ABSTRACT
The Common Admission Test (CAT) is the qualifying examination for admission in many programmes offered by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and several other management and business schools in India. The test, which started in 1977 to shortlist candidates for admissions to IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta, is now taken by more than two lakh candidates every year. In its 45 years of existence, the test has undergone several changes in its design as well as delivery, such as the number of sections, types of questions, duration, mode of examination, etc. While the IIMs made incremental changes to the test to meet the changing requirements, several challenges remain unresolved. In this chapter, we document the origin and evolution of the test and present the issues that need to be addressed.
