After a 5-year lull, CAT registrations up 15.6%

The rise is attributed to efforts by IIMs to reach out to more candidates

After a gap of five years, demand for management education is seeing a revival, with registrations for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2015 rising 15.6 per cent to 218,664 candidates from 189,000 last year.

After touching a high of 242,000 in 2009, CAT registrations had been declining. In 2010 and 2011, these stood at around 205,000 each, followed by 214,000 in 2012, and 195,000 in 2013.

CAT scores are used by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), along with 103 other business schools, to admit students to management courses. For this year, the IIMs extended the registration deadline for CAT from September 20 to September 25.

According to data available, in the last five days of the registration process, IIM-Ahmedabad recorded the sale of 35,632 registration forms, against 183,032 till September 20.

While CAT registration centres did not comment on the reasons for the rise in registrations, sources attributed this to greater efforts by IIMs to reach out to more candidates. The increase in the number of cities where the examination will be held this year comes amid efforts to have registration centres in remote places.

This year, CAT will be conducted at 650 examination centres across 136 cities. A new section, reading comprehension, has been added and the exam duration has increased by 10 minutes. Also, students will now be allowed to use an on-screen calculator.

The exam is scheduled to be held on November 29 and the results will be declared in the second week of January.