If there is one thing predictable about the Common Admission Test (CAT), it is its unpredictability. And this time too, this entrance exam to premier management institutes lived up to its reputation.

The first surprise came when students realised each question carried four marks and one negative mark for every wrong answer, unlike one mark for right answer and 1/4th negative mark as was the norm till last year.

But this was certainly better than last year, when CAT had sprung up even more drastic changes with two and three mark questions.

CAT-2006’s duration was increased by half an hour and, contrary to popular assumption, the number of questions actually were reduced.

Instead of the standard 90 questions spread over three sections, there were only 75, 25 each testing quantitative aptitude, data interpretation and verbal abilities of over 1.9 lakh CAT aspirants across the country.

The surprises did not end there. For once, many felt the Quant (quantitative analysis) section was easier than on previous occasions. But Verbal was a bit tricky.

Fifteen of the 25 questions in this section were dedicated to reading comprehension, a time-consuming aspect of CAT.
Also the number of choices in this multiple-choice paper were increased from four to five.

“I took CAT last year too. As I didn’t perform well, I couldn’t make it to the IIMs. But this year’s CAT was more satisfying. Though the paper was shorter, there was more room for careless mistakes, there was enough time to go through the answers on the marking sheet. I think Quant was relatively simple and easy compared to other sections,” said P Nishank Reddy, an engineering graduate.

For non-Math people, Verbal was not as easy as it seemed. “Verbal was easy, but the answers were very tricky, all sounded similar.

We had to choose the most probable answer, but all were very similar in meaning, it made our choice difficult in reading comprehension,” P Shweta, a commerce graduate, said.

About 10,600 candidates took CAT across 11 centres in the city. There are 1,350 seats up for grabs in the five IIMs, and 3,000 more in other management institutes that accept CAT scores.

With CAT, starts the season of management entrance exams. CAT is followed by entrance of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade next Sunday, followed by entrances to Narsee Monjee, Mumbai, Symbiosis, Pune and ICFAI in different cities. Xavier’s Admission Test for admission to XLRI will be held in January.

The Top 10 Business Schools in India were in alphabetical order, not rank as the Indian Institute of Management (IIMS) did not want to participate in the investigation. It follows that the classification begins the eleventh.

The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) has pipped all other IIMs this year by bagging the highest domestic offer across all IIMs during lateral placements.

The institute beat its more illustrious counterpart, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to grab the top spot in the highest domestic salary offered during laterals.

The highest offer at Rs 16.2 lakh, made by a software major to an IIM-C grad, betters the offer made by Genpact to an IIM-A student at Rs 15.5 lakh. It is also the best-ever domestic offer in laterals.

In addition, international firms such as Johnson Electric, Microsoft, Mittal Steel and SAP International Consulting Group made 21 overseas offers this year, compared with just 14 last year.

The highest overseas offer this year is $85,000. The total offers made to IIM-C grads this year stand at 65 so far, compared with 90 last year. The institute hopes to bag more offers during the next few days. IIM-A and IIM-C have clubbed the Day zero of laterals with the Day zero of finals for the first time.

“Most of the Day zero recruiters for laterals and finals are the same, and to reduce their travel time, it was decided to club the two days into one,” a source told ET. With lateral placements drawing to a close, all eyes are fixed on the final placements which begin at IIM-A, B, C from the second week of March.

Job experience is crucial while studying a management course and many companies have corporate MBA programmes

EXPLAINING THINGS: Management students discussing their curriculum.

I have completed my engineering (ECE) and want to pursue MBA. I don’t know whether to pursue MBA directly or first join a company and then take up the course. Which is better? Which option should I take up in MBA?

Prakash Kumar

Placements in all institutions are a must, and if you are being provided placement in a good company, then you should take it up, unless you clear CAT and join any of the top B-Schools.

A job is always good, as it brings in the experience and today one finds that a good number of companies have tied up with institutions of repute and are providing quality education in the office premises. Institutions include Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, and Symbiosis. Even the IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) are chipping in with corporate MBA programmes.

