Belling CAT may get easy; Test to have only 2 sections

This year'sCommon Admission Test (CAT) will have a new format. Candidates will not only have more time, but also a section less to attempt. The test will start from October 22 and continue till November 18.

According to theCAT committee, the computerbased test will now have only two sections with separate time limits. Candidates will also be given a 15-minute tutorial before the commencement of the main examination .

"The first section will focus on quantitative ability and data interpretation, while the second will be on verbal ability and logical reasoning . Each section will have 30 questions and 70 minutes will be given. Both sections will follow a sequence with on-screen countdown timers for each," said professor Janakiraman Moorthy of IIM-Kolkata and CAT 2011 convenor. Earlier, the test was divided into three sections with 20 questions each.

Under the new format, once time ends for the first section, the aspirants will move to the second without the option of coming back to the previous one. Although new in the computer-based version of CAT, this format was previously experimented with when it was still a paper-and-pencil test. Including the tutorial, the examination will be of two hours and 35 minutes duration.

CAT 2011, which will be conducted within a window of 28 days, will have 20 actual testing days, like last year. For the convenience of the candidates , three new cities - Bhilai , Jammu and Dehradun - have been added to the existing 33 test locations. Moreover , CAT brochures can now be purchased from 201Axis Bank branches. This step shall reduce the difficulties faced by applicants in registering for the test.

Moorthy said: "Considerable effort has been made to maintain similar level of difficulty across papers. A small number of statistically and psychometrically validated questions have been randomly inserted in each question paper as equating blocks. These will be used for establishing post test equality across the days."

The check-in procedure this year will start one-and-ahalf hours before the scheduled test time instead of two hours in CAT 2010. With this change, the afternoon session will have an earlier start time of 3.15pm.

ISB, IIM students place resumes on job portals

It’s an unprecedented trend and a far cry from the days when B-schools students would change jobs a mere six months after being placed by their institutes.

The graduates of the 2009 batch from top B-schools, including the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and even the Indian School of Business (ISB), have a different story to tell this year as they continue to upload their resumes on portals even after they have secured jobs during the recently-concluded placements. Not happy with the placements they got this year, they are looking for better opportunities.

Job portals have recently been flooded with resumes, which comes as a surprise even for those who run those portals. Take for instance, iimjobs.com, which received over 300 resumes of 2009 graduates of premier B-schools recently. "Surprisingly, resumes are still pouring in after the placements have been declared over. This is unprecedented and shows that the students are not satisfied with the jobs they have received through the placement process. This trend can be observed across all business schools from across IIMs and ISB to XLRI, FMS and MDI," said Tarun Matta, founder of iimjobs.com and an IIM Indore graduate.

A student of IIM, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) said: “Usually most students from IIMs get good job offers and they take them up to move on to even better ones within six months’ time. But in the current meltdown scenario, many students from the institute have seen a dearth of good offers and taken up whatever average jobs offered. There is a feeling of insecurity and dissatisfaction, which has prompted most to rely on job portals like naukri.com, iimjobs.com and others and given the hope of procuring better offers."

For the students of the ISB, the plan B of posting resumes on job portals seems to be the ideal choice. "Our placements are still on and I have posted my resume on various job portals as a last resort with the hope that I would get at least something out of these portals. Although some students are getting foreign offers, they are shying away from foreign placements as it only gives more insecurity and raises anxiety," said an ISB student on conditions of anonymity.

Job seekers, who pursued a management degree from universities in the US or UK, are also looking for jobs in India. Job portals are said to be getting at least 15-20 per cent traffic from outside India. A student of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, who wished anonymity, said: "There are many students who have got interesting offers from foreign companies but have turned them down because there is a growing insecurity among the students about foreign placements. Also, gone are the days when big shot recruiters fat pay packets queued up at the institutes."

ISB extends placement season indefinitely

Only 57% students placed so far.


For the first time since its inception, the Indian School of Business (ISB) has extended its placement season indefinitely. Only 250 of the 440 students (around 57 per cent) in the class of 2009 have secured jobs in the placement drive that began in early January.

Placements should have been completed by the end of March, and the campus would have been readying for graduation day in the first week of April. However, the slowing economy appears to have taken a toll on this prestigious B-school, which ranked 15 in the 2009 global MBA rankings released by the Financial Times. Over the years, the placement trends were analysed and results announced by graduation day, scheduled for April 4. This year, that is unlikely to happen. There are already hints of a fall in the annual average salary offers from Rs 18-20 lakh to Rs 13-15 lakh.

In 2007, 581 offers were made to 416 students. In 2008, 657 offers were made to 421 students.

The IT-ITeS, finance and real estate sectors combined made 280 job offers in 2008. This year, all these sectors have been hit by the slowdown. The school had, in fact, sensed this and started inviting new companies for campus recruitment around November this year.

Many students graduating this April will still have access to ISB’s resources and services over the next few months to find a job. The school will be in regular touch with students to help them find a suitable job that fits students’ profiles.

