The candidate must hold a Bachelor’s Degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA [45% in case of the candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Differently Abled (DA) (It may also referred to as Persons with Disability (PWD) category)], awarded by any of the Universities incorporated by an act of the central or state legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India. The percentage of marks obtained by the candidate in the bachelor’s degree would be calculated based on the practice followed by the university/institution from where the candidate has obtained the degree. In case the candidates are awarded grades/CGPA instead of marks, the conversion of grades/CGPA to percentage of marks would be based on the procedure certified by the university/ institution from where they have obtained the bachelor’s degree. In case the university/ institution does not have any scheme for converting CGPA into equivalent marks, the equivalence would be established by dividing the candidate’s CGPA by the maximum possible CGPA and multiplying the result with 100. Candidates appearing for the final year of bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification examination and those who have completed degree requirements and are awaiting results can also apply. If selected, such candidates will be allowed to join the programme provisionally, only if he/she submits a certificate latest by June 30, 2012 from the Principal/Registrar of his/her College/Institute (issued on or before June 30, 2012) stating that the candidate has completed all the requirements for obtaining the bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification on the date of the issue of the certificate. IIMs may verify eligibility at various stages of the selection process, the details of which are provided at the website www.catiim.in. Applicants should note that the mere fulfillment of minimum eligibility criteria will not ensure consideration for shortlisting by IIMs.
Prospective candidates must maintain a valid and unique email account and a phone number throughout the selection process.

Note for SC/ST, NC-OBC, and DA Candidates

If you belong to SC or ST categories, your caste/tribe must be listed in the Government of India schedule. The caste certificate that you send to IIM should be in the Government approved format and should clearly state: (a) Name of your caste/tribe; (b) Whether you belong to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe; (c) District and the State or Union Territory of your ordinary residence; and (d) the appropriate Government of India schedule under which your caste/tribe is approved by it as Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. A copy of the certificate must be sent to CAT Centre, C/O Admissions Office, Indian Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Joka, Diamond Harbour Road, Kolkata-700 104 . Mention the Voucher Serial Number on the certificate. Failure to produce a copy of the caste certificate will result in the rejection of your CAT registration.

The caste certificate must be shown and a photocopy enclosed at the time of interviews. Moreover, the caste certificate must be submitted at the time of joining programmes of any of the IIMs.

If you belong to the Non-Creamy Other Backward Classes (NC-OBC), you must produce the NC-OBC certificate duly signed by competent authority and enclose its photocopy at the time of interviews. Moreover, the certificate must be submitted at the time of joining programmes of any of the IIMs. Failure to do so during the post CAT selection process will result in you not being considered under the reserved category.

The DA certificate must be shown and a photocopy enclosed at the time of interviews. Moreover, the DA certificate must be submitted at the time of joining programmes of any of the IIMs.

Please note that each IIM shortlists candidates for second stage of selection which may be independent of each other. The process may include Written Ability Test (WAT), Group Discussions (GD) and Personal Interviews (PI). Performance in CAT2011 examination is an important component in the admission process. IIMs may use previous academic performance of the candidates, relevant work experience and other similar inputs in short listing and ranking of candidates at various stages of the admission process. The processes, academic cut-offs and the weights allocated to the evaluation parameters may vary across IIMs. For more information you may refer the admissions policies of IIMs from their respective websites

CAT Result and Short-listing

CAT 2011 result will be announced on 11 January 2012 on the CAT website. List of shortlisted candidates for the next level of slection will be made available on the individual IIM websites. Each IIM will send interview letters to the candidates it has short-listed. The criteria for short-listing varies from IIM to IIM. Please visit the admission hotlinks of the respective websites of IIMs for further information.

Eligibility Verification

If a candidate is short-listed for interviews by any IIM, he/she has to comply with the following eligibility verification:

Mark sheets and Degree Certificate

A candidate must show all the original mark sheets and submit attested copies to prove his/her eligibility at the time of interview. Further, if a candidate is selected for a programme, original degree certificate and mark sheets of all semesters/years along with their attested copies must be submitted for verification at the time of joining the programme.

