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As the new session in the B-schools has started, the aspirants for next year’s MBA must be gearing up to see themselves in the orientation ceremony in one of the top MBA colleges in India. Though CAT or Common Admission Test is the most popular exam among the aspirants, there are several other national and state level MBA entrance exams that you must take to broaden your chance of MBA admission.
- Know your chances of getting a call from IIM & Non-IIMs
- Know how good is your academic profile for IIMs & Non-IIMs
- Know the required eligibility criteria
- Check the percentile required for IIMs & Non-IIMs
This article of Careers360 gives you the list of national and state level MBA entrance exams that you should not miss. We will start with the national level exams followed by the state level ones and the specialised MBA entrance exams.
The following table brings you the list of top MBA entrance exams in India along with the important dates.
Top MBA Entrance Exams
Exam | Application Window | Exam Date | Result Date |
First week of August to last week of September | Single day test window in December | Second week of January | |
First week of September to first week of December | First Sunday of January | Last week of January | |
Third week of July | Fourth Sunday of November | Third week of December | |
Second week of October to last week of December | Fourth week of January | First week of February
| |
Second week of December to third week of January
First week of March to third week of April
First week of July to third week of August
First week of October to third week of November | First and second week of February
First and second week of May
First and second week of September
First and second week of December | Last week of February
Last week of May
Last week of September
Last week of December | |
First week of July to last week of September | One and half months window from first week of October to third week of December | Third week of January | |
Third week of August to last week of November | Third Sunday of December | Second week of January | |
Third week of January to second week of February | First week of March | Fourth week of March | |
Fourth week of January to fourth week of February | Third week of March | Second week of April | |
First week of March to first week of April | First week of May | Third week of May | |
Second week of March to third week of April | Third week of May | Fourth week of May | |
First week of June to fourth week of June | Last week of June | First week of August | |
Third week of May to first week of June | First week of July | Fourth week of July | |
First week of February to fourth week of March | Third week of May | Fourth week of May | |
Himachal Pradesh University Management Aptitude Test (HPUMAT) | Third week of April to third week of May | First week of June | Third week of June |
First week of October to third week of January | Second week of February | Fourth week of March | |
First week of September to first week of December First week of January to first week of February | Second week of December Second week of February | First week of February First week of March | |
Fourth week of September to first week of December | First week of January | Second week of February | |
Third week of January | First week of February | Last week of February |
Note: The above mentioned dates are based on last year’s schedule and subject to change based on the discretion of the exam conducting bodies.
Top National Level MBA Entrance Exams
Common Admission Test (CAT)
Common Admission Test or CAT is the most popular MBA entrance exam with about 2 lakh takers every year. Conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), the CAT is the entrance exam for 20 IIMs and approximately 100 B-schools across India. The number of seats offered by the 20 IIMs is approximately 4,000.
Since 2009, CAT mode was transformed from paper pencil based test to computer based test. Prometric India was the test conducting partner for the initial 5 years. From 2014 onwards, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the online testing partner.
The official notification is declared in the last week of July. CAT 2017 will be conducted by IIM Lucknow, most probably in a single day two slot window in the first week of December.
CAT Eligibility: A candidate should secure minimum 50 per cent aggregate marks or equivalent CGPA in Graduation from a recognised University or Institute. Final year graduation students are also eligible to apply.
CAT Exam Pattern: CAT is a multiple choice objective type exam with 100 questions divided into three sections, Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning and Verbal and Reading Comprehension. CAT is a section wise time bound exam with each section having 1-hour duration. The total duration is three hours. The total number of questions is 100. Each question carries three marks and for each wrong answer, there is negative marking scheme of -1 mark. It is one of the toughest and most competitive MBA entrance exams in India. Over the past couple of years, CAT has seen the introduction of features like an onscreen calculator and non-MCQ type of questions. Incidentally, no negative marking scheme is there for the wrong answer to Non-MCQs.
Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT)
Xavier Aptitude Test or XAT is the MBA entrance exam conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur for the admission in the Xavier Associate Management Institutes and over 140 B-schools across India. The total number of seats in XLRI Jamshedpur whose admission is conducted through XAT is 360. After CAT, XAT has the highest number of test takers, which is around 90,000.
