavi Jayaraman, who graduated in mechanical engineering from SSN College, Chennai and plans to do her MBA, says, "Earlier,MBA aspirants had a wider choice of exams. If you did not do well in one exam, you could make up for it in the next one. Now we are under more pressure because we do not have a choice but to perform well in CAT to make it to the top-rung B-schools. On the brighter side, she adds, the pattern has changed for the better with the number of sections reduced from three to two, with a time limit of 70 minutes per section."

S Balasubramanian, director, TIME (a management coaching centre),believes that the new move has both positives and negatives. The number of exams a student has to prepare for has now come down. But also, now they have only one shot at securing admissions into the college of their choice, he says.

The IITs have a different take on the issue and they believe that the use of CAT scores for admissions is also a way of showing solidarity with other reputed B-schools in the country. G Srinivasan, HOD, department of management studies, IIT Madras ,explains, Every year, only about 40,000 students/aspirants take the JMET,as opposed to over four lakh students who take GATE and JEE. We must acknowledge that although students will be under pressure, this will help reduce their preparation burden. Besides, we have the independence to choose what exams to use for admissions. He argues that there is not much of a difference between JMET and CAT.

LS Ganesh, professor, department of management studies, IIT Madras, says, CAT is a well-evolved exam and in any case, there are more students taking CAT than JMET. Besides, our MBA programmes are on a par with those offered at other reputed institutes. It will help us re-align our image as a business school.

However, other criteria like cutoffs, performance in group discussions and interviews will ultimately dictate admission of a student in the programme.

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