Reservation Category Requirements

If short-listed for interview, SC, ST, NC-OBC, and DA candidates must show the original caste/class/disability certificate and submit a photocopy at the time of interview. Further, if a candidate is selected for a programme, original certificate of qualifying degree and attested copy of the same must be submitted for verification at the time of joining a programme.

Candidates in the Final Year of Graduation

If short-listed for interview, candidates appearing for the final bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification examination must show an original certificate from the Principal/Registrar/Director of the university/institution certifying that the candidate has obtained 50% marks or equivalent (45% in case of the candidates belonging to SC, ST, and DA category) based on latest available grades/marks. He/she must submit an attested copy of the original certificate at the time of interview. For the PGP of IIMs, such candidates, if selected, will be allowed to join the programme PROVISIONALLY ONLY if they submit a certificate latest by June 30, 2012 from the Principal/Registrar of their college/institute (issued on or before June 30, 2012) stating that they have completed all the requirements including appearing for supplementary exams if any (the results may, however, be awaited) for obtaining the bachelor's degree/ equivalent qualification on the date of issue of the certificate. Their admission will be confirmed only when they submit original mark sheet and qualifying degree certificate of having passed the bachelor's degree / equivalent qualification referred to in the certificate issued by Principal/Registrar of their college/institute. They must obtain at least 50% marks or equivalent. They also must submit an attested copy of the mark sheets and qualifying degree certificate. The deadline for submission of the mark sheet and the certificate is December 31, 2012. NON-FULFILLMENT OF THIS CONDITION WILL AUTOMATICALLY RESULT IN THE CANCELLATION OF THE PROVISIONAL ADMISSION. Provisional admission will also be cancelled if it is found that the certificate (Annexure E) is found to be incorrect subsequently. IIMs would not allow any candidate to join their programme in case the candidate is unable to complete all the requirements for a bachelor degree on or before June 30, 2012. The IIMs would also not offer admission to any candidate after June 30, 2012.

Candidate will not be permitted to carry any personal items to the test centre, including but not limited to wrist-watch, pen, cellphones, calculators, etc.

Disclosing, publishing, reproducing, transmitting, storing, or facilitating transmission and storage of the contents of the CAT or any information therein in whole or part thereof in any form or by any means, verbal or written, electronically or mechanically for any purpose, shall be in violation of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and/or the Copyright Act, 1957 and/or the Information Technology Act, 2000. Such actions and/or abetment thereof as aforementioned may constitute a cognizable offence punishable with imprisonment for a term up to three years and fine up to Rs. two lakhs. Candidates who want to appear for CAT have to agree to a Non-Disclosure Agreement at the time of the test.

Computer based testing is a proven and reliable process that is administered to tens of millions of people each year. As with paper and pencil testing, or virtually every other human endeavor, a very small number of problems could occur that might prevent a test from being delivered and/or a result from being generated. In the unlikely event this does occur, every effort will be made to correct the problem, up to and including the administration of another test.

The CAT 2011 will have only two sections. The first section is Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation; the second section is Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning. These two sections will be implemented sequentially with separate time limits. The examination will be 140 minutes. Candidates will have 70 minutes to answer 30 questions within each section which will have an on-screen countdown timer. Within the 70 min provided for the section, candidates can review the answers. Once the time ends for the first section, they will move to the second section and will no longer be able to go back.

A 15-minute tutorial will be provided before the start of the test, and candidates are advised to go through that carefully before starting the main examination. The total duration will be two hours and thirty five minutes including the tutorial. A practice test to provide candidates with a feel of the timed sections, as well as navigation and functionality of the actual test will be made available in the coming weeks. Once again candidates are advised to go though them carefully to familiarise themselves with the screens, layout, and navigation.

At the test venue, each candidate will be seated at a desk with a computer terminal and he/she will be provided with a scratch paper for calculations. After the test, candidate must leave the scratch paper at the desk. Rough work cannot be done on any other paper/sheet, as nothing will be allowed inside the testing room. No breaks will be given during the test.