XAT Eligibility: The candidates should have a Bachelor’s Degree in any discipline from a recognised University or Institute. Final year graduation students are also eligible to apply.
XAT Exam Pattern: The unique feature of XAT is that the nature of the test is both objective and subjective in nature. The pattern is dynamic in the sense that it is changed in some way or the other in almost every year. XAT is conducted in traditional paper pencil based format. In the last XAT conducted in 2017, the paper was divided into 2 parts. Part 1 consists of 3 sections, Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning, Decision Making and Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation. Part 2 of the paper had 2 sections, General Awareness and Essay Writing. The number of questions was 84. Each question contains 1 mark and each wrong answer will get a negative marking of 0.25 marks. The duration of the test was 3 hours 30 minutes. XAT is one of the toughest MBA entrance exams in India.
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi is one of the top B-schools in India established by the Government of India (Ministry of Commerce & Industry). The institute conducts admission to its flagship MBA in International Business (MBA-IB) through the IIFT Entrance Exam. Held on the fourth Sunday of November every year, IIFT entrance exam is taken by around 60,000 candidates vying for 350 seats in the institute’s Delhi and Kolkata campuses.
IIFT Eligibility: IIFT applicants should be graduates in any discipline of minimum three years duration from a recognised institute or university. Final year graduation students can also apply.
IIFT Exam Pattern: IIFT is held in a paper pencil based format over two hours duration. It is a multiple choice objective type test with 4 sections, Quantitative Ability, Data Interpretation & Logical Ability, Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension and General Awareness. The number of questions varies from year to year. Last year the paper had 113 questions. There is differential marking system in this exam, i.e. each section has different marks for each question ranging from 0.50 to 1 mark per question. For each wrong answer, there is negative marking scheme of 1/3 of the allotted marks. The difficulty level of the exam is tough.
Common Management Aptitude Test (CMAT)
The Common Management Aptitude Test or CMAT is one of the recently launched MBA entrance exams which is conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in the year 2012. Till last year, the exam was conducted twice a year, In 2015, AICTE announced that CMAT will be a yearly test to be conducted in January. CMAT has also resulted in the discontinuation of several state level MBA entrance exams such as RMAT (Rajasthan), GCET (Gujarat), PMET (Punjab) to name a few. The number of test takers has risen gradually from around 45,000 candidates in CMAT February 2012 to 88,942 candidates in CMAT February 2014. The CMAT scores are accepted by over 1500 B-schools across India which offer over 35,000 seats. Some of the prominent institutes include Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) Mumbai, Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) Mumbai, Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa to name a few.
CMAT Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised institute with minimum 50 per cent marks in aggregate or equivalent CGPA. Final year graduation students are also eligible to apply.
CMAT Exam Pattern: CMAT is a computer based test. It is a multiple choice objective type test with four sections, namely, Quantitative Techniques & Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, Language Comprehension and General Awareness. Each section consists of 25 questions, making the total number of questions to be 100. The duration of the exam is three hours. Each question carries four marks and for each wrong answer, there is negative marking of one mark. The exam pattern is constant and the difficulty level ranges from easy to moderate.
Management Aptitude Test (MAT)
MAT or the Management Aptitude Test is the MBA entrance exam conducted by All India Management Association (AIMA) for the admission in about 500 B-schools in India and abroad. MAT is conducted 4 times a year in the months of February, May, September and December. The exam is taken by around 20,000 test takers in each season. In the year 2009, AIMA introduced the computer based mode of MAT, the same year when CAT became computer based. Unlike CAT, MAT is conducted in both paper-pencil based and computer based modes where the candidate can choose which mode to opt for. While the paper pencil based MAT is conducted on the first Sunday of the month, the computer based MAT is scheduled from the second Saturday of the month for a window of two to three days, depending on the number of registrations received for the computer-based format.
MAT Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised University or Institute. Final year graduation students are also eligible to apply.
MAT Exam Pattern: MAT is a multiple choice objective type test of 2 hours 30 minutes duration. It has five sections, each having 40 questions, making the total number of questions to be 200. The sections are Language Comprehension, Data Analysis and Sufficiency, Mathematical Skills, Intelligence and Critical Reasoning and Indian and Global Environment. Each correct answer bears four marks and for each wrong answer, there is 1/4 negative marking.
