CAT 2014 results declared, 16 score 100 percentile

The number of Indian Institutes of Management aspirants scoring a 100 percentile in the Common Admission Test this year was the double of the last.

Sixteen out of 1.68 lakh aspirants for the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) managed to notch up the coveted score in the Common Admission Test, the results of which were declared on Saturday.

Last year, eight aspirants had scored 100 percentile.

Common Admission Test (CAT), 2014, convenor Rohit Kapoor said the process of conducting the tests and declaring the results has been without a glitch.

From this year, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has bagged a five-year contract to conduct CAT.

Compared to last year, many more seats are up for grabs at the IIMs, after the government announced the opening of six new premier management institutes in different states.

With this, the total number of IIMs has gone up to 19 from 13. Besides, the intake in the existing 13 IIMs is also expected to be more than last year.

About 4,200-4,300 of these test-takers will be granted admission to the IIMs based on their CAT scores and their performance in personal interviews and group discussions, apart from the other criteria decided by the institutes.

Apart from the scores, IIMs also take other factors into consideration such as diversity, special points for female candidates, those with work experience, those with excellent scores in their board exams and those from non-engineering backgrounds.

This year, 10 candidates have scored 99.99 percentile, same as last year.

Out of total registrations of 1,97,000 candidates, about 1,68,000 candidates took the CAT exam. This was held on November 16 and November 22 at 354 test sites across 99 cities.

Ramnath Kanakadandi, national CAT course director at TIME (Triumphant Institute of Management Education), said the change in examination pattern for students was advantageous.

This year, the duration of the examination was increased to 170 minutes from the previous 140 minutes. Questions in each section — quantitative ability and data interpretation, verbal ability and logical reasoning — were increased to 50 each section from the previous 30.

Here, candidates had the flexibility for devoting more or less time to each section according to their ability and they could switch over from one section to another during the course of the examination.