Development :
The CAT 2011 test development process was conducted in alignment with the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. The exam was designed with two sections: (1) Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation, (2) Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning. These two sections are consistent with the knowledge domains historically assessed by the IIMs and are also aligned with the content areas covered in equivalent global admission examinations that measure performance along similar scales.

Content of the examination was developed and confirmed by individuals with high levels of expertise in each of these content domains. Post-administration analysis will be conducted by credentialed psychometricians to confirm the validity of the examination scores and to ensure that every candidate was provided a fair and equal opportunity to display their knowledge.

Scoring :

Prometric employs an industry-standard, psychometrically-sound approach to the scoring process for all IIM candidates. The three-step process is outlined here and is supported by the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and the ETS Standards for Quality and Fairness.

Step 1: Raw Score is Calculated

Your raw scores are calculated for each section based on the number of questions you answered correctly, incorrectly, or that you omitted.

Correct Answer Incorrect Answer Omitted
+3 points for questions you answered correctly -1 point for questions answered incorrectly 0 points for questions you did not answer

This scoring methodology ensures that candidates are only awarded points for what they know, while having points deducted for inappropriate random guessing. This is a standard process in the testing industry and is a methodology employed in scoring similar admissions tests such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

Step 2: Raw Score is “Equated”

Equating is a statistical process used to adjust scores on two or more alternate forms of an assessment so that the scores may be used interchangeably. Industry standard processes were used for equating, such as those outlined within the ETS Standards for Quality and Fairness.

Step3: Equated Raw Score is “Scaled”

In order to ensure appropriate interpretation of an equated raw score, the scores must be placed on a common scale or metric. A linear transformation is used for this scaling process, which is an industry standard practice (Kolen & Brennan, 2004).

The IIM scaling model is as follows:

Section Scores = 0 to 225
Total Exam Score = 0 to 450

Three scaled scores are presented for each candidate: an overall scaled score and two separate scaled scores for each section. As the two sections evaluate two distinct sets of knowledge and skills, scores may not correlate across sections. A high score in one section does not guarantee a high score in another section. Percentile rankings are provided for each individual section as well as for the overall exam score.

About Test Difficulty
The CAT exam has been developed to accurately identify top performing candidates and that design makes use of a scaled score range of 0 to 450. In order to appropriately identify the top performing candidates, the CAT exam is, by design, a very difficult exam. As would be expected with the more difficult CAT exam, no candidate would likely answer 100% of the items correctly or achieve the top theoretical score. The exam design will accomplish the goal of identifying the top performing candidates who are, indeed, ranked at the top of the list. If the exam were designed to be substantially easier, it would be theoretically possible for a candidate to achieve a score of 450. However, an exam constructed to be that easy would not serve the distinct purposes of the IIMs.

Reference

American Educational Research Association (AERA), American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME). (1999). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Washington, D.C.: Author.

Educational Testing Service (ETS). (2002) ETS Standards for Quality and Fairness. Princeton, N.J.
Kolen, M. J., & Brennan, R. L. (2004). Test equating, scaling and linking: Methods and practices. 2nd Ed. Springer.

Fairness and Equivalency in IIM Exams

A significant number of examination forms are used on behalf of the IIMs to evaluate the large candidate population. With the use of multiple forms comes the need to ensure fairness and equivalency of the examinations used for assessment. A post-equating process is necessary to ensure validity and fairness.

Equating is a psychometric process to adjust differences in difficulty so that scores from different test forms are comparable on a common metric and therefore fair to candidates testing across multiple days. The equating process was designed with three phases: exam creation, post-equating, and scaling.

Each form contains a pre-defined number of statistically profiled questions selected from a large bank. These questions form an equating block within a form, which can be used as an anchor to rescale candidates’ scores to the metric of the item bank. This rescaling process adjusts for the difference in the form difficulties, taking into account of candidates’ differential performance on the equating block. As a result, the candidates’ rescaled scores can be placed and compared on the common metric regardless which form they take.