The school, however, has not fixed any timeframe for students to find jobs. “We will continue to explore avenues till all students find the right job in accordance with their qualifications and work experience,” said an ISB spokesperson.

The premier B-school had earlier announced that it would increase enrolments by 560 to 600 for the class of 2010. It did not, however, explain how it would raise the number of job offers if the job market did not pick up.

ISB has six months to plan for the placement of the new batch after collecting the profiles of the students, their preferences for a sector or function, location choices and so on.

IIM Bangalore hikes fees by 25000

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) has decided to increase the fee for its two-year flagship post graduate management programme by Rs 25,000 to Rs 5.25 lakh for this academic year. The fees will be further hiked to Rs 5.75 lakh for students who begin the two-year course in 2010.

Announcing the fee hike in Bangalore today, IIM-B Director Pankaj Chandra said the institute is increasing the fee as it is bearing additional cost with regard to wage increases brought in place following the Sixth Pay Commission. In addition to this, the institute is also paying increased pension to 200 pensioners.

Chandra said the institute is also taking up construction of building of hostels, class room, staff quarters to accommodate the increase in OBC quota and all these costs are forcing them to increase the fee.

IIM-B is also increasing the number of students on campus to 350 for 2009-10 from the current 270. "We are adding one more section to accommodate the increase," Chandra added. In addition to the flagship MBA program, IIM-B is also taking in 75 student for its executive post graduate management program, public policy programs and fellow programs. "Taking all these programmes, at the end of the admission cycles the total enrollment would be 1,200 students at the end of the ensuing admission cycle from last year's 962," Chandra detailed.

He also added that they are having to increase the fee for the student as during the past five years the Union government has not facilitated any grants. The institute is also adding 14 more faculty for the ensuing academic year.

IIM-L placement session ends, average salary drops 25%

The Indian Institute of Management Lucknow completed its placement exercise with average salary figures dropping by as much as 25%, though the PSU sector and government banks bailed out the students from the otherwise grim job market scenario. The PSU sector was the highest recruiter at IIM-L which saw total number of international and domestic offers dropping drastically.

Though the IIM-L did not reveal the salary figures, Prof Sushil Kumar, Chairman Placements at IIM-L, said that the salary level has seen a decline. He pointed out that the decrease for the 2008-10 batch has been in the same proportion as has been witnessed in the other IIMs.

Sources at the IIM-L said that the tough job market scenario saw the placements exercise being extended, which could only be completed well after the annual convocation ceremony. Despite bearing the brunt of the global downturn, finance came out as the winner once again with 40% of the students opting for it as compared to only 31% last year. Sales and marketing also witnessed a larger number of students being placed, up from 18% last year to 31% for the batch of 2008-10. A total of 284 offers as compared to 496 last year, were made to 267 students of the graduating batch along with 25 pre-placement offers.

CAT enrolment sees 20% rise, GRE, Toefl fall 30%

The global slowdown is taking a toll on the number of takers for international education training programmes. Enrolments for the Common Admission Test (CAT) at MBA test-preparing institutes, however, are in full swing.

Institutes confirm that student enrolment numbers for international education training programmes such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and Test of English as a Foreign Language (Toefl) have fallen around 30 per cent so far. Enrolments for Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT) have been stagnant.

The only exam to see a 20 per cent rise in the number of registrations is CAT — the gateway to Indian B-schools. CAT enrolments in test-preparing institutes continue till early September (the exam is held in November), but GRE and TOEFL tests are held round the year.

At the Hyderabad-based Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME), for instance, CAT contributes over 50 per cent to annual revenues. The institute also runs the popular Campus Recruitment Training (CRT) programme. “One would think stiffer competition would make more people enrol for programmes like the CRT or the GRE, but that is not the case,” said Jaideep Singh Chowdhary, senior manager-corporate planning at TIME.

“With people perceiving fewer opportunities, they are putting even their preparations on hold. This could explain the dip in enrolment numbers,” he added.

Delhi-based Career Launcher estimates that enrolments for GRE at the institute have seen a 20 per cent drop. “We will have to wait another quarter and see how the numbers pan out. So far we have seen some slowdown in the international education segment,” said Managing Director Nikhil Mahajan.

US-based ETS (Educational Testing Service), which conducts GRE and Toefl among other examinations worldwide, says that historically, it has seen increases in GRE during economic slowdowns and expects the same this year. However, David Payne, vice-president and COO, higher education, ETS, agreed that GRE volumes in India dropped in 2008.

Payne, however, is optimistic that GRE will have a robust year “because interest in graduate school increases due, in part, to the economy”.

CAT may not go online this year

The Common Admission Test (CAT) this year too may remain a paper-pencil test. Last December, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) had floated a tender and shortlisted four companies to conduct CAT 2009 online. These companies include ETS Prometric, Pearson VUE, Eduquity Career Technologies and Mumbai-based Attest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptech.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) this year too may remain a paper-pencil test. Last December, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) had floated a tender and shortlisted four companies to conduct CAT 2009 online. These companies include ETS Prometric, Pearson VUE, Eduquity Career Technologies and Mumbai-based Attest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptech.