Over 2 lakh register for CAT-2015

With a whopping 2,18,664 registrations CAT-2015 is going to be highly competitive test for candidates. The five-day extension in the registration window for the Common Admission Test (CAT) ended on September 25 and the IIMs released the official number of registrations for CAT 2015 this week. The figures have seen an enormous rise of 15.6 per cent this year. Last year 1,89,000 candidates had registered for CAT.

The figure of 2,18, 664 is the highest over the last six CATs. Sai Kumar, Director TIME Delhi says, “The CAT 2015 registrations have reached a five-year high. This increase in the number of applicants can be attributed to several factors — first being the healthy placements at the IIMs this year and the positive business environment seen in the country which is a cause for great optimism among the aspirants. The second being the increase in the number of examination centres as CAT-2015 is moving to a record 136 cities up from the 99 cities in 2014 which has made the test more accessible. The third factor that has contributed to the increase has been the long registration window which was followed by an extension of five days which netted an additional 35,000 candidates.”

Along with this distinction, CAT 2015 will also be known as the first test to bring in two significant changes in the history of CAT — introduction of non-MCQ type questions and the availability of on-screen calculator.

CAT 2015 will also be the longest CAT so far — at three hours.

The other major change — sections with individual timing where the test-taker cannot move across sections, while significant, has been seen earlier too in 2011, 12 and 13.

“However CAT-2015 aspirants can expect stiff competition on account of this increase and would need to rev up their preparation to counter the increased number of test takers,” added Kumar.

CAT scores are used by the IIMs along with 100+ other b-schools including FMS-Delhi, MBA programmes of the IITs etc.

CAT 2015 will be conducted at 650 centres across 136 cities on November 29.