A total of 2,04,267 candidates have registered to appear for CAT 2010 against a total voucher sale of 2.06 lakhs, the Convenor of the Common Admissions Test (CAT) 2010 and IIM Lucknow Professor Himanshu Rai t

According to the data shared by Prof Rai, there is a marginal increase of 1.65 percentage points in the number of freshers taking this year’s CAT. While in CAT 2009 the number of candidates with less than 6 months of work experience was 71%, this year the number has increased to 72.65%.

“Since the economy is improving, there would be a tendency to hold on to jobs one already has,” Prof Rai said, reasoning the drop in the number of candidates with work experience.

But the most interesting change in the CAT 2010 registrant profile is the fat 4.6 percentage points drop in the number of engineers. In CAT 2009, the number of registrants with engineering+technology+architecture education were 65%, which has come down to 60.39% for CAT 2010.

There is similarly a decrease in the number of arts and science graduates taking CAT 2010. Candidates with arts/humanities education reduced from 3% last year to 2% this year, while those studying science decreased from 7% in CAT 2009 to 4.89% in CAT 2010. The proportion of commerce and BBA graduates increase by 2 percentage points from 23% to 25% from CAT 2009 to CAT 2010.