CAT's new structure may raise the bar for aspirants

Thousands of students who took the Common Admission Test (CAT) this November fear the increased weight given to verbal questions may cost them their place at the top ranked B-schools.

Last year, there were 27 questions in the verbal section which has risen to 40 this year. This includes 20 questions on grammar and English usage and 20 questions on comprehension. The answers to these questions may not match the answer keys, soon to be released by the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), since verbal queries, unlike quantitative ones, are open to interpretation.

“Although we solved almost all the questions in the verbal section and believe the answers are right to the best of our knowledge, we are still unsure that they would be considered right by the institutes. Since questions in the verbal section are based on subjective interpretations, we are not sure whether our answers would be endorsed by the IIMs. Even a post-CAT discussion about verbal section among peers who took CAT led to a lot of confusion,” rues Sameer Pujar, a Bangalore-based IT firm employee who took the CAT this year.

The student concerns have been highlighted by MBAUniverse — a management information portal which analysed the answer keys released by MBA preparation institutes including IMS, TIME, Career Launcher and PT Education — which concluded that in nine of the 20 questions, the institutes had different answers. “We have found nine questions where experts from MBA preparation institutes have come up with different answers.

The answers will be released by the IIMs on January 9, but even then, we do not expect to get any explanations from the IIMs on why a particular answer is correct,” said an official from MBAUniverse.

Ajay Arora, Bangalore-based director of TIME, a coaching institute said that since CAT 2006, some questions — especially in the verbal section — have been found to be ambiguous every year. “We have seen that in a number of questions, at least two of the options could be interpreted as the right answer,” he said.

In fact, Gautam Puri — an IIM-Bangalore alumnus and MD of Career Launcher, a coaching institute — had filed an application under the RTI Act seeking solutions to questions in the English section of CAT 2006 after noting that some of the answers were disputable. However, the CAT group communicated to him that due to security reasons, CAT solutions are not preserved. “We have followed the procedure of not maintaining documents relating to CAT solutions to avoid leaks. We provide the answer keys for the benefit of students,” said an IIM admission official.

“It is unfortunate that a number of questions are interpreted differently by different people. There have been questions where students have been asked to state if a given paragraph is a fact, an inference or a judgement. Answers to some of these questions don't seem to correspond with the paragraph,” says Puri. Nevertheless, the 250,000 students who appeared for CAT 2008 will have to wait till January 9 for the answer.

