CMAT MBA Entrance Exam - All You Need to Know

CMAT Entrance exam is conducted by the AICTE / the All India Council for Technical Education. Every year, thousands of aspirants attempt the exam. Its exam score is accepted by over 1000+ B-schools that offer AICTE approved MBA / PGDM programmes. Before you start preparation, here is everything you should know about the CMAT MBA Entrance Exam.

Who can appear for the CMAT MBA entrance exam?

With no age limit, anyone who fulfills the eligibility criteria can appear for the exam. Candidates should be graduates with a valid Bachelor’s degree with minimum 50% marks (45% for reserved category) in the final exam.

CMAT Exam Syllabus

AICTE has not defined any specific CMAT syllabus, but being a management entrance exam, it covers the basic subjects, i.e., Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation, Language Comprehension, Logical Reasoning, and General Awareness.

CMAT Exam Pattern

The computer-based exam consists of 100 multiple choice questions which need to be completed in three hours.

The exam follows sectional composition in which questions are asked in four key sections i.e. Language Composition, Quantitative Techniques & Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning, and General Awareness. The breakup of the number of questions and the marks assigned to them is as follows:

CMAT Marking Scheme

Each correct answer in CMAT exam will fetch candidates 4 marks. For each incorrect answer, 1 mark will be deducted. However, no marks will be awarded or deducted for questions which are not attempted by the candidate.

CMAT Exam Merit List

AICTE prepares the CMAT MBA Exam merit list which includes the name of the candidates and their rank along with the overall score and sectional score in the exam. The students who make it this list are the ones who have scored the minimum required marks to be called in by the various B-schools for furthers stages of the screening process for MBA admissions.

CMAT Cut-off

Each participating B-school releases its own CMAT cut-off. The CMAT cut-off is the minimum score (overall and sectional) that a candidate is required to score in order to be considered for the remaining rounds of screening i.e. GD, PI and WAT.

CMAT Exam schedule

CMAT is an annual exam. The official notification for the CMAT MBA exam is released in the first or the second week of October followed by the start of online registration in the third week. The registration continues until mid-December. The CMAT exam admit-card or the hall ticket is released in the second week of January followed by the CMAT exam which generally falls on the third Sunday of January. The CMAT result is announced on the official website in mid-February.

It is important to note that CMAT is a comparatively easy exam to crack in comparison to CAT and XAT. Thus, MBA aspirants must consider giving the exam to be eligible for admissions to some of the top MBA colleges of the country.