Hi dudes,
I thought even I had to chip in and write in what I think is correct, my reply would be long... because I wish to touch on most aspects surrounding this as such. I have always faced some trouble or the other with this topic, discussing with my friends or anyone else. Because whichever college you take 10 out of 100 will be toppers and 20-30 avg guys and the others (70 odd out of 100) who do not concentrate on anything at all, other than enjoy their lives out. This is the general tendency of any human being I have seen till date. Every one has huge expectations from his/her career and wants to be in a very good position altogether. But, you know most of them do not wish to put in the required amount of effort either. For such kinda people undergraduate studies or anyother would not be interesting and would not concentrate that better and loose out the 3 or 4 years dismally. But aspirations do not die right, so what is the next easy route?? This person with dismal percentages cannot apply abroad for a MS or cannot opt for MBA abroad because they will be right away rejected in most of the good schools. Job finding is not that easy too... Then what is the best way out... And that is
CAT. What is the reason??
1. The topics tested in the exam are fit to be tackled by a 10th or +2 guy not more than that.
2. Any person with an adequate preparation of 6 to 7 months can come out with flying colors.
Now, IIMs are such great institutions that they do not check anything else at level 1. Acads are considered only at level 2
... Very great as such. Now filtering is done in the most idiotic way I suppose. If 90% of people who score great percentiles in CAT are ppl with an aggregate of 60% in their undergrad or grad studies then the competition for acads is among them and not with a person with a 90% undergrad score. Too great a filtering process. What does that mean? A person who was graded as a below average or less hard working student makes it to the level 2 of the process and a person who was deemed to be hard working stays behind in the race just because he/she happened to get a 98% instead of a 99%.
What does undergraduate score mean??
To most of the 70 students (out of the 100 in a university program) it means junk. Because if that is considered, they are out of the race. So, they would not like that score to the checked as such... And you see they are the majority of the chunk applying for CAT. So, out of the 1.8 lakh people if you interview candidates, most of them would say no to the acads being considered.
Added to that even coaching centers glorify this aspect by giving their own interpretations to the CAT exam. CAT tests your analytical skills, it sees and understands whether you are a real manager or not, whether you can think in tension etc etc. Really I never knew that undergrad study was so useless and CAT was really the GOD of all examinations. If that is the case please refrain from studying at all and just write CAT and keep showing that to everyone as your prowess and other stuff.
Once upon a time when the number of ppl applying for CAT was less, it would have made sense to clear the admissions based on CAT because of obvious reasons. But with huge chunk of people applying it makes sense for premier institutes like IIMs to follow the western standards rather than follow elementary school standards. What do I mean by that. A person apping to Harvard/Stanford or any other great school would not be shortlisted by Harvard/Stanford but it is the student himself who would decide for himself whether he is good for that school or not. How is that achieved? IIMs should not shortlist themselves based on the CAT score, but it is the student himself who would decide for himself whether he is good or not for an IIM. So, conduct CAT and give the percentiles. Then a student will apply to IIM with that score and his academic results and other related information just as anyone would apply to any other b-school using GMAT information. This would reduce the number of applications that an IIM would have to process and would also give them a better oppurtunity to scrutinize applications further. Also by eliminating a person with good overall performane and 98% in CAT from the process they are not even checking whether this candidate would be better than a normal 99%ile CAT and 40% avg candidate. Where is the correct decision being taken in such a case?
The most stupid and junk arguments are like this. 99% is better than a 98%ile what is the reason? Because he worked hard for 6 months only on CAT and nothing else (not even on studies) and flunked in two subjects but managed a good score in CAT. so he is determined about management. Really?? That person who got admitted himself into engg or any other discipline and flunked there with no interest is supposed to work wonders after getting into IIM? Either ppl in IIM should be nuts or ppl who are hard working are.
If they still consider CAT as a bench mark they will never ever get into the top 20 international MBA schools slot. Then coming to this argument here... "Since students with good percentages get jobs let those with bad ones get selected to IIMs", it is stupidity again dude. IIMs are the face of India in management... they should select the best out of the best and hence provide better quality students across the world. IIMs are here for providing good managers and not for social service. None of the universities across the world have such a bad admission process which concentrates on just one exam. And it is disheartening to see a professor from a so called premier institute downplaying the academic performance for CAT and that too by comparing a 40% student with a 80% person he is doing injustice and hurting the feelings of hard working students. Would he wish to talk the same way about students coming out from IIM after the course is complete... i.e. a person with 40% is same as a person with 80%. CAT is just for looking everyone from the similar plane. But it does not mean you undermine the academic performance totally. IIMs can take the reputation of the school for rigidity in schooling and other stuff to make a good decision than concentrating on one single exam and talking stuff like this in interviews.
Help
??: 
Linear Mode