One can pursue education in any good corporate entity as companies are using this method to retain and train associates who have potential and help them in their career in a qualitative fashion.

The process of drawing up modalities for implementation of the proposed reserve 27 per cent of management institutions CBO began. The sixmember panel of experts established by the Centre and the former management of the IIM-A director Samuel Paul met in Bangalore, an initial brainstorming session.

The status of resources available on the IIMS was the central point of discussion. Members of the Faculty and evaluate the development of necessary infrastructure, as soon as the rates applied.

A questionnaire is now by the Government on the group, which are compiled and will be discussed at the next meeting on June 20 in Chennai. The refusal to develop Bakul Dholakia, director, IIM-A, told TOI from Bangalore, “It was only a first meeting in a number of meetings”. Dholakia, one of six members of the group, had already said that IIM-A’s “disk is full” and indicates its inability to increase the provision of the existing 280

The meeting took into account also the omissions IIM, Bangalore and IIM, Indore, the panel members. However, the following proposals by the group members meet on ‘, it is likely that these two IIMS in Chennai.

With the exception of Paul and Dholakia, the other members of the group include IIMKozhikode director Krishna Kumar, IIM Calcutta-director Shekhar Chaudhury, director IIMLucknow Devi Singh and the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai, director SD Awale. Paul’s expert group is one of three groups - each for the construction of machines of institutions, the central government and academic institutions.

Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon think the executive offers its online programs for foreign executives. Said its new director, Sujit K Basu, “We’re looking in distance education for executives abroad, particularly businesses, interest in the Indian market. Curbs also repeal the open learning, we can now consider tie-ups abroad B - Schools and offer, in collaboration Distance Education. ”

Says Ms. Ananth, director, IIT Madras, “Our program is already available and is now available online for students studying in itself. For the moment, we do not start a degree or certificate online training. Let’s wait for the future. “Meanwhile, the International College of Financial Planning has announced the launch of its online program in collaboration with the New Zealand Institute of online learning.

These permits have been displaced by a decision by Monday, distance Education Council - the Board of Directors for distance education and online campaign - repeal of the geographical jurisdiction of the agreement is limited to one educational institutions, inside its borders.

Calcutta: The Faculty of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, on Sunday sought distance of six “illegal” members, proposed by the previous NDA government, in their Board of Governors of the decisive meeting before June 18 convened to decide on the proposed structure of the fee IIMS.

“We want the six council members on the illicit removed before June 18, so that the meeting is not considered illegal because of their presence. If they can not be removed, so that they should only as observers and do not participate in the proceedings, Ashis Bhattacharya, dean of the IIM (C) Faculty Council, said here.

Pointing Device, which the Council, the Union Human Resources Ministry on the “complexity possible”, he said: “We hope the Government will take necessary measures for their early removal, preferably before the meeting. ”

The Council argued that the appointment of these members of the NDA government as “illegal” for inclusion was needed before the decisive meeting on March 26 on the proposal for a tax cut, without consultation with the Government of West Bengal.

Furthermore, filed a motion to petition the High Court of Calcutta April 28 against the legality of the 26 March meeting, to authorize the Board of Directors chairman YC Deveshwar on a draft resolution on the tax decrease. Deveshwar later announced acceptance of central directive on the reduction of taxes.

“Given that the case is sub judice, we do not want these members to attend the next meeting,” said Bhattacharya.

With the fee in instalments almost controversy however, the Council wanted the differences with Deveshwar circumcised, until the fee cut problem could be resolved before the meeting.

“We hope that the differences between what the president to resolve by then. We need cooperation, in order to take a decision on the fee structure for the curtains on the continuing controversy,” said Dean.

The meeting next week to benefit from the issue of fee structure as by the heads of six IIMS during his meeting with the secretary general training Union SC Tripathi June to eight.

In addition, the proposal of a “flexibility” must-scholarship program for poor students would also be on the agenda. These proposals, as with the centre, should be that the Boards of Governors of the IIMS of the decision before June 25

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) on Saturday decided not to increase the fee for the next academic year.

