Preliminary registration data for the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2012 indicates a slight increase of 4.39% compared to last years figures. The CAT 2012 registration window ended at midnight on September 19 with 2.14 lakh registrations, exceeding last year’s registrations of 2.05 lakh. The gender split has also improved with 28% registrations coming from females as compared to 27% last year.
According to information available with the Indian Institutes of Management, the CAT 2012 voucher sale window which ended on September 17 saw 2.15 lakh vouchers getting sold.
Similar to previous trends, the cities in which the highest numbers of candidates have scheduled to test are New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune. Over the next 2 weeks, Prometric will be reconciling the registration data to produce a final report which will include actual numbers and demographic breakdown of candidates.
Professor SSS Kumar, CAT 2012 Convenor said the increase in figures was a good sign and reinforced the belief that the post graduate management programmes offered at the IIMs and other prestigious B-schools that accept CAT scores, are still attractive.
The number of vouchers and registrations is however not the final word on the number of people who might actually sit for the test. After purchasing the vouchers, candidates need to use them to register online on catiim.in in order to choose a test date and venue, the deadline for which is 11:59 pm on Wednesday, September 19. Not everyone who buys the vouchers registers, and not everyone who registers actually appears for the test. Last year, 2.05 lakh had registered for the test against a voucher sale of 2.06 lakh. Eventually, only 1.85 lakh turned out to sit for the actual test.
“Echoing previous trends, the highest number of vouchers were sold on the first day. On the final day, close to 6,000 vouchers were sold, 33% higher than last year,” said a Prometric press statement about the CAT 2012 voucher sales.
CAT 2012 is scheduled between October 11 and November 6, 2012.