Updating MBAUniverse.com on the proposed sectional pattern of XAT 2015, Prof Munish Thakur, XAT 2015 convener and XLRI Admission chairperson has informed we are increasing number of questions to 30. We want to increase reliability of GK assessment. Thirty questions give us a little more reliability than twenty questions. In earlier XAT exams there used to be 20 questions on GK which were supposed to be answered in 10 minutes only, now it will be 30.

No increase in time

On the basis of CAT 2014 results and the percentiles scored by the candidates, 13 existing and 6 proposed IIMs are going to short list about 25 thousand candidates for final admission round. The number of candidates proposed to be shortlisted is higher than earlier years. Apart from the IIMs top rated B schools will also offer admission to high percentilers scoring a percentile between 80 to 99 in the academic session 2015-16 for MBA/PGDM batch 2015-17.

The last date for registration and admission process for the flagship PGDM programme at XLRI is going to close on Dec 26, 2014. The application date was extended by XLRI from Dec 21 to Dec 26 to facilitate the candidates to apply in time as many of them despite registering for XAT 2015 couldnt apply to XLRI by Dec 21 either due to ignorance or some other reason. XLRI will accept only XAT 2015 scores apart from GMAT scores for admission in flagship PGDM programme batch 2015-17.

More focus by IIMs is placed on social, political and economic issues in the Written Ability Test (WAT) in their Personal interview round. The Group Discussion (GD) is being gradually substituted by WAT in most of the top rated B schools like IIMs mainly because CAT is not able to assess a candidate for his good writing skill in this computer based exam.

Score cards for MAT Dec 2014 are now made available by AIMA on its site for the Management Aptitude Exam held in second week of December 2014. The score card can be downloaded from the AIMA website. Provision of getting a duplicate score card for the test from AIMA is also there.

Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida organised its 4th Jaipuria Annual Management Conference (JAMC-2014) on the theme Employee Engagement: Harnessing Human Capital on December 13, 2014 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

Dr. A. K. Balyan, MD & CEO, Petronet LNG Ltd. was the Chief Guest with Mr. Vipin Sondhi, MD & CEO, JCB India as the Guest of Honour on the occasion.

The announcement by CAT Centre 2014 to declare CAT 2014 result on December 27, the level of anxiety is now shifted on what the expected percentile will be and how it is arrived at by CAT Centre. The candidates are hopeful that the CAT Centre 2014 will also publish the process of score normalization along with the declaration of the CAT 2014 result.

4 days to go

As anticipated, SNAP 2014 entrance test for admission session 2015-16 held on Sunday Dec 21, 2014, had 150 questions with maximum score of 180. The paper pen based exam had total time duration of 2 hours emphasizing that less than 1 minute per question to solve was available.

Taking CAT 2014 although not mandatory but will be an added advantage if you are seeking admission in either of the 2 FPM programmes at IIM Indore. The Indian Institute of Management Indore (IIM-I) has announced admissions open for 10th batch of Fellow Programme in Management (FPM2015), which is a PhD-equivalent programme designed by the IIMs to create a talent pool of exceptional professorial and research talent essential to academia as well as industry and the FPM (Industry). The application process will close on Dec 31, 2014 for admission to FPM programmes at IIM Indore.

No more speculation and anxiety on CAT 2014 result declaration remains now as the Dec 27 as the date for CAT 2014 result has been announced by CAT Centre 2014. Confirming the result date to MBAUniverse.com, Dr Rohit Kapoor, CAT 2014 Convener and Faculty IIM Indore has informed On 27th Dec, 2014 evening, we are going to release the results for the candidates.