EXCLUSIVE TEST ANALYSIS(FOR MBA360DEGREES) OF CAT PAPERS FROM 2004 BY ARUN CHOWDARY(ALUMNI IIM AHMEDABAD)

Pattern of the test paper

CAT (as it is most commonly known across India) has evolved from a speed based simple test into a test which demands more proficiency in concepts and fundamentals rather than just speed.

Earlier CATs used to have 180 questions to be solved in 2 hours. The cutoff (minimum marks needed to get an interview call from the IIM) for such a paper was generally 20 each in the three sections (Mathematics + English + Data interpretation and Logic).

For the years 2001, 2002, and 2003 the paper consisted of 50 questions per section * 3 sections = 150 questions. The cutoffs were around 15 marks for individual sections and approximately 55 for whole paper.

CAT_2004

The first big surprise for CAT takers was in 2004, when the IIMs introduced the concept of differential marking for the first time. The paper had just 123 questions in three sections with the following distribution: (the decimal numbers are marks allocated to each question)

• English - Total: 50 (10 * 0.5 + 5*2.0 + 35 * 1.0) Cutoff - approx 12
• Mathematics - Total: 35 (15*2.0 + 20*1.0) Cutoff - approx 12
• DI (Data Interpretation) and LR (Logical Reasoning) - Total: 38 (12*2.0 +26*1.0) Cutoff - approx 17

Overall 123 Questions : 10 of half marks + 32 of 2 marks and 81 of 1 mark each. The overall cutoff for the paper was nearly 51-52 marks.

CAT 2005

CAT 2005 was an even bigger surprise. There were just 90 questions - 30 in each section. Each section was further divided into two subsections:

• Math

• Section 1A -10Questions of 1 mark each
• Section 1B - 20 Questions of 2 mark each
• The final Cutoff for this section was nearly 11

• English

• Section 2A - 10 Questions of 1 mark each
• Section 2B - 20 Questions of 2 mark each
• The final Cutoff for this section was nearly 15

• DI and LR

• Section 3A - 10 Questions of 1 mark each
• Section 3B - 20 Questions of 2 mark each
• The final Cutoff for this section was nearly 10

CAT 2006

CAT 2006, which was conducted on November 19, was a 2.5-hour exam instead of the traditional 2-hour exam. It is speculated that this change was made by the CAT exam committee to decrease the level of predictability of the exam and to relieve the stress caused to students in a two-hour time limit.

CAT 2006 had 75 questions, 25 questions per section and 4 marks per question, making it a 300-mark paper. There was a penalty of 1 mark for a wrong answer. The paper also proved to be a break from the previous pattern in that it had 5 answer options instead of the usual 4. The English section was generally perceived as very difficult, whereas the quantitative aptitude section was relatively much easier and basic than previous CATs as also in comparison to the other two sections.

CAT 2007

In 2007, the CAT exam was held on Sunday, November 18th. The exam had surprises for the past years for the changing pattern/number of questions etc. But this year the number of questions remained the same. There was 1 mark negative for each wrong answer. The duration of the test was 2.5 hours

Quantitative Ability

• 25 Questions each of 4 marks
• This is widely considered the toughest section this year

English

• 25 Questions each of 4 marks
• The reading comprehension part was tougher than that of last year

Data Intrepretation

• 25 Questions each of 4 marks

The solution key was published by various coaching institutes.

CAT 2007 results are published on IIM's CAT website as well as on SMS on Indian mobile phones by rediff.com's mobile short code 57333. More details can be obtained by sending an SMS "CAT" to 57333.

Notable incidents

In 2003, the CAT paper was leaked. This was a first in the 28 year old history of the test. A retest was held on 14th February 2004. Most news publications attributed the leak to logistical difficulties.

Besides the change in test format, CAT 2006 was also notable due to some printing errors that had crept into the question paper. The IIMs accepted the errors and formed a committee to look into the matter. The committee ruled that the wrong questions would be ignored. This leads one to a scenario where the different paper sets have a different number of "valid" questions. The difference will be made up by appropriately changing the denominator in the respective sets. For example, set 333 had 2 incorrect questions in quantitative ability. In this case a student scoring x/100 marks would now score (x/92)% marks. The idea of a re-test which was proposed by some quarters has been set aside by the authorities.

