Breaking the myth that cracking CAT and getting into Top IIMs needs long study hours only, the inspirational story of Shuktisindhu Mondal who, despite being a working professional for more than three years, cracked CAT 2019 with 93.26 percentile and converted IIM Ahmedabad, proves that success comes with determination.

Shuktisindhu  is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Calcutta Institute of Engineering & Management (CIEM) and had earned 41 months of work experience as software engineer at Tech Mahindra before joining MBA at IIM Ahmedabad.

The recently released Financial Times (FT) Global Masters in Management (MIM) Rankings 2020 had a pleasant surprise. While IIM Ahmedabad’s PGPM program is the top ranked program in India, closely followed by IIM Calcutta’s PGPM, PGDM program of SPJIMR Mumbai and IIM Bangalore’s PGPM are tied together at No 3 position. All these four B-schools are ranked amongst Top 40 globally. How did SPJIMR, the only non-IIM B-school in the ranking, achieve this feat of getting ranked at par with IIMB, and within the Global Top 40?

After the close of CAT 2024 registration on September 20, all educators are eager to know if CAT 2024 registration number will increase this year too. While the final figures are yet to be released by Prof Ramya T Venkateswaran, CAT Convener & IIM Calcutta Faculty, an analysis of past data can be a useful guide. MBAUniverse.com revisits last 12 years CAT Registration numbers and the currents trends.

Before we discuss CAT 2024 registration numbers, let’s note a few important facts about this year’s CAT. 

The inspirational story of a national sports man who has multi dimensional personality and has emerged victorious over all odds to get into India’s best B-school – IIM Ahmedabad breaks the myth that cracking CAT and getting into Top IIMs needs long study hours only. On the contrary the phrase ‘A Healthy mind resides in a healthy body’ comes absolutely true for Tanishq  Diddee who is now IIM Ahmedabad student of MBA 2020-22 batch.

On September 28, Financial Times (FT) released its Global Masters in Management (MIM) Rankings 2020. Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad’s Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM) program is the top ranked program in India, closely followed by IIM Calcutta’s PGPM. After IIMA and IIMC, PGDM program of SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) Mumbai and IIM Bangalore’s PGPM are tied together at No 3 position. All four B-schools are ranked amongst Top 50 globally. IIM Udaipur’s PGPM is ranked at #5 from India, and ranked #72 globally.

CAT 2020 will be a different exam from previous years in terms of test duration, testing sessions, sectional time limit, number of questions while keeping the social distancing norms on November 29, 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic.  The exam may throw a few surprises as the exam pattern is changed and candidates can see different type of questions in CAT 2020.

IFIM Business School Bangalore, one of the first six business schools in India to be accredited by AACSB, has achieved yet another distinction. IFIM has been ranked by QS Masters in Marketing Ranking 2021 amongst the Top 100 such programs (in 51-100 band) in the world for its PGDM Marketing program. Additionally, IFIM has been ranked in the 101-150 Band Globally in the QS Masters in Finance Rankings for its PGDM Finance Program.

To adjust CAT 2020 for COVID disruptions, CAT Center at IIM Indore issued a media release with many big changes on September 15. For instance, the duration was drastically reduced from 180 minutes to 120 minutes to accommodate 3 tests on same day – November 29. As per the media release, IIM CAT website was to be updated on Sunday, September 20 to reflect these changes.

IIM Indore had announced many important changes in CAT 2020 Exam in late evening on September 15, 2020 and all these proposed changes in exam pattern, duration and testing slots were expected to be updated on Sunday, September 20, 2020. However, while the changes in CAT 2020 Registration last date to September 23, 2020 from earlier September 16, CAT exam session timings, Number of sections and sectional time limit have been updated on CAT website, other changes are yet to be updated.

A big motivation and help for working professionals and non engineers to crack CAT 2020, comes from Shefali Chhaya, who crossed all hurdles to get into India’s best B-school – IIM Ahmedabad. Despite struggling for time as shefali was working professional in Travel & Media Industry, she has broken the myth that cracking CAT and getting into Top IIMs is only for Engineers.