The CAT exam for admission into the IIMs are supposed to tough. They consist of objective questions a huge number of them. You need to get correct the maximum number of them in 2 hours duration.
A very pertinent question is : The students are never going to use the work-time or arithmetic progression or remainder theorem when they become managers, then why is CAT trying to evaluate in the students? Many people replied is stress handling ability. It is trying to guage how well you perform in the exam in a short duration and a lot of pressure given the immense competition. This might be true long back!
The format of the paper earlier might have ensured that people need good stress handling ability toanswer a huge number of questions with good accuracy. Now its not so. The coaching institutes, come up with short cuts almost for each and every topic. All you have to do now is take up classes from a coaching institute, mug up the short cuts exhaustively and leave those you do not have short cuts for and you would fare well.. To increase the number of attempts, the institutes basically eliminate the need to "think" during the exam!! Keep the stress on your mind down so that you can think if you need to ( With the kind of such exhaustive short cuts they give, does one ever need to think in the exam? )
The CAT question paper setters need to be more careful now. To beat this, they need to devise mechanisms that would force the people who mug up to think in the exam and perform under pressure and provide a level playing field for all students. But can they do ? I doubt. The result is that people who are good at mug-up but average would get into the coveted institutes whereas people with good credentials and good analytical abilities might not.
A very pertinent question is : The students are never going to use the work-time or arithmetic progression or remainder theorem when they become managers, then why is CAT trying to evaluate in the students? Many people replied is stress handling ability. It is trying to guage how well you perform in the exam in a short duration and a lot of pressure given the immense competition. This might be true long back!
The format of the paper earlier might have ensured that people need good stress handling ability toanswer a huge number of questions with good accuracy. Now its not so. The coaching institutes, come up with short cuts almost for each and every topic. All you have to do now is take up classes from a coaching institute, mug up the short cuts exhaustively and leave those you do not have short cuts for and you would fare well.. To increase the number of attempts, the institutes basically eliminate the need to "think" during the exam!! Keep the stress on your mind down so that you can think if you need to ( With the kind of such exhaustive short cuts they give, does one ever need to think in the exam? )
The CAT question paper setters need to be more careful now. To beat this, they need to devise mechanisms that would force the people who mug up to think in the exam and perform under pressure and provide a level playing field for all students. But can they do ? I doubt. The result is that people who are good at mug-up but average would get into the coveted institutes whereas people with good credentials and good analytical abilities might not.
6 comments:
The interview and the GD help only those who pass the exam which means they get more than 99 percentile.
The interview calls for those candidates who have atleast 98.5 percentile. My question is - is it right to justify that because a candidate has score 2 or 3 percentile less, cannot become a good manager? Are you going to measure managerial skills through that?
Regarding the EAMCET/IIT thing, I dont think it's related to AP but more to whether people had their education in a good convent and have good english. Because the quant part is quite easy for any Indian especially a Comp techy. So, people who are from metros or cities tend to crack CAT easily.
Although I admit the same lacuna exists with EAMCET also, I beleive EAMCET is more justified in having the exam than CAT. I am not saying this because I am a topper in EAMCET. Because it atleast tries to measure Maths, Physics and Chemistry subjects that you need generally for an engineering degree...
Why are you so gungho about IIM. Go for ISB or some other better school which has different eligibility criteria.
@ anonymous
unfortunately, iims are still the best b-schools in india... :)
and coming to the discussion on CAT. CAT is more of hardwork, practice and strategy. those two hours definetely test you on those.
and nishi, a wrong argument but yet, let us say, a guy mugs up all those short cuts diligently and then spends hours revising and re-revising them. dont u thnk, given the work he has put in, he is eligible to get into iim. if he is so bad, there is always the gd/pi round where he woudl get screened. maybe the guy was so gung-ho about CAT that he was ready to put in all that effort. that isnt wrong na..
and one more thing.. writing CAT helps u get into IIMs where they make good managers out of you. Managers job is more of managing things, making sure the systems are in place and ensuring that everythign is going according to plan. This requires more of the above said qualities rather than out of box thinking.
And if u ask me personally , ppl with lateral thinking, out of the box thinking or creative thinking, watever you call it are the ones who go on to the higher mgmt levels on merit basis while the latter category which relies on hardwork to move up the corporate ladder and some of them remain stuck at the middle mgmt levels. but without these mid level mgrs, companies would cease to exist... final word: right man for the right job....
has this become too long for a comment now ?? :)
Very true. I do agree with you.
BTW, added your blog to my list.
I think it's a matter of logistics. How do you match 150,000+ candidates to 1200 odd seats? Easiest way to eliminate is a common exam and hence the CAT. A low score in CAT certainly does not mean that one is bad.
Yes nishkala, i too don't think the argument is valid. also the formula mug-up can only help 1/3rd of CAT test. RC and English and most importantly the managerial type funda of DS and DI is there. Quant cut-offs also are only reasonable and not demanding. I've given the test and failed miserably, but still i would say it is the kind of test that is designed to screen and take the really interested (for it needs enough time to be spent on it and isn't any go and give away kind of test) and talented future managers.
Also academic credentials mean even less sense for the kind of work manager does, especially if the candidate has engg background. They can be however considered to estimate the diligence of the candidate at acads, but i'd say it's a nice to have yet optional thing.
Anyway congratulations for making it into Ross school of Michigan University. Aim for the best in your MBA program abroad.
cheers
Jaya
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