Common Admission Test (CAT), is a management aptitude test conducted by Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) largely to evaluate and select the candidate for the two years Flagship Programs viz., PGDM (Post Graduate Programs), Fellow Program in Management (FPM), an equivalent Ph.D, Degree in research and Executive Post Graduate Program offered by them.

CAT is a Computer Based Exam and will be conducted once a year tentatively in November. This exam has the module of Written Ability Test (Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning) Group Discussion.

As per the Government of India Norms, IIMs reserves

SC	15 % of the total seat
ST	7.5% of the total seat
Non Creamy OBC	27% of the total seat
Persons with Benchmark Disabilities	05% of the total seat
General	45.5% of the total seat

IIMs are the Public Establishments under Autonomous Nature in Operation and Curriculum. As of Today (2017, November) we have 20 IIMs in India.

S.No	Name of the Institute	Short Name	Year of Establishment	Location	District	Website
1	Indian Institute of Management Calcutta	IIM-C	1961	Kolkata	West Bengal	iimcal.ac.in
2	Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad	IIM-A	1961	Ahmedabad	Gujarat	iima.ac.in
3	Indian Institute of Management Bangalore	IIM-B	1973	Bangalore	Karnataka	iimb.ac.in
4	Indian Institute of Management Lucknow	IIM-L	1984	Lucknow	Uttar Pradesh	iiml.ac.in
5	Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode	IIM-K	1996	Kozhikode	Kerala	iimk.ac.in
6	Indian Institute of Management Indore	IIM-I	1996	Indore	Madhya Pradesh	iimidr.ac.in
7	Indian Institute of Management Shillong	IIM-S	2007	Shillong	Meghalaya	iimshillong.ac.in
8	Indian Institute of Management Rohtak	IIM-R	2010	Rohtak	Haryana	iimrohtak.ac.in
9	Indian Institute of Management Ranchi	IIM-Ranchi	2010	Ranchi	Jharkhand	iimranchi.ac.in
10	Indian Institute of Management Raipur	IIM-Raipur	2010	Raipur	Chhattisgarh	iimraipur.ac.in
11	Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli	IIM-T	2011	Tiruchirappalli	Tamil Nadu	iimtrichy.ac.in
12	Indian Institute of Management Kashipur	IIM-Kashipur	2011	Kashipur	Uttarakhand	iimkashipur.ac.in
13	Indian Institute of Management Udaipur	IIM-U	2011	Udaipur	Rajasthan	iimu.ac.in
14	Indian Institute of Management Nagpur	IIM-N	2015	Nagpur	Maharashtra	iimnagpur.ac.in
15	Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam	IIM-V	2015	Visakhapatnam	Andhra Pradesh	iimv.ac.in
16	Indian Institute of Management Bodh Gaya	IIM-BG	2015	Bodh Gaya	Bihar	iimbg.ac.in
17	Indian Institute of Management Amritsar	IIM Amritsar	2015	Amritsar	Punjab	iimamritsar.ac.in
18	Indian Institute of Management, Sambalpur	IIM Sambalpur	2015	Sambalpur	Odisha	iimsambalpur.ac.in
19	Indian Institute of Management, Sirmaur	IIM Sirmaur	2015	Sirmaur district	Himachal Pradesh	iimsirmaur.ac.in
20	Indian Institute of Management, Jammu	IIM Jammu	2016	Jammu	Jammu and Kashmir	iiml.ac.in/jammu

Eligibility

• The candidate must hold a Bachelor’s Degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA [45% in case of the candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons With Disability (PWD) categories], awarded by any University or educational institution as incorporated by an Act of the Parliament or State legislature in India or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognised by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India.
• Candidates appearing for the final year of Bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification examination and those who have completed degree requirements and are awaiting results can also apply. However, it may be noted that such candidates, if selected, will be allowed to join the programme provisionally, only if they submit a certificate from the Principal / Registrar of their University/institution (issued on or before the date as stipulated by the respective IIM) stating that they have completed all the requirements for obtaining the Bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification on the date of the issue of the certificate.
• Candidates applying for CAT should fulfill any one of the following conditions:
  Completed Bachelor’s degree with the required percentage of marks*
  Completed professional degree (CA/CS/ICWA) with required percentage*.
  Should be in the final year of Bachelor’s degree with required percentage*.
  SC / ST / PWD candidates should have minimum 45%. For General and NC-OBC candidates, minimum is 50%.
• The percentage of marks obtained by the candidate would be calculated based on the practice as followed by the respective University/Institution. In case of grades / CGPA, the conversion to percentage of marks would be based on the procedure as certified by the respective University/ institution. If any University/institution confirms that there is no scheme for converting CGPA into equivalent marks, the equivalence would be established by dividing the candidate’s CGPA by the maximum possible CGPA, and multiplying the result with 100.
• IIMs may verify eligibility at various stages of the selection process, the details of which are provided at the website www.iimcat.ac. in. Applicants should note that the mere fulfilment of minimum eligibility criteria will not ensure consideration for short listing by IIMs. Candidates must declare and maintain a valid and unique email account and a phone number throughout the selection process.

Read the Selection Process of IIM

Exam Pattern

Exam Pattern (2017)
Section Name	Number of Questions	Duration
Quantitative Aptitude (QA)	34	60
Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)	VA: 10	60
	RC: 24
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)	DI: 16	60
	LR: 16
Total	100	180 (3 hours)

Examination Syllabus (2017)

Quantitative Aptitude	Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning	Verbal Reasoning
Number Systems	Tables	English Usage or Grammar
Profit, Loss and Discount	Caselets	Vocabulary Based (Synonyms/ Antonyms)
LCM and HCF	Bar Graphs	Fill in the blanks
Speed, Time and Distance	Line Charts	Sentence Correction
Percentages	Column Graphs	Cloze Passage
Time and Work	Venn Diagrams	Jumbled Paragraph
Ratio and Proportion	Pie Chart	Meaning-Usage Match
Averages	Logical Reasoning	Analogies or Reverse Analogies
Quadratic Equations & Linear Equations	Calendars	Summary Questions
Complex Numbers	Number and Letter Series	Verbal Reasoning
Simple and Compound Interest	Clocks	Facts-Inferences-Judgments
Logarithm	Venn Diagrams	Reading Comprehension
Sequences and Series	Cubes
Inequalities	Seating Arrangement
Probability	Binary Logic
Surds and Indices	Logical Matching
Set Theory & Function	Logical Sequence
Permutation and Combination	Syllogism
Mixtures and Alligations	Logical Connectives
Trigonometry	Blood Relations
Coordinate Geometry
Geometry
Mensuration

 

Take the Mock Test

Recommended Books

1. Pearson Guide to Quantitative Aptitude for CAT by Nishit Sinha                            Buy From Flipkart : Click here
2. Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension by Ajay Singh                                        Buy from Flipkart : Click Here

Indian Institute of Management  Common Admission Test Website : Click Here

Source: IIM CAT Website