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IIM-CAT

Common Admission Test (CAT 2009)

CAT Candidate Care Hotline closed on 26 January 2010


The CAT Candidate Care phone support will not be available on 26 January 2010 due to Republic Day being a nationwide holiday. The Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) will continue to be available 24x7.

Second Phase of CAT and Related Matters


The first phase of CAT 2009 was from November 28th to December 8th, 2009. The second phase of CAT 2009 will be on January 30th and 31st, 2010.

All candidates identified for the re-test in phase two would have received notice of their eligibility from Prometric by now. They will receive another notification informing them of the time and location for their test by January 23rd, 2010 at the latest. The results of CAT 2009 are likely to be declared by the third week of February 2010.

Equity and fairness requires that candidates who faced disruptions during the test be given an opportunity to complete the test while not requiring those who completed the test successfully to take the test again.

The following candidates would be scheduled for a test in the second phase of CAT 2009:

  1. those who could not take the test due to planned or unplanned closure of their test lab and were not rescheduled later in the first phase. (This does not include voluntary no-shows.)
  2. those who were rescheduled but could not appear for the test because of notice period of less than 48 hours.
  3. those who were rescheduled but could not appear for the test as they were rescheduled in a city different from their original choice.
  4. those who pressed the End/Quit button within the first 120 minutes during the first three days of the testing window and have not been rescheduled yet. (If a candidate in this category chooses not to take the rescheduled test, then his/her score from the first phase of testing will be retained.)
  5. those who completed the test in more than 140 minutes of clock-time* due to computer disruptions. (If a candidate in this category does not appear for the rescheduled test, then his/her score from the first phase of testing will be considered null and void.)
  6. those who completed the test in 136 minutes to 140 minutes of clock-time* due to computer disruptions would have an option to take the rescheduled test. (If a candidate in this category does not appear for the rescheduled test, then his/her score from the first phase of testing will be retained.)
  7. those who experienced difficulties due to various kinds of disruptions such as frozen computer screen, blank screen, and data/graphic elements not displaying properly; identified through site reports recorded at the test labs and have not been rescheduled yet.

(* Clock-time refers to actual elapsed time from the start of the test to the end of the test for a candidate. This is different from the time indicated by the count-down timer which was displayed on the computer screen.)

The above criteria have been arrived at based on the analysis of calls and emails received from the candidates; site reports filed by the site managers; computer logs; and information gathered from websites and blogs. The rescheduling (based on the above criteria) and the psychometric equivalences that will be established across the tests address all issues of equity and fairness raised in various forums (including those pertaining to candidates getting additional clock-time).

A Practical Guide to the CAT


This guide serves as a supplement to the video "What to expect on test day" which is available YouTube. In addition to taking applicants through the expectations on test day, the guide also offers some practical tips to make your experience more comfortable. Click here to view.

Information on the Common Admission Test


The Common Admission Test (CAT) is conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) as a pre-requisite for admission to various management programmes of IIMs. For details on programmes offered by each of the IIMs, please refer to their respective websites:

A list of non-IIM member institutions that have registered to avail the CAT 2009 scores is available at http://www.catiim.in. CAT score use is restricted only for admission to IIMs and non-IIM member institutions. A candidate can appear for CAT 2009 only once during the 10-day testing window.

CAT 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 Differently Abled (DA)1 categories], awarded by any of the Universities incorporated by an act of the central or state legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India.

The percentage of marks obtained by the candidate in the bachelor's degree would be calculated based on the practice followed by the university/ institution from where the candidate has obtained the degree. In case the candidates are awarded grades/CGPA instead of marks, the conversion of grades/CGPA to percentage of marks would be based on the procedure certified by the university/ institution from where they have obtained the bachelor's degree. In case the university/institution does not have any 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.

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.

IIMs may verify eligibility at various stages of the selection process, the details of which are provided at the website http://www.catiim.in.


Test Locations


You may select from a list of 32 locations – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Durgapur, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Mumbai, (Navi) Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida, Patna, Pune, Ranchi, Shillong, Siliguri and Varanasi. Click here for the complete list.