2008 The Times Higher Education’s world university rankings

1 HARVARD University United States
2 YALE University United States
3 University of CAMBRIDGE United Kingdom
4 University of OXFORD United Kingdom
5 CALIFORNIA Institute of Technology (Calt... United States
6 IMPERIAL College London United Kingdom
7 UCL (University College London) United Kingdom
8 University of CHICAGO United States
9 MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology (M... United States
10 COLUMBIA University United States
11 University of PENNSYLVANIA United States
12 PRINCETON University United States
13= DUKE University United States
13= JOHNS HOPKINS University United States
15 CORNELL University United States
16 AUSTRALIAN National University Australia
17 STANFORD University United States
18 University of MICHIGAN United States
19 University of TOKYO Japan
20 MCGILL University Canada
21 CARNEGIE MELLON University United States
22 KING'S College London United Kingdom
23 University of EDINBURGH United Kingdom
24 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of T... Switzerland
25 KYOTO University Japan
26 University of HONG KONG Hong Kong
27 BROWN University United States
28 École Normale Supérieure, PARIS France
29 University of MANCHESTER United Kingdom
30= National University of SINGAPORE(NUS) Singapore
30= University of CALIFORNIA, Los Angeles (U... United States
32 University of BRISTOL United Kingdom
33 NORTHWESTERN University United States
34= ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE France
34= University of BRITISH COLUMBIA Canada
36 University of California, BERKELEY United States
37 The University of SYDNEY Australia
38 The University of MELBOURNE Australia
39 HONG KONG University of Science & Techno... Hong Kong
40 NEW YORK University (NYU) United States
41 University of TORONTO Canada
42 The CHINESE University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
43 University of QUEENSLAND Australia
44 OSAKA University Japan
45 University of NEW SOUTH WALES Australia
46 BOSTON University United States
47 MONASH University Australia
48 University of COPENHAGEN Denmark
49 TRINITY College Dublin Ireland
50= Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de LAUSANNE... Switzerland
50= PEKING University China
50= SEOUL National University Korea, South
53 University of AMSTERDAM Netherlands
54 DARTMOUTH College United States
55 University of WISCONSIN-Madison United States
56 TSINGHUA University China
57 HEIDELBERG Universität Germany
58 University of CALIFORNIA, San Diego United States
59 University of WASHINGTON United States
60 WASHINGTON University in St. Louis United States
61 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan
62 EMORY University United States
63 UPPSALA University Sweden
64 LEIDEN University Netherlands
65 The University of AUCKLAND New Zealand
66 LONDON School of Economics and Political... United Kingdom
67 UTRECHT University Netherlands
68 University of GENEVA Switzerland
69 University of WARWICK United Kingdom
70 University of TEXAS at Austin United States
71 University of ILLINOIS United States
72 Katholieke Universiteit LEUVEN Belgium
73 University of GLASGOW United Kingdom
74 University of ALBERTA Canada
75 University of BIRMINGHAM United Kingdom
76 University of SHEFFIELD United Kingdom
77 NANYANG Technological University Singapore
78= DELFT University of Technology Netherlands
78= RICE University United States
78= Technische Universität MÜNCHEN Germany
81= University of AARHUS Denmark
81= University of YORK United Kingdom
83= GEORGIA Institute of Technology United States
83= The University of WESTERN AUSTRALIA Australia
83= University of ST ANDREWS United Kingdom
86 University of NOTTINGHAM United Kingdom
87 University of MINNESOTA United States
88 LUND University Sweden
89 University of CALIFORNIA, Davis United States
90 CASE WESTERN RESERVE University United States
91= Université de Montréal Canada
91= University of HELSINKI Finland
93= Hebrew University of JERUSALEM Israel
93= Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Germany
95 KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Scie... Korea, South
96 University of VIRGINIA United States
97 University of PITTSBURGH United States
98 University of CALIFORNIA, Santa Barbara United States
99= PURDUE University United States
99= University of SOUTHAMPTON United Kingdom

Central university in each state by 2012

EDUCATION TO SPREAD ITS WINGS
Cities identified for locating 14 central universities during the 11th Plan
State City

Maharashtra Pune
West Bengal Kolkata
Tamil Nadu Coimbatore
Karnataka Mysore
Andhra Pradesh Vishakapatanam
Gujarat Gandhinagar
Rajasthan Jaipur
Bihar Patna
Madhya Pradesh Bhopal
Kerala Kochi
Punjab Amritsar
Orissa Bhubaneswar
Uttar Padesh Greater Noida
North Eastern Region Guwahati


The universities will be multidisciplinary with a national and international faculty pool. A common entrance test is also being planned. However, any decision regarding the universities concerned will be taken after they are up and running.

Bringing an ordinance in place is a necessary condition to facilitate the formation of these universities. Establishment of these central universities in the above states is subject to state governments offering adequate land at suitable locations and free of cost. Each state government concerned is being requested to offer land accordingly, says a professor familiar with the development.

Learning from life WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

The degrees earned at business school are the ones that give you an edge, but there is more to it than that. There are vital lessons which you learn through the course of your life. These important principles in life have taken me forward in my profession and shaped my viewpoints.

Find a vacuum and fill it: Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. The first rule for a manager is to train himself to see vacuums, or gaps, in the market and then to fill them. Look around, it doesn’t matter how big or small your area of operation is. The principle remains the same: find that vacuum and fill it fast, before someone else does.

Embrace change as a way of life: The graveyard of business is littered with companies that failed to recognise the need to change. Be open to new ideas and anticipate constant change. Vigilance is a great asset. Always look for new ways to do things and believe that, once it works, it will soon be obsolete. Change is constant. Change is everywhere. Deal with it, or your business will die.

Measure for measure: Benchmarking is the cornerstone of continuous improvement. It makes you focus on basic issues as to how one can improve and how others are doing the same thing better. A good manager should always have a healthy disregard for the status quo. Benchmarking allows this dissatisfaction to be channeled into productive change. It should be a state of mind rather than a performance review.

