The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 results likely to be announced today. According to the official web site of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), CAT 2009 Results deferred to end of February 2010. Candidates, who appeared for the CAT examination and waiting for the CAT 2010 results, CAT 2009, CAT 2009 result, CAT results, CAT results 2009 may able to find their results today.

If the IIM publishes CAT 2009 results today on Feb 28th (In an official press release, the institute was quoted as saying, “CAT 2009 result declaration has been deferred to the end of February 2010) , the results will be published online on it’s official website.

http://www.catiim.in

The Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009 registrations are ending on October 1.
The Common Admission Test, CAT, which will be getting online, will be held from Nov 28 over a period of 10 days, to get over on Dec 7. The official notification regarding CAT came on Sunday.

The CAT will be an online test, for which a US-based firm has been hired by the IIMs. This firm will conduct the competitive exam across the country for candidates seeking admission to the prestigious B-schools.

The test will be conducted at 30 centres including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, New Delhi, Chennai, Kochi, Guwahati, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, it said.

There are around 1,800 seats in the existing seven IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong.

Besides IIMs, about 50 other reputed B-schools in the country give admission to students from the CAT merit list.

The results of the test will be announced on January 22 and can be accessed from the CAT website www.catiim.in.

If you are a CAT aspirant and would like to register for the most highly rated competitive exam, then it has become easy for you.

CAT 2009 aims to be completely easy to apply and easy to appear for the test options.

The candidates can view required information at www.catiim.in

Some Important steps for CAT Exam

a.  Email ID :
You must have a valid email account throughout the selection process, say CATIIM.in. You will need to submit this email id at the time of registration.The admit card will be sent to you as an email on your this email address, after you have filled in your online application and scheduled a test.

b.  Download ‘Registration Instructions & Manual for CAT 2009’ and ‘CAT 2009 FAQs’.

Link for Instruction Manual:

http://content.catiim.in/pdf/registration_inst.pdf

Link for CAT 2009 FAQs: http://www.catiim.in/faq.html

c.  CAT Voucher’s Sale starts on September 9.

Link for AXIS bank locations http://www.catiim.in/buy_voucher.html

d.  Register online early and schedule your exam location ASAP: Online registration for CAT 2009 will also begin on Wednesday, 9 September 2009 and end on Thursday, 1 October 2009.

e.  Choose your exam time:

A typical testing day for CAT will have 2 exam sessions. Candidates are allowed to schedule for any one of the sessions, subject to availability. Session timings are as follows:

Session 1: Testing will begin at 10 AM and end at 12:30 PM. Candidate check-in will commence from 8 AM. Candidates are required to arrive at the test center no later than 8:30 AM.

Session 2: Testing will begin at 3:30 PM and end at 6 PM. Candidate check-in will commence from 1:30 PM. Candidates are required to arrive at the test center no later than 2:00 PM.

f.  You must have a valid Photo ID :

According to IIMs you must present a valid (nonexpired) form of photo id before you can test. Acceptable forms of photo id include: driver’s license; passport; PAN card; voter ID; college ID; employee identification card; or a notarized Affidavit with photo, signature, date of birth and residential address.

g.  Sample official mock CAT is available at

http://content.catiim.in/catdemo/index.htm

CAT is the gateway to the cream of management institutes in India, the IIMs. CAT, or the Common Admission Test, is an aptitude test; it is the most popular test among prospective management students because it is accepted by the best institutes. The CAT is one of the world’s ost demanding entrance examinations for any graduate institute.

CAT MBA entrance exam is used as a criteria to shortlist applicants for admissions to the six IIMs-IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, and IIM Kozhikode. Common Admission Test is one of the largest MBA entrance exams conducted in India, anually. The CAT score is also accepted by more than 75 non-IIM institutes across India, some of which are as reputed as the IIMs.

Eligibility for the postgraduate programmes in management at all IIMs and to appear for IIM-CAT is at least a three-year bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a recognised university with 50% Marks in graduation. Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), the premier business-schools of the country (and counted among the best in the world) conduct this test for selecting potential students for the next round of admission process (comprising of a personal interview and a group discussion) for their MBA and Fellow-ship programmes.

Those appearing in the final year examination of graduation are also eligible to appear in Common Admission Test. Some People feel that Common Admission Test (CAT) is more of a rejection procedure than a selection process.It rejects those who can’t make their minds work at break neck speed for two and a half hours non-stop.

CAT Exam covers questions in five broad areas such as verbal ability and reasoning, reading comprehension, quantitative skills, data interpretation and logical reasoning.

The number of questions asked in Common Admission Test vary every year and a typical CAT question paper can have anywhere between 75 and 150 questions. Common Admission Test evaluates the candidate’s presence of mind and his ability to perform under pressure. Announcement of the procedure for appearing in the Common Admission Test is made in leading newspapers in August every year for admission to the programme beginning in the second half of June of the following year. The test will be conducted during November.