The results for CAT 2006 were declared on January 2nd 2007 among much confusion, as the server hosting the results was inaccessible for prolonged periods of time. Also, for the first time, the IIMs declared the actual key to the question paper along with the results.

here was a case of impersonation for the CAT 2007. Two persons tried to appear on behalf of the original candidates in chandigharh. The police arrested them on the day of the exam.

Non IIM Colleges accepting CAT scores

Many colleges in India, other than the IIMs, also accept the CAT scores for admission. This has contributed to CAT gaining an extremely high level of popularity.

Some of the more prominent colleges which accept ones are:

• S.P.Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai
• Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon
• Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA), Ahmedabad
• Bharathidasan Institute of Management (BIM), Trichy
• National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai
• International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi
• Amrita School of Bussiness (ASB), Coimbatore.
• T.A.Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal.
• Fore School of Management (FSM), New Delhi
• Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad
• Institute of Management, Nirma University, Ahmedabad.
• National Insurance Academy School of Management (NIASoM), Pune

The importance of a good CAT score to a student in India aspiring for an MBA has led to a burgeoning and immensely profitable coaching business. Some major national players (who have branches in major cities in India) in the tutoring business are Career Forum Limited, Career Launcher India Private Limited, Professional Tutorials Education (PT), Triumphant Institute of Management Education (T.I.M.E.) and IMS Learning Resources Pvt.Ltd.

Self-Assessment: The Real Edge

Self-assessment should be the first step in any major career or life change, including the decision to apply to MBA programs.

But what is pre-MBA self-assessment? Before you commit to earning an MBA, you should take time to reflect on your work experience, your abilities, and your ambitions. You should ask, Am I where I want to be in my career and my life? And, What would it take to get there? Assuming an MBA will help you achieve your goals, think about what specifically you want to learn and gain in an MBA program.

Why should you self-assess, and how? With sufficient self-assessment, you will stand out in the MBA admissions process as someone who is prepared and motivated. These qualities can help give you a real edge over the competition.

If you self-assess well, you'll be better able to articulate your career and educational goals in relation to your strengths and experience; you'll also be able to say exactly how an MBA at a particular school will help you meet your goals, and how you will contribute to the program.

Good self-assessment will also help you answer the following important questions:

• Why am I sure an MBA is right for me?
• What do I have in common with MBAs and business professionals?
• What post-MBA careers fit my personal strengths, interests, abilities, and work-related values?
• What kinds of business schools, companies, and corporate cultures seem to suit me?

IIMs declare final results!!!

Relief came in the form of declaration of admission results, for thousands of MBA aspirants waiting to get into the prestigious IIMs. The results were declared for General quota, SC, ST and PWD categories but OBC category results have been delayed. Find links to all results below, and network with other successful candidates.

http://www.pagalguy.com/index.php?categoryid=56&p2_articleid=1253

The XIMB Director's Interview

Preference to Orissa domicile candidates doesn't affect the batch quality at Bhubhaneswar's Xavier's Institute of Management, says its Director Fr PT Joseph in an interview to PaGaLGuY.com. He also throws light on XIMB's Rural Management program and how it compares with that of IRMA.
What are the top 3 advantages of XIMB’s MBA programme that no other business school in the same league offers?

The top 3 advantages are:

a) Higher Industry Interaction and Corporate Linkages for the XIMB students by using platforms such as Immersion Courses, CEO Talks, etc. The Immersion Courses are specific course modules which are delivered by top Industry experts within a short span of 1-2 days while CEO talks are a series of seminars with top CEOs of the country and beyond.
b) Rigorous and intensive course curriculum which is highly adaptive and consistently upgraded and is extremely compatible with the industry needs and therefore provides the highest degree of relevance for study of the students and turns them into industry ready management professionals. Further, Technology intensive facilities like VSAT and Video Conferencing Platforms are used in order to augment learning process of the students.
c) Thrust and focus on establishing and maintaining high ethical standards in business and professional life and ensuring social sensitivity for the underdeveloped sections of the society and being a professional manager with a “Human Face”.

