16, Jan 2012

CAT results were out on Wednesday the 11th of January. Of the candidates who took the test nine scored 100 percentile.  Over 1.85 lakh candidates took the test, over a 20-day testing window, across 36 cities between October 20 and November 18, 2011, in 68 test centers. CAT scores are necessary for gaining admission to the management programmes of all 13 IIMs, the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs), and the National Institutes of Technology, apart from 150 other management institutions.

What is interesting is that not all candidates sit for the CAT for the same reason; some have very different reasons and levels of aspirations. Let us look at two of the unusual toppers: Rajesh Balasubramanian and Ajinkya Deshmukh. Both Rajesh and Ajinkya are IIT-Madras alumni from different batches. If they share similarities, there are differences too. For Ajinkya, an employee of a business analytics firm, getting into one of the top three IIMs has been the motivating factor for the last three years; for 31-year-old Rajesh, also an IIM-Bangalore alumnus, it is more of an annual ritual necessary to be in tune with B-school entrance exam requirements. He says, “It just helps me develop better MBA teaching content. It means nothing to me now, but I know how much it means to others.” Rajesh, who quit a banking job abroad to train students on taking CAT, scored 100 percentile this time, his fifth experience of CAT.

“The approach is very different when you take the exam as an employee rather than as a student. You are definitely under more pressure and you want the best. The good thing now is that most employers know the employees are not going to be with them forever, so it is easier to make these choices without official hassles,” says Ajinkya.

Among the others who secured 100 percentile are a doctor from Grant Medical College, Mumbai, Shashank Prabhu, who is pursuing an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi, and Sreeram Prasad from Nellore, a student of IIT-Ropar.

“There has been an attempt to reduce the influx of engineers in CAT. The pattern of the paper has been changed, and the questions in Maths are becoming relatively simple, but even then, over 88 percent of the candidates still come from engineering background,” said K.S. Murthy, professor, IIM-Bangalore.

According to officials at IIM-Calcutta that convened the exam this year, the IIMs have already started calling candidates for the next stage of the admission process. All the IIMs have sent out mails to prospective candidates. This year, many of the new IIMs, including those in Tiruchi, Udaipur, and Raipur, have increased their intake from 70 to 120.

Even though it is through stiff competition that one gets into one of the top premium business schools, some aspirants weigh their options between choosing a B-School and a job offer; they feel this might not be the right time to pursue an MBA. However, S. Balasubramanian, director, Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME), does not think so. “The relevance of an MBA degree will always be valid. The market will always need managers who have a degree from a good B-school.”