CAT is usually held on the second Sunday of December, every year. Besides being the tickets to admission to IIMs - the dream destination for every Indian aspiring to do a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) - CAT scores are considered for admission in several other reputed B-Schools in the country. Someone aptly observed, "CAT is to an MBA aspirant what Olympics is to an athlete and the World Cup is to a cricketer."

Education Times in association with Career Launcher (CL) conducted a 'Diagnostic CAT' test under real test environment on February 8 for the benefit of students contemplating to take CAT, later this year. Following the event, Education Times and CL jointly organised a comprehensive programme on MBA preparation and information on February 8. Held at the India Habitat Centre, the seminar aimed to provide a closer look at CAT and analyse the methods required to succeed in the test. The event attracted over 500 CAT aspirants.

The seminar started with a glimpse on the avenues available to a MBA or a business graduate. This was followed by an introduction and review of various MBA entrance exams and CAT in particular. Faculty members from CL's MBA preparatory course, 'Pegasus', then made detailed presentation on test taking strategies. Participants had the benefit of a question and answer session followed by individual counselling session.

The presentation attempted to remove myths like: 'I have to be an IIT-ian or a Stephenian to get into an IIM'; 'I must be a 'tooper' to go to a top B-School'; 'The more the material with me, the better is my preparation'; and 'It is easier to get into FMS, MMS or MDI than an IIM'.

Arguing that typically it's either parents, peer group, media or interest that influence an individual opting for MBA, CL's Vivek suggested that ideally self-analysis, interest, aptitude and your personality should be the guiding factors. "You should look around and make an informed decision," he stressed.

Describing that MBAs have gained a tremendous social acceptance over the years, Vivek humorously remarked, "You just have to scan through newspaper matrimonials to confirm that." He cited placements, career prospects, employability and skills, financial security and respectability as positive out-comes of doing an MBA, while adding, "money is of course an important motivator and contributor for thousands opting for MBA."

Taking a pick on the mushrooming of B-Schools, Vivek said: "There are over 750 B-Schools in the country - close to 50 in Ghaziabad alone. People run MBA shops from their garages." He cautioned that students must be careful while selecting the institutions. Vivek counted infrastructure, faculty, affiliations, alumni strength, industry interface, location, reservations and placement records of the last three years as the parameters for institute selection.

The counsellors dealt with different sections of the test, which includes quantitative ability (QA), data interpretation (DI), verbal ability (VA), reading comprehension (RC), general awareness and reasoning. They emphasised unanimously that over the years CAT has become more reason-oriented. "Most of the exams are moving away from formula-based questions to reasoning. The ability to think logically is of paramount importance inCAT." stressed CL's Sandeep. He added, "Start thinking on your feet. Do not use conventional method. That's what is required of a manager."

Proficiency in English language through more usage of the language and better RC skills; a decent level of awareness in general and business afairs; in general and business affairs; and development of mathematical aptitude - all these compounded with reasoning - figured as the most important aspects of the preparation strategy promulgated by the counsellors. Saying that English is the lingua-franca today, Sandeep elucidated that articulation, listening and logic are the crucial ingredients of good communication skills. "English lies on a tripod of