Which functional management areas has XIMB built its best strengths (academically and infrastructure-wise) in?

XIMB does not focus exclusively on a specific functional management area for priority. Rather, the focus has been on developing academic and infrastructure resources for the holistic development of the students as a whole. However, XIMB has also built competency in the field of Rural Management by offering PGDM programme in Rural Management, which is an AICTE approved programme and provides immense focus on the social sector. Apart from that XIMB is usually rated as one of the top ten B-Schools of India and provides for all round development of the students along with the best IT infrastructure, learning resources, online databases, state of the art academic infrastructure and a wonderful teaching-learning ambience on campus.

What were the XAT cutoffs at XIMB for the 2005 and 2006 PGP and PGPRM admissions? How does XIMB use sectional cutoffs for short listing candidates?

The XAT cutoffs at XIMB for PGP programme in 2005 and 2006 were 87.45 and 91.74 percentile respectively. PGPRM admissions are conducted through IRMA Entrance Test. For the year 2005 and 2006, IRMA has not released the cutoff marks. XIMB has an Admissions Committee comprising of Senior Faculty Members which every year scrutinizes analyses and then sets sectional cutoffs for short listing candidates as it relevant and necessary for that year.

How do you evaluate candidates selected for the GD-PI round? Does a candidate’s XAT score still affect his chances during final admission once he/she is shortlisted for the GD-PI?

During the GD-PI Rounds, the candidate is evaluated by an experienced and highly knowledgeable panel of Faculty members and the evaluation is based on the candidate’s personality, communication skills, confidence level, and ability to grasp and conceptualize and present the subject in a meaningful manner. Yes, the XAT Score influences the candidate’s chances during final admission as a composite score totaling the XAT score, GD-PI Score and academic excellence is used to finally select the candidate for admission.

How much is the quota for Orissa domicile students at XIMB and what is the XAT cutoff for this category?

The Institute gives some preference to domicile candidates to fulfill its social contract with the State of Orissa. The XAT cut off was close to 90 percentile for the domicile candidates for this year.

How would you address the concerns of a non-Orissa candidate with an admission offer about the dilution in batch quality due to the quota?

There is no dilution in standards of intake. The learning process imparts very high value and outcome is evident when 100 pc placements are achieved on Day-1 itself. Some domicile students who graduate from here do secure top 10 positions in the merit list.

What is the batch profile for the PGP class of 2009 in terms of number of years of work experience? Does XIMB consciously strive towards maintaining the share of experienced and fresher students in a PGP batch?

For the PGP Class which would graduate in 2009, the average work experience of the batch is 28 months (2 Years 4 months). Yes, XIMB does provide for a fair share of experienced and fresher students for in a PGP batch.

How many full time faculty members does XIMB have? How does XIMB retain its best faculty?

XIMB has 47 full time faculty members. XIMB retains them by providing them the best compensation packages seen in India today, providing financial incentives for publications, paper presentations and other research work. Apart from that XIMB provides an excellent Quality of Life for them and their families on campus as well as supports them financially and institutionally for their PhD work, Research, and Consultancy as well as for undertaking Training and Development Programmes.

What are the pros and cons of being located in a relatively less-developed state like Orissa?

XIMB is located in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Orissa. Bhubaneswar is extremely well connected by airlines, railways and Highways. Apart from that many IT majors like Infosys, Satyam, etc. as well as manufacturing entities like POSCO, Vedanta, NALCO, etc. are based out of Bhubaneswar. Bhubaneswar is considered to be one of the most rapidly developing cities in India. Therefore, there is no negatives but rather the presence of such high concentration of corporates makes Bhubaneswar and extremely viable and beneficial place for an institution like XIMB to grow.

What are the top 3 value propositions of studying Rural Management in XIMB as opposed to dedicated rural management schools like IRMA?

