This year, highest no of CAT takers from Maharashtra

Maharashtra has the highest number of CAT (Common Admission Test) takers this year. As many as 31,040 candidates appearing for the ongoing CAT for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) reside in the state, followed by Uttar Pradesh with nearly 25,270 candidates, and Delhi with 21,507.

Of the 2.14 lakh applicants this year, the top five cities of New Delhi (21,224), Bangalore (19,553), Mumbai (16,895), Hyderabad (16,138) and Pune (13,368) constitute around 40.7% of the total registrations. Data released by IIM-Kozhikode, which is organizing the CAT 2012, states an overall increase in numbers across the categories. There is a 4.2% increase in the total number of registrations this year. The IIMs also witnessed around 8.6% growth in the number of girls registering for CAT in 2012. The number of boys taking CAT has gone up by 2.6%.

This year, there was an increase in number of candidates having two-three years of experience. As compared to last year, there is a 43% rise in the number of candidates having more work experience. The number of candidates from the non-creamy OBC, SC and ST categories has gone up too. The NC-OBC category saw a growth of 13.3%. "The shift in candidate pool in terms of gender and social balance, as well as work experience, is a positive indication that our society is becoming more aware of the opportunities available," said SSS Kumar, CAT 2012 convenor from IIM-Kozhikode.

Candidates from engineering stream, nearly 67.6% form the largest pool of CAT takers, this year too. Around 67.6% students are from the engineering stream.

Prometric, the firm that conducts the computer-based CAT, said 9,805 candidates candidates took the test on Monday. Both sessions have concluded and all candidates who started their tests have completed successfully.