NMAT by GMAC
NMAT or the Narsee Monjee Aptitude Test is the MBA entrance exam, which was conducted by Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) Mumbai, has been acquired by Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and has been renamed as NMAT by GMAC. The scores will be accepted by 23 B-schools across India. Over 60,000 candidates register for the exam. The format of the NMAT exam was converted to computer based test from the traditional paper pencil based exam in the year 2010. NMAT by GMAC is conducted over a window of around 1.5 months from October to December every year. The USP of the exam lies in the fact that it can be attempted thrice. A candidate can make two attempts followed by the original attempt. The best of the three scores will be considered during the admission process.
NMAT Eligibility: The NMIMS aspirants should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised institute or university with minimum 50 per cent marks in aggregate. Final year Bachelor’s degree students can also apply.
NMAT Exam Pattern: NMAT is a multiple choice objective type test of two hours duration. The exam consists of three sections namely, Language Skills, Quantitative Skills and Logical Reasoning questions. The total number of questions 120 but the number of questions per section varies. There is no negative marking scheme in the exam. The difficulty level of NMAT ranges from easy to moderate.
Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP)
Symbiosis International University (SIU), Pune conducts MBA entrance exam for the admission in its 15 B-schools, which is known as Symbiosis National Aptitude Test or SNAP. There are around 1,900 seats across the 15 B-schools. The university has not divulged the number of test takers for SNAP but based on past trends, around 30,000 candidates take the test.
SNAP Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised university or institute with minimum 50% aggregate marks or equivalent CGPA. Final year students can also apply.
SNAP Exam Pattern: SNAP is a paper pencil based test of 2 hours duration. There are 4 sections, namely General English, Quantitative & Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency, General Awareness: General Knowledge, Current Affairs & Business Scenario and Analytical & Logical Reasoning. The total number and marks of the exam is 180. While the first 3 sections have 40 questions, the last section has 60 questions. For each wrong answer, there is negative marking of 25% or ¼ of the total marks.
State level MBA Entrance Exams
Apart from the national level MBA entrance exams, there are state level MBA entrance exams too. These are conducted for the admission in the state B-schools, both government and private. Unlike the national level exams, where the selection takes place through GD and PI rounds, the state MBA admissions take place through common counselling. Moreover, the similarity in the pattern lies in the fact that there is no negative marking scheme, unlike the national level MBA entrance exams. Let us have a look at the top state MBA entrance exams of India.
Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MAH CET)
Maharashtra Common Entrance Test or is the state level MBA entrance exam for Maharashtra. Conducted by the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), Maharashtra, the exam is held for the admission in 45,621 seats offered by 400+ B-schools in Maharashtra for their MBA/MMS/PGDM programmes. With the launch of the AICTE CMAT exam, MAH CET stood cancelled in the year 2013. After a hiatus of 1 year, MAH CET was relaunched by DTE in computer based format. Till 2012, the exam was conducted in paper pencil based format. Apart from the shift in format, there was no change in the exam pattern. MAH CET 2017 was taken by 88,226 candidates.
MAH CET Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any discipline from an institute or university recognised by Association of Indian Universities with minimum 50% marks in aggregate.
MAH CET Exam Pattern: MAH CET is an online objective type test. The question paper consists of 200 objective questions/ multiple choice questions to be answered within 150 minutes or two and a half hours. According to the marking scheme, there will be one mark for every correct answer. There will be no negative marking in the paper.
Andhra Pradesh Integrated Common Entrance Test (APICET)
APICET is the MBA entrance exam for Andhra Pradesh B-schools. The exam is conducted by Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE).
APICET Eligibility: Any Indian National graduate from a recognised university with a minimum of 50 per cent marks (45 per cent marks for reserved category candidates) are eligible to apply for the test. Final year students can also apply for the test.
APICET Exam Pattern: APICET is a computer based test of 2.5 hours duration. It is a multiple choice objective type test with 200 questions. There are three sections, Analytical Ability, Mathematical Ability and Communication Ability. Each question carries one mark, making the total marks of the paper to be 200. There is no negative marking scheme.