Chase quality, not quantity: Perhaps it is a gift rather than a quality — a gift of being able to distinguish between what is ordinary and something that other people recognise as outstanding, as exceptional. Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skilful execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives. If you want to compete with the best, you have to worry about every detail. Competition is tough, but if the standard of service and attention to detail exceeds expectations, you are halfway to winning customer loyalty.

People build brands, brands do not build people: A brand is only as good as the people behind it and their passion for excellence. Even dominant brands also must be constantly reinvented through infusion of fresh ideas. While a powerful tool, a brand is only as good as the people using it — and if you have chosen the right people, they can just as easily create a new brand and even, in some cases, fashion a better one if asked. In a nutshell, people build brands, brands don’t build people.

Be prepared for anything:
We can’t control every event but we can control our response to it. As a business we need to be lean and strong. If we are not, we will not be able to go through a crisis in case it hits us. You have to win — so many people are depending on you. That is why you have to be prepared for any type of emergency and be able to adapt to it on short notice.

The Author : "Rahul Nath"-> graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 1987

Preparatory schools go the IIM way

Leading institutes line up large investments to give online training.
With the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) mulling to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) online in a couple of years, MBA test-preparing institutes like Career Launcher and TIME are also preparing to get their online act together.

Career Launcher, for instance, plans to invest around Rs 3 million across its centres to provide computer terminals for its students. “CAT online means taking a test on the computer which serves questions from a local server. We are working towards equipping ourselves with training and putting our methodology in place,” says Shiva Kumar, Director, Career Launcher, an MBA-test preparing institute.

TIME, on the other hand, says it could tie-up with a network of colleges or companies like Reliance Infocom to facilitate online training for its students. “We are looking at tying up with computer training institutes or a network of colleges with computer labs at various centres to conduct computer-based training sessions,” said Jaideep Singh Chaudhary, product manager — CAT, TIME. TIME has around 169 offices across 81 cities and it trains over 50,000 students for CAT exam alone.

Online testing could allow a host of flexibilities like convenience of testing across various centers, conducting test at any time of the year in a phased-out manner over a span of 30-odd days and validity of scores beyond a year — to the IIMs admission committee and the students.

According to sources, IIMs have already invited tenders for conducting the test by parties or companies with ability to put up infrastructure that can handle the exam on such a large scale. The CAT exams could be formatted on the lines of the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) so that the scores are valid for a year or two.

Meanwhile, the IIMs are considering online CAT to counter the burgeoning number of CAT applicants each year. The numbers have moved from 90,000 aspirants to 2.3 lakh aspirants (in 2007) over a span of four years. This year the number of students to appear for CAT are expected to go up to 300,000 students. In comparison, a decade ago, the number of CAT applicants was somewhere around 35,000.

Industry players are also expecting that an online exam could reduce the number of questions. “The number of questions in CAT has been reducing constantly. In the past two years, there have been 75 questions in total. It is 45 per cent of the total number questions that came in CAT 1998. Interestingly, there are around 75 questions in GMAT which is on-line too,” adds Kumar.

Online CAT would mean that comfort with working on and reading from the computer is a must for students. Part of the practice for students will shift to the computers. “Though the fundamentals would remain the same, people could be more willing to learn through computers,” adds Kumar.

While there are concerns about security breaches to the test process, industry players say CAT online can look at BITSAT—graduate admission exams being successfully applied by BITS, Pilani.

“The BITSAT model has an outsourced partner who has built the testing engine, which generates tests based on a tagged database supplied by the authorities. For BITSAT, BITS Pilani conducts tests at designated centers over a span of 40 days. Students book the time slot when they would want to take the test.

While students who take the tests in a particular time slot would similar papers, candidates in different time slots get different papers,” says a professor from a management institute which takes CAT scores for admission. The number of students who took BITSAT last year was 90,000 and is expected to touch 1.3 lakh this year.

The good news for students, however, could be that though these institutes are looking at upgrading their infrastructure to meet the needs of online CAT, they do not plan to pass on the cost to the students, at present. The fee that these institutes charge from students varies between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000 per year for tier I towns and Rs 18,000 for tier II towns.