“The IIM-A Board of Governors decided not to increase the charge of the Post-Graduate Management Program for the next academic year, director of the Institute Bakul Dholakia told reporters.

“The fees for the coming years remain the same as the current year, which is the same as in 2003-04. The amount is Rs 1.58350 ($ 3600),” Dholakia said.

There has been speculation in the media, that most famous of six IIMS hike in the country, the fee for the next academic year, as some other IIMS had recently done.

“We have no locus standi to other IIMS,” said the chairman of the Board of Governors NR Narayana Murthy.

Dholakia, but added: “The IIM Kozhikode, for example, has been investigating Rs 1.00000, there is room for streamlining.

He said that the Institute had RS budget of 10 million need for its scholarship program, so that the IIM-A has been training for all components of society.

Murthy, who is also head of information technology giant Infosys mentor, …

MUMBAI: Around 2.3 lakh MBA aspirants will appear for the Common Admission Test (CAT) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in 23 cities across the country on Sunday, but around 7,000 other applicants will be left out of the race as their forms have been rejected.

Applicants last year, who filled in their forms incorrectly or forgot to attach important documents, were given a three-day period to reach one of the six IIMS and rectify their errors. But this time candidates are being only informed (through the CAT website) if their applications have been accepted or rejected. There is no opportunity to correct the forms.

“Though candidates were allowed to come to the IIMs and correct their forms last year, we found the system inequitable; students from the six cities (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Lucknow and Kozhikode) that had an IIM found it easier to rush to the institute and correct their forms while those from other cities and towns had to incur a lot of expenditure to travel to the IIMs. So we have discontinued the system,” IIM-Calcutta admissions chairman Ashish Bhattacharya said.

Some students, however, feel that they rather incur costs on travelling to the IIMs to correct their applications than lose a year of studies or the chance to study at an IIM or one of the 111 other institutions that accept CAT scores.

“My form was rejected because the copy of the bank slip that had to be enclosed with the application was not in my name. When I went to Axis Bank to buy the CAT form they said it wasn’t available. So I bought the form from a friend; that’s why the bank slip was not in my name. When I didn’t receive my admit card, I e-mailed IIM Ahmedabad but they didn’t give me any information about the rejection. Finally, I got to know from their website that my form had been rejected. Is it my mistake that the bank counter hadn’t stocked enough forms?” fumed an applicant.

Goa Institute of Management director and former faculty of IIM-Calcutta Ranjan Ghosh said, “There is little chance of making a mistake if the students are careful while submitting their forms. But, at the same time, those who make such errors should to be given a chance to rectify them.”

“It’s unfair that the students have not been given an opportunity to correct their mistakes,” said Jiban Mukhopadhyay, faculty member at S P Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai.

Mumbai: The rating of private enterprises Business Schools in the city to continue to increase sharply, if the student has increased food to Indian Institute of Management affects the quality of training at these renowned institutions.

“If they should, as many students from more than 200 currently to 800, the quality of education is bound to suffer,’’says Ocean Gonsalves, NMIMS ‘coordinator of Corporate Relations.

Mr. Adds Uday Salunkhe, director of the Institute for Management Welingkar at Matunga, “The attempt to control the functioning of the Institute could also IIMS demoralize faculty and administration.”

This could also be improving the B rating, other schools. Dean of the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research in ML Shrikant Andheri, says he considers his school as well as IIMS. “The question is, as we sell the idea?”

Given that most schools in the city free B lucrative fees they IIM bar fees are justified? Yes, Mr. Shri Kant “The contribution of IIMS to society was not as expected.”Mr Salunkhe justify the reduction of fees, and added that since institutions are well equipped by the government, structure of fees can be reduced. However, he adds, that IIMS are not elitist and inaccessible enablequality infrastructure costs.

Prashant Kothari, 23, a loan of R 2 lakhs under consideration at IIM (A) for the year 2001 its agreement. “At the time of admission, banks are tight on the loan money.”