CAT 2026

CAT Exam

Common Admission Test, commonly referred to as the CAT examination, happens to be a nationwide management aptitude test which is held once a year to grant admission to MBA aspirants in IIMs and almost 1200 other business schools across the country. 

As per stats gathered till 2021, almost 2,00,000 candidates sit for this highly competitive examination that generally takes place near the end of November. Total number of questions in CAT 2023 is expected to be same as that of CAT 2022 i.e., 66 questions in all.

The entire marks are distributed among multiple subjects like Quants or Quantitative Aptitude, Logical reasoning, Data Interpretation, Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability. The time duration of exam is 2 hours. 

CAT Exam Highlights

The guidelines for the CAT examination are set by any top IIM institute each year. In 2021, IIM Ahmedabad got this prestigious opportunity of hosting the exam. The exam governing body’s name for this year’s Common Admission Test will soon be declared by the General Council. We have listed the highlights of CAT exam 2023 for your prompt reference:

To check the latest updates related to CAT Exam 2023, we highly recommend the aspirants to stay in touch with the official website tagged as iimcat.ac.in. This ensures that no important notification related to examination dates, issuance of admit card, application form availability, etc. is missed by a student. Also, there is a toll-free help desk extension which is 1-800-210-1088.

CAT 2023 Eligibility Criteria

As we have already discussed earlier that the CAT Examination is conducted to fill up PG-level managerial course vacancies, hereby we are about to discuss the bare minimum qualification that a candidate must secure in his/her undergraduate course to sit for CAT: 

• An MBA aspirant needs to graduate in any specialization securing at least 50% marks on aggregate. This threshold has been set to 45% for all reserved caste candidates (SC/ST). The student’s graduation certificate must be issued from and acknowledged by a recognized university.
• Individuals who had passed college a few years ago and have already been working in various professional sectors like IT/ Sales/ Marketing etc. also appear for the CAT examination.
• Last year college students who are currently pursuing a degree course in any subject principle are also eligible to sit for CAT 2023.

CAT Syllabus

Ideally, a minimum of six months is recommended for each candidate who attempts to fully brush up on the vast syllabus for the CAT examination. For first-timers, this timeframe is sufficient to prepare well by appearing in several mock tests while the students who have already sat before, might need lesser preparation. 

CAT Exam Pattern

Specific test centres are selected to conduct the CAT exam across various cities. The mode of examination is online and the students answer the papers seated in front of computers. 

Exam pattern underwent alterations in 2020 followed by the pandemic effect. The number of questions reduced to 76 from 100, also the exam duration had been reduced to 120 minutes or 2 hours from 3 hours. In 2021, the number of questions was reduced to 66 from 76.

CAT 2023 Preparation Tips

The aspirants are expected to start preparation for this examination at least by the end of June; however, those who prepare from March create a more decent chance for themselves to secure a handsome aggregate in the CAT. Top MBA institutes including the IIMs provide admission to students with percentile ranging between 95 and 99.5+, thus without adequate preparation, it is not suggested that one must appear for this highly competitive examination. Several dedicated books are designed for cracking this test; this includes books on Quantitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, self-study books, last week’s preparation modules and much more. After sufficient practice, a student can appear for a reasonable number of mock evaluations depending on their conceptualization satisfaction of key aspects. After all of these, one becomes ready to excel in this national-level test.

CAT Registrations

The registration procedure involves filling out the CAT exam application form by all those who are willing to officially enrol their names in top MBA institutes across the country. First, the candidate must visit the official web page of the CAT Examination and register their candidature. It is estimated that the registration process for CAT Examination will start in August (1st week). To know more about registration, visit the website and execute CAT login.

CAT Admit Card

Students will be able to download it by visiting the website iimcat.ac.in and entering their login credentials.

Top MBA colleges 

We have listed the top 10 MBA colleges in India in the following table:

1. IIM Ahmedabad
2. IIM Bangalore
3. IIM Calcutta
4. IIM Kozhikode
5. IIM Lucknow
6. IIM Indore
7. XLRI 
8. IIT Delhi
9. SP Jain
10. IIT Bombay

Top Colleges Accepting CAT Scores