The top 3 value propositions are:

a) In Orissa, where more than 47 pc of people live Below the Poverty Line, the value of a Rural Management programme is highly relevant and necessary.
b) The practical and experiential aspect conducted in the PGPRM programme which is known as RLLE (Rural Living and Learning Experience) is extremely productive and highly acclaimed in the social sector.
c) CENDERET (Centre for Development Research & Training) is the social wing of XIMB which has pioneered and implemented successfully hundreds of social development programmes in the state of Orissa over the past decade. This on-campus exposure for the Rural Management students with CENDERET provides a practical basis for their learning which is unparalleled in any other organization across India.

How have the placement patterns evolved in PGPRM over the last two years?

Placements have evolved in PGPRM over the last two years in the following manner;
a) Number of placement offers has gone up from 68 in 2007 to 75 in 2008.
b) The mean salary has risen from 5.10 lakhs per annum in 2007 to 6.01 lakhs per annum in 2008.
c) The median salary has risen from 4.60 lakhs per annum in 2007 to 5.85 lakhs per annum in 2008.
d) The minimum salary has risen from 2.40 lakhs per annum in 2007 to 4.50 lakhs per annum in 2008.
e) The maximum salary has risen from 8.00 lakhs per annum in 2007 to 8.50 lakhs per annum in 2008.

Please tell us about student life beyond academics at XIMB.

High degree of interaction among the faculty, students and corporate visitors is a way of life. Life at XIMB is competitive, co-operative, friendly, helpful, impressive and stimulating. As members of this community, students forge deep and lasting friendships during their stay here. The quality of life as well as learning is enhanced in the company of such energetic, ambitious, interesting and committed people. The Institute has a rigorous screening procedure for admitting students. Hence, our students are drawn from prestigious institutes and a variety of backgrounds. A large section of the students have over one year experience with blue chip companies. Our students are completely focused on learning through the classrooms, group projects, encouraging each other, debating each other, providing each other a stable intellectual context and social network.

The students have shown their zeal to learn beyond the class room and entrepreneurial streak by managing associations and event. The Institute has 5 active student managed associations, each of which organises seminars, guest lectures, management games, quizzes and other events dealing with its specific functional area.

MAXIM: The Marketing Association
X-FIN: The Finance Association
X-SYS: The Systems Association
X-OPS: The Operations Association
XIMAHR: The HR Association
RMAX: Rural Managers Association of XIMB
Rotaract Club: A Rotaract Club-XIMB joint venture
Apart from this, the students organise "Xpressions" -the annual inter-B-school meet which enjoys participation from top corporate and B-Schools.

SOURCE:PAGALGUY

MBA students from countries around the world are starting to represent a wider range of education and career backgrounds than the traditional marketing, consulting, accounting, and banking professions. While of course a massive number of MBA candidates come from such backgrounds, the likes of doctors and lawyers are now turning to MBA education to venture beyond their core skill set.
Table 1 depicts the employment sectors in which MBA candidate respondents are currently employed.

Table 1: Current Employment Sectors of MBA respondents – Worldwide (expressed as a percentage)

Accounting -Banking- Consulting -Consumer Products- Education- Engineering

3.9 -6.0 -9.3 -5.0- 5.5 -8.8

Financial-Services-Industry-Information Technology-Media-Non-Profit

---7.4 -5.5 -14.1 -2.6- 2.7


Pharmaceuticals-Public Sector-Retail-Telecommunications-Other

-2.1 -3.8- 2.0- 4.0- 18.2

Source: 2007 QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey

As reviewed in the above table, 18 pc of respondents to this survey listed ‘other’ as their current field of employment. What’s interesting is that many professionals not conventionally grouped under the commerce field are taking up MBA studies. Some doctors and lawyers, for example, are now turning to business education to improve career prospects and propel them in a new direction.

As a result of increasing interest in MBAs among non-businesspeople, progressive schools have begun combining postgraduate degrees with the MBA. Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem has developed a five-year program in which students can earn a joint MD/MBA degree. McGill University, in Canada, offers a joint MBA/Law degree program designed ‘for those students who are interested in both the legal and administrative aspects of business. It gives them the opportunity to prepare themselves for careers in both private and public enterprises, government service, large corporations, and as management consultants.’

An MBA is seen as the perfect way forward by many looking to change career, and 34% of MBA applicants surveyed reported ‘career change’ as their leading motivation to undertake an MBA, according to the 2007 QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey expressed in Table 2. In some regions like North America, almost 60% of MBA candidates are turning to MBA education in their quest for a new career.

