The exams you write will clearly depend on the B-school you wish to join. However, often the dependence is not so clear. You can identify opportunities of a good B-school through the entrance exam as well. Read on.
The following things should be considered while looking for the B-schools to apply to:
Depending on your current level of preparedness, how much time and effort you are willing to put in and, you should get a realistic estimate of the score range you can expect in the main exam. While selecting the B-schools to apply to, you should select around 60% applications from the expected performance band (realistic case), around 20% from the band above your expected range (optimistic case) and the remaining from the lower band (pessimistic case).
AIMCAT percentile to actual CAT percentile:
We would want to give you a simple linear formula for converting the AIMCAT percentiles into your expected percentile in CAT. However, it often depends on a host of things and is not easily converted:
In general, you can assume that if you perform to your potential during the test you would score several percentile points better than your best AIMCAT performance. The extent of improvement depends on the range of the best performance. The improvement would be around 5-8 points, 10-15 points and 15-20 points depending on your best performance being in the 90s, 80s and 70s respectively
The number of B-schools that you need to apply to definitely depends on how keen you are to pursue an MBA or alternately how urgent it is for you to get into a B-school. If we look at three different categories of students, this would become clear:
Reservation Status:
Various B-schools offer reservation on the basis of Caste, Religion, Domicile, Family background etc. Please check if you are eligible for any of these and apply liberally to B-schools in the category. The following thumb rules should help
Please click here for the Reservation policy of B-schools in India
Sectoral Programmes:
The number of applications to the sectoral programme B-schools are generally lower than the General MBA programmes.
Please click here for the admission process adopted by various B-schools in India.
Sectoral Programmes:
The number of applications to the sectoral programme B-schools are generally lower than the General MBA programmes.
Please click here for the admission process adopted by various B-schools in India.
Regular MBA (PGP or MBA) VS Executive MBA VS One-Year MBA VS FPM:
The following pointers should help:
Please click here for a detailed comparison of the various types of MBA programmes offered in India.
Placements:
A large number of management institutes boast of a 100% placement record for their students. With management institutes mushrooming all over the country these claims should not be taken at face value, and should be scrutinised more closely.
With the application (form) fee for each institute being in the range of Rs.1000 to Rs.3000, you may not want to look at more than 10-12 institutes. It is always a good practice to select institutes across categories. At the same time, you also need to keep in mind that CAT, XAT, CMAT, SNAP, MAT and ATMA are comprehensive exams and you may need to apply to the institutes separately. So, the cost of application will have to be considered. The remaining exams viz IIFT, TISSNET, NMAT and MICAT are institute specific tests.
At the end of the year you could be choosing from a range of 12 B-school entrances (Institutes offering admission to more than a B-school: CAT, XAT, SNAP, CMAT, MAT, ATMA, Institutes offering admission to a single B-school (may have multiple campuses): IIFT, TISSNET, NMAT, MICAT, IBSAT).
Even though your CAT prep prepares you for all the exams, there are variations in the finer detail. And that could be an opportunity for you. For eg, XAT has a section on Decision Making, TISS NET has a relatively easier entrance test, IIFT has a liking for calculation intensive paper with a tough general awareness section, CMAT is a relatively easy exam offering B-schools in a very broad range. You only need to identify the exam where you are more likely to do better and make sure you apply to it.
Please click here to get an idea of the latest exam patterns for the National MBA Entrance tests.