Exams
The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a prestigious national entrance exam conducted annually by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) for admission into their MBA programs. Held on the last Sunday of November, the exam is administered in three time slots across more than 170 cities. There are 21 IIMs in total, comprising 7 established IIMs and 14 newer or "baby" IIMs. While the older IIMs use the CAT application form as both an exam and admission application, the newer and baby IIMs follow the Common Admission Process (CAP) to shortlist candidates for admission.
Exam Pattern
MAT exam is held for almost two-and-a-half hours. The test covers two hundred (200) questions in 150 minutes. The aspirant is tested in the following five areas: Indian and Global Environment, Language Comprehension, Data Analysis and Sufficiency, Mathematical Skills, Intelligence and Critical Reasoning. There are 40 questions in each section. Each question carries one mark, whereas, one/fourth mark is deducted for every wrong answer.
1.Practice reading ‘Reading Comprehension’ passages for at least two to three months, about four to five per day.
2.Go through all the rules of grammar and make an effort to understand the contextual usage of words and phrases in English.
3.For Quant, practice about 20-25 questions every day. Lay particular emphasis on Arithmetic and Algebra-based questions – these are quite common in MAT exam pattern.
4.Make an effort to improve on GK, by reading a newspaper every day and a good weekly or monthly magazine. That should help you get a good score in MAT.