Usually, CAT tests three of your abilities:- Problem Solving- Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. The CAT examination demands competency across all sections of the paper. So, the number of sections in the test don’t really matter; what matters is whether you are competitive and have answered questions in all the sections.

All the questions are of multiple-choice nature with four/five alternate answer choices and the candidate has to choose the best answer for each of the questions and mark it on a special Optical Reader answer sheet. Differential marks are allotted to the questions. The test comprises 150 to 200 objective type questions and is usually divided into three to four sections. The number of questions in the test has been coming down steadily, from nearly 200 in the 1990s to 90 in 2005 and just 75 in 2006.

Very little strategy could be applied in selecting the easiest questions. Cut that down and don’t waste time on questions which are lengthy. One misconception is that you need to slove the whole Question Paper – not at all. If you can solve 38 to 40 per cent of the questions, CORRECTLY, you are through.

Admission into the seven Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) is based on your performance in the Common Admission Test (CAT). The IIMs conduct a two-year Post graduate Programme in Management (PGPM) and a Fellow Programme in Management (FPM).

PGPM is recognized as equivalent to MBA by Indian and foreign institutes. The fellowship Programme (FPM) is aimed at those interested in research, consultation and teaching. It is recognized as equivalent to Ph.D by the Association of Indian universities.

When is CAT held?

CAT is normally held in the month of November, for the session beginning July next year. Candidates who cross the cut off marks in the written test are told to appear for the Group Discussion and Personal Interview. Final selection is based on one’s performance in the written test, Group Discussion, Personal Interview, Scholastic achievements and work experience. Your mastery over the English language plays a vital role in the selection process.

Eligibility

Candidates who have secured at least 50% marks (45% for SC/ST) in any discipline are eligible to appear for CAT. CAT traditionally is a multiple choice examination covering English language skills, logical analysis of data interpretation, and quantitative applications of mathematics, algebra and geometry. You must strive to do well in every section.

The test has the following components.

-Quantitative ability
-Data interpretation
-Data Sufficiency
-Logical reasoning
-Reading comprehension
-Verbal ability
-The test duration is of 2.5 hours.

Preparing for CAT

CAT requires intelligent and innovative preparation both mentally and physically. Maintain poise and composure during the entire length of the test.

Scan the paper once or twice to get a reasonable overview. Answer the easy questions in each section first. Skip what cannot be answered and move on. There is negative marking. So it is better to skip questions than answer them wrongly.

While preparing for general knowledge, you must give due importance to economics, politics, national and international issues. Try and improve your reading speed and comprehension. You should attempt as many mock-CAT tests as is possible. This should give you a feel of the exam as well as improving your confidence.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is jointly conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow. Some of the most prestigious Indian Business Schools such as SP Jain, MICA, and T A Pai also take CAT score as an important criteria for their selection process.

Eligibility
Students who have completed their graduatation or who are going to complete their graduation the following year are eligible to apply and appear for the CAT Examination.

CAT Syllabus
The syllabus for the CAT Examination changes every year (or is tentative to change). Generally, questions from the following categories are frequently have appeared in the past: Verbal ability and reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Quantitative skills, Data Interpretation and Analytical and Logical reasoning.

Scholarships/Financial Assistance
It is the endeavour of all IIMs that no student be denied opportunity to pursue the Post-Graduate Programme in Management for want of adequate financial resources. Substantial need-based scholarships are available for students belonging to economically disadvantaged families. (Please see the write-up on each IIM in the CAT Bulletin for details.)

Examination Centers
Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida, Patna, Pune, and Vishakhapatnam.

Selection process
The examinations were conducted in a very strict sense and have the reputation of being one of the best exam conduction and student selection system round the world. One IIM Director once said that he received letters from ministers and high authoritians but he categorically declined them all. This shows that even an IIM Director could not influence the selection process.

The country’s estimated Rs 450-500 crore MBA coaching business is all set to witness a fresh spate of action. With the IIMs aiming to take the CAT online by 2009, coaching biggies like TIME, Career Launcher and IMS are all chalking out plans to adapt to the new development.

According to industry insiders, this is also likely to mean that MBA aspirants now have to fork out more for their coaching as well. That’s because the coaching centres have to incur a significant investment towards infrastructure , HR and intellectual bandwidth to adapt to the changing trend. And the costs involved in the exercise are likely to be passed on to students.

And there are plenty of them! For the number of CAT students has been growing steadily. In 2006, it was 1.8 lakh-plus and for CAT 2007, it crossed the 2.3 lakh mark. In 2008, the figure may cross 3 lakh. And it’s estimated about 50% of them take coaching at various institutes. All the more reason, why coaching institutes need to step up to the challenge. However, the lack of clarity on the modalities of the online exam is proving to be an impediment.

