Around 2.31 lakh candidates register for CAT 2021

Around 2.31 lakh candidates have registered for Common Admission Test (CAT) 2021, a statement issued by IIM Ahmedabad, the coordinating IIM for this year’s exam, said on Friday.

While this marks a rise over last year’s registration numbers of around 2.3 lakh, it is still lower than 2019 levels when around 2.44 lakh candidates had registered for the exam.

Last week, IIM Ahmedabad had announced that the registration deadline was extended by a week. Extended registrations closed on September 22, 2021 at 5pm.

CAT 2021 will be conducted on November 28, 2021. The format of the test will remain the same as last year: there will be three shifts of two-hour examination comprising three sections: i) Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, ii) Quantitative Ability, and iii) Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning.

Last year’s CAT format changes were necessitated due to Covid-19. Since the pandemic continues this year, the CAT 2021 exam format and pattern will remain the same. However, considering that there could have been time pressure to complete the CAT exam last year on account of changes made, for CAT 2021 the CAT Committee is making an attempt to reduce the number of questions across all the three sections.

CAT 2021 is scheduled to be conducted at over 400 Test Centres, spread across 159 cities in India. Mock Test/Tutorials to understand the format of the test will be available on the CAT website from the last week of October 2021.