Candidates seeking admission to the postgraduate management programmes offered in various institutes across the country do not necessarily require any work experience to crack any MBA entrance examination such as CAT , MAT, SNAP , etc. Every year, a number of candidates who do not have any work experience appear for various management aptitude tests, score a great percentile, and even get admission to a number of elite MBA colleges in the country. The work experience can help candidates getting an Interview call, and might help them during Interviews as well. But, having a work experience is not a necessary condition to appear for the entrance examination. Some colleges consider work experience while calculating the composite score while preparing the final merit list of selected candidates.

Hi!

Yes, you can appear for the Common Admission Test (CAT) if you are pursuing the BCom from the SOL. According to the official website of the CAT, the minimum eligibility criteria to appear for the entrance exam is that candidates must hold a Bachelor’s Degree with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA (45% marks for SC, ST, and PwD category candidates) awarded by any of the university incorporated by an act of the central or state legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as the university under the section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India.

The duration of time between the completion of your graduation and your admission to the business school will be considered as a gap year. Therefore, considering the fact that you have completed your graduation in 2023, will appear for the CAT in 2024, and get admission to an MBA college in 2025 after completion of your entire selection process, this will be considered a two-year gap.

However, there is no need to worry about this gap year as you can easily justify it during the Personal Interview process. You can justify this gap by doing Internships, Certificate courses, pursuing something related to your area of interest, or by making the interviewer realize the need to invest substantial amount of time in exam preparation. This gap year will not impact your selection chances in the business school.

The minimum eligibility criteria to appear for the CAT is a Bachelor’s Degree with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA (45% marks for candidates who belong to the SC/ ST and PwD category) or an equivalent qualification recognised by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. If you will be able to meet this eligibility criteria, then you will become eligible to appear for the CAT.

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is one of the most important components to get admission in any IIM or top business school. In order to get admission in IIM or other B-School, you must obtain a good percentile in the CAT. Every MBA college has specified a minimum overall and sectional percentile which you must obtain in order to get eligible to get a WATPI/ GDPI shortlist.

IIMs and other business schools give consideration to a number of factors while giving an WATPI/ GDPI call. These factors include CAT score, Class 10, Class 12, and Bachelor's degree marks, work experience, academic, and gender diversity, etc. Your first priority should be to clear both the overall and sectional percentile in the CAT.

The CAT score is not the only criteria but is one of the major criteria for admission. Even sometimes scoring a 99 percentile will not guarantee to give you a WATPI/ GDPI call.

The marks obtained by you in Class 10, Class 12, Graduation, and academic diversity will play a major role to get a shortlist for the WATPI/ GDPI process along with the CAT score and your performance in the WATPI/ GDPI round will play a major role during your final selection.

Also Check : CAT 2024 College Predictor