CAT – affiliated B – schools are ranked a tad higher than the MAT – affiliated ones.
The CAT, which is administered by Indian Institutes of Management, is also accepted as the qualifying exam by about 20 other institutes, other than IIMs. In contrast, the MAT is a relatively new test, administered by the All India Management Association (AIMA), for other institutes. Though very few students in metropolitan cities appear for the MAT, most students in smaller towns try to adopt a combined strategy for cracking both, the CAT and the MAT, in hope of making it at least to one exam.

Common Admission Test (CAT) :-

* Quantitative Aptitude
* Reading Comprehension
* Verbal Ability
* Data Interpretation
* Reasoning
* Data Sufficiency.

MANAGEMENT APTITUDE TEST (MAT) :

* Language Comprehension
* Mathematical Skills
* Data Analysis & Sufficiency
* Intelligence & Critical Reasoning
* Indian & Global Environment

Usually, CAT tests three of your abilities:- Problem Solving- Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension. The CAT examination demands competency across all sections of the paper. So, the number of sections in the test don’t really matter; what matters is whether you are competitive and have answered questions in all the sections.

All the questions are of multiple-choice nature with four/five alternate answer choices and the candidate has to choose the best answer for each of the questions and mark it on a special Optical Reader answer sheet. Differential marks are allotted to the questions. The test comprises 150 to 200 objective type questions and is usually divided into three to four sections. The number of questions in the test has been coming down steadily, from nearly 200 in the 1990s to 90 in 2005 and just 75 in 2006.
MBA CAT Pattern according 2006

# Quantitative
# Verbal
# Reasoning areas of testing.
Duration is generally of 2 hours
Questions: with number of questions normally ranging from 120 to 150.

CAT 2006 change in pattern with 75 questions and increase in the exam time by half an hour.

Negative Marking: Wrong answers carried 1 mark as penalty whereas correct answers carried 4 marks. Proficiency in all the sections is essential for getting a call from any of the IIMs.

There was a talk that CAT 2006 may have Four Sections instead of 3 Sections. However CAT notification as well as the CAT 2006 bulletin, you will find CAT is a three-section paper this year too. CAT is divided into three sections: English Usage, Quantitative Ability (Maths) and Data Interpretation & Logical Ability.

MBA CAT Pattern

The pattern of this test has often been changed in the past. 2005 test included the following: three sections—data interpretation / reasoning, quantitative analysis, and reading, comprehension/verbal ability.

Duration: 2 hours

Total number of questions: 90

Total marks: 150

Negative marking: 1/3 of the marks allotted to a question is docked if the answer is wrong

DI/Reasoning

Number of questions: 30

Marks: 50

Quantitative Analysis

Number of questions: 30

Marks: 50

Reading Comprehension/Verbal ability

Number of questions: 30

Marks: 50

Early Preparation

The last thing on any student’s mind when they start higher education is revision. But now is the most important time to start revising; just by spending 20-30 minutes making revision notes. After a lecture or workshop, write up a simple explanation of the most important points that you’ve covered, ideally with notes of where to find your full lecture notes and any relevant pages in your textbooks. This is an invaluable technique because it will save you hours of preparation when it is exam time. By the end of the year, all your revision will be ready; all you need to do is sit down and read it.

Textbook Preparation

Another useful technique to master is successfully preparing your textbooks as you go. Whilst reading, highlight the most useful sentences or explanations. Use annotated sticky tabs to mark important pages; for instance, tabs along the top of the book to mark out chapters and tabs down the side of the book for useful examples or tables. It is also useful to write in the columns any alternative page numbers where the topic can be found, so you know immediately where else in the book to look.

Revision Time

It is always important to plan your revision time wisely. You can do this by starting your revision early, revising in order of exams. If you have space between exams, remember there is additional time to revise for the next one. If you have back to back exams, remember to allocate enough time to each topic and not to revise for your first exam more than the rest. However you decide to allocate your time, remember that everyone revises differently. A good technique is to revise throughout the day, leaving your evenings free to unwind. This helps to prevent stress, but also gives you the opportunity to do a little bit more if you’re really not confident about something.

Revision Notes

An incredibly useful revision technique is to write things down whilst you revise. Read the notes you have prepared throughout the year, then turn them over and try to write down all the points. If you keep repeating this, you will be able to think of the topic and then write down all the relevant points without referring to your revision notes. This is because writing helps as a memory aid; you can also try using spider diagrams, charts and tables. Match this with your wider reading and full lecture notes so that in an exam you can read the question, note down the most relevant points and write your answer.

The most important thing to remember is that revision doesn’t have to begin just before your exams. Revision can be spread throughout the year. The earlier you start revising, the easier it will be and the better your understanding is likely to be. Plan your revision early on in the term and you won’t leave yourself open to any surprises later on in the year.