Friday, Jan 29, 2010
Mumbai: After all the hullaballoo over the Common Admission Test, some of the Indian Institutes of Management have decided to rework the formula for selecting candidates. In fact, the most dramatic change is that some management schools have decided to bring down the importance they place on the CAT score.

For instance, IIM-Kozhikode, which placed the highest weightage on CAT scores all these years — 90 points — has proposed reducing it to merely 50 points for this academic year’s admission. “This year, we plan on considering candidates’ performance in the Class X and XII examinations too, apart from their work experience,’’ said a senior faculty there. He added that the decision regarding trimming the importance of CAT had nothing to do with the technical glitches that marred the conduct of the entrance exam this year. “We wanted to bring in this change since the last two or three years. We have finally decided to bring down the CAT weightage from 90 points to 50 points this year.’’

In another big shift, IIM-Bangalore has gone the Ahmedabad way. The Bangalore-based management school has done away with group discussion and expects candidates to be prepared to do some essay writing, something that IIM-A started following since 2007. Student will be given 30 minutes to write on a topic that will “typically reflect current political, economic and business affairs, though other topics such as sports and those that require more creative thinking can also be included,’’ an IIMB official said.

IIM-A did not give out detailed information regarding the selection process last year; this time around too, it is unlikely that the points it gives for the CAT score would be made public. But officials confirmed that like last year, the highest weightage would be placed on a candidate’s performance in the personal interview.

Himanshu Rai, chairman (admissions) at IIM-Lucknow, said that the institute would place 30 points on CAT scores and the remaining 70% would depend on a host of other areas like group discussion, personal interview, class X and XII marks and work experience. “We want to bring in more diversity on the campus, in terms of fewer engineers and more women students,’’ Rai added.

Sources in IIM-Calcutta said the selection process was likely to remain unchanged.

The new IIMs expected to start this academic year —Trichy, Ranchi, Rohtak and at Rajasthan — are yet to take any decision on the selection procedure. Admissions to these institutes will be conducted by the existing IIMs.

IIM-Ahmedabad: CAT score will get less weightage than personal interview like last year, also to be factored in are essay writing, Class X and XII scores.

IIM-Bangalore: No GD and case study discussion this year. Instead, candidates will be given 30 minutes to write an essay. Merely 20 points for CAT.

IIM-Kozhikode: Weightage for CAT down to 50 points from 90 points, the institute will consider scores of Classes X and XII, apart from work experience. Last year, 10 points were set aside for work experience.

IIM-Lucknow: CAT weightage to remain constant at 30 points. However, the institute plans to slightly tweak weightage for Class X/ XII marks as well as work experience.