December 6 preferred date for CAT 2009, says poll

With 240,000 applicants Common Admission Test (CAT) preparing for the paperless examination to be scheduled between November 28 and December 7, the favourite date amongst masters of business administration (MBA) aspirants seems to be December 6, states a poll conducted by PaGaLGuY.com, an MBA resources website. As many as 1,821 voters (24 per cent) prefer to take the test on the date, which falls on the first Sunday of December, out of the total 7,635 voters in the poll that began in August this year.

The other dates which followed were December 5 and 7 with 12 per cent votes each, November 29 with 11 per cent votes among others. November 28, the first day of the exam, got only 6 per cent (458) votes.

The website also conducted a survey on the amount the MBA aspirants would spend to get into their dream business schools, which resulted in 31 per cent of 3,969 voters choosing to spend between Rs 3000 and Rs 8000 on B-school admission forms. While only four per cent is ready to spend over Rs 25,000 on admission forms of various colleges, 13 per cent is ready to do whatever it takes to get into the most coveted B-school.

With the CAT becoming a computer-based test (CBT) this year, coaching institutes for the exam have been conducting mock tests online. However, almost 55 per cent of the voters who took the poll said they were not satisfied with their coaching institute’s handling of mock CAT-CBTs.