The CAT, which is administered by IIMs, is accepted as the qualifying exam by many other institutes other than IIMs. MAT is a relatively new test, administered by AIMA for other institutes. Though very few students in metropolitan cities appear for the MAT, most students in smaller towns try to adopt a combined strategy to crack both the CAT and MAT, in the hope of making it to at least one exam.
MAT is usually conducted four times in a year in February, May, September and December.
The minimum qualification for appearing in MAT is graduation in any discipline from any recognised university or equivalent recognised degree. During an academic year, about 500 business schools accept MAT scores as their input for screening candidates for admission. For the upcoming MAT in December 2009 there are over 370 business schools participating as against 280 in December 2008. Overall, 4 lakh students took the test in 2008.
Considering a high number of students taking the MAT come from rural backgrounds, AIMA will offer both the paper and pencil test and the computer test options.
“MAT caters to a wide audience where many students do not have access to computers. These students take MAT for a seat in the second or third tier business schools. Such students may be more comfortable with the paper and pencil test,” said Sethi. She added that students needed a bit of time to get used to the computer system and that in a couple of years, the number of students taking up the computer test could touch 50 per cent.