CAT 2009 Application Deadlines Extended upto October 11, 2009

The Common Admission Test (CAT) for entry into the IIMs and 150 other B-schools has not found many takers this year., reports the Economics Times. As per IIMs, the number of candidates registered for CAT has been around two lakh, even as online registration process that was earlier scheduled to close on October 1 has been extended to October 11. Last year, the number of CAT applicants was 2.76 lakh. While the number of CAT applicants has been rising 10% every year, the past three years saw a 20-25% rise in number of candidates.

For those MBA aspirants who were late to catch the CAT 2009 groovy-train, here is another chance! IIMs have announced on September 30 today that they will be extending the sale of CAT vouchers up till October 8, and online registration till October 11. That’s a cool 10 more days!

Reasoning that many bank holidays may hamper the last minute rush of CAT aspirants, IIMs said, “In view of a series of bank holidays that may have inconvenienced some candidates, IIMs and Prometric have extended the sale of CAT 2009 vouchers to 8 October 2009.”

Online registration for CAT 2009, which began on Wednesday, 9 September 2009, will now be open till October 11. Earlier it was supposed to end on Thursday, 1 October 2009. “Candidates will have until 11 October 2009 to complete their online registration and scheduling. The edit feature will also be available until 11 October 2009,” said IIMs on their official website CATIIM.in.

CAT 2009 will be held in a window of 10 days, starting from Saturday, November 28 to Monday December 7, 2009. The test will be held in two slots, Session 1, the morning session will be from 10 AM to 12.30 PM.

Source : Economics Times

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Highlights :
- Around 270,000 MBA aspirants appeared for the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) across india on Sunday

- Increase in the number of questions. While in the previous years, the number of questions were fixed at 75, this year the examiners had increased it to 90

- Of the 90 questions asked in the Common Admission Test (CAT) held on Sunday, 40 tested the candidates’ verbal abilities, 25 data interpretation skills and 25 their skills with numbers.

- Unlike last year, it was a three-hour paper with 30 questions in QA and DI sections and 40 in verbal. Each section was of 100 marks

- There are about 1,800 seats in IIMs and with an additional intake due to the OBC quota, the number of seats are likely to cross the 2,000 mark.

What CAT Experts say :

CAT 2008 was an easier paper, but Data Interpretation tougher: IMS Learning

IMS Learning say that overall CAT 2008 was on “the easier side.”

IMS Cut-offs 2008
Quant: 32-35
DI: 32-35
Verbal: 46-49

Overall Cut-Off
1-2 IIM Calls: 120+
3-4 IIM Calls: 130+
5-6 IIM Calls: 140+

“The relative importance of the verbal ability section has increased. Students with good verbal skills will manage to make it to the overall cut-off,” said Rahul Reddy, director of TIME Kolkatta

A balanced paper says Career Launcher
Overall, the CAT’08 paper was of a moderate difficulty level. The paper was more balanced than previous years, primarily because of more choices in the English section. There have been an increase in the total number of questions – from 75 to 90, with English section accounting for 40 questions (an increase of 15 from last year) and Quant and DI having 25 questions each.

Indore based PT education believes that there were no big surprises in CAT 2008 and the paper was a well balanced one.

CAT 2008 Answer Keys

CAT 2008 Analysis IMS Learning Minglebox

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