Exams
Students take a university entrance examination at a lecture hallReuters

The Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L), will conduct the Common Admission Test (CAT) 2017, on November 26, 2017, in two sessions. Registrations for the exam for entry into the prestigious IIMs and other B- schools will open on August 9, 2017, and will close on September 20, 2017, professor Neeraj Dwivedi, convenor, CAT 2017, said in a release issued by IIM Lucknow on Saturday, July 29, The Times of India reported.

The test will be conducted in 140 cities. The candidates will be given the option to select four test cities in order of preference. Test cities and centres will be assigned to the candidates only after the last date for CAT registration, and hence, the candidates need not rush to block slots and cities in the initial days of registration, the release stated.

According to Prof. Neeraj Dwivedi, there are no new changes as of now in the examination structure. Like previous years, there will be three sections -- Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning and Quantitative Ability. The duration of the test will be 180 minutes, reported TOI.

"Some questions in each section may not be of multiple choice types. Instead, candidates will have to type direct answers on the screen. Also, like last year, we will allow use of basic on- screen calculator for computation,'' Dwivedi said. The candidates will be allotted exactly 60 minutes for answering questions in each section and they cannot switch from one section to another while answering questions in one section.

The tutorials to understand the format of the test will be available on the CAT website from October 18. The IIM-L has advised candidates to work on the tutorials, available on the website, well in advance.

The candidates must pay the registration fees through online payment modes only, which include credit cards, debit cards and net banking. After the submission of applications, they will be permitted to download their admit card from October 18 onwards, till the date of test.

CAT is the gateway to MBA admissions in 19 IIMs and 150 other institutes. All IIMs will release the CAT 2017 notification across the country on July 30. The IIM-L will be conducting CAT this year after a gap of seven years.