CAT: 20 from tricity score over 99 percentile

More than 20 students from the tricity have scored over 99 percentile in the Common Admission Test (CAT) for admissions to graduate management programmes. The test is a national-level competitive exam that opens the doors to 21 IIMs (Indian Institute of Management) and other top business schools in India.

One of the toppers, Amrinderpreet Singh, who is a graduate of PEC, Chandigarh, has scored with a 99.26 percentile. He said, “My entire preparation revolved around attempting as many mock tests as possible. This helped me to maximise my attempts during the actual exam.” Another topper from the region, Vaibhav Prasad, a student of GGDSD College, Sector 32, said, “I focused on my weak areas and practised consistently, particularly in the quantitative section, to eliminate silly mistakes.”

Of the 3.29 lakh candidates who registered for the exam, 2.93 lakh appeared for it. The exam took place on November 24, 2024, at 389 centres. Hirdesh Madan, a co-founder of a coaching institute for CAT, said, “Over the years, CAT toppers were predominantly from engineering backgrounds. However, this year brings a welcome change, with a notable proportion of toppers coming from commerce and non-engineering streams from the tricity.”

Now, the IIMs will call the students for the interview and essay writing rounds. The interviews for most of the IIMs are conducted between January and March and the results announced by April. The IIM Amritsar and Sirmaur are the two nearest institutions while Chandigarh’s leading MBA college, UBS (Panjab University) also admits students based on CAT scores.