For the first time ever, the registrations for the Common Admission Test (CAT), conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) have crossed three lakhs. This has been confirmed by IIM Lucknow, CAT organizing committee of CAT 2023.
Also in another first, the highest number of women candidates registered for CAT. More than 1.17 lakh out of the total registered candidates 3.3 Lakh are women. Which is around 38%. Incidentally, a few years back many of the IIMs were seen to be struggling with balancing the gender diversity as female students in many of the campuses were as low as less than 10%.
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As per IIM Lucknow, there has been an increase of 30% in registrations from last year. Last year, in 2022, there was an increase of 11% in registrations. Prof Sanjeet Singh, exam convener and faculty at IIM Lucknow reportedly said, “A record 3.3 lakh applicants have registered for CAT 2023, which is the highest in the history of CAT that started in 1977”.
This is definitely a very positive trend as the past few years numbers in registration were not encouraging. CAT 2022 recorded a number of 2.55 lakh registrations while 2.31 lakh applied in 2021.
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According to a report published by us in 2022 the trend has been as below :
Till 2008, CAT was a pen-and-paper test. The first computer-based test was held in 2009. After this, the numbers dipped and rose gradually. While 2.41 lakh registered themselves in 2019, the number dipped in 2020 to 2.28
The CAT 2023 exam is scheduled to be held on November 26th 2023.
According to experts the growing numbers reflect sustained interest students have in the field of management studies.
There has been a 3% increase in female registrations. Over the past decade, IIMs have taken multiple steps to increase gender diversity in management education. Consequently, IIMs have anywhere between 30% and 45% female students on their campuses.
CAT 2023 will be a computer-based test of 120 minutes. The test will have the following three sections: Section I: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Section II: Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning, Section III: Quantitative Ability. Candidates will be allotted 40 minutes for answering questions in each section and they will not be allowed to switch from one section to another while answering questions in a section. Tutorials to understand the format of the test will be available on the CAT website. Candidates are advised to work on the tutorials available on the CAT website well in advance.
