One Common MBA Entrance Exam :- Good/Bad?

[gaurav_jain1]

Hi Everybody,
What do you think? Would a single common entrance exam been better for the MBA goers, rather than multiple parallel entrance exams (like CAT/XAT/FMS, etc)?

Do post your reasons too!

For e.g,
Pros of a single entrance exam:- (Say if you had only CAT organised by the IIMs, it would prevent money-making exercises by various institutions
Cons:- More stress/ pressure surrounding a single exam
etc etc

[ninja_talli]

Before the mods jump into this thread to lock it up, listen to me!!! (us i.e.)

Six day for cat to go, we should be studying like hell right???
Wrong! Both of us (gaurav and me) are arguing, shouting, yelling; both not ready to lower their guard; i suggested why not have a general opinion on this? Hence this thread...
(atleast I finally got my roomie to put up his first post after trying for over 6 months! )

my two cents; as it is people's nerves are frayed to the ends over this entrance exam! Remove other parallel mba entrance exams, and you'll get total chaos!!!


What say?


P.S. Do give a serious thought should to this; although i'm against it, a single entrance exam has it's set of pros!
P.S.S. Hope this thread remains alive atleast till 19th! Might bring some breathing space...

[gaurav200x]

Ever heard the saying... "Never put all ur eggs in one basket...... "

One entrance exams = tension of all the exams combined into one and given to you and a failure in the exam means failure for all, as it has a cumulative effect.

Hence what i wish to say is pretty much implicit !!

[Scorpio_19]

Originally Posted by gaurav_jain1

Hi Everybody,
What do you think? Would a single common entrance exam been better for the MBA goers, rather than multiple parallel entrance exams (like CAT/XAT/FMS, etc)?

Do post your reasons too!

For e.g,
Pros of a single entrance exam:- (Say if you had only CAT organised by the IIMs, it would prevent money-making exercises by various institutions
Cons:- More stress/ pressure surrounding a single exam
etc etc

Firstly, single exams do not prevent "money making exercises". Example is XAT, you apply to each institute, including XLRI separately.

Secondly, 'Do not put all your eggs in 1 basket' (Quote: Gaurav ), very valid point.

Thirdly, the question of any exam pressure does not arise, since YOU have yourself chosen the hectic path of an MBA career, remember, from now on, you face exam pressure in the MBA classroom (Once you get admitted), & then work-pressure at your work place. Finally, when you decide to get married, you will face the pressures of bring up a family.

[Neo2000]

Am a li'l pressed for time so excuse the 1 line post(and the non-search) but I know that this has already been discussed in a thread that was started last year.

Btw, if CAT went the GMAT way??

If you could take the CAT anytime of the year at your convenience would we still worry about numbers? Would the pressure still be as immense? We all know that a major reason the CAT is "tough" is because it all boils down to that 2.5hours on 1 day.

[scaramanga]

I think that as different institution are producing different products for the industry so they may want to judge the candidate on different criterias. These institutes therefore demand for a separate exam and admision process.
But in doing so they forget that they are unnecessarily increasing the financial burden on students. Now there are 4-5 different management exams in the country. If 10 years down the line we have 20 different institutes demanding for a seperate exam you can very well guess the financial as well as mental stress a candidate will go through.


A better solution to the problem will be to have a basic selection exam (Like GMAT) which will test the basic qualities and aptitude necessary for managers. After that colleges can give call to candidates with different cut offs in different section as they may require candidates who are good in some sections(which their courses demands ) even if not that great in other section. For example we have some colleges who stress more on english , these colleges can declare a high cut off for english and relatively low cut offs in other section. After this they can further apply their own customised filtering processes.
Also such exam can easily bring down the efforts taken by each institute-from printing apllication forms to conducting the exam. We know that aproximately 1.5 lakhs people apply for CAT and a similar number of people go for other exams. Managing such a huge exam is a huge management event in itself. We can cut down on this unnecessary effort by each management school by having a single exam governed and conducted by a specialised organisation so that insititutes can concentrate on their basic concern of creating world class managers.
This fact is is clearly visible when we see how much IIM's are trying to reduce the number of applicants by introducing creterias like minimum of 50% marks in underdraduation ect which have not served them anyway as the number of applications have increased from previous year.

I think its a hell of a task to sort out some 2000 people from 1.5 lakhs applications and a waste of efforts if each institution is doing it again and again. Therefore my vote is for a single exam which is organised by a very legitimate and specialised body.

[ninja_talli]

Originally Posted by Neo2000

Am a li'l pressed for time so excuse the 1 line post(and the non-search) but I know that this has already been discussed in a thread that was started last year.

Shucks! My mistake here; I did a search, couldn't find one, hence i opened this new thread...


Regarding the discussion; what about the majority? I mean; every year atleast 80-85% of people (rough estimate; am considering aspirations only for A & B grade institutes) are dis-appointed (i.e. they don't make thru) in CAT, a good number of them find alternatives in other entrance exams. In simpler words, they get a second chance (and third, fourth etc etc)

Now if you have a common exam, all the top institutes (other than iims) like fms/xlri/JB are still going to give gd/pi calls to the top 5%.
In the end the number of distinct candidates getting gd/pi calls would decrease drastically; where today a 99.XX% percentiler gets a max of 6 IIM calls plus mdi/nitie/spjain (if he applies);
in a single exam scenario, such a person would get more calls...

Result more dis-appointed people post-cat!

[seshadri.r]

Pros:

1. Uniform criteria while selecting candiates..

Ex: CAT doesnt hav GK where as NMAt,SNAP etc.. has..
A person with little awareness can crack written of course he/she
has to pay the piper at GD/PI.

2.Financial stress may be reduced that too not much.

COns:

bskool is not like Engg College,every insti has got their own
expexttions and pedagogy,unlike 5 theory and 3 lab(ILT) in every semeter in an UG.

So this factor would not be incorporated if Single Test would suffice.


By the way r we prep for GD PRe CAT.
May be this is called as PRe-GD I (Addition rule in Anreji)

[soumya_mty]

Originally Posted by Neo2000

Am a li'l pressed for time so excuse the 1 line post(and the non-search) but I know that this has already been discussed in a thread that was started last year.

Btw, if CAT went the GMAT way??

If you could take the CAT anytime of the year at your convenience would we still worry about numbers? Would the pressure still be as immense? We all know that a major reason the CAT is "tough" is because it all boils down to that 2.5hours on 1 day.

i agree with u...i think if only one entrance for B-schools in india has to be conducted, then CAT should follow the GMAT pattern...

or else, if it's a once in a year gamble, then multiple entrances are better suited for students, since, one gets more than a single chance to make it into a reputed institute.

[razabpn]

Only one Exam is good.....CAT is more than enough...why cant all Bschools call students based on CAT scores???And shelling out money to each Bschool is more like looting...Why should those students who dont get a seat pay to these Institutes...Only those who finally make it to the Institutes should pay...That would take care of the expenses incurred during the GDPI processes..