Many aspire for a great career, excellent salary package and all the other associated perks. However, the baffling fact is that most of such aspirants take many long winding paths, ignoring the the easiest route that is sure to take them there.

That easiest route is the CAT-MBA route which provides the fastest growth path for peoples’ careers while at the same time taking care of the package and perks-related factors as well.

The reason many do not attempt the CAT is due to the misconception that the CAT is very difficult to crack and is not everybody's cup of tea.

We would want to bust this myth on three counts.

1. CAT has one-fifth of the competition faced in other popular options

   Yes! CAT is the least crowded of the options.

   Only around 2 lakh students write the CAT compared to other popular options like the GATE/Bank exams. Around 9-10 lakh takers attempt the GATE/BANK PO exam. The number of MBA seats available in 'Top-100*' B-schools is around 17000 whereas it is around 15000 for GATE**, and the number of bank PO vacancies in a year would be around 15000. That would mean CAT has one-fifth of the competition for roughly the same number of seats available.

   This huge advantage makes a career in management all the more attractive.

   *Top-100 schools from T.I.M.E.'s annual B-school Categorisation list (https://www.time4education.com/CAT-MBA/About-MBA/TIME-B-School-Categorisation)

   **No. Of M. Tech seats in IITs and NITs and top university/local engineering colleges along with the PSU jobs through GATE is around 15000

2. CAT provides great placements even at around 40000 rank!

   The huge demand for MBA graduates across MNC’s and top Indian companies ensures that excellent placements take place not only at premier B-schools like the IIMs, but also among the mid-rung B-schools. While those who make it to the top B-schools can look at average salaries upwards of 20-25 lakh, those who make it to the mid-rung schools don’t do too bad either.

   In fact they get to earn salaries that are mouth-watering for many a person who has opted to look at exams like GATE and Bank POs.

   The following table shows an indicative list of average salary and highest salary secured by MBA/PGDM batches at some of these B-Schools.

   B-School	Average Salary ( Lacs p.a. )	Highest Salary ( Lacs p.a. )
   IRMA Anand	10.7	52
   TAPMI Manipal	11.06	23.8
   KJ Somaiya Mumbai	10.08	28.5
   NIBM Pune	9.67	22

   As you can see, the average salaries of these schools are very attractive. The top salaries drawn are even more so, some of them beating the average salaries of some of the top rung schools.

   The most important point here is that, to get into these schools one doesn’t need a very high percentile. The cut-off of these schools is around 80 percentile. This translates to a rank of 40,000, assuming that 2 lakh students wrote the exam.

   Now, a rank of 40000 is no big deal to get. This applies to anybody, regardless of their strengths and abilities. Even an average student can get there, provided that the right kind of preparation is put in with the right kind of guidance and support.

3. Is it that easy to get a 40000 rank?

   Let us look at what the facts say. 80 percentile, which is around 40000 rank, was at a raw-score of around 84 for CAT 2018.

   Raw-score is the net score of the student: total marks from the right answers minus the total penalty marks due to wrong answers.

   As you can see, the number of questions that one needs to correctly attempt to get 84 marks is a measly 30, even after considering that around 20% of the attempts are incorrect , from a total attempts of 36.

   That would translate to only around 12 attempts questions in each section.

   To sum it up,

   • Target Salary – 10 lakhs (minimum)
   • Target Percentile – 80
   • Target raw score – around 84
   • Target number of attempts – 36 (with 6 incorrect attempts)
   • Target number of attempts per section – 12
   • Target number of attempts per hour – 12

   It cannot be any serious candidate’s argument that he/she cannot get these many questions in a three hour window. Atleast, not making the attempt, while having aspirations of making it big in life, would be crazy.

4. Can I attempt 36 questions in the CAT?

   In fact, the correct question would be “Will there be 12 attemptable questions in each section in the CAT?”

   The CAT paper is essentially a school-level exam paper with many of the questions at a level that is solvable by 8th class students, that too without too much effort.

   There will be not just twelve, but a lot more easy/attemptable questions in each section of the CAT.

   What does one need to do to grab that great career that MBA offers?

   All it takes is a bit of hard work and preparation with the right kind of guidance. The easiest way to ensure that one gets proper guidance is by enrolling for CAT classroom coaching at T.I.M.E. Attend our classes regularly and follow all the inputs shared by the faculty,and you will surely be on the right track to be able to realize your dream of making it big in your career.

   Why T.I.M.E.?

   • A student friendly style of course delivery.
   • Focus on every student ( not just the toppers ).
   • Regular VA/RC ( English ) doubt clarifying sessions, so that students who are weak in English also secure good percentile.
   • Quant ( Maths ) foundation classes to help those who are weak in maths.
   • Regular QA ( Maths ) doubt clarifying sessions, so that students who are weak in Maths also secure good percentile.
   
   

   A total of 2610 T.I.M.E. students have made it to 15 IIMs for which results are publicly available through CAT 2019.These students have secured 10,556 final selections to the IIMs. “Results validated by VSMB and Associates on 21/09/2020”