Table 2: Reasons for MBA – Worldwide (expressed as percentage)

Education 22.0


Boost salary 26.9


Build professional network 41.1


Enable career change 33.8


Improve career prospects 69.4


Learn new skills 53.3


Start own business 23.9


Other 2.6

Source: 2007 QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey

So can business school really give you all the necessary skills to succeed in a completely new realm of work?
Unlike other Masters courses that may provide the graduate with a theoretical understanding of a particular topic, like history, for example, the MBA prepares the graduate for the ‘real’ business world through practical applications like case studies that teach the student all aspects of running a business. Skills learned in MBA courses are therefore far more transferable to the business world than those one may learn in other Masters courses.

“A vast majority of our hires have MBAs,” explains Georgia Foley, Recruitment Manager at AT Kearney. “We certainly have a preference for candidates with MBAs, as they offer a passion for learning, academic and communication abilities and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. They also have energy, rigour and a breadth of understanding of general management principles.”

If you’re a new MBA without much applicable experience in the sector in which you intend to work, graduate programs may be your answer. Sony Europe, for instance, runs the European Graduate Program which takes on new MBAs. Tom Verbeke, HR Manager of Sony Europe, says, “we are looking for internationally minded, highly-skilled and intelligent people that want to take on a development course in order to complement their business education (MBA) with the experience of working in different cultures, different organizations and in different functions, supported by on-the-job and off-the-job development initiatives, aimed at fully developing highly-talented students to later take on a key role within the Sony organization.”

When it just might not work

Your choice of field, however, may work against you if you choose an area typically requiring extensive experience that you just don’t have. Consultancy, for example, is one field known for demanding its undertakers gain prior work experience. Damir Latte, Recruitment Consultant at Global Workplace (a specialist in Management Consultancy) says, “candidates for consultancy roles ideally need 3 to 5 years relevant work experience. For those with none or very little relevant experience, consultancy positions are out of the question; however, if they are good they could be considered for analyst roles.”

Of course, this all depends on your career intentions. If you’re a chef trying to become an account and lack exceptional numerical proficiency, it may take more than an MBA to put you in the right direction. All in all, it takes time to evaluate your options and research the enormous range of careers out there. If you’re a lawyer taking an MBA to become a management consultant, business education would probably provide you with the practical skills to accompany the ‘softer’ skills learned in the law realm.

Source: www.TopMBA.com

Seeing through misleading salary figures in B-school placement reports

Newspaper reports in the year gone by have been rife with b-school placement stories of a rather disturbing kind. It appears that quite a few well-known business schools have been lying about their placement salary figures in public! Here's how you can see through the salary hype when you make that important admission decision.

The names of these MBA institutes have remained a well-guarded secret, because most of the time, the whistleblower in these stories is a fresh MBA graduate who, invoked by his conscience but under the condition of anonymity, decides to ride against the tide and divulges to the media the inaccuracies in the average salary, highest salary and median salary figures quoted by his institute on its website and released to the Press.

The names of these b-schools really become inconsequential, given that many business schools in India’s top 20 list have been known to inflate their salary figures somehow or the other. But thanks to negative media coverage, there is now growing awareness that clubbing international and domestic salaries together to calculate the single ‘average salary’ figure is one of the few tricks that b-schools use to inflate their placement data and improve their marketability. It is only when an MBA aspirant cracks the school and joins it does he become aware of some of the best kept dirty secrets of the Indian business school industry.

You’re probably wondering where all this is leading to but no, this article does not mean to rake up controversy on this rather sensitive issue. But, it surely aims to inform what you, as MBA applicants aiming to be in the best MBA programs of the country need to do to ensure that you get the right facts and figures about b-schools, and not what the b-schools want to feed you.

Come September, and most of you flock to the newsstands to buy magazines that pull out b-school rankings, or are scouring the resources in your coaching institute or the Internet to decide which b-schools to apply to this year. Even as I write this, there are half a dozen forms for admission into b-schools live. Because each form burns about one-grand-big a hole in your pocket (or in your parents pocket depending upon your situation), it’s a good idea to research the schools and their placement performance well before investing the moneys.

