CAT Exam Eligibility

Doing a professional course in business management has a lot of perks in life. Getting a Masters in Business Administration or MBA degree also gives a lot of value in your life, in your career growth, in your personal life too.

Getting an MBA degree can change your life, even some top universities in the world says that there are many perks of getting an MBA degree. Degrees like more job opportunities, different positions, high paying salary, and many more.

Well, an MBA degree can get you a pleasant and high paying job, that’s okay. But how can it help you with your benefits apart from a career? An MBA degree will teach you to manage your finances, and such.

These all are the benefits of having one MBA degree. But doing an MBA in any regular college doesn’t give you much respect and growth which an IIM gives. Well, if you are planning to pursue a management course in the future, then you must be looking to get a seat in any IIM. But you need to crack the CAT exam first, then after you can take admission in IIM and any other prestigious MBA universities in India.

But you must be wondering that what can an IIM or top business school can teach you that a regular B-school can’t. Well, the syllabus and education must be similar but graduating from such a university speaks a lot about you. We are listing down some perks of graduating from such universities.

• Higher probability for a safe and well-settled career
• Better status in society.
• Chance to get trained by the best professionals in the country.
• Best salary offered for MBA graduates, with good hike chances.

But now you must be sure that why you should target IIM or top universities in India. Let’s talk about the entrance test, which is mandatory clear if you want to take admission in IIM and such top B-schools.

What is CAT Exam?

CAT or Common Admission Test which is a computer-based test which gets organized for admission on India’s top B-schools and IIMs. IIMs conduct CAT, but not every time by one IIM. The authority is IIM, but every year IIM changes, periodically every IIM gets chance to organize CAT exam. Every year the CAT exam is application announced in July end.

This exam is not easy, because almost half a million students apply for the exam, but a handful of students get their preferred institutions only. You are aware of IIMs, but CAT can get you admission in following top B-schools. Such as S.P Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), also the Management Development Institute (Gurgaon), Institute of Management Technology (IMT), National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) and several others, etc.

CAT Exam Eligibility?

There is always a Basic eligibility criterion for every exam, so do the CAT. I am listing down all essential measures to write the CAT exam. Make sure you are obeying all the eligibility criteria before applying in the CAT exam.

• Education

If you are interested in applying the CAT exam, then you must have a bachelor’s degree with you. Also, you must have scored at least 50% marks in total in bachelors or equivalent CGPA. But if you belong from any reserved category like Scheduled Tribe (ST), Scheduled Caste (SC), and Persons with Disability (PWD). Or Differently Abled (DA) then you have advantages. Your minimum mark criteria are 45% for applying in the CAT exam.

The University in which you are studying or passed out must get included by an act of the central or a state legislature in India. Or else any other educational institutions established by an act of Parliament or any declared deemed to be a University which is under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956. Or hold an equivalent qualification recognized by the MHRD, India.

Not only after bachelor’s but if you are in your final year or waiting for your result, you can also apply for the CAT exam. If you get selected in CAT, then you need to get a certificate from your institution’s principles. You are mentioning that the particular candidate had completed all the requirements for getting a bachelor’s degree qualification on the date when the license was issued.

• Age

There are no such requirements for age or any criteria. But you need to have a bachelor’s degree. If you still want to know your age, then you can go to the age calculator to calculate your ideal age.

These are all the necessary details you need to know before applying for CAT exam. There are no other criteria for writing this exam. But. You need to know some points because those are vital and concerns many CAT aspirants. Read the following.

CAT Eligibility With Backlogs

It is the most vital question, or concern arises when CAT aspirants are in the final year with back. Well, you got cleared in the previous paragraphs that you can apply for CAT if you are in your last year’s. But there is no provision of restrictions for aspirants with backlogs.

So, any candidate with a backlog in the final year of graduation is also eligible to apply for CAT and complete the registration. Also, the candidates those who get used for supplementary re-exams are qualified to write CAT exam. But you need to fill your CAT form clearly and mindfully. When you are filling your form, choose to select “yes” to the question “Are you in the final year of Bachelor Degree?”.

If you belong from any reserved category, then cross-check everything you reserve certificates too because CAT portal doesn’t allow changes in the certificate section.

CAT Exam Pattern

Now you know everything about the eligibility criteria, but you might still be confused because you might not be aware of exam pattern and syllabus. Let’s discuss the exam pattern.

The CAT exam pattern changes every year slightly, but from last three years, the trend seems constant. The CAT exam has three sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation, and Logical Reasoning (DILR), Quantitative Ability (QA). It’s not a pen-paper type exam; it’s a computer-based test (CBT).

The exam is for a total of three hours; each of the exams section contains one hour each. But there is no concept of carrying that time forward to other parts. Which means you can’t take more than 1 hour for each section.

CAT exam contains 100 questions worth 300 marks in total. For each right answer, you will get awarded three marks, but for each wrong answer, one score will get deducted.

In Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension section 34, questions will be asked 24 MCQ types, and 10 Non-MCQ classes. The total marks for this section are 102, and you will get 1 hour to complete the paper.

In Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning section 32, questions will be asked 24 MCQ types and 8 Non-MCQ models. The total marks for this section are 96, and you will get 1 hour to complete the paper.

In Quantitative Ability section 34, questions will be asked 27 MCQ types, and 7 Non-MCQ models. The total marks for this section are 102, and you will get 1 hour to complete the paper.

You must note that the CAT exam will be conducted only in the English language, CAT exam organizers support no other words. Another notable point is you have clear all three sections separately to clear the exam. If you scored less than the cutoff in anyone section, then you will not make the exam wholly.

Conclusions

All the CAT aspirants should know the eligibility criteria before starting the preparation for the exam and must know the exam pattern. Because if a candidate is not eligible for the review but begun preparing for the exam will fail to fill the form, that’s why a candidate must know about the eligibility criteria of the exam. Also, the candidate must be aware of the required documents which will get asked shortly. The requested documents list can be found online very quickly. You can go and search for it for more information.

If you are preparing for this exam, then you must start the preparation in the earliest days because the exam complexity level and the exam takers are gradually increasing. So if you seriously want to join IIMs or any top B-school, you must take this exam seriously. That’s all you need to know if you’re going to take the CAT exam. There is not much information you need to learn for the CAT exam.