What is CAT?
Does having an exciting job that pays well figure in your imagination of an ideal life? If it does, chances are, you are already familiar with jobs in the field of Management. Whatever educational background you have, every professional field after a certain level needs management skills. Thus, to climb up on the professional ladder, these are essential skills to have in your toolkit.
Having understood this, every year, millions of students strive to get a management education from one of the prominent institutions across the country. This is where CAT or Common Admissions Test comes into the picture. CAT is an examination conducted by the country’s premier management institutes – the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) – as a qualifying exam in their admissions process.
However, IIMs are not the only institutes considering the CAT score as their admission criteria. Given the high standard of the examination and the essential skills being evaluated through it, most country’s management education institutions consider the CAT score in their admission process. The assessment of essential competencies, the difficulty level of clearing the exam and the variety of colleges acknowledging the score, including the IIMs, make CAT the top MBA entrance exam in India.
Details of the CAT Exam
The Common Admissions Test or CAT is conducted once every year, generally in November. Each year, one of the older six IIMs is responsible for carrying out the complete examination process. The CAT 2021 Exam is going to be conducted by IIM Ahmedabad.
This is an online examination conducted on the same day across more than 150 cities throughout the country. IIM Committee identifies and allots the test centres, depending on the number of applicants. Some tentative dates for CAT 2021 Exam are as follows:
| Official notification of the CAT 2021 Exam | Last Week of July 2021 |
| Commencement of Online Registration | First Week of August 2021 |
| Closure of Online Registration | Third Week of September 2021 |
| Corrections to the Online Registration Form | Last Week of September 2021 |
| Admit Card for CAT 2021 Exam | Last Week of October 2021 |
| CAT 2021 Exam | Last Week of November 2021 |
| CAT 2021 Exam Results | First Week of January 2022 |
What after CAT?
The aspiring candidates need to understand that CAT Score is only one qualifying criterion for securing admission in the coveted Management Institutes. Of course, it is a necessary step. However, a good CAT score alone doesn’t guarantee admission. All institutions have their unique Admission Process that the qualified candidates must go through before securing admission. Thus, while you prepare for the CAT 2021 Exam, make sure to remember that this is just an initial step.
Given that these institutions prepare the students for all the challenges they may face during their professional lives and sometimes personal lives, the demand for management education is very high. Also, over the many years of their existence, the management institutes themselves have become brands standing for the quality of their students, attracting organizations for better placements of their students. The allure of having a job right at the end of their studies is another critical factor for students appearing for CAT.
With all the benefits –studying in a premier institute, interacting with some of the best faculty and peer groups or the confidence of securing a good job – CAT is undoubtedly a preferred choice. But, you should also remember that this is not the only MBA Entrance Exam out there. So apart from CAT 2021 Exam, you should also keep a lookout for the other entrance exams to improve your chances of management education.
Check out latest CAT 2021 exam dates at https://www.shiksha.com/mba/cat-exam-dates