This approach provides support for equating without significantly impacting the security of the items. The second phase of the process is post equating. In this process, items are concurrently analyzed and the estimated item parameters (item difficulty and item discrimination) are put onto a common metric. Item Response Theory (IRT), a psychometrically supported statistical model, is utilized in this process. The result is a statistically equated raw score that takes into account the performance of the candidate along with the difficulty of the form administered.

Once post-equating has resulted in an equated raw score, scaling of the scores is done to reduce confusion to candidates. Scaling can be done using a linear or non-linear transformation of the original, equated number correct. Though the number as presented to candidates is placed on a common scale for ease of interpretation, the position of candidates in the score distribution does not change.

Lastly, once scaled scores are established, the final step in the scoring process is to rank candidates in their performance. A percentile rank is the percentage of scores that fall below a given score. With the total scale scores arranged in rank order from the lowest to highest, in 100 equally sized groups, a table with the total scale scores to percentile ranks will be created. This ranked list of candidates will allow for the identification of candidates from the highest performers at the very top of the list to the lower performers in the middle and low end of the scale.

The test development and equating models outlined have substantial advantages to candidates. First, they confirm with a high level of psychometric rigor that all examination scores are valid, equitable and fair. Post equating takes into account any statistical differences in examination difficulty and ensures all candidates are evaluated on a common scale. Reporting scores on this statistically equivalent scale creates an environment where the very high performing candidates will be ranked appropriately at the top end of the scale.

CAT 2011& CAT 2012
(Common Admission Test for IIMs)

Introduction:

MBA-CAT 2011 Exam is a Online Common Admission Test for getting admission into the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) and about 120 other MBA Colleges in India. Currently there are 9 IIMs in India. They are listed below. The Online CAT Test is held online once a year in last week of November.

List of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in India and their websites :

1) IIM Ahmedabad
2) IIM Bangalore (Bengaluru)
3) IIM Calcatta (Kolkata)
4) IIM Lucknow
5) IIM Indore
6) IIM Kozhikode
7) IIM Shillong
8) IIM Ranchi (Temporary Link)
9) IIM Rothak

To get into IIMs and the 120 Colleges which use CAT Scores one has to go through a selection process which includes most OR all of the following :

1. Written Test
2. Group Discussion
3. Personal Interview
4. Essay Writing
5. Psychometric Test
6. Group Task
7. Management Games

The percentile secured in CAT is used by the B-Schools in India for short-listing candidates for admissions to their Institutes MBA Programs.

The written exam tests the aptitude of the candidate in a number of areas. It usually consists of questions related to:

1. Quantitative Ability
(Questions in Mathematics mostly from 8-9-10 standard, covering Arithmetic, Geometry, Menstruation, Algebra, Trigonometry and Co-ordinate Geometry)

2. Verbal Section
(Questions in the area cover Grammar, Sentence Correction, Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension & Verbal Analogies)

3. Data Interpretation / Data Sufficiency
(Analysis of Data. Usually data is in form of tables, charts, graphs. Students are required to study them and answer the related questions)

4. Logical Reasoning / Ability
(Questions to be solved using Common Logic)

5. General Awareness
(Currently CAT does not have questions on General Knowledge)
(Questions pertaining to current/past issues (national & global), economics, general knowledge etc.

Preparation Strategy to Crack CAT 2010 and CAT 2011 Exam:

There is no formula or shortcut to crack the CAT or any other MBA Entrance Test. One should take care of the following :

1. Clear your concepts of 8-9-10 standard maths (preferably NCRT)
2. Extensive Reading on current issues (Indian & Global), business, economics etc. Reading magzines like Business India/World/Today, Forbes India, India Today, Frontline, and National English Newspapers daily is recommended.
3. Regular puzzle solving
4. Solve as many questions in all areas of the CAT Test. Subscribe to study material from any national coaching center or download from internet. This practice will give you the required speed needed for CAT.
5. Daily write an essay (2-3 pages) on any one topic (currently issues, business etc) of your choice. Try refining them after 1 month.
6. Speak English 24x7 for fluency & confidence
7. Increase your vocabulary by over 1000 words (ie memorize & then use 20 new words daily).