Hi Sanya Gupta!!

The selection process for an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) is an extremely rigorous process that requires quite a lot of preparation. I'll speak majorly about Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta, but the rest of the IIMs follow a very similar pattern of selection.

The First Stage : The Common Aptitude Test (CAT)

The first step to getting admitted to an IIM is writing the CAT (or even the GMAT for foreign nationals). The CAT is a highly competitive exam that is given by approximately 1.96 lakh candidates.

All candidates appearing for the exam are obviously not students (as the article incorrectly mentions), but are also composed of candidates with work experience. The purpose of the CAT is to sift out candidates for the final interview, where they are called. ( Aside: The etymology of this is very interesting. Candidates were actually called on their phones before the internet existed. Now calls are communicated through email and mail).

The CAT is composed of two sections, the Quantitative Aptitude/Data Interpretation and the Verbal Ability/Logical Reasoning. Excelling in these is generally beneficial and expected from excellent managers.

To get a call from IIM Ahmedabad or Calcutta, you need to lie in a percentile that is greater than the 99th percentile, with a variation of upto 0.5 upwards every year . IIM Ahmedabad has been especially keen on including academically diverse students, and they have stressed on it for the past 2 years. The criteria for getting a call and an admission varies from year to year, but the percentile cut-offs are generally high.

IIM Bangalore doesn't generally have a strict percentile cut-off, but they too use a publicly available admission criteria. They give considerable weight to academics and your work experience.

Talking specifically about the pros and cons of work experience, IIM Bangalore has historically tended to prefer candidates with work experience, while IIM Ahmedabad and Calcutta have had a sizeable large share of freshers (though it is not a majority). This year, IIM Ahmedabad has also allowed freshers to take deferred admissions . This could possibly be a signal to accommodating more candidates with work experience.

The Second Stage : The Interview

The interview at the IIMs (Group Discussions are not there at IIM A/B/C but are there at others) are usually taking by a group people associated with the IIM, be it the faculty, ex-faculty or in some cases even alumni. You end up connecting really well with them if you make it to that particular institute.

For IIM Ahmedabad, the interviews are generally very open ended and very contrary to what most people believe, not random. Everything they ask you is related to you or something you talk about. IIM Bangalore interviews vary between stress interviews and "nice" interviews, freshers tend to be grilled a lot (which is possibly why very few of them make it). IIM Calcutta has a more academic sort of interview, with a good stress on academics as well as mathematical rigor (this is again a general statement)

Focusing more on the pertinent aspect with respect to this question, any experience you have can be made to work in your favor, or against you if you are unprepared. Work experience will always serve as a good talking point, as it would be academics or extra curricular activities for fresh graduates. You can use it as a very good plank to put your case forward as to what you can bring to the institute, how you can contribute to the learning process and how your experience makes you well equipped to pick up what is taught.

The Final Stage : Conversion

Every institute has certain criteria for selection, where your CAT score, academic history and your interview are taken into consideration to select you. Most institutes incorporate the work experience but explicitly in the final selection, or it may come across through a good interview score. Using the admission criteria (as I have mentioned above for IIM A as an example) a list is drawn and the candidates are finally selected.

It's a great feeling to feel once you're here, trust me.

All in all, I would say make your experiences your own, make the interviewer live through them and be earnest. Be it work experience or no work experience, you can always show why you are a good candidate. I would say that you should be honest about yourself, your ambitions, your failings and in your efforts. Nothing can stop you then. The most important thing that I learnt was that they are looking not for a reason to fail you, but to select you.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the A2A .

For more information please visit careers360.

Thank you and good luck.

CAT (Common Admission Test) is a computer-based selection test conducted by IIMs as a prerequisite for entry into their MBA programs. It is held every year by IIMs on a rotational basis. 100+ top B-schools of the country accept the score. IIMs offer 4000+ seats for admission into their management programs. CAT Registration begins in the first week of Aug 2019, for the exam in November.



Graduates from various streams aspire to pursue MBA from top management schools. Before applying for CAT 2019, go through the detailed eligibility criteria for the exam:



1. A candidate is eligible to appear in CAT 2019 if he/she holds a Bachelor's Degree with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA.



The candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Differently Abled (DA) categories, need at least 45% marks.



2. The degree must have been awarded by any of the Universities incorporated by an act of the central or state legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India.



3. Candidates appearing for the final year of Bachelor's degree or equivalent examination and those who have already completed degree examinations but are awaiting results are also eligible. Such candidates, if qualified, will be allowed to join the course conditionally, only if they produce a certificate from the Principal / Registrar of their University/institution.



The candidate needs to submit the certificate by June 30, 2020 (issued on or before June 30, 2020) stating that the candidate has fulfilled all the requirements for obtaining the bachelor's degree/equivalent qualification on the date of the issue of the certificate.



4. The percentage of marks will be calculated based on the calculation pattern followed by the concerned University/Institution.



In case of CGPA or grades, the conversion is based on the process defined by the concerned university or institution. If any University/institution confirms that there is no scheme for converting grades/CGPA into equivalent marks, the equivalence would be established by dividing the candidate's CGPA by the maximum possible CGPA and multiplying the result with 100.



What is the difference between CAT and IIM eligibility criteria?



The only difference is:



You are allowed to appear in CAT 2019 exam with two years of graduation in the old system, but you are not allowed to pursue the management course at IIM unless you have completed graduation degree with minimum three years duration. Except this, the eligibility for CAT & IIM admissions remains the same.

You've to crack Common Admission Test ( CAT ), by almost 100%ile for IIM-A

Best of Luck!

IIM Ahmedabad

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