Staring at the Ceiling Fan

Note: This, as the title states, talks about what CAT is, in general. My experience on the November 20^th follows.

CAT, for starters, is an entrance exam for most of the management institutes in India. Many institutes prefer having their own mode of selection like XAT, MAT, JMET, IIFT, FMS. But, all models have similar roots. With the boom in the Indian economy, there’s high demand for managers in this country. A country, where the analysts, in the past, complained that there’s too much population, now sees a reversal in fortune. With the boom, people are complaining “We need more professionals”. This is where CAT steps in. It is a degree at the Indian Institute of Management i.e. IIM (I am in awe when I say those three letters) that is up for grabs.

The selection process is two fold. The first part is the written exam which is called the CAT. It’s a two hour paper with three sections: Verbal, Data interpretation and Quants. It is an exam where strategy matters. Its not like other papers where you try and answer all the questions. Here, you have no time for all that. (Unless you are a born genius, and there are a few) You try and divide time between sections, and in the end, prove that you are talented in each of the sections.

The second part of the selection is purely dependant on the institute. But, generally, the students selected from CAT, go through GD/PI. GD/PI stands for Group Discussion and Personal Interview. The basic logic is, now that you have proved that you have talent by clearing CAT, we would like to know whether your communication skills is up to standards. (Real high standards at that) If you have moved through all this successfully, hats off to you. But don’t you think of relaxing. The work just starts. Two years of royal screwing later, you will learn that “Sometimes you need to run hard just to stay where you are.” And you keep running for the rest of your life.