Students throng coaching classes to bell the CAT

As the date of common admission test (CAT) is quietly approaching, students aiming for a berth in top notch B-Schools have started enrolling themselves with various MBA entrance training institutes in the state for crash courses.

The admission test on November 28 is mainly for the six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) besides other premium institutes including SP Jain Institute of Management and Mudra Institute of Communication and Advertising (MICA).

Simultaneously, students interested in joining Gujarat-based university-affiliated institutes through Gujarat Common Entrance Test (GCET) are also crowding coaching institutes.

CAT for all six IIMs and other affiliated institutes will be held on November 28, though speculations were rife earlier that the test might be withdrawn from this year.

Former minister of human resources development Murli Manohar Joshi was advocating a common national entrance test to be organised by the ministry for all management institutes in India.

Over 45 institutes S P Jain Institute of Business Management, Goa Institute of Management, Amity Business School and TA Pai Management Institute consider CAT score for admission.

"Gujarat is relatively less known for its participation in competitive tests at the national level, but last five years have seen a tremendous growth in students appearing for such examinations," a management expert said.

"Over 1,30,000 aspiring students appeared for CAT in 2003, out of which, a little over 2,000 students were from Gujarat. This number seems too small but there is a large class of students who joins training courses to appear in GCET. That makes this market attractive," said Hitesh Shah, managing director of Gujarat-based Real Business Education.

Training institutes mostly use their past performance in various entrance tests to woo students. "There is no other USP to sell various course packages to students," said Shah.

According to Shah, students are ready to pay for preparatory courses as they believe that if the preparatory course are of good quality, their admission in one of these premium B-Schools will be almost possible.

Course packages may cost anywhere between Rs 6,500 and Rs 18,000 as per the course duration. Students select the package as per their strategy.

Students who cannot attend classes daily or those staying in small centres where there are no institutes can enroll for weekend batches or buy correspondence material. Mock CAT papers are designed by experienced faculty members.

National and local institutes are expanding their presence in centres like Baroda, Surat and Rajkot. Ahmedabad-based Excel Tutor Online Ltd has 10 centre in Gujarat and Indore-based Professional Tutorials has four.

The Secunderabad-based Time Tutorials has two centers in Gujarat.