It becomes especially important for you in February, when you ought to choose between three schools that have more or less similar brand perception and their placement salaries would turn out to be one of the tie-breakers (along with location, expenses, etc).

Why do some b-schools tend to report inflated salary figures? It works out well for everyone, if you really think about it. Since the salary package is the most glamorous and easily perceptible parameter to judge the quality of a job offer (as opposed to other parameters like the job profile description, future growth prospects, etc), by showing inflated salary figures to MBA aspirants the b-school can attract better quality students, sell more forms and gain a few notches above a rival b-school.

By showing inflated salary figures to companies through the media, the school is able to attract better and even higher paying companies for next year’s placements. The companies whose pay packages are reported in an exaggerated manner by the institute don’t mind, because they get free press and become a desired company in other b-schools. Everybody wins!

Two standard tricks are applied to manipulate numbers and arrive at the inflated salary figures. Compensation packages offered by companies come in a fixed and a variable component and a Cost-to-Company factor (CTC). So say, the annual fixed component amount is Rs 6 lakh, then you’ll take home Rs 50,000 home every month for sure. However, the variable component, which includes performance-based bonuses or e-sops may or may not come to you depending on your performance. Placement committees in b-schools, however add the highest possible variable component to the salary figure. So let’s say, your variable component, which you get if you perform really, really well, comes out to Rs 2 lakh per annum. Add to it the most controversial component, the CTC. The CTC simply, is the amount of money the company needs to spend on your maintenance. In reasonable CTC calculations, companies might add the cost of putting you through training and induction programs, your mobile bills and official travel expenses and your tax liabilities. But it starts bordering on the absurd when the floor space rent of the employee’s cubicle in your Gurgaon office is added to the CTC. The CTC component then shots up to as much as another Rs 4 lakh, and the total salary paid by the company shoot up to Rs 6 lakh + Rs 2 lakh + Rs 4 lakh = Rs 12 lakh! So even though you’re getting paid only Rs 50,000 each month, b-schools are pros at showing your salary figures as Rs 12 lakh!

The other way to inflate salaries is by playing around with the wonderful tools of averages. Many b-schools include both the Indian and international placement packages in their average salaries by converting the dollar amounts of the international salaries to rupees. It’s unfair, because they do not normalize the purchasing power parity in different countries during the conversion. So earning € 3750 in London converts to Rs 30 lakh, but is hardly a lot because the cost of living in London is extremely high!

On top of that, when all the salaries offered to students are calculated inflated by adding the CTC and variable components, the average salary is bound look very, very attractive.

Other b-schools calculate average salary by including only the highest offers made to each student, regardless of whether those offers were accepted or not (these days, many students prefer to take up jobs that pay half a lakh less because the profiles are more interesting).

One can go on and on about this, but the important question is, how do you as an MBA aspirant see through all this and get the right data about a b-school’s salary figures to make an informed decision for yourself?

The key lies in asking the right questions. The next time you read a b-school placement report, take it with a pinch of salt. While most of the data in there would be accurate, you just need to dig a little deeper to be sure that the placement data figures are correct. When you contact a b-school or want to know more about a b-school by reaching out to its students through your coaching institute or social communities like Orkut, Facebook or Pagalguy, keep the following things in mind:

1. Ask for the average salary figures without the CTC component. If they do not have the exact data, ask for an estimate. A b-school is obliged to do this much if you’re spending a thousand rupees on their forms.
   
   
2. Ask for separate average salary figures for domestic and international salaries.
   
   
3. If you’re getting into MBA with a specific goal in mind (for example, you want to join the media industry in a business development role), ask specifically for a list of offers made in that domain in the last two years. If the b-school does not arrange those kinds of placements, it makes little sense for you to join it!
   
   
4. Ask for the lowest salary in the placements. In many cases, a b-school’s placements look good only because of a couple of really high packages that shoot the average up.
   

You owe yourself at least this much, because one wrong choice about a b-school could change your life!

SOURCE:WWW.PAGALGUY.COM