Concerned with the events surrounding the conduct of CAT 2009, many business schools that accept the CAT score for their admissions are on alert and some are already contemplating alternative criteria for their 2010 admission season. We spoke to some of the directors of such b-schools and realised that an alternate action plan, although not very evident, is in the offing.

Taking a stand, Dr CS Venkata Ratnam, Director, International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi told “We might have our own test” for admission in the absence of corrective action by the CAT authorities.

Said Shweta Chhabra, Academic Manager at SP Jain Center for Management, Dubai, “Although a decision is still to be taken by the management, we might make it compulsory for CAT 2009 candidates to take our internal aptitude test and might treat them as candidates without a score.” Note that SP Jain Dubai also accepts GMAT scores, will accept the CAT 2008 score and also has its own internal aptitude test apart from the CAT scores.

Prof Sudeep S Kumar, Associate Professor and Admissions Coordinator of TA Pai Management Institute, Manipal (TAPMI), thinks that the moment a test is distributed over a certain period of time, ‘normalization suffers’. This combined with the way the things are managed might make the management at TAPMI ‘reduce the weightage’ given to the CAT score. According to him, a candidate’s marks in graduation and other aspects will play a significant role in his admission to the institute.

At Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai, the group discussion and personal interview may be made stricter to screen candidates whose luck had more than its fair chance in their CAT scores, according to Prof S Ganapathy, Head of Placements and External relations. The institute can also use XAT scores as a standby for such a scenario.

At many institutes, the role played by the CAT is that of a cut-off score, the remaining levels of the selection process taking care of selecting the right candidates. For example, Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) which conduct their own test ‘MICAT’ apart from the CAT and GMAT scores. Director Prof Ashok Ranchhod said,”MICA already uses a three stage admission process: Stage 1 or Entry point: CAT/GMAT; stage 2: MICA’s internal examination MICAT and stage 3 is GD/PI. As we do not rely solely on CAT for admission purposes, the fiasco will not have any major impact in terms of MICA’s selection process. The only effect forecast might be a slight rescheduling of timelines if necessary.”

Prof T N Swaminathan, Director-Admissions at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai too thinks CAT is just a cut-off score and their admission process which consists of recommendation letters, essays and stress on past academic record will help them select the best candidates.

In the whole mess, there are institutes who do not have an alternative plan to accepting CAT scores as according to them, CAT will still be a fair test after all. C Gopalakrishnan, Director, Institute of Management, Nirma University, said he believed in the CAT while Prof Suresh Ghai, K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research thought that the percentage of the problems was too small to be considered a problem. He too stressed that the CAT was just a cut-off parameter and that the institute will strengthen their own internal criterion for admissions to get the most suitable candidates.