Student's corner

Dear students,

LAST WEEK WE ASKED: Do you think GMAT can outgrow CAT in popularity in India?

BEST RESPONSE

With the ever increasing awareness about GMAT among the Indian students, more number of institutes are beginning to accept GMAT scores. Moreover GMAT's popularity among Indian students is growing thanks to the flexibility of choosing to take GMAT around the year and its scores being accepted around the world. On the other hand, popularity of CAT is on downside since CAT is held only once a year and its score is accepted only in India. Besides less of weight-age is being given to CAT score by the institute and more to the profile of the candidate.

- Nilaya Mitash Shanker, Shri Ram Swaroop Memorial College of Engineering and Management (SRMCEM), Lucknow

OTHER RESPONSES

Innovation, change and reliability are the major components of any entrance exam for management studies. CAT has done the first two but now a days the last component is missing in it. Hence institutes are also moving towards the state level examination or other competitive exams. Management education becomes so costly in India that people prefer to go abroad for further studies as the exposure is higher. Due to this GMAT may outgrow CAT in near future.

- Jimit Parikh, St. Kabir Institute of Professional Studies, Ahmedabad

GMAT scores are now increasingly accepted and recognized by a greater pool of Indian management institutions, including the renowned ISB. Moreover, since the number of Indian students aspiring for post graduation in management are on a perpetual rise, there is an inadequate number of quality management institutes in India. This creates a window of opportunity to study in foreign management institutes and inevitably take GMAT. However the high cost of GMAT may prove to be a deterrent in a price-sensitive country like India.

- Akshay Chadha, NSIT Delhi

A significant slow down in applications sold by IIM authorities in recent past gives a clear indication that the CAT charm among the students is beginning to fade. On the contrary number of students taking GMAT is increasing tremendously. This may be due to selection and recruitment process that are being carried out by IIM authorities, A very slight change in percentile at CAT can snatch away a candidate's chances of making it to the IIMs whereas GMAT offers international exposure to students.Thus, GMAT gives student a level playing ground which CAT fails to provide in real terms.

- Harsh Mehta, St Kabir Institute of Professional Studies

Everybody wants to access high-level professional development in the area of higher education management. This can only be done by taking admission in one of the best institute of the world. But CAT is applicable only in India while GMAT is a global test. Today India is fastest developing country where not only business but also classrooms are evolving and so is the GMAT exam. GMAT also introduced Integrated Reasoning, something we do almost everyday. Hence, GMAT can easily outgrow over CAT in India.

- Diwanshu Dudeja, ITM University, Gurgaon

Your responses should reach us at edu@business-standard.com by Monday evening every week. Please ensure that your responses do not exceed 100 words. Avoid attachments and email your full name, institute's name, batch and complete mailing address. The student who gives the 'Best Response' will be awarded Rs 500.

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: Do you think banks rating B-school students will solve the bad loans issue?