New Delhi: The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have announced admissions to various management programmes offered at the institutes located at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong through the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2009.

In an official release, the IIMs have clarified that CAT 2009 would be a Computer Based Test (CBT) and not an Internet Based Test (IBT).

“A candidate would not take the CAT 2009 on an Internet site. Instead of reading the questions in a paper booklet and darkening the ovals on the answer-sheet, a candidate will read the questions on a computer terminal and choose an answer by clicking on the correct option”, the IIMs said.

Cat 2009 Notification on August 30 2009

A candidate can take the test only at designated test venues in 30 cities across India. CAT 2009 would be held between November 28, 2009 and December 7, 2009.
The test will be held twice - once in the morning and the other in the evening.
A candidate can choose a test date, session (morning/afternoon), and venue across thirty centres (cities) all over India, subject to availability.

The CAT scores not only determine admission into the IIMs, but also to several other reputed management institutes.

While about 95,000 candidates took the CAT in 2003, the number rose to about 250,000 in 2008, indicating a whopping 163 percent rise.

According to the IIMs, this has resulted in severe strain on the administrative system of the institutes to conduct the CAT in its existing format.

The computer based CAT will be candidate-friendly, flexible in the selection of test date, ease registration process, provide better physical environment and test experience, and enhanced security in terms of biometric identification of candidates and video monitoring.

The IIMs have been conducting CAT in paper-and-pencil format for the last 33 years.

source: educationnews.net