MBA Exams
The MBA entrance exams are not only seen as the gateway to the MBA admission procedures, but also seen as the repository of enhancing knowledge!
MBA Entrance ExamsNowadays, rather portraying as an engineer, describing as a MBA is grabbing more attention that too if the MBA is learned in a renowned management institution, then there is no doubt that it can attract the best organization for the career options, best opportunities for growth options, moreover, a great respect in the workplace, compared to other candidates and many more opportunities… There are numerous entrance exams offered, regarding the admissions to the management courses, some of them are portrayed as follows:
CAT (Common Admission Test)When anyone thinks about doing MBA, the first and foremost entrance exam to think about is none other than the Common Admission Test (CAT). The CAT is conducted majorly for the admissions in the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). But, it is also accepted by other prominent management institutions in the country. It is a two and a half hours exam comprising of questions form sections like, arithmetic and logical reasoning skills, problem solving skills, data interpretation, puzzles type questions, English language skills, etc… The scores are calculated on the percentile basis, hence the students who are scoring above 99 percentile, besides higher scores in all the sections would be considered for next higher stages in the MBA admission program. No wonder, why CAT is considered as tougher and difficult exam to crack, isn’t it?
XAT (Xavier Admission Test)It is designed and developed for the MBA admissions at XLRI, Jamshedpur. But, it is considered also considered as the entrance exam for MBA admissions by more than 70 management institutions. It consists of three sections, namely, quantitative ability and reasoning, readingcomprehension and verbal, and data interpretation. It also comprises of a separate section foressay writing.
MAT (Management Aptitude Test)It is conducted by the subdivision of All India Management Association, which is called as theCentre for Management Services with aptitude based, objective type questions for MBA admissions across the country. It is also been rewarded with the status of National Entrance Test by the Ministry of HRD, government of India, hence plays a prominent role in the MBA admissions for various AICTE approved management institutions.
JMET (Joint Management Entrance Test)It is conducted as a qualifying entrance test for the MBA admissions in the IITs. This means, the students who are qualifying in the JMET would be considered for the admission procedures, provided some institutions might have additional entrance test in filtering the qualifying candidates.
GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test)Of course, the students/professionals, who are trying the MBA entrance exams, would definitely give a shot to GMAT, which is the internationally recognized exam for MBA admissions in the business schools and institutions. It is majorly recognized by management institutions in theUnited States of America and also in the other English speaking countries. But, trying GMAT would also enhance the knowledge on cracking the management related entrance exams, and would also provide the students with the right exposure, etc…
BIMT Admission Test (Birla Institute of Management Technology Admission Test)This is the aptitude test conducted by the Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMT) for its admission procedures. The entrance exam is conducted to qualify the students/professionals for the admission into the management related courses at the post graduate level, such as,PGDBA/PGDBM.
Clearing the MBA entrance exam is most prestigious than getting a seat in the business schools/other business institutions.
What is worrying me a lot, regarding the MBA entrance exams is that there is no unique examination pattern for the MBA admissions in the country. Of course the fact that there are wide choices of MBA entrance exams for MBA and other management related admissions arefascinating, but at the same time too many choices are really confusing. Say, for example, theCAT question pattern consists of different structure, whereas JMET consists of different pattern and some colleges might accept CAT, some might accept MAT and others might kept the XATscores as mandatory. Hence, all these different situations and constraints would definitely throw down the students/professionals into panicking situations.
The biggest problem is to be aware of the dates at which these entrance exams are conducted. But, one thing is really clear, if a student has a passion to undergo MBA education, then the student would definitely explore all possible opportunities available to get excel in the entrance exam. In a way, these wide spread entrance exams for MBA admissions in the country have set a standard for management education in the country and the students/professionals are having a variety of choices in choosing the colleges, type of management degrees, and type of entrance exams. Since, there are various choices of MBA entrance exams and each exam would bear aspecific structure and pattern, it is definitely difficult to remember all these patterns. Hence, being very smart would lead the students/professionals to reach their goals.
For example, one significant thing about most of these MBA entrance exams are, they bear more, or less a slight resemblance of categories that would be asked for the entrance exams, whereas the questions would be definitely different, i.e. most of the standard entrance exams, like CAT, XAT, MAT, JMET, etc… would be having the choice of questions from the categories like,verbal ability, data interpretation, quantitative aptitude, general knowledge, logical reasoning, etc… The Common Admission Test (CAT) comprises of 40 questions from verbal ability, and 25 questions in each of the sections, like, quantitative aptitude, logical reasoning and data interpretation. Likewise, the Xavier Admission Test (XAT) consists of questions from three sections, namely, reading comprehension and verbal ability, quantitative ability, reasoning, data interpretation and general awareness. Thus, the CAT and XAT share the more than 3 common categories. The significant point about these common categories is that you can relatethe question pattern easily, i.e. the verbal section in most of the standard entrance test would be consisting of grammar part, such as, picking the odd man out from a sentence, sentencecorrection with proper grammatical sense, critical reasoning, reading comprehension, etc… Hence, grasping the fundamentals of each category that are common in many entrance tests would make you aware to the concepts and also would boost your energy. Instead of preparing for each exam without knowing the comparison of common categories, which might lead to goodscores in one entrance test and low scores in the other. Hence, in order to avoid these confusions and to get a clear picture of these entrance tests, I would say that first fix your preference and then track all the possibilities of getting success in your preference of MBA studies, colleges/universities, finally accomplish it.
