Look Beyond CAT

Any serious MBA aspirant will be writing CAT – that is a given. However, there are many good B-Schools such as XLRI (Xavier Labour Relation Institute) Jamshedpur, JBIMS (Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies) Mumbai, IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade) New Delhi, NMIMS (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies) Mumbai, SIBM (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management) Pune, etc. that either conduct their own exam or accept candidates based in their performance in other tests besides CAT.

 

Some of the top B-Schools mandate writing their own tests, and this can be good for students as well. For example, if one writes just one test, it puts tremendous pressure on the student and this could lead to underperformance. Also, each student has a unique set of skills, so writing different exams may give some students an edge over the others. General Awareness (GA), for instance, is one area that students may need to work on, as it is part of many entrance tests. CMAT (Common Management Admission Test), conducted by AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education) has a separate section on GA with 25% weightage in the overall test. TISSNET, organized by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), also included about 40 GA questions in its previous editions.

 

Begin with looking at the patterns of a few exams other than CAT (CMAT, TISS, NMAT, IBSAT etc). Also, most of these exams are held post CAT. So, even if we are just about starting our preparation, there is time. The sectoral programmes of various institutes tend to attract lesser number of applications than the regular exams. And the selection processes tend to be easier than CAT. Identify a few such programmes/B-Schools that offer good return on investment.

 

 

By Prakash Rajput

 

The author is assistant course director, CAT, Triumphant Institute of Management Education

 

 

Source: HT Education