Dotting the 'I' WHAT THEY DON'T TEACH YOU AT BUSINESS SCHOOL

Having started to build a company just a year after my graduation, I had no idea that my business school education would come in so useful at every step of the way. Yet there are such critical aspects in building and running a company that cannot be learnt in a classroom.
First is the importance of building relationships. Anyone that was part of the first “sale” by a company will vouch to the critical role that the relationship and trust built with the customer by the founder and the sales team played in landing the sale. Our company was able to successfully execute four strategic M&As in the last two years and the clinching point for each of these was the mutual trust and good faith that we shared with the sellers.

People work with people, and managers need to learn to invest in building these relationships over a period of time and not always look for immediate return on time and effort spent. B-schools tend to overlook this critical human aspect when they teach sales and marketing, strategy and negotiations.

Crisis management is another area where we learn very little in business school. Most companies, especially in their early years, face crises of various types and magnitudes — cash flow situations, senior management attrition, market turmoil and so on. Learning to deal with and overcome these crises is critical to survival and success. At one level, this involves addressing the immediate issue at hand, but at another, it requires re-building of confidence and re-commitment to the strategic direction, which is lost sight of in a crisis.

Third, most management programmes encourage students to take a high-level perspective of things, and less attention is provided to dotting the “I”s and cross the “T”s. It is dangerous for senior management to take their attention away from the detail. A strategy that’s not grounded in basic details may be disconnected from the reality.

Fourth, on a related point in strategy formulation, while it is critical for senior management to stay focused on the strategic direction at all times, they also need to be dynamic in learning from the market, and be pragmatic in refocusing their direction when necessary. The ability to know when to stay on the chartered course and when to change direction based on market responses can be cultivated only from years of experience and is not something that can easily be taught in a classroom.

Finally, most MBA graduates are hard-wired towards success and are not effective in dealing with failure. Personally and professionally, it is when one learns to deal with and learn from failure that the fear of failure vanishes, and innovation and risk-taking start taking root.

The Author:"Kami Narayan" graduated from Harvard Business School

Learn to sell WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

Let me preface this column by saying that B-school education is extremely useful and important for people wanting to succeed at business in these competitive times. However, there are a number of essential skills and topics that I believe are not taught at B-school, but are critical in making a person succeed at the highest level.

First, the most basic but immensely practical subject is that of “administration”. Much of the young graduate managers that pass out of B-schools are not taught the basics of good administration. In the initial part of their careers, the lack of administration skills cause them to stumble and take hard knocks where none were necessary.

I am amazed how smart, intelligent graduates falter at basics like time management, filing, the simple yet effective art of “follow-ups”, taking notes for research and presenting crisp, complete memos and “bulletin” or a “scoreboard” of the task at hand. Many of these may be thought of as old-fashioned, but I think our fathers and grandfathers were more effective at these and did better with paper and pencil than today’s B-school grads with their laptops.

The second thing that I find most B-schools don’t teach is that one thing that makes or breaks a business or takes an already running business to the next level — “selling”! It is seen to be infra dig and almost looked down upon with contempt. I think that is deplorable because businesses thrive on cash-flows generated by selling products and services.

Nothing is more injurious to the financial health and morale of the company than poor sales. Other subjects are given far more importance than sales. But in reality, selling is an essential skill for all people wanting to run a business.

B-schools encourage competition and don’t teach young, aspiring leaders on how to collaborate rather than compete. In the real world, the people who collaborate with their team-members and outside stakeholders (clients, partners and distributors) do much better than highly intelligent and capable managers who are seen to be “selfish” and/or “solo-performers”.

Last, the more senior one gets in the company, what matters is “who you want to become” rather than “what you will do”. Let me explain — people are not clear whether they want to be great marketers, great systems analyst or maybe even start-up specialists.

That is where one should be honing their skills and art. Instead, people’s decision-making is more reliant on what others are saying or doing, what is currently a “hot” industry or trend, or a lot of times — what pays more. That approach can carry you to some extent, but ultimately to be “great” at anything, you need clarity of who you want to become and what you will be known for, that is, your legacy. That is the ultimate question.

Rajiv Jamkhedkar graduated from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University