A significant dip has been noticed in the volume of CAT aspirants since 2015. Nearly 2.18 Lakh aspirants applied for CAT 2020 exam. It was 2.30 Lakh in 2015. Since 2016, this is the lowest.
As per IIM Indore, the institute conducting CAT 2020, has depicted that it has witnessed a significant slide in the number of aspirants applying for the exam.
Harshal Lowalekar, CAT Convener, said that the COVID pandemic is also responsible for the dip. He said that the same happened to the other competitive exams held nationwide this year.
On the contrary, Mahadeo Jaiswal, Director-IIM Sambalpur mentioned that the drop in the number of applications is just 14,000 and is not significant. This year, CAT will be held maintaining all the safety protocols suggested by the government.
These safety measures and health concerns might also be the reason behind the dip in applications, said Sumanta Basu, CAT Convener. He said that the national-level engineering entrance exam has witnessed the absence of many candidates.
On the other hand, IIM aspirants are also considering the job insecurities due to the COVID situation for not applying this year.
Retrenchment and job losses have also made aspirants think twice. Anirban Sen, a graduate of Calcutta University said that he is not sure about the job prospects this year. This is why he is concentrating on government exams.
Amit Poddar, Regional Head-TIME, a CAT tutorial platform, depicted that families are showing reluctance to invest a hefty amount of IIM college fees as there is no guarantee of getting a job that pays handsomely.
The course fee has increased to INR 23 Lakh. CAT 2020 will be conducted on 29th November 2020. The time allotted for each section has been reduced to 40 minutes.
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