THE HINDU-CMAT IS COOL

Students aspiring to study management can often be overwhelmed by the sheer choice of colleges and degrees available to them. At the same time, these colleges come with their own requirements for admissions, most requiring applicants to have written at least one common entrance exam for management. With no consensus on one exam for the country's management colleges, students often had to write multiple to keep their bets safe. Now, with the scrapping of Karnataka's Post-Graduate Common Entrance Test (PGCET) in favour of the national Common Management Aptitude Test (CMAT) conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), CMAT is now the only gateway to government quota seats. While many students appear to be welcoming the move, its sudden introduction threw many off gear, even prompting the AICTE to hold another testing window for State students in May.

Anish Roy Choudhary, B.Sc third year, Physics, Maths and Computer Science (PMC), St. Joseph's College of Arts and Science, Bangalore

I feel that scrapping of PGCET in favour of CMAT was a good move, as it saves the hassle of applying for several different examinations. The time and expense involved in applying for various management colleges thus reduces drastically. It’s certainly a breather for management aspirants like me who are seeking seats under the government quota. But the introduction of CMAT exam was not in a planned manner, resulting in many students, me included, missing its first two rounds, as we were not aware of them. I now plan on writing the third round scheduled in May.

Overall, CMAT is an excellent option. With it, several management colleges from different States would come under one umbrella, which more or less ensures a fair competition for all. It’s beneficial for aspirants who haven’t scored well in CAT and gives them another chance to succeed.

Abhinav Singh Bhal, B.Tech graduate in Computer Science, Amrita University, Bangalore

With the nationwide exam like CMAT being made compulsory, the opportunities for MBA aspirants multiply as they get more B- schools to choose from.

An aspirant from Uttar Pradesh can now get a shot at better institutes in Maharashtra or Karnataka, something that was formerly a distant dream. For nationwide admissions, aspirants need write just one exam (CMAT) instead of multiple State exams, a process that consumes both time and energy.

I feel CMAT being made mandatory has opened many doors for MBA aspirants in the country, making it an excellent move. CMAT remains a viable option for most of the B-school aspirants as the IIMs short-list only the top percentile candidates for their programme while the others do not get any calls. With other top MBA colleges short-listing candidates on the basis of CMAT scores, writing it grants excellent options for B-School aspirants.

Mohit M.B., B.E. fourth year, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Amrita University, Bangalore

I wrote neither CMAT nor PGCET, but I'm planning to write CAT. While I do feel that making a common exam was a good move, they need to get the word out to more people.

They could have set it up as India's Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT), getting more support from good institutions. That will encourage more people to consider it.

Another issue is that a lot of institutes consider CAT scores as well. So, if I write the CAT, I'd have a shot at the IIMs as well as other good institutes. If they make the CAT exclusive for the IIMs only, and CMAT for all other places, it might work out better. At the moment, I'd rather write CAT than CMAT.

Ayush Naulakha, B.Sc third year, Biotechnology- Chemistry-Botany, St. Joseph's College of Arts and Science, Bangalore

Having a nationwide CMAT exam on similar lines to CAT is better than the State-level PGCET. With this, we get an opportunity to try out more number of colleges across the country than in a particular State. Although CMAT has not been planned well and there were very few who gave it, I feel students will find this better than State-level PGCET.

Cracking CAT is tougher and so if a student gets a good score in CMAT he stands a good chance to get into good B-schools even if he hasn’t done well in CAT. CMAT can serve as a national exam to get into B-school rather than writing CAT which is exclusive for IIMs, but also taken by other B-schools across the country. This will definitely reduce the CAT pressure.

Himanshu Arora, BBM third year, Christ University, Bangalore

I feel CMAT is far more useful to a student than PGCET was. It still lets you get into MBA colleges in Karnataka but you also get a shot at colleges around the country.

It just needs to advertise itself better so that more students write it. I wasn't aware of the exam and so I missed it, but I'm planning on writing the next round in May. That said, I think students should keep their options open and write multiple examinations, such as XAT or CAT, if they want a wide range of options.