CAT 2018 registration closes on September 19, admit card to release on October 24

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta will be conducting Common Admission Test (CAT) on November 25, 2018. Candidates who are aspiring for management career can fill the CAT application form online by September 19, 2018. IIM-C will close the registration at 5 pm.

According to the official website of CAT 2018, candidates with a bachelor degree or appearing in final year are eligible to apply. Though it is necessary to have a minimum 50 percent (45 percent for the reserved category) aggregate in the graduation. CAT only acts as the admission score accepted by IIM and non-IIM institutes. So, the eligibility and the subsequent selection process may vary from college to college.

The CAT application form is a six-step process. It comprises of registration, application form, and document uploading, academic details, work experience information, programme preference, test centre details, and the payment of a fee. There is no first come first serve, aspirants can fill the form anytime before the last date of registration.

The candidates need to ensure that they register with the valid email id and stick to the guidelines for uploading the photograph and signature. Do not exceed the prescribed size and dimension. Moreover, the photograph must not be more than six months old.

While filling the academic details, it is compulsory that candidate enter the marks of all the subjects as printed in the scorecard issued by education board. It is important to fill details properly as IIMs consider marks of all these subjects while finalising the result.

The same precaution has to be take while entering the work experience details. It is important to make certain that only the professional experience is entered. Any experience related to the internships/ project work/ pre-graduation job will not be considered valid under the category. Candidates can use this experience as extracurricular or co-curricular activities.

In the programme selection option, candidates must choose the IIM courses according to their eligibility as there are many courses meant only for working professionals. Like EPGP, PGPEX, EPGPX are for people who have rich industry experience. While the Post Graduate Program (PGP) adn Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) does not require any prior experience.

In addition to programme preference, exam city is also to be selected. In the form, applicants have the option to choose four cities out of 147 test cities. Candidates can select it according to the convenience. Though for IIM Kashipur, Ranchi, Rohtak, Raipur, Udaipur, and Tiruchirappalli, candidates have to select the same interview city.

The candidates can pay the registration fee as applicable. Before final submission, recheck the form and validate all the details. If there is any mistake, correct it before paying the application fee. The registration fee is Rs 950 for SC/ST/PWD categories and Rs 1900 for others.

A total of 43 days have been allocated to candidates for registration. It is expected that correction facility might be provided but there is no official information confirming it yet. Candidates should ensure that there CAT application is submitted in prescribed manner, in order to receive CAT admit card.

The one thing that a student often tends to forget is that it is important to fill the application form of Non-IIM institutes in addition to CAT 2018 form. Thus, in order to participate in the selection process of other colleges, candidates have to apply separately before their respective last dates.

With only two months left for the CAT, candidates must be preparing day and night to get admission in the top b-schools of India. So, in the last few months, keep the concepts clear and revise the grammar, formulas notes frequently. Do not miss any day without taking mocks. Take sectional and full-length tests both. Most importantly, spare the additional time for the test analysis. Learn the faster way to attempt a question. As in the end, it is the number of correct answers that will matter instead of the number of attempts and the method to solve them. Focus on concepts by heart and solve the questions smartly.

After the examination, the CAT result will be announced by the first week of January 2019. Immediately, after the result, IIMs and other colleges will release the shortlist of selected students for the GDPI round. The stage after the CAT examination generally includes Written Ability Test (WAT)/ Group Discussion (GD) and the Personal Interview (PI) rounds. The selection criteria and the weighage to different parameters differ from college to college.

The IIM score is accepted by 20 IIM’s and other popular b-schools like SP Jain, MDI, FMS, IIT’s etc. Even the IITs will release the application forms the very next day of the CAT result. The selected students will get the intimation from the colleges, only if they have the filled the admission forms and have the cleared the cut-off of respective colleges.

After the final selection, selected students can take the admission after paying the college fee. Most of the classes for batch 2019-2021 will start by June 2019.