Telangana State Integrated Common Entrance Test (TSICET)
TSICET is the MBA entrance test for Telangana. The exam commenced in the year 2014. Earlier, ICET was the common test for Andhra Pradesh which was later bifurcated to APICET and TSICET after the state of Telangana was formed in 2014. The exam is conducted by Kakatiya University, Warangal on behalf of Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE).
TSICET Eligibility: Graduates in any discipline from a recognised institute or university with minimum 50 per cent marks in aggregate can apply for the test. Reserved category candidates must have minimum 45 per cent marks at graduation level. Candidates must be Indian citizens satisfying the local/non-local status requirements as prescribed by the Telangana State Council Education for Higher Education (TSCHE).
TSICET Exam Pattern: TSICET is a paper-pencil based test with total 200 questions. The test duration is 150 minutes or 2.5 hours to complete the test. There are 3 sections in the exam, Analytical Ability, Mathematical Ability and Communication Ability. Each question carries 1 mark and there is no negative marking.
Tamil Nadu Common Entrance Test (TANCET)
TANCET or Tamil Nadu Common Entrance Test is the state level MBA entrance test for Tamil Nadu. The exam is conducted by Anna University, Chennai for the admission in close to 150 MBA seats in Tamil Nadu.
TANCET Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any field from a recognised institute or university with minimum 50% marks in aggregate. Final year graduation students can also apply.
TANCET Exam Pattern: TANCET is a paper pencil based test of 2 hours duration. It is a multiple choice objective type test with 100 questions from 5 sections, Reading Comprehension, English Grammar & Usage, Analysis of Business Situation, Quantitative Ability and Data Sufficiency. Each question carries 1 mark. For each wrong answer, 1/5 of the allotted marks will be deducted.
Karnataka Post Graduate Common Entrance Test (PGCET)
Post Graduate Common Entrance Test or PGCET is the MBA entrance exam for the B-schools in Karnataka. Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) conducts the exam. For the academic year 2013-14, the MBA admission in Karnataka took place through CMAT scores. PGCET was relaunched in 2014 and conducted by Rani Channamma University on behalf of KEA.
PGCET Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised institute or university with minimum 50 per cent marks in aggregate. Final year graduation students can also apply.
PGCET Exam Pattern: PGCET is a paper pencil based exam of 2 hours duration. The questions are objective and multiple choice. There are two parts of the exam with 2 sections each. The sections are Proficiency in English Language, Test of General Knowledge, Test of Reasoning & General Intelligence and Quantitative Analysis. Each section carries 25 questions of 1 mark each. There is no negative marking scheme.
Karnataka Management Aptitude Test (KMAT)
Karnataka Management Aptitude Test or KMAT is the entrance exam for the MBA admission of private B-schools in Karnataka. The exam is conducted by Karnataka Private Post Graduate Colleges Association (KPPGCA). The scores of KMAT will be accepted by 169 B-schools in Karnataka offering around 10,000 seats. KMAT MBA 2016 was taken by more than 1,000 candidates.
KMAT Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised University or Institute. Final year graduation students can also apply.
KMAT Exam Pattern: KMAT is a paper pencil based test of 3 hours duration. It is an objective type multiple choice exam with 120 questions divided into 3 sections. The sections are English Language, Mathematical Skills and Basic Aptitude. There is 1 mark for each correct answer and no negative marking scheme.
Odisha Joint Entrance Exam for MBA (OJEE MBA)
OJEE MBA is the MBA entrance exam for public and private management institutes of Odisha. The exam is conducted by Odisha Joint Entrance Exam Board. As many as 67 B-schools in Odisha accept OJEE MBA scores. Total intake in the participating institutes is 5489.
OJEE Eligibility: Candidates should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised institute or university with minimum 50 per cent aggregate marks (General category) and 45 per cent marks (for reserved category candidates). Only those candidates belonging to Odisha would be eligible to apply for the government institutes of Odisha. Test takers belonging to states other than Odisha will be eligible for admission in private B-schools of Odisha but not in the public ones.
OJEE Exam Pattern: OJEE MBA is a paper pencil based test of two hours duration. There are 120 questions from five sections including Verbal Reasoning, Analytical Reasoning, General Knowledge, Comprehension and Computer and Business Fundamentals. Each question carries four marks and for each wrong answer, there is negative marking of one mark.
Entrance Exams for specialised MBAs
There are several B-schools in India which offer specialised MBA programmes. These institutes conduct separate entrance exams whose questions are more in tune with the specialised programme. The following paragraph gives you the list of some such exams.
Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA)
As the name suggests, IRMA Anand offers Post Graduate Management Programme in Rural Management. The number of seats offered for the PRM programme is 180. The number of test takers is approximately 10,000. Though IRMA entrance exam was the only mode of admission till the academic year 2013-15, from 2014-16 onwards, the institute accepted CAT scores but taking IRMA was compulsory. The pattern of the exam also changed and included only ‘Issues of Social Concern’ which was the differentiating section compared to CAT. The test was also conducted in computer based format for the first time.
IRMA Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any discipline with minimum 50% marks in aggregate. Final year students are also eligible to apply.
IRMA Exam Pattern: Based on the latest pattern, IRMA entrance exam, it was conducted in a paper pencil based format and had only 1 section, Issues of Social Concern. The duration was 25 minutes. It is a multiple choice objective type test. There will be 1/4 negative marking for each wrong answer.
MICA Aptitude Test (MICAT)
Mudra Institute of Communication Ahmedabad or MICA offers specialised MBA programme in Communication. MICAT is the entrance exam for the admission to the programme with 180 seats. From the academic year 2014-16 onwards, MICA has started accepting scores of XAT, MAT, CMAT, ATMA and GMAT along with CAT scores.
MICAT Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised institute or university with minimum 50% marks in aggregate. The applying candidates should also take any one of the MBA entrance exams namely CAT, XAT, MAT, CMAT, ATMA and GMAT.
MICAT Exam Pattern: MICAT is a computer based test of 3 hours and 35 minutes duration. The exam is both subjective and objective in nature. The objective questions are multiple choice. The paper is divided into three sections, Section I, Section II and Section III. Section I will have 4 descriptive questions. The duration of this section is 35 minutes and there is no negative marking. The questions are on writing arguments, essay and story.
The duration of Section II is 25 minutes and carries Psychometric Test. The third part of the paper is of 1 hour 45 minutes duration and is divided into three parts, Quantitative Ability, General Knowledge and Divergent-Convergent Reasoning.
TISS National Entrance Test (TISSNET)
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai conducts the admission of its flagship programme Masters in Social Work. The pattern of the question paper reflects the programme and the questions require specific preparation as well as for other regular areas like Quant, Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning to name a few. The mode of the test was changed to computer based from the traditional paper pencil based format in the year 2013. The TISSNET exam is taken by around 12,000 candidates. The number of seats offered by TISS in its MSW programme is 220.
TISSNET Eligibility: Candidates should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised university. Final year students can also apply.’
TISSNET Exam Pattern: TISSNET is a computer based test of 1 hour 40 minutes. It is an objective multiple choice test with 4 sections. The sections are Social Sensitivity, Knowledge on Contemporary Issues, Analytical Ability and Logical Reasoning. The total number of questions is 100, 40 in each section. Each question carries 1 mark and no negative marking scheme.
UPES Management Entrance Test (UPES-MET)
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) Dehradun offers MBA programmes in the niche sector of energy management. For the admission, the institute conducts UPES Management Entrance Test or UPESMET. The number of seats across its 10 MBA programmes is 465.
UPES MET Eligibility: The candidates should be graduates in any discipline from a recognised institute or university with minimum 50% marks in aggregate in the board exam and graduation final exams.
UPES MET Exam Pattern: UPES MET is a paper pencil based objective multiple choice exam of 2 and half hours duration. The paper will consist of 160 questions across 4 sections, General English: Reading Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Verbal Ability; Quantitative: Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency; General Awareness: General Knowledge, Current Affairs, Business Scenario and Analytical & Logical Reasoning. Each section will have 40 questions.
They say, more the merrier. The more MBA entrance exams you attempt, more would be your chance to get admission in your cherished B-School.
Stay tuned to bschool.careers360.com for more news and updates on MBA entrance exams.
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